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Number ("3751"), titles and with photographer name and location reversed out of a black strip at the bottom of the image.

The San Jose electric light tower, also known as Owen's Electric Tower after its creator and chief booster, was constructed in 1881 at an intersection in downtown San Jose, CA, as a "high light" or moonlight tower to light the city using arc lights. A pioneer use of electricity for municipal lighting, it was later strung with incandescent bulbs and was destroyed in a storm in December 1915.

The electric light tower was proposed by J. J. Owen, publisher of the San Jose Mercury, the precursor of The Mercury News, as a way of lighting the entire center of San Jose on the "high light" principle, at less expense than gas street lighting. Owen was inspired by the electric lighting in San Francisco, the first in the world, which he had visited in 1879. He designed the tower, estimating that it would require $5,000 and one month to build it. Just under $3,500 was raised by public subscription, and groundbreaking took place on August 11, 1881. The tower was dedicated on December 13 the same year.

As built, the tower was 207 feet (63 m) tall, topped by a platform holding six arc lamps with a diffusing and protective shield above them and a 30 ft. (9.1 m.) flagpole for a total height of 237 feet (72 m.) and a total of 24,000 candlepower. It stood on a brick foundation and spanned the intersection of Santa Clara and Market Streets. It was made of hollow iron pipe and braced with iron hoops. Owen modeled it on the moonlight tower built earlier in 1881 in Akron, OH, widening the base to 75 feet (23 m.) square, so that supporting cables would not be needed; the Akron tower collapsed when the cables broke.

The tower was possibly the world's tallest free-standing iron structure at the time. Its light was visible as far away as San Francisco; it was brighter than expected, more like full moonlight.

It has been argued that its design influenced that of the Eiffel Tower, which was built eight years later; in 1989 the City of San Jose sued in a mock trial the estate of Gustave Eiffel and the City of Paris for copyright infringement of the San Jose design; the mock trial judge, Marcel Poche, at the University of Santa Clara determined that the idea in Paris had emerged independently.

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