Squire's Castle
Squire's Castle is a shell of a building located in the North Chagrin Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks in Willoughby Hills, Ohio (visible from River Road). It was built in the 1890s by Feargus B. Squire for use as the gatekeeper's house for his future country estate, which was never built. Squire, an executive with the Standard Oil Company, bought the surrounding 525 acres (212 ha) of land but never completed the project. Squire sold the property in 1922 and the Cleveland Metroparks acquired it in 1925.
Today Squire's Castle is open to the public free-of-admission. In 2008 the structure still had a roof, the interior was bare and open to the elements, and second story no longer had a floor. The Willoughby Hills Public Library annually holds a history seminar there. The surrounding park offers a footpath, riding trails, cooking grills, and a large grassy field.
The second edition of The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History describes Squire's Castle as "a picturesque castellated and turreted ruin"; it goes on to note that "seriously vandalized and deteriorated, ...[r]enovations in 1995 included painting the ground floor of the castle with a waxed coating to deter vandalism."[1]
Squire's Castle contains a sense of mystery. It is purportedly haunted by Squire's wife, Rebecca. The urban legend tells of her tripping and breaking her neck in the castle, but in reality, she died in Wickliffe, Ohio, in 1929, after the property was sold.
References
- ↑
- Van Tassel, David. D. and John J. Grabowski, eds. "Squire's Castle". The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History 2nd. ed. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press in association with Case Western Reserve University and the Western Reserve Historical Society, 1996. (p. 953)
External links
- Squire's Castle at Cleveland Metroparks web page.
- Article on Squire's Castle from sunnews.com (via the Internet Archive)
- Local ABC news affiliate's page about the haunting
- Prairie Ghosts page on the Squire's Castle haunting
- Dead Ohio's page on Squire's Castle, including quite a few pictures
Coordinates: 41°34′48″N 81°25′9″W / 41.58000°N 81.41917°W