This house can “change” appearances–The Chameleon House!

Anderson Architecture completed this home in 2006 atop a hill overlooking a cherry orchard and Lake Michigan. The striking structure took less than eight weeks to build thanks to the use of prefabricated materials. The steel frame of this house is wrapped in corrugated, translucent acrylic slats, allowing it to take on and reflect the changing colors of the landscape, like a chameleon blending into its habitat. Because it sits on a steep hill, the entrance of the home leads to the third floor, letting residents descend to the bedrooms or walk up to the living area.

From sah-archipedia.org:

Creativity in designing with twenty-first-century materials at a relatively low cost marks the Brondyk vacation house. The Brondyks needed a tall house for a small site, one that would afford a spectacular rooftop view spanning the surrounding farmland west to Lake Michigan, and one that would fit their modest budget. Anderson Anderson Architecture’s designs for original, finely crafted modern homes in the Pacific Northwest found in architectural publications attracted their attention. (The Chameleon House would appear in 100 More of the World’s Best Houses [2005].)

A steel-beamed frame supports the eighteen-hundred-square-foot building. Prefabricated sandwich insulation panel (SIP) walls rise nine stories in the towerlike house, covering the roof as well as the walls. The walls extend above the roof forming a railing for the open deck. Galvanized corrugated sheet metal resembling barn roofing clads the walls. Projecting two feet from the walls are aluminum frames that anchor recycled translucent polyethylene slats and serve as window-washing platforms and emergency exit structures. The panels reflect the light and seem to mimic the surroundings of the house, precipitating the choice of “Chameleon House” as the nickname for the dwelling.

The interior is arranged vertically and each level consists of one room; the rooms are linked by stairs and stair landings. Industrial tread and railings make up the stairs. A double-height window faces Lake Michigan in the common living spaces. Four-foot-wide maple-clad plywood panels are applied directly to the oriented strand board (OSB).

Some see the house as adventuresome and progressive, others as an intrusion on the pristine farmland and forests along the Leelanau Scenic Heritage Route that preservationists are trying to protect. The latter would have preferred that the house had been sited out of sight.

There are few shots of the home’s interior because it is a private home.

SOURCE: SAH:ARCHIPEDIA.ORG

I found an interesting ghost story about a lighthouse in Florida—and what better month to share than October!

From GHOSTCITYTOURS.COM:

On the coast of Florida, where the Tolomato and Matanzas Rivers spill out into the unforgiving waters of the Atlantic, stands one of America’s oldest and most haunted structures: the St. Augustine Lighthouse.

Standing 164 feet tall, nestled on the northern edge of Anastasia Island since the mid 1500s, this lone sentry has seen its fair share of history—for better or for worse. From the colonization of the Americas, to the Hundred Years’ War, to the birth of a nation and its subsequent divide, the St. Augustine Lighthouse has stood watch, year after year, through plagues and power struggles, as a beacon of hope in the darkness.

And it has left a mark.

You may not see it at first, but it’s there. Looking up at its twisted, black and white striped base, capped with a blood-red crown, you can almost sense it. That something is off. But it isn’t until you’ve run your fingers along its coquina walls, a mixture of limestone and broken shells, that you can really feel it—what the centuries and the salt have carved out like ancient runes.

It holds memories.

On the ground floor living quarters, where so many lighthouse keepers have laid their heads over the years, the raw, almost sickly-sweet smell of a freshly-lit cigar can be detected, subtle beneath the ocean air. Remnants of a different time, when men huddled around wood-burning stoves and waited out the storms, praying that no lives would be lost on their watch.

Inside the lighthouse proper, climbing the tall, spiraling staircase, the sound of crashing waves and screeching gulls is dampened by the thick walls. The sudden quiet is almost welcome, until a new sound emerges: the bell-like ringing of a little girl’s laughter. It starts at the top of the stairs, high above your head, and works its way down, down, down until it is silenced, abruptly.

In the red room at the very top, the beacon itself sits staring like a giant glass eye, seeing through time to the world that was before. You step out onto the catwalk, taking in Anastasia Island and the enormity of the sea beyond. It feels like you could be one of those lone lighthouse keepers, on duty, eyes on the horizon. That is until you see her, a shadow of a woman in the corner of your eye, holding onto the railing and leaning out into the open air—until she isn’t.

You too grip the railing, white-knuckled, looking out over the trees to the water beyond. You can’t help but wonder what it would feel like if you stepped out too? To be nothing more than another memory left behind at the St. Augustine Lighthouse, standing watch and waiting as the centuries slipped by and history rewrote itself.

