I received E-Mail that said:
I have been outside a castle in the Festus area near I-55. The land is owned by Union-Pacific Railroad and is along the Mississippi River. The unofficial name I was told was Kennett's Castle because of a man that lived there named Kennett. This place is guarded and I was told that it is used as a retreat for Union-Pacific employees and friends. It was a very nice place!
Later, I received E-Mail that said:
This castle also known as Selma Hall is very beautiful inside and out. You can find out more about it by contacting the jefferson county historical socity, not sure of the # but area code 636. There are several pictures in local history books along with a complete history.
Later, I received E-Mail that said:
I have information regarding Kennett Castle. It belonged to my great-great grandfather Chadborn Kennett and according to my mother was also used as a fort during the Civil war. I have been investigating the castle to confirm the family stories that I have heard. My aunt has pictures of it and If your interested I may be able to scan some for you.
Does anyone have more information? I realize the photo is not too good, but at least it gives some idea of what the castle looks like. I hope to get a better photo later.? According to one message, this is an antebellum house. It may not be what I think of as a castle and I may remove it after I see a better photo.
Later, I received E-Mail that said:
I am a 46 year old woman now living in New Mexico, and I was trying to find pictures of the castle I grew up in when I was a kid. Kennett Castle. My father was Donald AuBuchon (now deceased), but we moved to Selma Farm sometime when I was around 4 or 5. We lived on the private land, which was then owned by the cement company. We were the only family that lived there, and we lived there until my parents divorced when I was 13. My father continued to work there, as a "caretaker", and this is a very special piece of my life.
My sister and brother and I played, rode bikes on the private road back there, we lived in the little white house on the hill almost within a rock's throw of the lovely grand entrance to the castle. I went with my dad every time he took some of our teachers on a private tour. I know all the things he shared about the castle...including the wallpaper in the dining room which is the only exact replica of wallpaper Jackie Kennedy put in the White House when she was First Lady. I know all about the marble roullette table in the back in....I can see all the rooms clearly in my mind. Running up and down the grand staircase....the "servants" quarters, etc. I even know all the ghost stories and the stories behind the mysterious place where a guest once shot his gun at a ghost standing at the end of the bed. :)
When my mother and father divorced, my father stayed there, and oftentimes me and my brother and sister would spend the night with him there. It was spooky to say the least. I remember the name of the man who was the "boss" a nice man named Mr. Marbury (spelling may not be correct)....and the last time I saw the castle when when I went back to visit my dad in 1981-1982 (I'm thinking)....and the company was kind enough to allow my dad, who had long since retired, to take me back there and we took pictures from the outside only.
Jim...do not remove this from your site! I read what you wrote about it being an antebellum house. No sir, this was a real castle...complete with the gun tower at the top.
It has been there since pre-civil war, and in fact, the North took it over and used it as a headquarters for a brief period of time during the Civil War. There are slave grave sites barely marked, which still exist around the grounds today. This is every bit the exact way you would picture a castle - the way it was built....the ivy growing over the stones it's build out of....the winding tower which leads up eventually to the tower where canons were shot from. This is not just a rich boy mansion lost in the woods somewhere...it is an authentic castle, with Civil War history richly woven into it's walls, and many many stories to tell since then. I have often wondered, having considered it home for so much a part of my life, and always being aware of how secluded it was, and what a treat it was for even my teachers to see it (at the kindness of my father who was in charge of it from the time he was approxiately 20 something until he retired in his late 40s)....I often wondered if other people there in Festus even ever knew it was there?
Later, I received E-Mail that said:
I have some familiarity with "Kennett's Castle," also known as "Selma Hall." The father of a close friend of mine was a high-ranking officer of what was then Missouri-Pacific Railroad (Mo-Pac) and he took us to visit it numerous times. The home was designed by the same architect who designed the Henry Shaw Mansion in St. Louis. The owner, Ferdinand (Fred) Kennett, was a businessman in the St. Louis area (I heard he owned a packet-boat line, but I'm not sure). He began construction of the home in 1854 and completed it in 1858. It was built almost entirely from locally quarried limestone and, no doubt, slave labor.
Fred had a brother, Luther, who was serving his one term as Mayor of St. Louis at the the outbreak of the Civil War. Fred's family occupied the home until very early in the war. It was/is a very imposing edifice, perched upon a bluff several hundred feet above, and overlooking, the Mississippi River. It must have appeared to be a fort to BOTH Union AND Confederate gunships which encountered it...as both sides would indiscrimately fire upon the Castle, causing the family to flee to the relative safety of St. Louis for the duration of the war. After they left the home, it was occupied by Union troops who treated it poorly...some of the troops actually quartered their horses in the first level of the home itself, right on the wood parquet floors, in spite of a massive, limestone stable and carriage house just yards East of the home!!!
