what year did they lock up the doors to bancroft towers
Massachusetts is abode to many historic sites and historic houses, including a number of castles. These castles were mostly congenital during the xixth century and the early on twentyth century and feature towers, drawbridges, courtyards and great halls.
Nigh of these castles still exist but some of them have sadly been completely or partially demolished or even relocated. The majority of these castles are still in great shape but a few are in ruins or take been greatly reduced in size. The castles tin still exist viewed and/or visited though and are worth checking out.
The following is a list of castles in Massachusetts:
Bancroft Castle
Address: Gibbet Colina, Lowell Rd, Groton, Mass. Website: gibbethillgrill.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/gibbet-hill-history.pdf
Built in 1906, Bancroft Castle is a stone tower congenital by General William Bancroft. The tower once had a wooden bungalow attached to it and the structure was originally intended to be a part of a large castle-like business firm just Bancroft ran out of money before he could end it.
In 1918, Bancroft sold the belfry and bungalow to Dr. Harold Ayers, who converted information technology into a sanatorium, known equally Groton Private Hospital. The infirmary eventually closed down in the late 1920s and effectually 1930 it became a venue for social events like dances, play a joke on-hunting parties and dinners held by the Groton Hunt Society.
Afterwards the bungalow burned downwards equally the outcome of a fireworks accident on July iv, 1932, the social events at the tower came to an end. In 1947, a woman named Marion Campbell purchased the property for use as a cattle farm.
In the late 1990s, Campbell put the farm upwardly for sale and a local construction company made plans to to develop 78 houses on the property.
In 2000, Groton native and Geotel Communications founder Steven Webber purchased the farm to forestall it from being adult, and later opened the Gibbet Colina Grill on the property, which uses ingredients grown on the farm in the restaurant. Visitors interested in hiking the nearby trails and visiting the castle are allowed to park in the restaurant'southward parking lot.
Bancroft Tower
Address: Salisbury Park, Bancroft Tower Road, Worcester, Mass
Built in 1900, Bancroft Tower is a 56-foot-tall Romanesque-style stone and granite tower built past Worcester man of affairs Stephen Salisbury III in memory of his childhood friend George Bancroft, a local historian and statesmen.
The tower is two-stories-tall and is built out of boulders and cobbles with a rock-face granite exterior. The building features two square towers on the sides of the structure and a circular tower in the middle as well equally fireplaces and spiral stone staircases in the interior.
The belfry was designed by Worcester architects Earle and Fisher and cost nearly $15,000 to build. Upon completion, Salisbury opened the tower and the grounds to the public as a park.
After Salisbury died in 1905, he left the belfry to the Worcester Art Museum who so donated it to the Worcester Parks Section in 1912 who continued to operate it as a park.
In 1980, the belfry was added to the National Annals of Historic Places.
Blantyre Castle
Address: xvi Blantyre Rd, Lenox, Mass. Website: blantyre.com
Built in 1902, the castle is a mansion congenital by New York businessman Robert Paterson and is modeled after his female parent's ancestral habitation in Blantyre, Scotland. After Paterson died, his widow sold it in 1925
and information technology somewhen became a clubhouse while the grounds became a golf game form.
In 1938, film director D.W. Griffith purchased the dwelling with plans to turn it into a movie studio but those plans never came to fruition.
In 1944, Henry and Babette de Sola Mendes purchased the dwelling and turned information technology into a hotel. Mendes sold the home in the 1960s and it passed through several easily before information technology was purchased by Jack and Jane Fitzpatrick who transformed it into a resort.
In June 2017, Blantyre was purchased by Linda Law, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who renovated it and reopened it every bit a luxury hotel.
Boston University Castle
Accost: 225 Bay State Rd, Boston, Mass. Website: bu.edu/meetatbu/explore-our-facilities/campus-venues/dahod-family-alumni-centre-at-the-castle/
Congenital in 1915, the Boston Academy Castle is a Tudor Revival-Style mansion congenital by William Lindsey Jr, a factory owner from Autumn River.
