Cabot Tower
In French: Tour Cabot
Signal Hill Road, St. John's
About Cabot Tower
In St. John's, Cabot Tower is one of 2 federal buildings of the highest heritage rank. Construction of Cabot Tower is recorded as 1900–1901. William Howe Greene designed it. Another historic place stands within 400 m of it.
Located at the highest point of Signal Hill National Historic Site of Canada, overlooking the city and the ocean, the Cabot Tower built of irregularly coursed red sandstone is composed of a two storey, 9.4-metre (30-foot), square structure with a three storey, 15.24-metre (50-foot) octagonal tower that stands on the southeast corner of the building. The corners are buttressed at the first floor level and further emphasized through the use of heavier blocks of stone. On the main body of the building, at the top of the second storey level, is a line of repeating pattern like an exaggerated dentil row or inverted crenulations. The attached tower which houses the main entrance, is very plain with a double stringcourse marking the divisions between second and third storeys and heavy corbel tables marking the eight corners of the turret at the flared upper level.
From the Canadian Register of Historic Places, Cabot Tower · Open Government Licence – Canada · as published, word for word
Classified federal heritage buildings are the federal government’s most significant buildings.
Finding Cabot Tower
St. John's
To reach another historic place from here you will need more than a short walk.
1 within 300 m
Every place on the record within this distance; each opens its own page.
Questions about Cabot Tower
When was Cabot Tower built?
Its register puts the building of Cabot Tower at 1900–1901.
Can you visit Cabot Tower?
The outside is easy to see; inside, it depends on the owner’s rules.
Is Cabot Tower protected?
Yes, while the federal government owns it: changes go through its heritage review.
What is Cabot Tower?
Cabot Tower has been a Classified Federal Heritage Building since 1988.
Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada (Parks Canada).
Sources: Parks Canada, Directory of Federal Heritage Designations · Canadian Register of Historic Places (federal extract) · Photos: Wikimedia Commons, each credited with its licence and copied to our own server · Wikidata (CC0) for map points, other names and articles.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).