Top 10 Oldest Fairytale Castles in the United States

Sally Polly April 30, 2023 | 07:03

Check out these 10 most beautiful and oldest castles in the United States.

Top 10 Oldest Castles in the United States

Top 10 Most Ancient Beautiful Castles in the United States

Top 10 oldest castles in the United States

While fairytale castles are more associated with medieval Europe, the United States is home to many beautiful chateaus, mansions, and palaces if you know where to look.

From North Carolina's grand Biltmore Estate to California's Hearst Castle, we round up the most enchanting, oldest, and beautiful American castles.

What Are the First Castles in the United States?

10. Hammond Castle, Massachusetts

Photo: Hammond Castle Museum

Hammond Castle is located on the Atlantic coast in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in the Magnolia neighborhood. The castle, built between 1926 and 1929, served as John Hays Hammond, Jr.'s home and laboratory. He was an inventor who pioneered the study of remote control and held over 400 patents. The structure, which sits on a rocky cliff overlooking Gloucester Harbor, is made up of modern and 15th, 16th, and 18th-century architectural elements.

The castle is now used as the Hammond Castle Museum, which displays Hammond's collection of Roman, medieval, and Renaissance artifacts as well as exhibits about his life and inventions. Many famous organists, including Richard Ellsasser and Virgil Fox, have performed and recorded on the Great Hall's large pipe organ. Unfortunately, the organ was no longer functional as of 2004. There are both guided and self-guided tours available. The ten living areas (including a dining room, library, study, exhibit rooms, kitchen, and guest bedrooms), an inner courtyard, the northern towers, and the Great Hall are all open to visitors.

In 1923, John Hays Hammond Jr. hired the Boston, Massachusetts architectural firm Allen & Collens to design his dream home, a medieval-style castle. The original castle design called for a tower house on his father's Lookout Hill estate. Leslie Buswell, Hammond's close friend who would soon begin construction on his own nearby home, Stillington Hall, warned Hammond that he was attempting to recreate Chartres Cathedral, almost matching the cathedral's 121' high nave. In 1924, Hammond proposed a more modest redesign that would reduce the structure's height from 120' to 87' and its footprint from 43' to 30' while retaining the tower house style. After his parents ordered him to leave the Lookout Hill property, Hammond moved to a new location a mile to the south near Norman's Woe Reef. The castle was completely redesigned, resulting in a shorter (81') but larger footprint (142' by 70').

9. Thornewood Castle, Washington

Photo: Unique Moments Photography

Thornewood Castle in Lakewood, Washington, not only has a long and rich history, but it is also home to several resident ghosts.

Chester Thorne, one of the Port of Tacoma's founders, built this magnificent three-story manor house. The 27,000 square foot manor took nearly four years to complete and was finally ready in 1911. The manor was built with only the best materials, including 400-year-old bricks from an original English castle.

The crystal windows were designed by the famous architect Kirkland Cutter, and the stained glass panels date back to 1300. One of the few genuine private castles in the United States, the English Tudor/Gothic mansion has 54 rooms, including 28 bedrooms and 22 baths.

8. Lyndhurst Mansion, New York

Photo: Aqueduct

The Lyndhurst Mansion was an architecturally brilliant Gothic Revival mansion design. This once-private residence was passed down through several generations of people and families. It was frequently used as a summer residence until Anna, Duchess of Talleyrand-Perigord, purchased the lovely estate. The Dutchess left the Lyndhurst to the National Trust for Historic Preservation when she died.

The Lyndhurst Mansion has survived and thrived as a taste of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The mansion was mostly preserved because it was used as a country home. The Lyndhurst Mansion reflects the three major families who lived there as well as the five major owners who lived there prior to its donation. Lyndhurst offers a Classic Mansion Tour for first-time visitors, as well as two specialty tours for visitors who want to get a closer look at the site's unique and unseen spaces.

Top 10 Most Beautiful Castles In The World

Europe is the home to many beautiful places and architecture, with a long rich history. Here is top 10 most beautiful castles in the world.

7. Smithsonian Castle

Photo: Washington Post

The Smithsonian Castle appears to be home to exotic treasures. But it doesn't--at least not for many people anymore. The Smithsonian Institution now spans 19 different facilities, but this is the original structure. You'll also pass the crypt of the institution's founder, James Smithson, on your left as you enter through the Mall entrance.

There are some exhibits there, particularly in the West Wing, but the building is mostly used as the Smithsonian Institution's administrative headquarters.

It was designed by James Renwick Jr in the Gothic Revival style, complete with the distinctive castle turrets, and completed in 1855. Recent research has revealed that its distinctive red bricks were quarried by slaves.

6. Fonthill Castle, Pennsylvania

Photo: Adrienne Matz Photography

Fonthill Castle was built between 1908 and 1912 as the home of Henry Chapman Mercer (1856-1930). Mercer, an archaeologist, anthropologist, ceramist, scholar, and antiquarian, built Fonthill Castle as a home and a showcase for his tile and print collection. Fonthill Castle, the first of three Mercer structures in Doylestown, served as a showcase for Mercer's famed Moravian tiles produced during the American Arts & Crafts Movement. The building was designed by Mercer and is an eclectic mix of Medieval, Gothic, and Byzantine architectural styles, as well as an early example of poured reinforced concrete.

Mercer left his concrete "Castle for the New World" in trust as a museum of decorative tiles and prints when he died in 1930. He gave his housekeeper and her husband, Laura and Frank Swain, life rights to Fonthill Castle. Mrs. Swain lived in the house and gave tours until her death in 1975, in accordance with Mercer's Will.