The dwelling price $500,000 to build, which is the equivalent of $eleven.6 million today. The home was designed past architectural firm Chapman and Frazer of Boston, who modeled it on the 500-year-one-time Tudor manor Athelhampton in Dorset, England.
Pieces of the abode were shipped over from England and the outside's elaborate stonework was carved by the sculptor for Copley Square's Trinity Church.
The building now serves at the university'southward Dahod Family Alumni Centre.
Bristol County Courthouse
Address: nine Court Street, Taunton, Mass. Website: mass.gov/locations/bristol-county-superior-court
Built in 1894, the courthouse is a Romanesque-manner stone building designed by architect Frank Irving Cooper.
The courthouse features a 170-foot stone tower topped with a copper dome, two small tower-like structures on the sides of the building and a hip-roof also fabricated out of copper.
The courthouse was originally topped with a 15-foot copper flame only it was removed in 2003 when it was deemed a potential hazard. The courthouse is still in use today.
Carcassonne Castle
Address: Ocean Ave, Marblehead Neck, Mass. Privately owned home. Not open to the public.
Built in 1935, Carcassonne Castle is a three-story, 23-room granite castle built by Gourdeau Structure Co for Lydia Pinkham Gove at the cost of $500,000.
The granite used in the structure was locally sourced from the southward shore of Massachusetts, the wood came from Australia, Mexico, Venezuela, and Africa and the marble came from various locations beyond the world.
The building has three floors designed effectually a central round belfry, 23 rooms and 11 baths. Virtually all of the rooms take an ocean view. The belongings also features a alpine rock and iron gate.
The castle is named after the medieval castle of the same proper noun in the s of France, which is also in the shape of a butterfly like the Marblehead domicile.
After Gove's expiry in 1948, the house was sold for $50,000.
Although the castle is not open to visitors information technology can be viewed from Castle Rock Park on Bounding main Ave.
Cohasset Castle
Address: 211 S. Primary St, Cohasset, Mass. Privately owned habitation. Not open up to the public. Website: redfin.com/MA/Cohasset/211-S-Main-St-02025/home/11706073
Built onetime between 1920 and 1930, Cohasset Castle is an 8,600 square foot Tudor-mode house that features a k hall, marble floors, 7 fireplaces, 6 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms. Not much is else is known nearly the firm since it is a privately owned home that is not open up to the public.
Searles Castle
Accost: 209 Lawrence St, Methuen, Mass
Built around the turn of the century, the Searles castle is a 74-room castle built for Edward F. Searles.
The castle consisted of a chapel, a carriage firm, servant's houses, swan ponds and the estate is surrounded by stone walls and turrets.
In 1957, the castle was sold to the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary for $160,000. The castle is now the Presentation of Mary Academy and convent and the Searles Chapel is known every bit Our Lady of Sacred Heart.
Hammond Castle
Address: eighty Hesperus Ave, Gloucester, Mass. Website: hammondcastle.org
Built in 1929, the castle is a Medieval-fashion castle built by an eccentric American inventor named John Hays Hammond Jr.
The castle is built from granite mined from the nearby hillsides while the interior consists of actual pieces of European castles, churches and buildings that Hammond bought and shipped to the The states.
The castle also features a drawbridge, great hall, several towers, a laboratory, an inner and outer courtyard, a library with a whispering ceiling equally well as secret doors and passageways and an indoor puddle that can exist drained and filled with seawater at the flip of a switch.
The castle still contains Hammond'due south big collection of Roman, Medieval and Renaissance artifacts including a skull that is rumored to be from one of Christopher Columbus's crew members.
Hammond died in 1965 and left the castle to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. In 1975, the Archdiocese of Boston decided to sell the edifice, due to the enormous maintenance costs of the building, and a five-member trusteeship, headed past organist Virgil Fox, bought it for the price of $68,000.