For over 100 years, the "Castle" was seemingly "ill-fated," a victim of no less than three major fires. Although gutted each time, the limestone structure itself remained very sound. After the war, the Kennett family returned to the home, repaired it and lived there for another 10-15 years before a fire tore through most of the main house. It lay dormant for some years before descendants of the Kennett family mounted another effort to restore it. Fire again gutted it. A number of years later, the house changed hands. The next effort at restoration was poor and not very faithful to the original design. Maybe it was well, then, that fire again claimed the home, which again lay fallow until sometime in the 1930s when it was acquired by the locally prominent Schock family. Apparently, this family attempted a faithful restoration (and modernization) effort overseen by William O. Schock, then head of Schock Oil Co. His son, William C. Schock, grew up in Selma Hall to become a prominent St. Louis lawyer and businessman, dying recently (April 2003) at the age of 77. As I understand it, the Schocks lived in it throughout the time period these restorative efforts took place, never quite completing it before it was sold in the late 1940s to Mo-Pac.
Mo-Pac finished a VERY elaborate modernization/restoration of the home by the early 1950s, which included the addition of period furniture, some of it even original Kennett furniture. Thereafter, it was occupied by the then CEO of Mo-Pac (Marbury?), at Mo-Pac expense until the late 1950s (when the tax code must have changed to require use of such facilities to be taxed as income to the beneficiary/occupant). Marbury(? )then bought a few acres of the 4000 acre estate owned by Mo-Pac and built a separate, large, modern brick home just a couple hundred yards away from the Castle. Here he must have lived for some years until he died/left Mo-Pac, whereupon his separate house and property was reacquired by Mo-Pac. Mo-Pac was itself purchased by Union-Pacific sometime in the early/mid 1980s.
I read the message on this site from the daughter of the Castle's "caretaker," but what I heard about the dining-room was quite different. I heard that when Mo-Pac was restoring it they peeled off wallpaper and paint to find a faint, hand-painted mural on the dining room walls. After this mural was restored/repainted, it was determined that the scene it depicted was a 360 degree panorama of the grounds at West Point Military Academy circa the 1850s.
Formal entry to the home is gained from a turnaround drive on its North side. One is immediately confronted with the master staircase and an entry foyer/hallway that runs directly away from the front door almost the entire North/South length of the home. To the immediate left is the dining room. The commercial quality kitchen is to the immediate right. The dining room connects to a 60'+ long ballroom, which itself connects to a library/sitting room, which itself connects to the living room. All along the left (East, or river side) of the house is a large 25' wide limestone veranda,...which one can enter from any room (dining room, ball room, sitting room/library, and/or living room) on that side of the home via French doors. If one goes straight South down the foyer/hallway from the front door, past the master staircase, one eventually runs into the last room of the house, the afore-mentioned living room. In size, the living room is rivaled only by the ball room. The far (South) side of the living room opens to a formal garden.
The right (West, or non-river side) of the house contains servants' quarters. Upstairs, on the left (again, the East, or river side) are two huge master and mistress bedrooms, one on the Northern and one on the Southern end(s). Each of these bedroom areas have their own dressing rooms, as well as their own combined sitting rooms/libraries...These smaller rooms occupy the space between the bedrooms. (Apparently, it was quite common for the master and mistress of many antebellum homes to each maintain their own sleeping/living quarters). Bathrooms and more servants' quarters are across the hall from the large bedrooms. At the far South end of the home (accessible from the first and second floors) is the entry to the "turret." The turret is like the "keep" of a castle, and probably what gives the home its name. It is mounted by a spiraling central staircase, with bedrooms spinning off at each of its at least four floors. Dimensionally, the bedrooms become progressively smaller as one climbs the stairs. One can reach the roof of the keep at the top of this staircase. Stepping out the door to its roof, one witnesses an amazing view, up and down the river, seeing for miles across the flat Illinois river bottom on the far side of the river. Another interesting and original feature of the home is a large, round, limestone "spring house" originally built for refrigeration, on the West side of the building. The springhouse is at least 30 feet in diameter. Of course, virtually every room in the house has at least one, and sometimes two, fireplaces.
