Gillette Castle State Park - East Haddam, CT
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nomadwillie
N 41° 25.345 W 072° 25.715
18T E 714882 N 4588842
The name Gillette gave to his home was Seventh Sister, but when the State of Connecticut bought it ($5,000) they renamed the property to Gillette Castle State Park.
Waymark Code: WM1693E
Location: Connecticut, United States
Date Posted: 06/04/2022
Views: 3
William Gillette's "castle", called Seventh Sister and renamed "Gillette Castle" by Connecticut State in 1943, was built between 1914 and 1919 with an addition completed in 1924 on a 184-acre (74 ha) tract at the top of the southernmost of a chain of hills known as the Seven Sisters. Gillette died having no children, and his will precluded the possession of his home by any "blithering sap-head who has no conception of where he is or with what surrounded". The State of Connecticut took over the property in 1943, renaming it Gillette Castle State Park. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
Gillette originally planned to build his retirement home on Long Island until he discovered the cliffs of the Seven Sisters while traversing the Connecticut River in his houseboat, "Aunt Polly".
Gillette designed the home and personally overlooked every phase of the construction. Construction was performed by the Porteus-Walker Company, a leading contracting and wood-working firm based in Hartford, Connecticut founded by Gillette's childhood friend, Robert Porteus. It has been described as being designed in a medieval gothic, or an "American fairy tale mixed with European flair"style, or as "a weird blending of Victorian and Arts and Crafts". In the past, it had even been described as "Gillette's Folly".
The 3-story-plus-tower,[ 24-room, 14,000 sq ft home was built of wood, cement, and local Connecticut field stone, supported by a steel framework. The exterior of the home is covered in field stone. Woodwork within the home is hand-hewn southern white oak. In some places, beams were set directly into the stones, anchored only by cement. The walls, in particular, were constructed similarly to a stage set, lacking two-by-four studs and mortar in critical places. It has been noted it was "a wonder the building didn't collapse" before the castle's multimillion-dollar restoration. Insulation included seaweed and paper. It took 20 workers from 1914 to 1919 (5 years) to complete the construction totaling a cost of over $1 million at the time. In the years Gillette lived in the home, he led and supervised thousands of refinements by local craftsmen.
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