The Caretakers

Like all hauntings, the spirits that roam the grounds of the St. Augustine Lighthouse didn’t just appear from nothing. Over the hundreds of years that the structure has stood, many people have come and gone, lived and died, and a few have even remained. The sightings that have been recorded on Anastasia Island have roots that go deep into the history of the lighthouse, much of which is now known to us.

For instance, it may be tempting to disregard the lingering odor of cigars, even despite the site being smoke-free. But for anyone who has ever smelled it, or has even seen the too-tall, shadowy figure that often accompanies it, they will tell you that the sense of fear and foreboding in the air lingers long after the cigar has faded away.

Locals and lighthouse employees refer to this spectre as “The Man,” and he is often seen dressed in a blue jacket and mariner’s cap, walking his route up and down the spiral staircase or looking down from the catwalk above. Because of his tall, thin frame, some believe he is the ghost of William Russel, a protective and dutiful lighthouse keeper from the 1850s. While others point to Joseph Andreu, who fell from the top of a scaffolding in 1859 while putting on a fresh coat of paint.

Regardless of who “The Man” is, it’s clear that his shift has never ended.

And who can forget the children’s laughter that bubbles up from thin air and moves across the grounds, from the caretaker’s home to the top of the lighthouse itself, as if it has a life of its own. While children weren’t uncommon on Anastasia Island, especially in more recent years, there are only so many children who have had a reason to stay.

In 1872, the lighthouse was under construction, overseen by a man named Hezekiah Pittee, who stayed on the island with his wife and two daughters while the project was underway. One afternoon, while Pittee’s daughters and a few of their friends were playing near the lighthouse, tragedy struck, and the island was changed forever.

There was a rail cart that the construction crew used to transport supplies from the nearby pier to the lighthouse, and it had become a part of the girls’ favorite game: pretending they were Spanish pirates moving their hoarded treasure to a secret location. Only one day, while rolling near the cliff’s edge, the rail cart came off its tracks, sending the young girls down into the water below. Some of them were rescued in time, but, unfortunately, both of Mr. Pittee’s daughters were lost to the sea.

If anything can be said, it’s that the children now get to play long after dark. We know because employees of the St. Augustine lighthouse still hear their giggles ringing out in the night, and have been known to find the dirty, child-sized footprints on the floors the next morning.

Which leaves us with one last vestige of the lighthouse’s history, and perhaps one of the most unnerving: the woman on the catwalk.

Maria Mestre de los Dolores stands out for more reasons than just her recent, ghostly sightings. In 1859, she became not only the first woman to serve in the U.S. Coast Guard, but she also became the first Hispanic-American woman to command a federal shore installation: the St. Augustine Lighthouse.

Her appointment came after her husband, the formerly mentioned caretaker Joseph Andreu, met his fateful end. Maria was heartbroken, left on Anastasia Island to follow in the very same footsteps her husband had once walked, and even was known to stand at the edge of the catwalk, looking down to where her husband’s body had once laid, broken.

She can still be found there, on occasion, leaning over the railing and imagining what those last few seconds of Joseph’s life had been like.

There is little doubt that, when it comes to hauntings, there are few places that will leave a mark on its visitors like the St. Augustine Lighthouse. With its rich history, infamous legends, and well-documented sightings, it is clear that what happens on Anastasia Island, stays on Anastasia Island.

SOURCE: GHOSTCITYTOURS.COM

This month’s house in the spotlight is The Ennis House in Los Angeles, California. This house has been featured in several horror movies (none of which I’ve seen to be honest).  The house is angles and blocks but no curved features at all.  The pictures I’ve seen of the house show some interesting elements, but there is no warmth in them.  It gives me the impression of living in a mausoleum.  

From Architectural Digest:

If you’ve ever seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Day of the Locust, or Blade Runner, then you’ve also seen the Ennis House. In the films, the property is used to depict a vampire mansion, a private residence, and an apartment building respectively. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1923 and constructed in 1924, the home has made more than 80 onscreen appearances throughout its near century-long existence, according to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. However, it was the home’s feature in House on Haunted Hill in 1959 that brought it into ghoulish acclaim.

“In just a minute, I’ll show you the only really haunted house in the world,” Watson Pritchard, played by Elisha Cook Jr., says in the movie. “Since it was built a century ago, seven people—including my brother—have been murdered in it.”  The film’s plot follows five people who are promised $10,000 each if they can spend the whole night in the eerie property, which is “played” by the Ennis House. 

