The Signal Hill Tower was built in the Edwardian style in 1907 at the top of the hill. It was originally a three-storey building. The tower stood at 12.8 metres tall, with a red brick facade. Then, another storey was added to the structure in 1927 for clearer view of the tower from incoming vessels, this heightened it to 18.9 m. The windows of the added storey features round windows whereas the original floors have square windows. Prior to the addition, the roof of the building was flat. A dome-shaped roof painted light green was built in replacement. There was a 5.5 m long mast which used to contain the time ball atop the building. The purpose of the tower was to house a time ball apparatus of the Hong Kong Observatory previously located in the nearby Marine Police Headquarters Compound. The apparatus operated in the building from January 1908 to June 1933, dropping once daily from 1908 to 1920, and twice a day from 1920 to 1933. The dropping of the time ball ceased on 30 June 1933 as the building itself was in disrepair, short of staff, and the method used to check the marine chronometers had become obsolete, in comparison with radio-telegraphy and telephony. The Urban Council restored the tower in the 1970s. The building was designated a Grade II historic building in 1981 and was upgraded to a Grade I historic building on December 18, 2009. On 23 October 2015 the tower was also declared a monument.
Today
The site was allocated to the Urban Council in 1973 and made a park, called the Signal Hill Garden, which was officially opened on 20 August 1974. Signal Hill Tower is still standing and was listed as a Grade IIhistoric building in 1981, and as a Grade I historic building since 2009. A small building in the park, now repurposed as a toilet, was where typhoon signals were hoisted in Hong Kong as it was located on the highest hill near the middle of Victoria Harbour. The entrance of the park is at Minden Row. The Signal Hill Garden is adjacent to the Middle RoadChildren's Playground. However, the two parks are not contiguous and one cannot walk to the other without first exiting to the street. Note that the open hours for the Tower is: 9:00 am - 11:00 am and 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm daily.
