Eyeful Tower

“Eyeful Tower”

It was named “Rio Vista” but it is best known today as the “Devils Tower”. The six story edifice was built in 1910 in Alpine, NJ by Manuel Rionda, a wealthy sugar merchant, and it featured a commanding view of the Hudson River Valley and New York City.  Riondi dedicated the structure to his wife, Harriet, and she apparently spent a great deal of her time enjoying the views from its upper reaches, that is, until she spied her husband being all too familiar with another woman. 

Legend has it, Harriet became so distraught by the eyeful of Manuel’s betrayal, that she leapt to her death from the tower and it has since been haunted by her spirit, which can be awakened by walking backwards around it’s base six times. The tower is closed off today, but I visited as a teenager in the 70’s and although I may have been too inebriated to walk backwards, I’m pretty sure I smelled a sweet hint of Harriet’s perfume!

“Eyeful Tower” was created using  two haberdasher’s wood hat forms as the eye, an antique, decorative brass clavos as the iris and a primitive, hand forged metal rake as the eyelashes. The base was constructed with a ribbed wood roller and the brass door of vintage US Post Office box. The piece was finished with air brushed acrylics and satin clear coat.