Gillette Castle

Overlooking the CT River in the quite little town of East Haddam, is a castle known as Gillette Castle.  It was built in 1919 on a hilltop with scenic views of the CT River and the picturesque Hadlyme Ferry below.  The mansion consists of 23 rooms (as I recall) and was built by William Gillette, known for the role of Sherlock Holmes in the first movie.  He was an actor who previously lived on a boat, the Aunt Polly, which burned, and he built his castle as a retirement home, although he moved in a while before he actually retired.

Gillette Castle is a building built with a steel frame which was surrounded by local fieldstone, which gave the castle its really castle like look.  (although, in my opinion, it just made it really ugly, but you be the judge)  The house has 40 intricately carved wooden doors with unique locking mechanisms. (But more about that later)  The wood was sent up from Tennessee and Virginia, and there was carpeting on the walls.  Yes, carpeting on the walls.  Gillette saw what he ordered for his carpeting, and thought that it would look nicer on the walls, again, you be the judge.

Gillette Castle also had a 3 mile long miniature railway that ran from the river bank up to the castle, and all around the beautiful grounds.  The castle has a tall tower at the top which provides 360 views of CT, and the castle also houses Gillette's extensive art collection, and two libraries along with a conservatory.  The house is fully equipped with running water and electricity, and therefore some very out of date bathrooms.

And have I mentioned the light switches?  Gillette was an INCREDIBLE carpenter, and built all forty of those intricate doors and many, many more light switches.  All the light switches are wooden and function just like large wooden versions of modern day switches.  Throughout the house, there are little hideaways and secret doors and mirrors that he used just to avoid people.  Stories are that he used mirrors located in the ball room (with a 6 foot fireplace) to see who was entering through the main entrance and he could hide away if it were someone uninvited or he just didn't like.

There was also a (at the time) state of the art fire extinguishing system.  Because he lived in such a remote location, he knew that the fire department wouldn't get to his house in time if a fire broke out, so he built his own prevention system.  On the top floor, a large tank collects rainwater from the roof, and it is stored there until what is known as the "Wooden icicle" is pulled.  That is a wooden lever that when pulled, releases water into hoses located on each floor of the house.

Enough chatter, and on to the pictures.

Here's the exterior of the castle. It looks very mid evil, doesn't it? The stones on the outside give it a very rough texture, which I think makes it sorta ugly.  Like, what's up with the holes in the facade? 

The inside parlor area.  The pictures don't do the the justice of showing the size of this room

These are the wooden light switches.  Imagine how many hours went into one of these, and then imagine how many of these are in the entire house.

This is one intricate lock on one of the 40 doors

Here's a look at another carpentry masterpiece, the windows.  That key held the window shut, (in the middle) and on the right, you see a lever that was lifted to adjust the opening.  (there were three options, here it's in the middle.)

Gillette's study

The great fireplace (Six feet wide)  I think it looks like a pile of rocks mashed together with mortar, but that's just me.

A view from the second floor

One of the very outdated bathrooms.

Here you can see the carpeting on the walls.  It's woven twine. This crazy wooden contraption is a light switch for the overhead lamp (located over the bed)

Here's Gillette's hand made 17 draw dresser, complete with hideaway compartments on the right side (very cool)

You can't see from this picture, but this is an innovative utilization of empty space located over a nook in the chimney.  This is taken from the staircase which wrapped around the chimney, and this nook was cut in and used as storage.

Looking all the way up to the top of the tower (It was off limits....bummer)

Another one of those doors

Gillette's art collection

The tank that stores the emergency water

Gillette's library

An interesting hallway that led to the back staircase behind that door

A close up of the door lock

An interesting hideaway located over the radiator.  This house is full of nooks and crannies that were utilized.  I guess living on a boat makes you utilize all the space you are given.

A real close up of one of those windows

A view from the terrace.  If it were a better day, it would have been much more beautiful, but there's not much I can do about the weather.