Tennis courts and a swimming pool were ultimately built in the yard area adjacent the Southwest corner of the home. Several hundred yards West of the home, a creek was dammed to create a 10+ acre lake, complete with a boat dock and large clubhouse on its Southern shore. A skeet/trap range was located on the just on the other side of this clubhouse from the lake. The entire estate occupies about 4000 acres of woods and fields bordering the Mississippi River. Duck blinds were built. This whole facility was used by Mo-Pac during the 1950s and 1960s as a retreat and hunting lodge for its upper cadre of corporate officers. It also served host to many corporate functions, such as banquets and balls. It housed a full-time staff (cooks, maids, etc.) who lived there from March 1 though December 31 (it was closed for the months of January and February).
I went to school in the Deep South and have visited quite a few of the old plantations with their antebellum homes. I've seen none similar to this...it is pretty unique. As it is not open to the public, it also has few which could rival the shape in which it is maintained. I read somewhere that its style is supposed to be somewhat reminiscent of an Italian villa, but it is very "castle-like," if only because of the physical prominence of its location and its keep/turret.
Later, I received E-Mail that said:
I am 15 years old and every summer I go to selma hall to visit my dad. He lives with the main chef at selma hall. It is a beautiful castle that is very well kept. The castle is still owned by union pacific. A couple of summers ago I went swimming at the castle. It is still very hard to get to see the castle and even to get inside of it. At one time they had got the idea to give tours to the public and after the first tour they decided that it was not such a good idea people were going places and touching things they were not supposed to. There are three houses on the site, one is for the main chef, one is for the main landscaper, and one for the boss. About the fires, there was only one major fire and it did destroy most of the insides of the building but now it is very beautifully refurnished
Later, I received E-Mail that said:
When I returned from a tour of duty with 5 th marines in 1969 I met another marine from my unit quite by accident in Lawrence KS and together with my brother we built a raft 24x 40 and started down the Missouri to New Orleans. Just past St Louis, we saw a castle on a bluff below festus. We climbed up and met the caretaker who showed us around. He was a young guy like we were and he told us that the castle had been brought from ireland block by block and re erectcd by slaves with the guideance of master stonemasons from ireland.
He said the castle was owned by the Missippi Steamboat companies owner in the 1840/1850 period.and that the railroad owned it when we were there. We got an extensive tour because no one was there at the time, but executives used it on the weekends.It was as described by the article on your site and they had a stable full of horses and very pretty grounds, spectacular views of the river and we were invited to lunch with him. We were living on red beans and rice and mac and cheese as we were on a limited budget. We had big ham sandwices and cokes and chips and cookies and beer.
The walls looked just like a castle and the inside was very nice too but I remember the food the best ,pity. In 2002 my wife and I attended a wedding in Festus and as we were checking in to the hotel I asked the desk clerk how to get to the castle. She said she didnt know what I was talking about but the lady behind me in line who was returning for a high school reunion said her dad had done lots of work on the place in the 80s and it was owned by a cement company. She gave us directions and we drove a few miles south on i55 and took the exit she told us then went north on the east outer road . It went to the cement plant down by the river and you could see the drive to the castle but she said even in winter you couldnt see the castle because it was so far back off the road. The gate was closed and we didn't tresspass so didn't see it Later we talked to an older gentleman at the wedding reception and he had also worked on it for a long time in an extensive renovation. He said you could only see it from the river or the air.
I know the caretakers story doesnt match your info but thought I pass it along
Later, I received E-Mail that said:
I am now 22, but when I was 18 and a senior in high school, I worked at a flower shoppe in Festus. They did all of the flower arrangements and table centerpieces whenever a special event was held at Kennett's castle. I was lucky enough to get sent on deliveries to this beautiful place! I remember, I was so excited when my boss first told me where I would be going, because I never even had heard of this place until then.
The road to get there is off of the outer road in R-7, by Laddie Boys restaurant. It is blocked by an iron gate (you can see the brick house not far down the road. I think I was told this was the groundskeeper's house. As I drove past the house, beautiful fields were on each side of me, and woods surrounded everything. You can not see the castle at all until you get right up to it. The one-lane road winds on for a few miles, but it is a gorgeous drive. On the right side of the road, there was a long one story building used as a garage(I think it used to be a horse stable)for guests attending a special occasion. There is also a garden with benches, tennis courts, and a swimming pool all within view from this road. I then drove up a steep hill which winds into a near-90 degree angle into the driveway of the castle. And it is a castle!!!
