Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 65, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 March 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 gazebo for a building, whether it assume the form of a tower or bal-cony..-which was - erected for the purpose of enabling anyone to gaze about; and there is no need t<> hunt through the pages of a dletionary for the origin of so obvious a term. Curiosity is common to the race, and contrivances of all kinds have been railed for throughout the ages, and will continue to he, to enable people to pry into their neighbors' affairs: and architectural solutions of- the problem must always he as ns they have frequently proved most picturesque. Doubtless in the remotest antiquity such means of prying were in vogue. •nut the hanging gardens of Babylon may have presented replicas of the towers of Kent or Chambers; hut we will go no further back for examples than Pliny's villa at l a'ireiHum. The" Plinys. as we know, were of a very inquiring turn of mind, and are most appropriately oom'memorated 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, we can only suppose them to—have been erected to serve as gazebos where he ~could Took into the grounds of his neighbors and watch their incomings and outgoings.,—J. Traveiior Perry in Architect (England).