Trick briefly lived in the castle and planned to transform it into a performing arts heart and museum but claimed he was pushed out of the project all together by the other trustees after they decided to run information technology solely a museum. Fox later sued the trusteeship to recoup some of his investment.
The castle is still a museum and is open to the public from spring until tardily fall.
Herreshoff Castle
Address: 2 Crocker Park, Marblehead, Mass. Website: herreshoffcastle.com
Built in 1926, the castle is a Gothic structure designed afterward Erik the Red'southward 10th century castle at Brattahlíð in Greenland. The castle was built by Marblehead artist Waldo Ballard and was originally named Castle Brattahlid.
The castle features a courtyard decorated with gargoyles, a railroad vehicle house, a rooftop deck and a dungeon and Great Room, some 25 by 30 feet, with 12-pes ceilings.
In 1945, yacht designer L. Francis Herreshof purchased the castle.
In 1990, it was purchased by Michael Rubino who turned the carriage house into a bed and breakfast, which continues today.
Jenny Lind Tower
Address: North Truro, Mass
Built in 1845, Jenny Lind Tower is a seventy-foot granite tower that closely resembles a castle battlement. The tower was once a turrett on the original 1845 Fitchburg Railroad depot in Boston.
It is rumored that the belfry is named later Jenny Lind, the 19thursday century opera singer, because she reportedly sang from the tower one evening in order to forbid a riot after a concert she gave in the 2d flooring auditorium of the edifice had been oversold and the attendees who couldn't get in became unruly.
When the station was torn downwards in 1927, local lawyer Henry M. Aldrich had the tower dismantled and relocated to his land in North Truro, although it is not known exactly why he did so.
In 1932, Aldrich and his family watched the solar eclipse from the tower but other than that the family didn't seem to utilise it much.
In 1961, Aldrich's girl-in-law donated the human activity to the land the tower sits on to the Greatcoat Cod National Seashore. There is no road or even a foot path to the tower so it is difficult to reach.
Legend has information technology that a witch, known every bit the Witch of Wellfleet, haunts the woods around the tower and cries out at night at the passing ships, blasphemous them in the hopes that they sink. The fable states that when the witch begins to cry out, the ghost of Jenny Lind climbs the tower and begins to sing which then scares abroad the witch. Locals still merits that on moonlight nights they often hear singing coming from the tower.
Lawson Tower
Address: 330 First Parish Rd, Scituate, Mass
Congenital in 1901 by the Scituate Water Company, Lawson Tower is a 153-foot-alpine wooden belfry built in the style of a castle turret. The tower was congenital to enclose a steel water tank that had been synthetic in 1900.
A wealthy Boston businessman, Thomas W. Lawson, lived on an manor nearby when the tank was built and didn't like looking at the unsightly h2o tank so he negotiated with the water company to have information technology enclosed.
The belfry is topped with a conical roof and, in addition to the water tank, the structure contains two rooms at the height of the tower, one of which houses a clock and the other houses bells that chime on the 60 minutes.
The Scituate Water Company stopped using the h2o tank in 1988. The tower is listed as both an American H2o Landmark and in the National Register of Historic Places. Visitors tin climb the tower to accept in the views of the surrounding mural.
Marchmont
Address: Winchendon Springs, Mass
Built in 1888, Marchmont was a castle congenital by local man of affairs Joseph Nelson White. It was known locally as "The White Castle" and consisted of 29 rooms including a reception hall.
By the 1950s, the cost of maintaining the castle somewhen proved to be too much for the family and so they attempted to sell information technology for $37,500. They failed to observe a buyer and instead decided to demolish the castle in 1956.
Moulton Castle
Address: 74 Curzon Mill Rd, Maudslay State Park, Newburyport, Mass
Congenital in 1868, Moulton Castle was a wooden gothic castle built by a Civil State of war captain and politician named Henry Moulton. The castle was three stories tall with 22 rooms and 2 towers.
Moulton frequently hosted large gatherings at the castle, such every bit his 4th of July party in 1869 which 500 guest attended and he also hosted a large reunion in 1883 for the soldiers in the 32nd Regiment of the Massachusetts Infantry he commanded during the Civil War.