The view to the left is the Mississippi river a few hundred feet down, and it is breathtaking! I have never seen anything so wonderful (I couldn't believe it was in Festus of all places!!) When I carried the flowers to the door, I was only allowed in the front foyer. To the left is the dining room, with a long table and probably twenty chairs. The mural on the wall was amazing. A real work of art! To the right, was the kitchen, which looked similar to that at a restaurant. There were several chefs back there. A stair case lead up, but I could not see what it looked like up there from where I was allowed. It certainly was a great opportunity to be able to experience!
Later, I received E-Mail that said:
I got to feeling a little adventurous last night, so my self and two of my friends decided to see if we could find the Kennett Castle in Festus. Following directions from a woman I work with who's been there a few times, we started out on our trek. We followed a set of railroad tracks that lead out of the town parallel to the Mississippi River, after about 20 minuets of walking we came a bridge, at that point my cohorts chickened out and said they where heading back, but I figured I'd already come this far, so I continued. I walked alone for about another mile along the tracks until I came to a bluff. A low rumbling noise (air conditioning unit?) was distant at the top of this massive hill (mind you this was 12:00 am) so sight was a problem. I looked up above my head to see power lines crossing the tracks, I followed these power lines to the bottom of the bluff where I looked up to see some what of a cut between to hills. I walked to the bottom of this and attempted to climb but the rocks where to slick, covered with moss and dew. But as I looked harder into the sky at the top of the hill I seen it standing tall and powerful looking, though not a perfect view because of the darkness and the angle of the hill it was still clearly visible in the night sky. I hope to someday soon get a better look at with my eyes and a camera so I can share it with other castle lovers like yourself.
Later, I received E-Mail that said:
Hello, I wanted to let you know that I worked at Selma Hall as a groundskeeper for 6 years while I was in High School and College. It is definitely a Castle, plus it has a long history behind it. I can answer any questions about the grounds and the castle itself. If anyone would like some information on the place, email me. Conradjimmydean@yahoo.com.
Later, I received E-Mail that said:
[History of Selma Hall]
The Selma Hall of today is a peaceful retreat in southeastern Missouri, perched on a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. But the Selma Hall of the past rings out through that tranquil exterior, telling a story of the early frontier, mining ventures, visiting royalty, extravagant parties, duels, Civil War soldiers and imported artwork. The 18-room limestone mansion with its square four-story tower is said to be a replica of a castle on Lake Como in Italy and is still referred to locally as Kennett’s Castle.
In 1805 a man named John Smith T. purchased several large tracts of land in southeastern Missouri, land which would eventually support Selma Hall. John Smith T. was from a wealthy Virginia family and had previously lived several years in Tennessee. The “T” affixed to his name was to identify him as the John Smith from Tennessee.
Selma Hall itself was built for Ferdinand Kennett and his wife, Julia, a granddaughter of John Smith T. Kennett was born in Kentucky but moved to St. Louis with his family as a child. The Kennett family became active in St. Louis business and politics, and one of Ferdinand’s brothers was Mayor of St. Louis when the Eads Bridge was dedicated in 1874. During a journey down the Mississippi Kennett met James S. White, the second husband of John Smith T.’s daughter, Ann. Later, Kennett married White’s stepdaughter, Julia. The two men worked together in the lead business and other enterprises, including a steamboat operation.
In 1850 the Kennetts hired, as the architect for their new home, one George I. Barnett, the man who designed the Henry Shaw home in St. Louis. The Shaw home is now part of the famous Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis. Barnett’s design closely followed that of a castle on Lake Como in Italy. The Missouri “castle” was completed in 1854 at a reported cost of $125,000. Stone for it was on the property under the supervision of a master stone cutter brought from Philadelphia. The Kennetts also imported cabinetmakers, plasterers, sheet metal workers and other artisans from the East, most of them from Philadelphia. The ornamental iron throughout the castle and the parlor mantle came from England. The cornices in the parlor came from Annapolis, Maryland.
Selma Hall was built with two main entrances. The one to the north was the carriage entrance. The south entrance had a stone stairway leading to the Selma boat landing. The stone guesthouse on the West Side of the main building originally housed the kitchen and the help’s quarters. All food was prepared there and carried into the main dining room.
Toward the end of the nineteenth century Robert Brookings obtained title to Selma Hall. Brookings later founded the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C., and built Brookings Hall at Washington University in St. Louis. In 1902 Brookings sold the property to W.K. Cavanaugh, who was known for giving lavish parties.
