Squire's Castle facts for kids
Squire's Castle is an old building that looks like a castle, found in the North Chagrin Reservation, which is part of the Cleveland Metroparks in Willoughby Hills, Ohio. People sometimes say it's haunted, but the story about a ghost is not true. It's a popular spot for visitors to explore and take pictures.
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Building a Dream Castle
Feargus B. Squire was a businessman who worked for the Standard Oil Company. He was also a former mayor of Wickliffe, Ohio. Around 1890, Mr. Squire bought a large area of forest land, about 525 acres, near what is now Willoughby Hills, Ohio. He named this land River Farm Estate.
Mr. Squire had a big dream: he wanted to build a grand English country estate, complete with a large manor house. Around 1895, he started building a smaller house, which was meant to be a gatekeeper's house for the estate. This building was designed in a style called Romanesque Revival, which means it looked like old Roman buildings.
The gatekeeper's house was quite simple inside. It didn't have electricity, natural gas, running water, or even a sewer system when it was finished around 1897. The outside walls were made from a local bluish stone called Euclid bluestone, which is a type of sandstone found in the Cleveland area. The building originally had a ground floor, two upper floors, and a basement. Its windows were made of special glass called leaded glass, which has pieces of glass held together by strips of lead.
Life at Squire's Castle
Mr. Squire eventually decided not to build the large manor house he had planned. It was too difficult to get the building materials and workers he needed. Instead, he and his daughter used the gatekeeper's house as a place to visit on weekends. They even spent most of the summer of 1903 there.
However, Mr. Squire's wife didn't really like the house. Because of this, Mr. Squire didn't visit it much after 1908. In 1922, he sold the entire estate, including the gatekeeper's house, to some developers.
Later, the developers faced financial problems, and a local bank took over the estate. In 1925, the Cleveland Park Board, which is now known as Cleveland Metroparks, bought most of the land from the bank. The park board then started calling the building "Squire's Castle." To make it safer for visitors, Cleveland Metroparks removed the upper floors and filled in the basement.
Over the years, people damaged Squire's Castle. Vandals took the leaded glass windows and almost all the decorations from inside. In 1995, the building was repaired a bit to help preserve it.
The Ghost Story (and Why It's Not True)
A popular ghost story has grown around Squire's Castle over time. The details of the story change, but the main idea is that Mr. Squire's wife, Louisa Squire, died in the castle. The legend says she woke up one stormy night, went downstairs, and was scared by lightning. The lightning supposedly lit up the stuffed animal heads in a "trophy room," causing her to fall down the stairs and break her neck. According to this myth, her ghost can sometimes be seen floating through Squire's Castle.
However, this story is not true. Louisa Christiana Braymaier married Feargus Squire on December 26, 1876. She actually passed away on October 29, 1927, at her home called Cobblestone Garth in Wickliffe, not at Squire's Castle. So, the ghost story is just a fun legend, not a real event.
See also
In Spanish: Castillo de Squire para niños