Sometime later on 1892 though, Moulton'southward failing health prompted him to move out of the castle and relocate to a large home he endemic on the corner of Moseley Ave and Moulton Street. On May thirteen, 1896, Moulton died at the age of 63.
In 1900, Moulton's neighbour. Charles Westward. Moseley, bought the property in order to expand his estate and demolished the castle in December.
In 1985, the Moseley estate became a country park and the hill that the castle was located on is now known equally Castle Loma. The but thing that remains of the castle now are some loose stone steps scattered about on the superlative of the loma.
Norumbega Tower
Address: Norumbega Rd, Weston, Mass
Built in 1889, Norumbega Belfry is a 38-pes-alpine stone tower constructed by scientist Eben Norton Horsford to mark the supposed location of Fort Norumbega, which Horsford believed was a Viking fort that protected the lost metropolis of Norumbega.
The tower is constructed out of mortared field stones and features a spiral stone staircase. The grounds of the belfry is accessible to visitors but the archway into the building is locked for safety reasons.
Prospect Colina Castle
Address: Prospect Hill Park, 68 Munroe St, Somerville, Mass
Built in 1903, Prospect Colina Castle, likewise known as Prospect Hill Memorial Flag Tower and Observatory, is a iv story stone tower that was built equally a monument to the site's military history.
The site was the location of a Revolutionary War-era fort known as the Citadel which endured many British attacks during the Siege of Boston in 1775 and it was later used as a military training campsite during the Civil War.
The monument is a gothic-style construction made out of Deer Island granite and features ii observatory decks. The tower flies the Grand Marriage Flag which was a precursor to the American flag.
The Castle at Park Plaza
Address: 130 Columbus Ave, Boston, Mass. Website: www.castleboston.com
Built in 1897, the castle at Park Plaza is a 4-story granite building designed by William Gibbons Preston in the Romanesque-Revival style.
The building was originally the Armory of the Starting time Corps of Cadets and features a six-story belfry, a drill hall, several tower vaults, a rifle range, a gym, arched windows, a winged dragon carved onto the tower and a staircase built past the Guastavino system.
The edifice served every bit the headquarters for the Veterans Association of the Corps, the museum of the War machine Historical Lodge, the museum of the Outset Corps and the Civil War Museum of the Loyal Legion until 1966 when the building was sold to a individual owner named William J. Fitzgerald.
In 1973, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
From April of 1975 until Dec of 1976, the building housed the "Boston 200" exhibit which celebrated America's bicentennial.
In 1977, the building was designated a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmark Commission. Soon after, the Saunders Visitor, owners of the Boston Park Plaza Hotel, purchased the castle and began using it equally a banquet hall for the hotel.
From 2003 until 2018, the building also housed a steakhouse called Smith & Wollensky but the restaurant decided to relocate when its lease ended.
In 2019, Saunders Company formed a partnership with Longwood Venues and Destinations to transform the former restaurant space into a private function hall and renamed it Saunders Castle, which they now rent out every bit an showroom hall and hymeneals venue.
Searles Castle
Address: 389 Master Street, Great Barrington, Mass
Built in 1888, Searles Castle is a seven story French Chateau-manner business firm designed by New York architecture firm Stanford White of McKim, Mead and White.
The 54,326 square foot castle features twoscore rooms, 36 fireplaces, seven turrets, a dungeon and is constructed out of blue dolomite.
The castle was built for Mary Francis Kellogg Hopkins, widow of railroad tycoon Marking Hokins. Hopkins later married Edward Francis Searles, whom she had hired to design and decorate the interior of the castle.
The couple lived in the castle until Mary's death in 1891 and Edward's death in 1920. After Edward died, the edifice was sold and used as a private girls school for 30 years.
Afterward the schoolhouse airtight, the building was used for a variety of purposes, such as a preparation and briefing center for a New York insurance company, an all girls boarding school, and a country club.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
In 1985, the John Dewey Academy purchased it to use equally a schoolhouse for troubled intellectually gifted teens. The school nonetheless continues to operate today.
