MOLDENKE CASTLE
I received E-Mail that said:
When I was a child ('50-'60's) there was a castle
in the Watchung, NJ area which was called (phonetically) Maul-Dinky's
Castle. I understand that it was originally from ?Bavaria? and was
purchased and moved to the US Southwest, perhaps Lake Havasu or Lake
Tahoe, in the late '60's/early '70's. Do you have any information
about it?
Later, I received more E-Mail that said:
I remember that castle well. it was called the
moldenke castle. I have two newspaper articles from 1969 about it
with photos. at that time it was called a white elephant and the
family that owned it sold the property to a land developer. the
castle was badly vandalized; I was about 7 at the time and had
occasion to go inside with my parents. they were drawn by a number of
cars parked by the castle and people coming in and out. these were
mostly teenagers, hippies my dad would call them. mostly they were
busy smashing the contents left behind inside. there was a grand
piano thrown down one of the staircases and delft tilework torn off
the walls and smashed. shortly thereafter the castle was gutted by
fire and then torn down for a housing development. this was truly a
terrible ending for a very beautiful and stately looking castle.
Acording to the newspaper article, the castle
burned on Oct 26, 1969. It was scheduled to be torn down anyway. To
bad buildings like this can't be saved.
Later, I received E-Mail that said:
The Moldenke castle in New Jersey was built by my
husband's great-uncle (or perhaps great-great uncle). It was modeled
closely on the Castle Elsinore in Denmark. It was indeed vandalized
and burned, not moved to Lake Havasu (that was London Bridge).
Later, I received E-Mail that said:
I
lived there with my family during the '40's and '50's. The Watchung
Library on Valley Road, Watchung, N.J. has the best collection of
information on the Castle, especially from the Moldenke family.
The loss of the Castle is enormous. For example,
the three-foot thick walls of concrete were hand-mixed by a man with
one arm! Around 1949, I met the grand niece of this man at a slumber
party in Warren Township!
The Castle's great treasures were historical, not
monetary. There were chandeliers made of Civil War rifles, and a
blunderbus of the Revolutionary War, carved with the soldier's name &
date. I could go on, but it was so sad to learn what happened to that
wonderful piano and the Delft (Dutch) tiles in the kitchen. Too bad
that the American Historical Presevation Society was not formed yet.
No cheers for the developers!
Later, I received E-Mail that said:
My grandfather, not a Moldenke descendant, was
the owner of Moldenke's Castle between 1942 and the time it was
burned in 1969. He was a research scientist and had his laboratory in
it. My father lived in it for at least 10 years until he graduated
high school. I'm not sure if he lived there at all when he went to
college. I saw it in person as a child, but only have vague memories
of it. However, I distinctly remember that the cannon on the turret
by the garage was an original from 'Old Ironsides' herself, The USS
Constitution. I got to see and touch and real cannon ball while I was
there. As an adolescent, my father got his picture in the front page
of a local paper for building a tree house 60' high in a pine tree on
the property. Today, there are a few expensive homes clustered
together on the site where the castle was off of Washington Valley
Rd. The pine tree was still there last I checked.
If anyone has more information, or would be
interested in exchanging stories, please contact me at
Dwight@Sprintmail.com.
Thank you. - Dwight
Later, I received E-Mail that said:
My father was one of the developers who bought
the castle. Contrary to popular belief, they went far to preserve it.
They offered it to the town of Watchung for free, but the council
refused it unless my father and his partners completely renovated it
first. We have some absolutely fantastic professionally taken photos
of the castle before it was taken down as well as pics of it being
knocked down.
We lived in Watchung most of our life, my sister
still lives there. There is also a home which still exists across
from the castle on Valley Road we lived in called the Villa Elsinore,
it is stamped on concrete posts for horses to tie up to. There were
several tunnels there that were blocked off but were suppose to lead
to the castle. The house was suppose to be the servants home at one
time and the house is absolutely great as well. 14 foot ceilings on
the first and second floor, grand staircase, 12 foot oak pocket doors
and more. The people who now live there bought it from us and are
still close friends. Boy I remember that castle as my childhood
playground, LOTS of memories!
On 10-5-06, I received E-Mail that said:
I wanted to add a few more recollections of
Moldenke Castle. Like many who've sent you email, I lived near by the
Castle, across the main road. I saw the tower while passing by many
times. I never visited the Castle, but some of my family have.
What I wanted to mention about all this was some
of the controversy that surrounded the end of its days. I know this
was in the local paper, the Echo Sentinal, but I can't say I remember
the story exactly. The jist of it was that the last owner of the
property was very old and feeble. He had some kind of friend or
caretaker who took care of him, but supposedly took advantage. After
he died, and against his wishes, the property was sold off to
developers. I recall there was some effort to keep the castle, but I
don't recall why it fell through.