In 1918 title went to wealthy St. Louis industrialist William Schock. For several years during the time when Cavanaugh and Schock owned the castle, there was much public and editorial discussion about turning the castle into a home for the rehabilitation of drug addicts and alcoholics and a residence for the mentally disabled. The issue apparently died because of Schock’s adamant refusal to sell his herd of angora goats along with the property.
Schock was owner of Selma Hall in 1939 when a disastrous fire gutted the castle. Only few of the original pieces were saved. Among these were the silver service and the dining room furniture. The Schock family then had the castle completely rebuilt, redecorated and refurbished with appropriate period pieces, most of which were purchased in Europe.
The dining room mural, “Vues de L’Amerique du Nord”, is a scenic paper by Parisan Jean Zuber. Zuber was a well-known producer of scenic papers in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Mrs. Schock brought the paper from France. The paper depicts West Point, Niagara Falls, New York Bay, Boston Harbor, the Natural Bridge in Virginia, and a dance of the Winnebago Indians. The same paper can be found in the Diplomatic Room at the White House, where Jacqueline Kennedy, wife of President John F. Kennedy, placed it in 1961. The paper was removed in small pieces from a house in Maryland and reassembled like a jigsaw puzzle in the White House.
In 1953 the Mississippi River Fuel Corporation purchased 4,500 acres of land including Selma Hall. William Marbury, president of the gas Pipeline Company, took a personal interest in the historic building. He continued to restore and maintain Selma Hall.
Through Marbury’s efforts, Mississippi River Fuel Corporation became the parent company of Missouri Pacific Railroad and was eventually renamed the Missouri Pacific Corporation. Marbury’s original pipeline company became a subsidiary known as Mississippi River Transmission Company.
Selma Hall became property of the Union Pacific Corporation in 1982 when Union Pacific merged with Missouri Pacific. Union Pacific Corporation sold the pipeline subsidiary that had originally purchased the mansion in 1983.
Since 1983 till the present, Selma Hall and its surroundings have been used as a resort for Union Pacific Corporation employees. The Corporation also uses it for important meetings with its business partners. At the present time 2 chefs, 3 butlers, 7 maids, 5 groundskeepers, 4 farmers, 1 secretary, and a manager maintain and help keep Selma Hall running smooth for its elite visitors.
Later, I received E-Mail that said:
Several years ago I found a photographic history at an Estate Sale of Kennett Castle; also known as Selma Hall or Selma Farm. The story and photographs fascinated me and I have the journal today .......The journal is dated 1850-1915 and was written by theowner W.K. Kavannaugh who apparently owned the castle between 1902-1918.
The journal is large 10" x 14" with typewritten pages and full of reproduced photographs from that time period........The photos and history of the castle are a treasure......The pages are heavy paper stock and slightly browning from age..........There are photo's of children, room interiors, walkways, stairways, exterior, buildings, furniture, views, pets (dogs & horses), stable, map, waterfall and a young couple who I assume are the Kavannaugh's.
As a side note, during the 1904 World's Fair, Kennett Castle was the scene of extravagant parties in which royals and foreign government officials attended.......The guest's were so impressed with the magesty of the castle that there is a poem written in the journal praising Kennett Castle. The castle also played an important role in the Civil War as Mrs. Kennett was a southern lady. There is also several paragraphs dedicated to a famous duel near the castle.
I have tried to visit the castle however tours are not given. What a treasure it must be. My email is patriciaschepp@earthlink.net if anyone would be interested in the stories found in the journal.
Later, I received an E-Mail tht said:
I have seen kennet castle from the missippi river for years we use it for a land mark on the river when we fish there.I was fishing there last weekend and and took pics from the river.
{{Castlefinder note!}} After finally seeing a good photo of this building, I'm not sure it is really what I think of as a castle.
Later, I received E-Mail that said:
I worked for Mississippi River Transmission Corp (natural gas pipeline) for about 15 years beginning in the early 1980s, and "The Castle" was legendary among the older employees. Some had worked there at various times, at different construction and maintenance jobs, and I know a gentleman who designed and installed the irrigation system at a company-owned golf course there, when he was a young engineer.