Scargo Tower
Accost: Scargo Hill Rd, South Dennis, Mass
Congenital in 1901, Scargo Belfry is a xxx-pes-tall cobblestone observatory belfry on Scargo Loma. The tower was built as a memorial to the Tobey family, who were ane of the original families to settle in Dennis in 1678.
The current tower is i of three that accept existed on the site. The first was a wooden tower built by the Tobey family in 1874 that was destroyed past a gale in 1876. The 2d tower was also made out of forest and burned down in 1900. That tower was then replaced past the electric current rock tower the following twelvemonth.
A plaque to a higher place the door to the tower reads:
"This belfry and hilltop were given to the town of Dennis in 1929 as a memorial to Charles Tobey (1831–1888) and Francis Bassett Tobey (1833–1913). Loyal sons of the village of Dennis where their Tobey ancestors settled in 1678."
In 2018, the tower was airtight to visitors because vandalism of the railings on the staircase inside fabricated information technology structurally unsafe and in need of costly repairs.
In July of 2020, the repairs were completed but the belfry nevertheless remained closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
State Armory Castle
Address: 29 Howard St, Springfield, Mass
Built in 1895, the State Armory Castle is a Gothic-style granite building designed past Look & Cutter of Boston and congenital by architect firm Gardner, Pyne & Gardner.
The 43,560 square human foot building served as the land arsenal and it features ii 50-foot towers with brick battlements equally well as brick and brownstone decorative elements above the biconvex windows.
Fastened to the rear of the building was a long, rectangular-shaped edifice known as the drill shed that served as a big gymnasium-like space for soldiers to assemble, practice and practise in. It was constructed out of brick and brownstone and had a big gable-roof. In 2011, this rear section of the building was extensively damaged by the Greater Springfield Tornado and was subsequently demolished.
Later on the National Baby-sit stopped using the building it became the S End Community Center.
In 1976, the armory was added to the National Annals of Historic Places.
In 2014, the metropolis sold the building to MGM Resorts who transformed it into a comedy club.
Tenney Castle
Address: 37 Pleasant Street, Methuen, Mass
Congenital in 1890, Tenney Castle was a mansion known every bit Greyness Courtroom built for hat manufacturing tycoon Charles H. Tenney.
In the 1950s, the Tenney family offered to donate the castle and eighty acres of state to the town but it was rejected. The castle was later sold to the Basilian Salvatorian Order.
In the 1970s, the castle then became a drug rehabilitation center. Eventually, the holding was abandoned and was boarded up and frequently vandalized.
In 1977 and 1978, the castle was destroyed in a series of arson fires and the merely thing that remains of the castle today are the front archways and doorway and a small fountain inside besides as a gatehouse at the beginning of the driveway.
The gatehouse was added to the National Annals of Historic Places in 1984.
In 1987, the state bought the state and spent $1.four million renovating it.
In 2001, the estate was approved for restoration and the castle grounds became a 25-acre park, known equally Greycourt State Park.
Usen Castle
Address: 415 South Street, Waltham, Mass
Built in 1928, Usen Castle is a Medieval-style structure built in the mode of a Norman castle and was inspired by Lismore Castle in Ireland.
The castle has four stories and once featured 5 towers, turrets and a courtyard all constructed out of colored concrete and ceramic inlays.
The castle was congenital for John Hall Smith, the founder of the Middlesex College of Medicine and Surgery, and was located on its campus.
In 1945, Brandeis University purchased the campus and used the castle as an office, dormitory and dining hall earlier converting it into dormitory in the 1950s.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
In 2017, the castle was condemned and was partially demolished, with three of its towers and a hall being torn downwards, before being rebuilt as a new residence hall called Skyline. The remaining two towers of the castle continue to serve as a dormitory.
