I received E-Mail that said:
Several weekends ago, I saw a small ad in the paper for an event sponsored by Teen Challenge at a castle in Riverside, CA that I had never hear of. So my wife and I went and found it and as part of the event got a tour of what is known as Benedict Castle. I was able to get a brochure that gives a history of the castle that I will send you. But in short, here it is in brief:
Charles Benedict traveled Europe rather than attend college. After becoming wealthy, he began construction of the castle in 1922 after his second marriage. After a year and a divorce, construction resumed again in 1926 after he was remarried. Named after his mother Castillo Isabella was finished in about five year later. During their time their there, Charles and his third wife entertained many well known people including Jack Warner of Warner Brothers and Edgar Bergan. Unfortunately, Charles died in 1938, although his wife lived there for another eleven years. She then sold it at auction. Three years later, the castle was resold to the Servite Order of the Catholic Church to be used as a Seminary. In 1971 the Servite Order sold it to the Southern California Teen Challenge the current owner.
Over the years the castle has been used as the setting for several movies such as Hunchback of Notre Dame, Bride of Frankenstein, 1948's Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein and 1965's Two On a Guillotine with William Conrad and Connie Stevens.
The castle is open to the public for tours and can be rented for special events. Call (909) 683-4241.
A search of the web found this info:
Benedict Castle: Located at 5445 Chicago Avenue, this Spanishstyle castle was designed by H.L.A. Jekel in the Spanish-Moorish style and built in two stages, 1922-1931.
On 7-16-11, I received e-mail with this link:
http://www.benedictcastle.com/
Back to "Castles of the United States"
A special thanks to Joel E. Thomas for the information on this page.