Eiffel Tower (Paris, Tennessee)

Tennessee's Eiffel Tower is a landmark in the city of Paris, Tennessee. Built in the early 1990s, this structure is a model of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.

Engineering students at Christian Brothers University originally constructed the tower to commemorate the 1990 Memphis in May festival. Each year, the festival honors a country, and 1990 focused on France.

According to Brother Patrick O'Brien, a public relations official for the university at the time: "[the tower] was the centerpiece of one of our most popular quads." Regardless, the wooden tower was a temporary structure. Moreover, it could not remain at the university because students began to climb it even though it could not support their weight.

In April 1991, the Paris-Henry County Chamber of Commerce sponsored "Paris U.S.A.," an event created to celebrate the shared charm of the fifteen U.S. cities named for the French capital. Representatives from five Parises accepted their invitations to enjoy Paris U.S.A. in Paris, Tennessee.

During the fall of that year, Brother Patrick O'Brien remembered the celebration and asked Paris if it would be interested in accepting a scale replica of the Eiffel Tower. The city accepted, and the job began.

The tower was designed to scale by Tom Morrison, professor emeritus of civil engineering; Jim Jacobs, assistant professor of mechanical engineering; and Roland Raffanti, engineering lab technician, from Christian Brothers University. According to Brother Patrick O'Brien, Morrison designed the model's design based on the original drawings of Gustave Eiffel. At 60 feet (18 m) tall, the tower is a nearly perfect 1:20 scale replica of the original.

Built through the labor of more than 10,000 hours donated by CBU students, faculty, alumni, and friends, the tower contains 500 pieces of Douglas fir and 6,000 steel rods. The monument was assembled in CBU's Buckman Quadrangle.

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