Winnekenni Castle
Accost: 347 Kenoza Ave, Haverhill, Mass. Website: world wide web.winnekenni.com
Built in 1875, Winnekenni Castle is a rock castle designed by architect C. Willis Damon for Haverhill chemist Dr. James R. Nichols to use equally a summertime home.
The castle was built exclusively out of local glacial boulders as a mode to demonstrate the value to New England farmers of the boulders on their farms equally a building cloth.
Due to his declining wellness, in 1885, Nichols sold the castle to his cousin William Webb.
In 1895, the metropolis of Haverhill purchased the castle but information technology eventually fell into disrepair and was boarded upwards.
In 1967, the interior of the castle was destroyed in a fire. As a result, the Winnekenni Foundation was formed to help preserve the castle and open the castle and the grounds to the public.
The interior of the castle was rebuilt with the help of carpentry students and faculty from the local trade school Whittier Vocational Technical High Schoolhouse. The castle is bachelor to rent for weddings and individual functions while the grounds remain open every bit a public park known equally Winnekenni Park.
Sources:
McGinnes, Meagan. "Brandei will demolish most of its castle in 2017." Boston.com, 25 Jan. 2016, boston.com/news/teaching/2016/01/25/brandeis-will-demolish-near-of-its-castle-in-2017
"Springfield Arsenal." City of Springfield, springfield-ma.gov/planning/fileadmin/Planning_files/Historic/Historic_Background_Final.pdf
Scargo Belfry." Dennis Historical Order, dennishistoricalsociety.org/museums/scargo-tower
Legere, Christine. "Scargo Tower Repairs Consummate." Wicked Local Yarmouth, 17 Jul. 2020, yarmouth.wickedlocal.com/news/20200717/scargo-tower-repairs-complete
"Study Written report of the Boston Landmarks Commission of the Potential Designation of the Armory of the Starting time Corps of Cadets as a Landmark under Chapter 772 of the Acts of 1975." City of Boston, 1977, cityofboston.gov/images_documents/02%20Armory%20of%20the%20First%20Corps%20of%20Cadets_tcm3-39739.pdf
Kashdan, Rachel. "The Belfry, Boston's Newest Wedding Venue, Was Modeled after a Medieval Fortress." Boston Magazine, 24 Jan. 2020, bostonmagazine.com/weddings/2020/01/24/belfry-longwood/
Billis, Madeline. "Landmark: Somerville's Prospect Colina Belfry." Boston Magazine, 21 Feb. 2017, bostonmagazine.com/property/2017/02/21/somerville-prospect-hill-tower/
Wheeler, Glen C. Images of America: Winchendon. Arcadia Publishing, 1997.
"Look Inside the Lawson Tower." Wicked Local Scituate Wicked, 23 March. 2016, scituate.wickedlocal.com/photogallery/WL/20160323/NEWS/323009978/PH/i
"Truro Looks Back: The Jenny Lind Tower Comes to Boondocks." Wicked Local Truro, 12 April. 2009, web.archive.org/spider web/20121109201028/http://world wide web.wickedlocal.com/truro/news/lifestyle/celebrations/x1008347583/Truro-looks-back-The-Jenny-Lind-tower-comes-to-town
Albanese, Ellen. "A Castle in Marblehead Truly Fit for a Viking." Boston Globe, 3 Aug.2008, annal.boston.com/travel/explorene/massachusetts/manufactures/2008/08/03/a_castle_in_marblehead_truly_fit_for_a_viking/
Purdin, Bill. "History of Marblehead Timeline." Marblehead Magazine, legendinc.com/Pages/MarbleheadNet/MM/Manufactures/Timeline.html
"Moulton Castle." History Newburyport, historynewburyport.com/moulton-castle
"Atkinson Common." History Newburyport, historynewburyport.com/atkinson-common
"Gibbett Colina Historic Timeline." Gibbet Hill Grill, www.gibbethillgrill.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/gibbet-loma-history.pdf
cunninghamfacen1987.blogspot.com
Source: https://historyofmassachusetts.org/castles/
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