I received E-Mail that said:
Do you have any information on the Whiting Castle/Lake Worth Castle located outside of Fort Worth Texas?
Later, I received E-Mail from Peter Millen that said:
This property is already listed (Lake Worth Castle) on yours but there is another link to a place that has some good info on the castle which was hit by fire in Feb of this year.
Later, I received E-Mail that said:
I've lived in Forth Worth since 1969 and wanted to send you an update on the Whiting/Lake Worth Castle. Within the last few months it was auctioned off by the city of Fort Worth. This winning bid was $270,000 from a group of Houston investors.
I have a newspaper article from the Forth Worth Star telegram noting "The city first tried to auction the castle in March, with a minimum asking price of $325,000. When no one bid on the historic building, the price was dropped to $260,000, and then to $185,000 Tuesday. The Houston group outbid five other investors; the sealed offers were opened Thursday."
The castle is 5,974 square feet.
The article was written by Ginger D. Richardson.
Later, I received E-Mail that said:
The "Lake Worth Castle" as locals have come to know it by, has been
purchased by a local investor and owner of Tex-Air Parts, Inc., a aviation
parts distributor. The castle is now named as "Castle of Heron Bay", it's
website is
href="http://www.castleofheronbay.com
Later, I received E-Mail that said:
My brother Tony Vann and his wife Marion lived there in the 1970s with their son Stefan and they did a lot to restore this building during that period.
I have heard and read some "wacky" stories about what my brother offered and well, they are half true. They offered a series of meditation classes and other what we would call "new age" programs there at the castle, they did this at their leisure outside of their careers. A lot of the "wacky" parts were because they offered an "open forum" to people and groups willing to preach/sell whatever idea these people were into and use the castle as a venue. This led to space alien abductees, dematerialists, astral projection claimants, spirit watchers; well you get the idea.
Mostly my brother and Marion worked hard to restore this building which unfortunately was later gutted by a fire. At one point, after much labor, it was a beautiful show place, and even with seven fireplaces it was cozy. My brother has since passed away.
On 8-9-08, I received E-mail that said:
When I was a little girl my parents took me to see the Lake Worth Castle and I loved it so much. I couldn't believe that there was something this magnificent less than 5 minutes from our home. This was in the late '80s or early '90s. I now live off of Las Vegas Trail which turns into Heron Drive. I decided the other day to go by the Castle and I took my younger cousins along with me. I built it up to be what I remembered it to be and carried on about how beautiful it was and that people like President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Jimmy Stewart have stayed here. When we pulled up I was so disappointed.
So the point of this e-mail is, I stumbled upon your website and saw that it said it was for sale for $185,000. I was just wondering how long ago that was. I really hate to see it in the condition it is in, it breaks my heart. I know I could never afford that much but I would like to see someone or some historical society purchase it and clean it up.
On 2-17-09, I received e-mail that said:
I lived in the east tower of the Heron Castle, back in the 70's. At that time it was called St. Michaels Castle, and the two side buildings were rentable houses. My East Tower was two bedrooms and an upper deck with a pryamid in the center, the leadened windows on the east and west were one..of a lilly and the other the breast plate of David...and though leaky and drafty, I loved living there....the house was incredible with a secret passage to the dock area, that had caved in some time before..but dated to the 20s when it was a speak easy.....and the front area...with an Oak tree grown into and through the house...originally it had been an open courtyard with a fountain and roman relief along one wall....now an ante room off the living area and enclosed, but still excellent.....sad when it burned....
The metaphysical classes spoken of, were for the most part not quite so strange...yoga classes and it was a registered retreat for Ministers and such from Churches and such...on occation you might run into a pastor or priest walking through the surrounding woods.... I was part of the Society for Creative Anachronism the SCA, and we use to hold events there on occation as well as fighter practice for those of us that did swords...a wonderful place....
If I had half a mil I would have gone for it even with what work would have to be done to restore it...historically it was patterned after a castle in wales, with some original stones..the site was the area where an old indian village once stood and was land owned by the XO of Fort Worth when it was originally designated a fort (though the city never had any walls ) Eleanor Roosevelt use to visit and stay there once it was built....there is a lot of history to Heron Castle and sitting on the edge of Lake Worth, it was a wonderful place of peace and lovely images....
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