“It’s a really modern house, yet it uses ancient forms,” said Michael Wyetzner, architect at Michielli + Wyetzner Architects, in the newest episode of Blueprints, a YouTube series for AD. In the video, Wyetzner breaks down the Ennis House’s role in House on Haunted Hill, as well as the role of five other properties featured in horror films. “It doesn’t have a very domestic scale, it almost looks like it could be a museum or other type of religious building,” he said.  

Of course, though large, it was designed as a residential property. Located in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, Wright designed the home in the early ’20s for Charles and Mabel Ennis, owners of a local men’s clothing store. The home is one of four that makes use of Wright’s textile block system, which is constructed from precast, interlocked concrete blocks. Designed in a trabeated style, the home lacks curves, arches, vaults, and domes and is heavily inspired by Mayan architecture. As such, many have classified the home as a Mayan Revival. 

Drawing from the Mayan-design vernacular, the home looks older than it is—in the 1959 film Pritchard says the home was built “a century ago,” despite only being 35 years old at the time. Aside from its deceptive age, the house has two other important qualities that make it the perfect horror home: It sits on a hill (which is not just a nod to the film’s title) and features a deep, high roof. These two qualities have become commonplace in homes used in horror films and were made famous in what Wyetzner calls “the iconic house of horrors”: the Bates’s home in Psycho.

SOURCE: ARCHITECTURALDIGEST.COM

This is definitely an usually house, but considering it’s in California, maybe not so much, lol!

From curbed.com:

The orange-and-purple home at 45 Berryessa Way in Hillsborough, located near a stretch of Interstate 280, has been fondly admired from afar for years. Fans of the unique abode, which bears a bulbous roof and dome-like rooms, have bestowed the circa-1976 property with the “Flintstone House” sobriquet due to its cartoonish, Stone Age appearance.

Florence Fang, former publisher of the San Francisco Examiner and chairwoman for the Independent Newspaper Group, bought the house for $2.8 million in 2017.

In lieu of using it as a primary residence, Fang turned the home into an entertaining space that lives up to its nickname, adorning the exterior with a series of whimsical yet arguably gaudy accents: Tyrannosaurus rex and brontosaurus statues stand next to aliens and their UFO. Fred Flintstone can be found flanking the entryway, with his catchphrase, “Yabba Dabba Doo,” on a nearby embankment. Barney and Betty Rubble are here, too. An astronaut stands on the lawn next to oversized mushrooms in blue, red, and green. There’s also a woolly mammoth, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, and a fish, suggesting the philosophy at play was “design like no one is watching.”

But people were watching.

The city of Hillsborough filed a complaint against Fang in San Mateo Superior Court in March of this year, accusing her of ignoring several stop-work orders and making landscape modifications without planning approvals or building permits. Last year, the city even fined her $200 for what it calls “a highly visible eyesore.”

In turn, Fang countersued the city. Her attorney, Angela Alioto, accused the city’s powers that be of “treating Mrs. Fang differently because she had a dream, and because she is Chinese.”

Fang allowed reporters into her home in April for an eyebrow-cocking press conference—and a tour of her recently revamped house, inside and out.

Here’s a look at the home embroiled in a modern Stone Age design controversy.

SOURCE: CURBED.COM

I found this article about the Chapel on the Rock: The St. Catharine of Sienna Chapel in Allenspark, Colorado on the inspiredimperfection.com website. 

Monsignor Joseph Bosetti came across a large rock formation just east of Rocky Mountain National Park in 1916. Inspired by the scripture Matthew 16:18, “Upon this rock I’ll build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it,” Bosetti envisioned a church built on the rock.

He fought for years to not only raise the funds needed to build the church, but to keep the rock intact. Eventually, the land on which Saint Catherine of Siena Chapel stands today was generously donated by Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Malo to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver.

Chapel on the Rock was designed by Denver architect Jacques Benedict, and built by the Coulihan Brothers and Charlie Miller from Allenspark. Native stone from the surrounding area was used in the Chapel construction, which was completed in 1936. The chapel was dedicated by Archbishop Urban Vehr in honor of Saint Catherine of Siena.

The stunning, colorful stained-glass window shows St. Catherine holding the body of Christ on the cross. It was designed by the world-renowned Franz Mayer and Sons Glass Works in Munich, Germany and was installed in 1937.