Frankentruck

This Memorial Day weekend, after not successfully finding a job at any marinas, I was asked by a friend of mine to go mountain biking to our favorite place in town, Rockland Preserve.  He and I have been here countless times and know it better than the back of our hands.  It's located way up north in town in what people from down south Madison call "Canada."  Anyway, we took a muddy mountain bike ride to kill and afternoon, and we discovered this mutilated old Ford truck.  It's been hanging around for a while given trees were growing through it, but I liked shooting it.  The truck must have belonged to the house at the end of the driveway, and to be completely honest with you, I never want to meet the fellow who lives there because this place looks rather, "unfriendly."  The location of the house reminded me of "Deliverance."  It was strange because the seats were removed and so was the engine compartment and they were placed in the bed of the truck.  The roof was cut right off, and the engine was missing.  For a truck left in an array of such odd mutilation, lets call him, "Frankentruck."

The truck was located off a dirt road that led to a house which had a pond that was turned into a small water  "resort."  There was a zip line, a diving board, and a water slide.

Here's the front of the truck in the bed.

Here you can see the cut off roof (We discovered that the crack windows still work a little)

The floor was rusted out in the truck

55356 and.....1?  The shaded areas under the needle have the gears according to the speed  and indicate when the shift up or down.  The shifter might have been on the stalk because there was a handle on the steering wheel and no shifter on the floor.  However, there was no floor, so who knows.

I took this picture from a funny angle standing where the engine would be and leaning over the dash to take this picture.

A sticker on the inside of the glove box containing information about the Ford.

Rockland Preserve is full of mysteries and curiosities just waiting to be discovered if you know which rocks to look under.  I'll be back to find more obscurities, or maybe just nature, but when I go, I'll keep you posted.

Flying over NYC

My dad, I, and his friend, Mike, decided to take a flight one cold morning over to Sky Acres airport in upstate New York for some breakfast, and then we decided to fly over the (Improved) VFR corridor over the Hudson River through New York City.  (It's improved because they've made it easier to navigate after that horrific crash involving the helicopter and plane that killed 6 people occurred years ago.)  So, we flew down the river and I took some amazing pictures.  Yes, it was freezing cold in the plane without heat, but hey, I got some killer pictures.

Meriden Markham Manciple Airport

Downtown Waterbury

On approach to Sky Acres

The Sky Acres restaurant

Dad fueling the Dakota for our trip down the river

The Sky Acres restaurant was a renovated barn which was very interesting

White Plains I believe.

The Bluffs

The GW Bridge.  Sorry a bout the darkness, I wasn't able to stop the propeller.

Some buildings on the Jersey side of the river.

The Empire State, the Bank of America Tower, and the New York Times tower

A poor shot of the Intrepid

Empire State again

The World Trade Center

Ships in the harbor.  I later found out that that one is the world's largest auto carrier.

The Varrazano Narrow's Bridge

Queens

Coney Island

Coney Island

The Jone's Beach Arena

Sag Harbor

The following is a collection of pictures taken of the ever so beautiful Sag Harbor, NY.  It's a typical small town with up scale and famous residents.  Even Billy Joel lives there.  You can't turn a corner without seeing a Bentley parked on the side of the road.  The downtown section is spread over three or four streets, which consist of ma and pa shops all along the sides.  (Including my Aunt's store, Andrew and Company.)  One street juts out on a large pier where the rich and famous dock their yachts.  This is essentially a mix-matched compilation of photos I've taken on various occasions when I have visited.  I have a lot of family down there, so visits are often.

One of the many, many yachts docked at the Yacht club

The Sag Harbor in front of the long abandoned watch factory.  (A piece of prime real estate)

Many yachts lined up at the 'exquisite' club for the richest of the rich

That would be a boat-car atop a yacht.

The house of probably my most favorite singer ever, Billy Joel.

Another angle of Joel's house

It's a boat haven