Having Fun Storming Gillette Castle
When I asked Rhonda if she’d like to visit Gillette Castle while in Connecticut, she agreed, but cast a suspicious look.
Castles aren’t typically found in the New England countryside, after all.
But it is an amazing place and I wanted Rhonda to experience it once before we leave for Guatemala!
A Castle In Connecticut?
Our destination was Gillette Castle State Park in East Haddam, Connecticut. Gillette Castle was the former home of William H. Gillette, actor and playwright, whose main claims to fame were to write stage adaptations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories and portray the famous detective on stage.
(Image from Friends of Gillette Castle State Park)
In pre-television/movie times, Gillette was the first person to bring the character of Sherlock Holmes to a non-literary audience, and his productions were extremely popular. Since Gillette was not a fool when it came to profiting off his efforts, he became extremely rich.
And what do many people say they want to do when they become extremely rich?
Build castles and buy islands, of course.
In this case, Gillette went with option 1.
As the story goes, when Gillette was sailing his houseboat up the Connecticut River in East Haddam, he fell in love with the majestic landscapes and epic river views from the cliffs of the Seven Sisters hill chain. Having never owned a permanent home before, he bought up a huge parcel of land overlooking the river and built a castle on a hilltop, making Gillette Castle his permanent retirement residence.
Gillette was fully aware of how special his castle and land were, and did not want them to fall into the hands “of some blithering saphead who has no conception of where he is or with what surrounded.” So the executors of his will sold the property to the State of Connecticut after he died, which then turned it into one of its many state parks so future generations could enjoy it.
Thanks, William Gillette!
For those more interested in Gillette and the history of the castle, the Friends of Gillette Castle State Park have an excellent summary.
Storming Gillette Castle
Since the weather has been spectacular lately, Rhonda, my parents, and I took a day to visit Gillette Castle State Park.
There is a lovely visitor center that plays a 10-minute long film describing the life of William Gillette and the origins of Gillette Castle. Highly recommended, and provides context for everything you see at the park.
Exploring the visitor center and park grounds is free (park and trail map link), but seeing the inside of the castle requires buying $6 admission tickets for a semi-guided tour.
Money well spent.
The castle is absolutely fabulous.
In total, it is made up of 3+ floors, 24 rooms, and 14,000 square feet.
The entire castle reflects Gillete’s personality and flair for the dramatic. The entire exterior is made of local fieldstone and was built by local craftsmen.
Sadly, we both forgot to take a picture of the modest dining room! It was smaller than you might expect, and really was made for the owners, their valet, and occasional guests to eat. The table couldn’t comfortably accommodate more than 6 people. A neat feature of the dining room table was that it was mounted on rails so it could be slid against the wall without scraping the wooden floor.
There were additional display rooms on the 3rd floor depicting the history of the Gillette family and focusing on Gillette’s valet and long-time friend, Yukitaka Osaki. They weren’t the best areas to photograph, so the provided link does a much better job illustrating their long friendship.
The castle was so impressive and was the perfect luxury accommodation for a couple with eclectic tastes plus the occasional guest. Rhonda and I could definitely have lived there!
A number of servant quarters, guest rooms, and tower areas were not open to the public for fire code reasons, or because they had to be destroyed as part of the recent renovation (so the castle didn’t collapse in on itself). But there was still plenty to see!
To conclude our visit to Gillette Castle, my parents took their very first selfie shot!
For those interested in a more thorough description of the rooms, the Friends of Gillette Castle State Park have posted videos narrated by park staff that do a great job describing each area and how they were used. Very interesting stuff.
A great day in a beautiful location!
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2 thoughts on “Having Fun Storming Gillette Castle”
What a cool site!
Absolutely! Although from a defensive siegecraft perspective, a military failure. 😉