By Kristi Palma
Visitors in Scituate can climb a 153-foot tower constructed more than a century ago in the name of love and peer up at the full moon.
The 1902 Lawson Tower, on the National Register of Historic Places, looks like something out of a Rapunzel story, but instead was businessman Thomas W. Lawson’s answer to an unsightly water tank his beloved wife did not favor near her new home.
“It’s the only one of its kind in the world,” said Robert Chessia, acting president and chairman of the board of trustees of the Scituate Historical Society, which maintains the tower.
The town of Scituate bought the tower from Lawson in 1923 and the tank was drained in 1988 when the Scituate Water Company stopped using it.
Visitors who climb the 123 steps to the top are treated to a bird’s eye view of Scituate, including Scituate Light, as well as Boston, the North River, and beyond, he said.
“If you know where to look, you can just barely with the naked eye see the tower at Provincetown,” he said, referring to the Pilgrim Monument.