Tor House and Hawk Tower, Historic residence in Carmel-by-the-Sea, United States

Tor House is a stone residence in Carmel-by-the-Sea with a main dwelling and a 40-foot granite tower built from boulders collected along the local shoreline. The tower contains a winding staircase reaching an observation point where visitors can see Carmel Bay and the surrounding coastline.

Tor House was built from 1919 to 1924 by contractor Mike Murphy, with Robinson Jeffers as stonemason's apprentice; Jeffers then raised Hawk Tower between 1920 and 1924. The family lived here from 1919 until 1999, and Jeffers wrote all his major poetry at the site. The Tor House Foundation took over the property as a museum in 1978, and it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2024.

Una Jeffers asked her husband to build her a room and a "dungeon" for their twin sons, linked by a connecting passage, and an elevated place to look out over the ocean. Jeffers set Una's symbol, a unicorn, above her second-floor door and a hawk above the door to his third-floor lookout. The tower's name is said to come from a hawk that appeared often while he was building it and stopped appearing once it was finished.

The property sits on a knoll at Carmel Point, reached by walking from the surrounding residential streets; the stone courtyard wall and detached garage Jeffers built in 1920 stand beside the cottage. The house had running water but no electricity until 1949, and the tower's spiral staircase leads to an open battlement and turret with views of Carmel Bay, Point Lobos and Pebble Beach.

Jeffers named the tower after a hawk that appeared often while he was building it, then stopped showing up once construction ended. He placed Una's symbol, a unicorn, above her second-floor door and a hawk above the door to his third-floor lookout.