On 10-16-07, I received E-Mail that said:
I remember my Dad driving by this "Castle"
and telling us stories about playing there as a child. He's 80 years
old now but this is what he recently told my brother.
I spoke to Dad last night and heard his story
about Moldenke Castle. He and his friends were riding their bikes
near the Moldenke Castle in Wachung . They parked their bikes outside
the gates and walked across a bridge to look at the castle. A guy
came out of the castle (they think he was the caretaker) and shot a
rifle in the air to scare them. They ran but the bridge lifted up
like a drawbridge and they had to wade through the stream to get back
to their bikes and ride off.
On 3-21-09, I received e-mail that said:
I have a nice picture to add to your Moldenke
castle section. Moldenke castle was on Valley Road in Watchung NJ. My
friend's dad was one of the developers. We were in high school at the
time and remember being with Mike to chase off vandals. They would
come in broad daylight to steal and vandalize anything. Even stealing
the lead from the windows.
On 7-23-10, I received e-mail that said:
My father recently passed away and we found a
letter he wrote to my mother in 1968 that never got sent. There were
three pictures of a castle inside. I wanted to find out more about
the castle and came across your site. From reading, I gather it was
on Valley Road, but I'm still curious to its exact former location.
On 4-11-11, I received e-mail that said:
Hi, I just came upon your site and enjoyed
reading the many stories of Moldenke's Castle. I remember going there
as a child of 7 or 8, right before it was to be sold to developers.
I, too, remember the cannon and the grand piano in the stairway.
There were alot of people there that day but I don't remember the
year. I also remember my mom bringing some tools and chiseling out 2
or 3 tiles, blue and white, that were later tiled into the upstairs
bathroom that was being built at a house that we moved into the next
year on Vail Lane in Watchung. I have thought about that day
throughout my life and often wondered if those tiles are still there
in that upstairs bathroom. I have also always loved castles
throughout my life and enjoyed many medieval lectures in the history
department at Douglass College in the 80's.
On 2-7-2025, I
received e-mail that said:
I love your castle website. I found a castle I lived next to as a child, the Moldenke Castle. This was in 1967 until it was destroyed.
It was abandoned and a large plot of land, I believe 70 acres. I’ve been in touch with the granddaughter of the original owner who
is an author. I cant recall her name but we did chat about it.
I used to play in that woods as a child and asked her about the mausoleum that lay on the grounds. She informed that it was
never occupied with caskets so didn’t need to be cleared. It was built into the side of a hill and very high with an opening at the
top. The castle itself had a large laboratory on the west side as the owners were scientists. The grandfather was a metallurgist
who is also credited with translating hieroglyphs on the back of the Egyptian temple at the big museum in NYC, either Metropolitan
or Natural History. The tower was 5 stories high and you could see all around for a couple of miles from there. The mountain range
was behind so only west, north, and east were viewable. I used to climb all the way up there. After the fire which I believe the builders
developers caused to burn the place down readying for demolition, the staircase to get up t here was gone so there was no way to get
up there. I used to climb in through the lab windows to gain access. Once they opened it for tours before demolition I saw the very
damp basement and other areas.
A friend’s mom lived in North Plainfield and worked in a fabric store as a young woman there. She said the owners came in and
purchased yards of velvet fabric for drapes that were very long, like two stories. Also the walls of this castle were upholstered in
beautiful fabrics.
There was another large mansion, I believe 40 or more rooms on the other side of this mountain range. It was the Hyde Estate. I
recall singing there at one point for elderly patients. The hall was beautiful with white marble floors and dark wood paneling and
chandeliers, a typical 19th century Victorian mansion. They had turned the mansion into a nursing home. Unfortunately that too
was burned down and demolished to give way to expensive cliff hangers and other mansions in the prestigious Watchung community.
The Villa Elsinore was apparently also built by this family and that home was directly across the street from where I grew up.
I will attach a photo of that as it was recently up for sale and thankfully not demolished like these many old structures.
I did mention to the granddaughter of the owner that I and none of my friends that I know of, residents of Watchung, would vandalize
the castle. I imagine that was done prior to my early years there and likely by people outside this community. My friends were from
very good families, two close friend’s parents were a daughter princess of an India Maharaja and Jimmy Rosselli the singer.
Back to "Castles
of the United States"
3rd photo courtesy of Rich
Fussell.
4th photo courtesy of Joanie Reilly.