A scaled-down replica of San Jose's original 1881 electric light tower stands in San Pedro Square, a few steps from the Peralta Adobe. The full-sized original — an iron lattice tower nearly 80 metres tall with six powerful arc lamps at its top — was built to flood the entire town with artificial moonlight, a brief experiment in lighting an American city from a single source.
The original tower was a local landmark for thirty-four years until a 1915 windstorm brought it down. The replica is half-size and easily missed unless you know to look for it. The story is the real attraction: this tower was a serious civic project decades before the Eiffel Tower, and it makes a good aside on a walk through the historic centre of San Jose.