I received E-Mail that said:
There is an historic landmark called Lord's Castle located at:
211 Hammond St.
Waltham, Massachusetts
It was first listed as an historic building in 1989
Later, I received E-Mail that said:
The story that was published in the Daily News Tribune, a local paper, said the story of the castle is that Lord moved here and he had married a girl that lived in a castle. To make her less homesick he built each room to represent a different wing/section of her castle. I went to go by this weekend to get a photo, but they were having a party so I didn't want to bother them. It has a tower with crenellations... I'm trying to remember what the rest of it looks like but it's not something I drive by every day.
On 5-15-05, I received E-Mail that said:
On your web page, at http://www.dupontcastle.com/castles/lords.htm I noticed you requested more information about this castle. Check http://users.rcn.com/waynemccarthy/WHIST/calendar.htm
Scroll down a bit and there is the picture of the castle.
On 5-17-05. I received E-Mail from the owners of the castle which said:
LORDıS CASTLE
211 Hammond St.
Style: Victorian
Year Built: 1897
Around 1886, Rufus Lord, a local builder, proposed to a German blueblood. She said she would marry him if he built her a "castle like they have back home." Lord purchased land on Prospect Hill from Oel Farnesworth, and designed a Norman Gothic Revival-type home. Lordıs castle was completed in 1897.
The home has had just four owners in its 102 years. During the Depression, the owners defaulted on their mortgage, and it was seized by a bank. It was later owned by Louis Turner, and in 1961, purchased by the Osborne family. When Mrs. Osborne (a dance instructor who taught classes in the house) died, her husband turned the first floor into an in-law apartment, and their son renovated the attic to make the second and third floors the ownerıs suite. The Osbornes installed a kitchenette on the first floor, and converted the old kitchen into a rear bedroom.
The present owners, Sondra and Donald Caplin, acquired the property in 1992. An 1897 story in the Waltham "Daily Free Press" describes the house as "the most beautiful home built in Waltham for several years...The house is built of Perth Amboy buff brick and selected fieldstone. The straight arches and keystones over the windows, the battlements of the tower and the blocks ornamented with Dutch scrolls and forming the stepped gables at the front and south side of the house are of Indiana limestone." A 1976 article in the "News-Tribune" reports "some of the bricks came from the Old North Station in Boston."
The home contains seven fireplaces. Features to notice on the first floor include "pocket" (sliding) doors, four detailed fireplaces and ceiling medallions. The entrance hall, which used to go through to the kitchen at the rear, featured oak floor and furnishings. The fireplace has the "noble head of a lion. The tiles were of dark green and the mantel was oaken." In the sitting room on the right, "the back of the fireplace shows a coronet, and the tiles and hearth are of mottled brown and green, the tiles figured with roses." The dining room floor, reports the "Daily Free Press," "was of oak and a rich oak dado reaching 4 feet from the floor. The view through the large plate glass windows of this room over the city, beyond the portico with its piers of stone, is one of the blessings bestowed upon him who sits at the table here. The tiles are blue with fixtures of sunflowers and oak leaves, and the mantels of oak." Left of the entrance, the parlorıs fireplace panel "illustrates undine, and panels at the sides show female figures typifying Morningı and Evening.ı"
The second floor has three more fireplaces. The upstairs mantels, all supplied with mirrors, feature Ionic columns and colonial festoons. Also notice the chandeliers, which could supply gas or electricity. The turret area on the third floor has round windows, exposed brickwork and a door above that leads to the slate roof. Landscaping is by Michaela Hellman, renovations by NE Homecraft, M&M Carpentry, and Christopher Carrico Carpentry.
Back to "Castles of the United States"
Thanks to Katrina Price for suggesting this castle.