The property was named Camp St. Malo and was used as a boys’ camp led by priests and seminarians until the 1970s when it opened to girl campers as well. In 1984, Camp St. Malo closed temporarily then reopened in 1987 as the St. Malo Religious Retreat and Conference Center.

In 1993, Pope John Paul II prayed at Chapel on the Rock during his visit to Colorado for World Youth Day. During his visit, he blessed the chapel and later hiked the trail on the St. Malo Camp property, which was later renamed the John Paul II Trail.

In 2011, the 60,000 square foot conference and retreat center behind the church was burned to the ground in a fire, but thankfully the Chapel on the Rock survived untouched. Then in 2013, the 100-year rains produced massive flooding and created a devastating 5.0 mile landslide. The mud and rocks slid ferociously down Mount Meeker to the foot of the chapel, destroying the land and the historic Pope John Paul II Trail, but once again sparing the church.

The Archdiocese of Denver is currently working to preserve Chapel on the Rock, restore the Pope Saint John Paul II trail, and build a new visitor and heritage center.

Know Before You Go

Chapel on the Rock is located on the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway at 10758 Colorado Route 7, Allenspark, Colorado 80510 in Boulder County.

The Chapel on the Rock, officially Saint Catherine of Siena Chapel, sits on the grounds of the Saint Malo Retreat, Conference, and Spiritual Center of the Catholic Archdiocese of Denver.

It is open to the public every day from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm weather permitting. It is closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Mass is held at the chapel every Wednesday at 12:00 noon.

There is a small, rough, dirt and gravel parking area outside the chapel. There is also limited parking near Saint William Lodge.

There are no restrooms inside the chapel, but there are restrooms inside Saint William Lodge.

Boulder County designated the Chapel a historic site in 1999.

SOURCE: INSPIREDIMPERFECTION.COM Jennifer Bourn

In honor of National Lighthouse Day, I thought it would be cool to showcase the 10 WEIRDEST lighthouses…LOL.  This article from Hub Pages lists the 10 weirdest lighthouses in the world.

1 Horse Lighthouses, Jeju City, South Korea

South Korea is known for its unique modern architecture and its amazing design ideas. The perfect example of these are the impressive lighthouses of Jeju City. Many of them have a gaudy red color and very unique modern designs, although the most interesting and well-loved ones by tourists and locals are the Iho Hang West and East Breakwater Lighthouses. These two are 39 ft (12 m) tall concrete towers, shaped like horses and colored red and white respectively, with lanterns on their heads. The lighthouses are accessible by a short walk on a pier near the beach and serve a perfect attraction for the visitors to Jeju.

2 Orthodox Church Lighthouse, Crimea, Ukraine

The St. Nicholas Church-Lighthouse in the village of Malorichenske in Crimea was built in 2007 and aside from its main function it serves as an Orthodox church, a sea victims memorial, and even as a museum to water accidents. This unique lighthouse is 197 feet (60 meters) tall and is richly decorated with the frescoes, mosaics and beautiful marine-themed architecture elements. The local story also says that the paralyzed man who decorated the Saint Nicolas icon that was to be put in the lighthouse had his hands miraculously healed, which he attributes to the blessing of St. Nicholas, which adds to the unique spirituality and the beautiful atmosphere of the place.

3 Pink Lighthouse, Florida, USA

The Ponce de Leon Inlet Light is a beautiful lighthouse located in Ponce de Leon Inlet in Florida. It is considered one of the tallest lighthouses in the USA, and the tallest lighthouse in Florida, and, among many other things, is known for its notable pink color. The Ponce de Leon Inlet Light is 207 ft (63m) tall, and has a long history of modernization and reconstructions. It started as a 19th century kerosene lamp lighthouse, to prevent shipwrecks in the area, and it was completely electrified in 1933. A museum was opened there in 1972 and later in 1998 the lighthouse was declared a National Historic Landmark. This beautiful, unique lighthouse is open to the public every day, and is available for climbing, attracting tourists and photographers from all around the world.

4 World’s Most Ancient Lighthouse, Spain

The Tower of Hercules is a lighthouse near Corunna in Spain. The date when it was built is unknown but according to historians and archeologists, it definitely existed by the 2nd century AD, making it the oldest functioning lighthouse in the world. The Tower of Hercules is 180ft (55 meters) tall, and was proclaimed a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2009. One more amazing thing about this lighthouse is that it was most likely built after the design of the well-known Lighthouse of Alexandria, making it possible to imagine what the legendary tower used to look like. The Tower of Hercules is surrounded by myths and legends, and despite going through big restorations in the 18th century, it still keeps the major parts of its original Ancient Roman architecture. The Latin inscription still exists, which says the name of the architect who built it and that the lighthouse was dedicated to the god of war, Mars.

