Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 January 1919 — DESIGNED FOR THE CURIOUS [ARTICLE]

DESIGNED FOR THE CURIOUS

Not Hard to Trace Origin and Reason for the Gazebo in Architectural Designs. No name -could be more descriptive than gazeho for a building, whether it assmhe the form of a tower or balcony. which was erected for the ptirjWse of enAhling-nnyono t<> gaze al>«mt: and there is no need to hunt through the pages of a dictionary for the origin of so obvious a tenn. Curiqsity is common to the race, and contrivances of all kinds have been called for throughout the ages, and will continue to be, to enable people to pry into their mii'hbor?.' I'fiiirs; and architectural solmiens of the problem, must always be as interesting as they- have frequently proved most picturesque. I>itubtless in“fhe remotest antiquity such means of prying were in vogue, and" The hanging gardens of Babylon may have presented replicas of the towers of Kent or Chambers; but we M’fn go“no further back for-examples than Pliny's viTTa as Laurentum: The Plinys, as we know, were of if very inquiring turn of mind, and lire most appropriately commemorated at Como, their supposed birthplace, on the west front of the cathedral, by a sculptured representation' of each engaged in looking out of a window. Thus it was that when Pliny the Younger built his celebrated villa he gave it two towers, and as they could be used neither for defense in such a place nor for smoking rooms at such a period. Ave can only suppose them to have been erected to serve as gazebos where he could loj>k into the grounds of, his neighbors and 'watch their incomings, and otitgo’ings.— J, Travenor Perry in Architect (England).