Henry R. Schoolcraft’s comments on Newport Tower, 1856

[…]the so-called "Newport Ruin," of which a correct engraving, identifying the style of architecture, taken by Captain S. Eastman for this work, is given (Plate 15). The details brought forward by the Rev. Edward Petersen (vide Hist. Rhode Island, pp. 168, 171, 175), denote that this structure did not exist on the first settlement of Newport, and that it cannot be traced back to the origin of the Rhode Island Colony, in 1638. Evidence is produced that it was erected for the simple purpose of windmill, by Benedict Arnold, the first governor of that colony, after an approved plan of construction first introduced into England, as we elsewhere learn, by the noted architect Inigo Jones.

This subject, having been originally commented on by Dr. Thomas Webb, at the request of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquarians at Copenhagen, has been referred to that gentleman for his maturer remarks on a rather anomalous question in American archaeology; at least one that was misunderstood in the earlier period in our antiquities. His observations are hereto appended, together with a new and carefully-drawn view of the structure, which is now, at least, standing at one of our most celebrated watering-places, a curiosity as well as an architectural "ruin", if shorn of a higher character.