5 Most Haunted Lighthouse, Florida, USA

The St. Augustine Light Station was built in 1824 and is known as the first lighthouse established in Florida. However, it is not the only thing that makes it a popular place for visit, as St. Augustine is widely famous for its regular ghost sightings and paranormal activity. It made the place known as one of the most haunted lighthouses in the world and attracted both paranormal investigators and simple tourists who wanted to have a paranormal experience of their own. People report different strange sightings connected to the St. Augustine Lighthouse, including strange noises and even video recordings of strange shadows and figures wandering around it and the surrounding buildings. Although the most popular stories are about the ghostly feminine figures which haunt the lighthouse and its territory. Local legends give many identities to the ghosts that haunt the grounds, from former keepers to buried pirates to the daughters of a man hired to renovate the lighthouse in the 1800s. St Augustine gladly provides night tours for everyone wishing to check if the legends are true, so if you are daring enough, you can easily visit this unique place.

6 The World’s Tallest Lighthouse, Saudi Arabia

The Jeddah Lighthouse in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia proudly claims the title of the world’s tallest lighthouse. This magnificent tower is 436 feet (133 m) tall and is naturally located in the city’s sea port. It was constructed in 1990 from concrete and steel and aside from being a popular photography spot due to its unique design, it serves a very important purpose, controlling the city’s port and harbor from above, impressing everyone who sees it from a distance or from a close view.

7 The Smallest Lighthouse in the World, Scotland

North Queensferry Lighthouse claims to be the smallest working lighthouse in the world. It was built on the pier of the village of the same name in 1812 by the famous Scottish Engineer, Robert Stevenson and still serves the local citizens very well today. This beautiful lighthouse is only 36.09 ft (11 m) high and was originally built for providing safe passage through the Firth of Forth, as the local ferries needed guidance. Later, when the ferry services stopped, it was abandoned, only to be restored by the government decades later in 2010. This day it is a fully working lighthouse, a popular place for visit, and one of the main attractions of the village. Visitors can even learn how to light the lighthouse and how its unique lighting system worked in the old days.

8 Nuclear Lighthouse, Russia

The lighthouse of Cape Aniva was originally built by a Japanese Engineer, Shinobu Miura, in 1939 and was considered a great achievement as it was located in a very remote and dangerous area of the Sea of Okhotsk. It became a part of the Soviet Union in 1945, still keeping its importance and serving the local ships lighting the way through the chaotic waters. The Aniva Cape Lighthouse is 131 ft (40m) tall and was originally designed to host seven floors of crew quarters and other rooms for the worker’s basic needs. Later, though, because of its location that made it difficult to access, the Soviet government decided to make it completely unmanned and automatic, which led to the idea of installing a nuclear power unit inside of the building. The idea wasn’t that unusual for the Soviet Union in that time period, as along with Aniva, several other lighthouses had those nuclear power sources specifically designed for them.
These days the lighthouse remains abandoned, its reconstruction delayed because of the risk of the radioactive pollution around the lighthouse territory, as its power source was removed and lays somewhere near the structure. Nevertheless, this strange lighthouse remains a rather popular urban exploring spot for people who can get there, intriguing people with its unique story and impressive look.

9 Black Lighthouse, Australia

The Queenscliff High Light stands in the historical area of Fort Queenscliff in the town of Queenscliff in Australia. It was built in 1862 to replace an even older lighthouse which used to stand there since 1843. Its design is not that different from the other lighthouse towers built in those times, except for one interesting detail: it is completely black. This tower is completely made of basalt, or bluestone as it is known to the Australians. Bluestone is very hard, very difficult to work with, and used to be a very popular building material in 1850s Australia. The unique color of the stone makes this lighthouse one of the only three black lighthouses in the world and the only one in the whole southern hemisphere. It is 59 ft (18 meters) tall, and is completely automatic now, with no men required to run it.

10 Europe’s Northernmost Lighthouse, Norway

The Slettnes Lighthouse near the village of Gamvik in Norway is considered the European mainland’s northernmost lighthouse. It is said it often marks the top of Europe along with the Fruholmen Lighthouse, the latter of which is technically more northern, but it located on an island instead of the mainland. This unique lighthouse was built in 1905 as a 128 ft (39 meters) iron tower and, despite being damaged during WWII and later restored, it still functions today, completely automatic since 2005.