Following her death, the Trustees of the Mercer Fonthill Museum decided to run Fonthill Castle as a historic house museum, and they hired the Bucks County Historical Society to provide professional care and management. The Bucks County Orphans Court appointed the Trustees of the Bucks County Historical Society as permanent Trustees of the Mercer Fonthill Museum in 1990, cementing the site's commitment to professionalism. Fonthill Museum is legally distinct from the Historical Society.

From 1976 to the present, Fonthill Castle has evolved into a one-of-a-kind professional museum that offers a full range of museum programs related to Mercer and his collections while maintaining a strong commitment to the building's preservation and conservation.

5. Castello di Amorosa, California

Photo: castellodiamorosa.com

Castello di Amorosa is a winery in the Calistoga area of California. Dario Sattui, a fourth-generation vintner who also owns and operates the V. Sattui Winery named after his great-grandfather, Vittorio Sattui, who first established a winery in San Francisco in 1885 after emigrating from Italy to California, opened the winery to the public in April 2007.

The winery property was once part of Edward Turner Bale's estate. Sattui paid $3.1 million for 171 acres (69 ha) in 1993, then spent another $40 million to build the castle, outbuildings, and winery within the castle; construction began in 1995.

The farmhouse was severely damaged during the Glass Fire, which began on September 27, 2020, and the entire 2020 vintage of the wine Fantasia was lost, but the castle was unharmed.

Top 10 Oldest Castles In The World

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4. Bannerman Castle, New York

Photo: The roadtrippers

If you've ever taken the Metro-North along the Hudson line, you've probably noticed a small and desolate land mass in the middle of the Hudson River, not far north of Cold Spring. Pollepel Island is only 6.5 acres in size and has only one structure, a decaying structure hidden among the trees and other foliage that have overtaken the island.

Bannerman's Castle is a 19th-century relic that has slowly crumbled into its surroundings. While Pollepel Island and the castle itself are largely closed to the public, they are open for tours during the summer and fall, and are a great reason to take a day trip upstate. (Please keep in mind that tours are not wheelchair accessible.)

Though the structure appears to be an enormous estate of a wealthy family, its origins are much more humble. It was the heart of entrepreneur Francis Bannerman's northeastern retail empire in the decades following the Civil War. Bannerman, who was born in Scotland but raised in Brooklyn, began collecting and selling surplus military goods at a young age and launched his catalog business after the war.

Construction began in 1901 and was never completed. Bannerman died in 1918, and the structure was damaged by a massive explosion in 1920. Decades of deterioration, combined with a massive fire in 1969, left the structure in ruins by the 1990s, when the Bannerman Castle Trust was formed. Neil Caplan, a Beacon resident, founded the organization; today, he's one of several guides who lead regular tours of the island and helps plan special events.

3. Bishop’s Palace, Texas

Photo: Getty Images

The grand Bishop's Palace, designed by noted architect Nicholas Clayton for prominent politician, businessman, and former Confederate Col. Walter Gresham, was completed in 1886. The house was later purchased by the Galveston Houston Diocese of the Catholic Church for Bishop Christopher Byrne. Bishop's Palace was named one of the top 100 buildings in the United States by the American Institute of Architects.

Bishop's Palace, a National Historic Landmark, is also on the National Register of Historic Places and is regarded as one of the country's most significant examples of a Victorian residence. The mansion has an exquisite interior with marble columns, 14-foot ceilings, an octagonal mahogany stairwell, spectacular stained glass, woodcarvings, and decorative plaster ceilings and walls, as well as a dramatic turret on the southeast corner. The Bishop's Palace is open to the public for several tours each week, with varying degrees of access to the rooms.

2. The Breakers, Rhode Island

Photo: Lost New England

The Breakers is regarded as the most impressive of the extravagant mansions built in Newport in the late nineteenth century. You'll understand why once you enter the massive gates on The Breakers mansion tour! The Breakers mansion in Rhode Island was not only the Vanderbilts' prized "summer cottage," but it also demonstrated their power and influence in America at the time. Join us as we tour The Breakers and demonstrate why it is the best mansion tour in Newport RI.

Tobacco magnate Pierre Lorillard IV built the original Breakers mansion in 1878. Unfortunately, the property burned down shortly after Cornelius Vanderbilt II purchased it in 1892. However, it wouldn't be long before the Vanderbilts built a grander mansion on the Atlantic Ocean's shores in Newport.

The Breakers Vanderbilt mansion, completed in 1895, was an instant hit in Newport. The Breakers is a 70-room Italian Renaissance-style mansion designed by famous architect Richard Morris Hunt. Hunt was inspired by the palaces of Turin and Genoa. The Vanderbilts owned the mansion until 1972, when it was sold to the Newport County Preservation Society.

1. Bacon’s Castle

Photo: Prologue Systems

Bacon's Castle was built in 1665 for Arthur Allen and his family and is North America's oldest brick dwelling. Originally known as Allen's Brick House, it was dubbed "Bacon's Castle" in 1676 after several of Nathaniel Bacon's men occupied it for four months during the uprising known as Bacon's Rebellion.

Bacon's Castle is an exceptionally fine example of High Jacobean architecture. The Garden Club of Virginia restored a reconstructed 17th-century English formal garden. Several outbuildings, including an 1830 slave dwelling, have also been preserved.

Preservation Virginia purchased Bacon's Castle at auction in the 1970s and meticulously researched, restored, and furnished the house in the 1980s.

Top 10 Most Beautiful Castles In The World

Europe is the home to many beautiful places and architecture, with a long rich history. Here is top 10 most beautiful castles in the world.

Top 10 Oldest Castles In The World

To know more about top 10 oldest castles in the world that you should visit once in your life, keep reading the article below.