NEW ENGLAND CASTLES

NEW ENGLAND CASTLES Story and photography by Margaret & Eric Anderson
Like Plant and Hammond, William Hooker Gillette was an eccentric inventor. But his flair for living came from the stage -- he was also an actor. And a successful one. His long career started when, at the age of 10, he produced puppet shows for his childhood friends. He was still going strong in his late 70s, on the road in the revival of Sherlock Holmes, the role that made him famous. He strode upon the American stage as if he owned it, and in some ways he did. He developed techniques in stage lighting well ahead of their time and invented many trick props that captivated audiences. But his greatest contribution to the stage was he freed it from the restraints of European styling. He was natural. He made the play come alive. His best parts saw him in the role of Holmes, the world's favorite detective. He played the part 1,300 times in 30 years and it has been said he wasn't the first to play Holmes, but he was the best.

	The letters in the archives at Gillette Castle bear tribute to his skill, as the castle itself bears testimonial to his wealth. One letter from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, written after Gillette's second stint as Holmes on the English stage, starts, "You seem to have carried London once more by storm...." and amongst the memorabilia is a letter asking for his autograph from Olive Dickens, the granddaughter of Charles Dickens.

Gillette, born in 1853, was immensely popular at the peak of his career. He took a young bride but when she died of a ruptured appendix in 1888 at the age of 28, Gillette was so overwhelmed he gave up the stage for five years. He returned to work with renewed energy, but always he dreamed of building a house that would be his retreat. In 1914, he started building on 122 acres along the Connecticut River, 10 miles inland from the Long Island Sound. It took 20 men five years to erect the main structure of rough fieldstone on a steel framework. Gillette designed everything from the 47 heavy hard-hewn oak doors that would have defied Genghis Khan, to intricately carved wooden light switches that would have charmed Rube Goldberg.
	Gillette Castle had 24 rooms: Most bedrooms were equipped with built-in furniture and decorated in simple taste. One, however, had a hidden passage, and a special exit from his study allowed him to make a sudden departure without confronting those hoping to see him, or disturbing the 15 cats that usually kept him company. He placed mirrors at strategic positions in his house and could observe from his bedroom anyone entering the great drawing room below. Cynics have said it enabled him to make the grand entrance. He was actually more interested in showing visitors his full-sized locomotive that he regularly drove along three miles of railroad track. All his guests got the treatment, even a young Albert Einstein.



But Gillette was getting old. He died of a pulmonary hemorrhage at the age of 83 in 1937, worried that his castle would "fall into the hands of some blithering saphead who has no conception of where he is or with what surrounded." His executors were faithful to his wishes when they sold the property. Stone and granite may last forever but genius comes at a cheaper price. Gillette paid more than $1 million for his dream house. When the state of Connecticut purchased the estate, his heirs got $30,000.