SOURCE: HUB PAGES

Today’s entry into weird architecture, is The Hollensbury Spite House in Alexandria, Virginia.  The house is the blue one in the picture.

From atlasobscura.com:

Works of architecture are often a portal into the headspace of their creators, speaking a unique language of personality, moods, and obsessions. There are few places where this more visually apparent than at Alexandria, Virginia’s squat blue spite house. The two-century-old residence was a delicious poke in the eye to contemporary neighbors and has now become a beloved part of Old Town’s historic fabric.

The man in question here was a local brickmaker and city council member, John Hollensbury. From his nearby home on Queen Street, Hollensbury had a front row seat to a chaotic alley scene of loitering ruffians and dangerous cut through traffic. By 1830 the side of his home was pockmarked from all the collisions with wagons and Hollensbury decided he’d had enough.

In the modern day, the first instinct in a similar situation might be to complain to the police, your neighborhood listserve, or perhaps pursue legal action. Hollensbury had a refreshing streak of self reliance and simply began bricking off the alleyway in question. Two parallel walls and a roof transformed the former byway into a quaint addition to his personal residence. Ripley’s Believe it or Not dubbed it the narrowest house in America.

It’s unclear if any of this was permitted or legal back in 1830. Hollensbury’s seat on the Common Council might have given him the audacity to just build it without asking permission. However, because of the glorious power of Ex Post Facto law, the spite house has been grandfathered into the modern building code, and is presently occupied part of the year. From inside the living room you can still see the spots where wagons smashed against the brick walls and incited the fury of John Hollenbury.

Also from Business Insider:

The Hollensbury Spite House was built in 1830 by John Hollensbury, who owned one of the adjacent homes. The story goes that he was tired of noise from carriages and loiterers in the alley next to his house. To put an end to noise from foot and horse traffic in the alley, he built a house in the middle of it.

“Imagine you hate the neighborhood drunks so you build a house in your alley,” one Instagram user wrote about his recent visit to the Spite House.

Today, the home is a private residence owned by Jack Sammis. Jack purchased the home for $135,000 in 1990, and he and his wife Colleen had been using the home as a pied-à-terre, the New York Times reported in 2008. They did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

Not surprisingly, the home is compact. They once rented the house to a couple who wanted to see if they could endure living in a ship’s cabin on a cruise around the world, Jack told the New York Times in 2008. The couple decided that they could after staying at the residence.

The two sides of the house are brick and still have grooves from the wagon wheels that would pass through the alley back in the day. It opens up to a walled garden that is 7 feet wide and 12 feet deep.

“I love the idea of it — that something like this can exist. It makes the world a little more magical,” Colleen told the New York Times in 2008.

The Hollensbury Spite House is one of a handful of spite houses around the world

While the Hollensbury Spite House is the most famous spite house in Old Town, it’s not the only one. There are at least three other spite houses built in the neighborhood’s historic alleyways, according to Old Town Home.

Spite houses have also been built across the world, from a London house painted to look like candy canes out of spite for her neighbors to a home in Lebanon reportedly built by a man who wanted to ruin his brother’s seafront views.

SOURCES: ATLASOBSCURA.COM and BUSINESS INSIDER.COM

Atop the most southerly hill of a chain of hills known as the Seven Sisters sits the retirement estate of noted actor, director, and playwright William Hooker Gillette. Named the Seventh Sister by Gillette, the property’s focal point is a 24-room stone mansion reminiscent of a medieval castle.

William Gillette was born in 1853 in Hartford, Connecticut. His father, Francis, was a Yale-educated lawyer, farmer and prominent politician who served a term in the U.S. Senate. His mother, Elisabeth, was a descendant of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Connecticut. Will grew up in the Nook Farm neighborhood of Hartford with the likes of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) as neighbors. Will left home to pursue an acting career and went on to become one of the most successful and significant stage actors in American theater at the turn of the 20th century.

William Gillette as Sherlock Holmes

William Gillette’s most recognized role is that of Sherlock Holmes. With the permission of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the fictional detective’s creator, Gillette wrote the first authorized play adaptations of the novels. Beginning in 1899, Gillette went on to star as Sherlock Holmes more than 1,300 times over the course of 33 years. Gillette originated and popularized many common features of the character: the deerstalker cap, Inverness cape, curved pipe, magnifying glass and the phrase “elementary, my dear fellow” (which later evolved into “Elementary, my dear Watson,” one of the most recognized lines in popular culture).

