GILLETTE CASTLE
Michael King / iStockphoto.com
67 River Road
East Haddam, CT 06423
Phone: 860-526-2336
www.ct.gov.deep/gillettecastle
Sited on the last and most southerly of the chain of hills known as the Seven Sisters, this estate was first named, appropriately, the Seventh Sister. The castle is the creation of William Hook Gillette (1853–1937), an actor, playwright, director, and novelist. Gillette designed every detail of his castle, including its gardens. It took a crew of twenty men five years to build his dream castle, which was completed in 1919. Differing from medieval European prototypes, Gillette’s castle has a steel frame and is faced with local fieldstones. The Craftsman-style interior has hand-hewn southern white oak throughout.
Gillette spared no details. He fitted his home with personally designed features like built-in sofas, a table on tracks, forty-seven uniquely designed doors, door knobs, and locks. A series of hidden mirrors allowed him to keep an eye on the castle’s rooms (and guests!) from the vantage point of his bedroom.
Gillette’s creativity extended to the grounds of his 142-acre estate. He had a narrow-gauge railroad with its own “Grand Central Station,” a wooden trestle bridge, a tunnel, walking paths, and a goldfish pond. The railroad tracks have since been pulled up and replaced with an additional walking trail.
William Hook Gillette died in 1937. In his will, he expressed his wish that his beloved estate not fall victim to a “blithering sap-head who has no conception of where he is or with what surrounded.” He would be pleased to know that Gillette Castle became the property of the state of Connecticut in 1943. The house went through an $11 million dollar restoration that was completed in 2002.