Est. 1904 · 95-foot Italian Renaissance memorial clock tower designed by Guy Lowell · Gifted by Count Paul Bajnotti of Turin, Italy, as a memorial to his wife · Memorializes Caroline Mathilde 'Carrie' Brown (d. 1892), granddaughter of Brown's founder Nicholas Brown Jr. · Bears 'Love is Strong as Death' inscription from Song of Songs 8:6-7
Carrie Tower stands at the corner of Prospect and Waterman Streets at the head of Brown University's Front Green. The 95-foot Italian Renaissance brick-and-limestone tower was designed by Boston architect Guy Lowell and completed in 1904. It was a gift to Brown from Count Paul Bajnotti, an Italian diplomat from Turin who served in Rhode Island as a consular representative beginning in 1875.
While in Providence, Bajnotti met and married Carrie Mathilde Brown — granddaughter of Brown University's namesake Nicholas Brown Jr. (1769-1841) and sister of art collector Annmary Brown. The couple were married for 16 years and lived primarily in Italy; Carrie died in 1892 at age 50. Bajnotti spent the remainder of his life honoring her memory through public commissions in Providence and Italy. Carrie Tower is the most prominent of these tributes.
The tower's foundation bears an inscription in Latin and English: 'Love is Strong as Death' — an excerpt from Song of Songs 8:6-7. Bajnotti also commissioned the Bajnotti Fountain (also known as the 'Hiker Fountain') in Burnside Park in downtown Providence, dedicated in 1899, and a memorial sculpture in Turin. The Brown University Timeline (brown.edu/about/history/timeline/carrie-tower-erected) and Brown's 250th-anniversary feature on the tower document the dedication and the inscription's provenance.
The tower's mechanical clock ceased operating in the early 21st century; a 2011 Brown Daily Herald article was titled 'Symbol of love stands silent after 107 years' and lamented the silent clock. Subsequent restoration efforts have been intermittent.
Sources
- https://www.brown.edu/news/2023-07-17/carrie-tower
- https://www.brown.edu/about/history/timeline/carrie-tower-erected
- https://lostnewengland.com/2016/12/carrie-tower-brown-university-providence-ri/
- https://www.browndailyherald.com/2011/10/04/symbol-of-love-stands-silent-after-107-years/
- https://www.loc.gov/item/2018700605/
Figure reported in upper tower window at nightAtmospheric grief-memorial presence near the inscription
According to the Providence Ghost Tour (US Ghost Adventures) and the Visit Rhode Island tourism board's 'Haunted Rhode Island' listing, Carrie Tower is associated with reports of a figure glimpsed in one of its upper-level windows late at night. The Providence Ghost Tour frames the apparition as connected to the tower's purpose: 'you can even see a ghost in one of the windows at night, if you look long and hard enough.'
The lore here is anchored more in the tower's grief-memorial character than in active paranormal investigation. Bajnotti spent years commissioning monuments to his late wife — including the Bajnotti Fountain in Burnside Park (1899) and works in Italy — and the 'Love is Strong as Death' inscription at Carrie Tower's base is the most quoted phrase in Providence memorial architecture. The tower's clock fell silent in the early 21st century, which only deepened the elegiac atmosphere; the Brown Daily Herald's 2011 article 'Symbol of love stands silent after 107 years' captured the campus sense that the memorial had become more contemplative still.
We frame the figure-in-the-window reports as tour-tradition material — repeated by the Providence Ghost Tour and Visit Rhode Island, but not corroborated by any independent paranormal investigation. The tower's interior is not open to the public; the lore must be appreciated from the Brown Front Green and from Waterman Street.
Notable Entities
Atmospheric presence associated with Caroline Mathilde Brown (d. 1892) — memorial figure rather than identified apparition
Media Appearances
- Providence Ghost Tour stop (US Ghost Adventures)
- Visit Rhode Island — 'Haunted Rhode Island' listing