Personal Life

William Gillette married Helen Nichols, an actress from Detroit, in 1882. In 1888, she died from a ruptured appendix at the age of 28. Will promised her that he would never remarry. He outlived Helen by 49 years, staying single and childless for the rest of his life.

Building The Castle

The Castle was meant as a retirement home. As William Gillette insisted that it was not a castle, the official name of the property was the Seventh Sister Estate. Informally, it was the “Hadlyme stone heap” or simply “the pile of rocks.” Design of the Castle and all the quirks and eccentricities therein was done by William Gillette. The Porteus-Walker Company of Hartford was hired as the general contractor.

Construction was started in 1914 and completed in 1919, with Gillette later modifying the building, including the expansion from 1923 to 1926. As a finished product, the 14,000-square-foot building contained 24 rooms and cost $1.1 million to complete. Work on the home was done primarily by a team of 20 men. The house is built of fieldstone collected from the property and surrounding area. A team of five master carpenters created all of the woodwork for the Castle, carving southern white oak by hand. The entire structure is well supported by a frame of steel I-beams.

For the time, the house had all the modern utilities. Electricity was provided by generator before the rest of the town had access. Hand-carved wooden light switches were meant to resemble levers backstage or operating switches for a railroad. Light fixtures ranged from Gillette’s handmade craft lights to Quezal globes to two made by Tiffany & Co. Red mortar and grass floor tiles used as wall coverings are more examples of the building’s uniqueness. The house had several bathrooms, each with a modern toilet, sink and bathtub, and hot and cold water. Central heating originated from a coal-fired boiler in the basement and provided steam to fill the cast-iron radiators spread around the home.

The woodwork within the Castle is hand-hewn southern white oak. Gillette designed 47 one-of-a-kind doors within the structure, each having a unique, elaborate latch intricately carved of wood. Pieces of furniture such as the dining-room table and office chair were set on tracks to avoid damaging the floors. A built-in liquor cabinet could be locked by Gillette who then could view it from the second-floor balcony through one of three strategically placed mirrors. The home also includes a 1,500-square-foot living room, a greenhouse, several guest bedrooms, an art gallery, a library and two tower rooms.

Seventh Sisters Railroad

William Gillette had a love of trains since childhood and always wanted to drive one. In 1927, Gillette built a quarter-scale, narrow-gauge railroad around his 122-acre property. The railroad included two engines (one steam, one electric), several passenger cars, and three miles of track complete with bridges, turnarounds and a tunnel. There is a railroad station (called “Grand Central”) with a spectacular view of the Connecticut River that used to house Gillette’s railway cars, and the modern walking trails follow much of the old railroad bed. On the grounds, one also will find a covered bridge, a tunnel, several wooden bridges and Gillette’s goldfish pond.

From private estate to Gillette castle state park

William Gillette died in 1937 at the age of 83 and nine months. The estate was left to his cousin and brother-in-law. They tried to sell the Castle at auction in 1938. The winning bid was $35,000 from a real estate broker; however, the relatives rejected it. The reason is that Gillette said in his will that he did not want the property “in the possession of some blithering saphead who has no conception of where he is or with what surrounded.” In 1943, the State of Connecticut, with help from the Connecticut Forest and Park Association, purchased the property from Gillette’s family at a cost of $30,000. Gillette Castle State Park first opened to the public on October 7, 1944, as a museum and state park.

SOURCE: GILLETTECASTLEFRIENDS.ORG

I found this gem on the earthbyfoot website.  There is plenty more information on this wonderful church at the website.

FROM EARTHBYFOOT:

Welcome to one of my favorite and one of the most colorful churches in South Kona – St. Benedict Catholic Church, also known as The Painted Church. If you plan a trip to the Big Island of the Hawaiian Islands, add the Painted Church in Captain Cook to your itinerary. This stunning church holds architectural and historical significance. It is a must-visit destination for travelers who like beautiful biblical artwork and hidden gems.

Exploring The Painted Church

Many travelers might say the art at The Painted Church is nothing like Michelangelo’s art, or some other famous artist. However, I would argue that in some ways the art at St. Benedict is better. Father John took his own two hands to dismantle and rebuild a church in his own way. He built a church! Then, he felt called to paint it through his vision of spreading God’s word. His work is detailed, personal, symbolic of the life he committed to serving God.