Mr. Marbury was also somewhat of a legend; he really worked hard to build Mississippi River Fuel (one of the first interstate gas pipeline companies in America, they laid a pipeline from just north of Monroe, Louisiana to St. Louis, in 1928-1929) into a profitable corporation and acquired controlling interest in the Mo-Pac RR. He led a diversification effort; the corp. built a cement plant (River Cement) and chemical plant for fertilizer, I think either on the property or nearby, somewhere along the river (the plants used the natural gas the company brought from Louisiana in the pipeline). Mr. Marbury was said to have punched the chairman of the Federal Power Commission in the face in the halls of Congress, when they disagreed on a regulatory issue involving the company (bad strategic move).
He died suddenly in the 1970s; the vice-chairman of the board then was Downing P. Jenks, head of Mo-Pac RR and the youngest man to ever be named head of a major RR when he was picked to lead the Rock Island RR in his 40s. I think Mr. Marbury had recruited Mr. Jenks from Rock Island to Mo-Pac. Mr. Jenks called a meeting of the board as soon as Mr. Marbury died, and changed the name of the corporation from Mississippi River Corporation to Missouri-Pacific Corp. After retirement Mr. Jenks led the Boy Scout organization for a time, and died sometime in the 1990s.
The first time I visited Mississippi River's home office on Clayton Road in Ladue (a western suburb of St. Louis), Mr. Jenks was there, and had the longest silver Mercedes I had ever seen, parked at the door.
On 11-13-09, I received e-mail that said:
As an addition to your entry for Selma Hall aka Kennett's Castle, check this out:
http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/selma-hall-aka-kennetts-castle/
On 7-14-10, I received e-mail that said:
When I was a young boy (I'm 42 now), my friends and I used to hike down the railroad tracks from Festus, MO and fish in the Mississippi and explore the woods and climb to the top of "Buck Knob", the highest point in Jefferson County, MO. On these adventures we would occasionally go the extra mile or so and see "the castle". Looking up from river level on the railroad tracks it is very looming. We sneaked up around the back way and looked at the house and the grounds and by common definition, I would definitely call it a castle -- complete with gun turret!
One local rumor is already included in your postings about it being occupied by one army or another during the civil war. Another rumor is that it was part of an underground slave railroad. This rumor/legend extends further north into the town of Herculaneum, MO where there is a placed called "shot tower" where it is said that one or another of the Civil War Armies rolled hot lead down a long hill to produce ammunition. There is very little writing about this in the local library, but my mother has done some research and it seams that it may be true.
Later, we moved to "Castle Bluff Acres", a small subdivision that backs up to Union Pacific property and is obviously named for "the castle". It is located off a service road to I-55 and like one of your other posts says, the gate and caretakers house can be seen from this service road.
I thought that I would share this because "the castle" was part of mine and several of my friends' childhood and "antebellum" or "mansion" or whatever, it will always be "the castle" to me.
On 11-28-11, I received e-mail that said:
I've spent a few days at the UP Castle in Selma, MO as a guest for a conference with the UP. It is an amazing place. As stated in the text of your webpage it is owned by the UP. UP uses it for a recreation and conference center. The property is about 2000 acres and inlcudes horse riding trails, a small lake stocked with small mouth bass, and range for shooting skeet. The main floor of the building is formal. Visitors are greeted by staff wearing white tuxedo jackets and white gloves. The property managers require men to wear a jacket to dinner in the formal victorian sytle dining room. The dining room over looks the Mississippi River.
Transportation around the complex is via golf cart or walking. It is 2.5 miles from the front gate to the castle and the drive is beautiful.
Near the lake is a "lodge". This is about a 3,000 square ft stucture with a bar and tables for playing cards and drinking.
The bed rooms range in size from large formal victorian suits to small rooms with only a bed and a small piece of furniture with a shared bathroom.
I'm attaching a photo of the view from the roof of the castle. The roof is reached by climbing a series of narrow stair cases that exit directly onto the roof. The building in the foreground is the conference center. It was a stable that has been converted. It contains a commercial kitchen, a large conference room and 5 or 6 bed rooms.
On 7-29-14, I received e-mail that said:
Hi Jim my name is Norman Speer my wife had worked at Selma Farms for a couple years and thought I
would send you a copy of some of the brochures that she had gotten while there.
Look Here For Selma Castle Brochure
Caution, this PDF brochure is about 4 megabytes, and might take a while to download.
On 2-24-20, I received e-mail that said:
Have you been putting away rainy day funds to buy a castle? Well here is your chance. Kennette Castle is for sale. Great page you have! I enjoyed the history on Kennetts castle, It’s not far from where I now live. Take care!
Back to "Castles of the United States"
A special thanks to Sam Boyer for taking and sending the top photo, and Steve Cook for sending the second.