Here is a brief excerpt from an especially interesting article featured at The American Facts website. Please click here to read the complete article.
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America might not have medieval knights or dragon legends, but we’ve got castles—lots of them, actually. Built by eccentric millionaires, romantic dreamers, and people who apparently had too much money and not enough hobbies, these stone fortresses dot the landscape from coast to coast.
Image: Erim Berk Benli
This crumbling fortress sits on a tiny island in the Hudson River, looking like something straight out of a Gothic novel. Francis Bannerman VI built it in 1901 to store his surplus military weapons because, apparently, his wife refused to keep thousands of munitions in the basement anymore.
The castle partially exploded in 1920 when some gunpowder got a little too excited, and it’s been slowly deteriorating ever since. You can kayak out to the island or take a boat tour to see the ruins up close, where nature is slowly reclaiming the stone walls in a beautiful, apocalyptic sort of way.
Image: Leyla M
Henry Mercer built this concrete monstrosity between 1908 and 1912. The guy was obsessed with tiles and built his castle as a showcase for his handmade ceramic collection, resulting in 44 rooms, 32 stairwells, and 18 fireplaces.
The castle has no blueprints because Mercer apparently just made it up as he went along, adding rooms and towers whenever the mood struck.
Image: Darya Tryfanava
William Gillette, famous for playing Sherlock Holmes on stage, built this eccentric castle in the 1910s and filled it with spy mirrors, secret doors, and wooden locks he carved himself. The place looks like someone dropped a medieval fortress into a blender with a detective novel.
The castle has 47 doors, none of which work like normal doors should, because Gillette apparently thought regular doorknobs were for boring people. Now it’s a state park where you can wander through rooms designed by someone who clearly never met a quirk he didn’t like
Image: Pascal Bernardon
George Boldt started building this Rhineland-style castle in 1900 as a Valentine’s Day gift for his wife Louise. Then she died suddenly in 1904, and he immediately halted construction and never returned, leaving behind a monument to heartbreak on Heart Island in the Thousand Islands.
The castle sat abandoned for 73 years until the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority took it over and began restoration. Today you can visit via ferry and explore the grand halls, the powerhouse, and the perfectly intact bowling alley
Image: Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
This one’s a bit of a cheat since it was built in 2007, but it’s so ridiculously authentic that it deserves a spot. Winemaker Dario Sattui spent 14 years and $40 million building a 13th-century Tuscan castle in Napa Valley, complete with a moat, drawbridge, and torture chamber, because apparently wine tastings needed more medieval flair.
The castle used 8,000 tons of hand-chiseled stone and over a million antique bricks imported from Europe. You can tour the dungeons, great hall, and of course, taste wine in a setting that makes you feel like you should be wearing chainmail instead of your Costco polo shirt.
Image: Birmingham Museum Trust
Perched on Vista Rock in Central Park, this miniature castle was built in 1869 as a Victorian folly—basically an expensive decoration that serves no practical purpose. It’s now home to the Henry Luce Nature Observatory and offers panoramic views of the park, which is considerably more useful than its original job of just looking pretty.
The castle got a major renovation in the 1980s after decades of neglect left it looking more “haunted” than “enchanting.” Today it’s one of Central Park’s most popular spots.
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Here is a direct link to the complete article.