Intricate murals adorn the walls

From the beautiful gardens to the intricate murals adorning the interior walls, there’s no shortage of beauty and wonder to discover at this beloved landmark. To help plan your visit, we’ve compiled one of the most comprehensive travel guides online to the Painted Church in South Kona.

While there, we met a local St. Benedict parishioner (and her stray dog) sitting in a pew at the back of the church, as if waiting for us. She had a lot of local knowledge and expertise on the Painted Church. Her passion for St. Benedict Church was evident in the unsolicited private tour she gave us.  We were amazed at her knowledge of how the Painted Church came to exist. Below is some of the information she shared and that we learned on our adventure exploring the inside of The Painted Church.

A brief history of St. Benedict Catholic Church

The church at its present location was originally St. Francis Regis Chapel. In 1842, this Chapel in Hōnaunau sat close to the ocean near Pu’uhonua o Honaunau or the City of Refuge.

Note: A Belgian priest dismantled every board and pew to carry uphill. St. Francis Regis Church’s new home became the leeward side of Mauna Loa, a 13,680-foot tall volcanic mountain.

Father John Berchmans Velghe

The Belgian priest, Father John Berchmans Velghe, is credited for building St. Benedict. He replaced Father Aloys Lorteau who died in 1898. Father Aloys Lorteau served Hōnaunau for 37 years. Seeking medical attention in Honolulu, he died traveling aboard the vessel Maunaloa on Easter Monday.

Dismantling St. Francis Regis Chapel

Father Velghe, credited with building St. Benedict, dismantled every board and pew of St. Francis Regis Chapel, to create the place of worship called the Painted Church starting in 1899. The blessing of the church took place in 1902 by Bishop Gulstan Ropert. Bishop Ropert named the church in honor Saint Benedict.

Building St. Benedict (the Painted Church)

Father John studied theology for two years in Spain. Here, ornate cathedrals and paintings likely influenced his artwork at The Painted Church. Even so, he was not formerly trained in painting. Father Velghe spent a lot of his life in South Kona. The church recalled him to Belgium when his health was failing and he died in 1939.

Note: Father Velghe moved the church because he followed his parishioners. His congregation of mostly farmers ran out of fertile soil. They determined that there were more rich soils two miles up the mountain.

How the Painted Church got its name

With no former professional training in building or painting, the industrious and productive Father Velghe got to work. Can you imagine how hard it must have been to carry materials two miles uphill to its present day site? He was probably glad he did, as the air temperatures were cooler and perhaps there were less bugs.

St. Benedict’s interior

As Father Velghe made the building back into a church, he put his personal touches on it. Father Velghe started painting the interior, and he was very busy! His medium being the interior walls of the church. When he painted the interior walls of the church he covered every inch!

The paintings were colorful scenes from the Bible, lives of the saints, and important religious truths. His biblical murals quickly became famous. As more people heard of the murals, this Kona painted church gradually became the nickname for St. Benedict’s Roman Catholic Church.

Why paint?

In the late 1800s in Hawaii, most locals could not read or write. The Belgian priest Father John felt that he could best teach his congregation and those interested in becoming Catholic through imagery.

In those days, few Hawaiians could read and so he taught with pictures-most successfully. He spent over four years with saw and brush to complete the structure and was then recalled to Belgium where he died in 1939.

SOURCE: EARTHBYFOOT.COM

From the Atlas Obscura website:

Not many, besides fairy tale Princesses, get to live in a castle and you certainly don’t find many castles in this affluent exurb of northern Georgia. But one truck driver decided to change that.

According to the county, the house was begun in 1950 and was built by Rudy and Ruth McLaughlin. Rudy was a long-haul truck driver who told his wife he would build her a castle – and did! It was heavy work – mortar and concrete for the roof was lifted in five-gallon buckets.

The home is surrounded by a wrought iron fence and features gnomes – though some call them dwarfs and hence the name – guarding the lawn. A swimming pool surrounding the castle doubles as a moat. The two-bedroom house is a little over 1400 square feet and has two garages. The garages are only accessible via a drawbridge.

As this is a private home, it is not open for tours–but it is still quite a curiosity to behold from the road.

Know Before You Go

The best place to park is off Summerhill Drive at the neighborhood pool parking lot. You can then walk down to the right to get a closer look.

SOURCE: ATLASOBSCURA