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lucy7J · Guest

If anyone could help me that would be great. I just had an argument with my sister about castles in the US. She wanted to know why there were no castles here, why weren't they built once America was founded. I tried to explain, to the best of my knowledge, that not very many royals or considerably wealthy people came over to the Americas and built a castle. I still really don't know myself. Any info would be great. I have other ideas but I'm still not so sure.

THANX...

billchamb · Joined: 22 Sep 2004 Posts: 15 Location: Pittsburgh, PA

From Berkeley Springs, WV, USA:

BERKELEY CASTLE
Colonel Samuel Taylor Suit built an imposing stone strcuture in the fashionable spa of Berkeley Springs as a summer cottage for his young bride, Rosa Pelham. Construction began in 1885; he never lived to see it finished. Suit was politically well-connected and a successful businessman who marketed his popular brand of whiskey across the country in little brown jugs. Daughter of an Alabama congressman, Rosa was less than half his age when they married.

Perched on Warm Springs Ridge overlooking the famed springs, Suit,s cottage was the most extravagant example of the town,s Victorian building boom. Although it always looked like a castle, it was not until the tall, blue-eyed, attractive widow returned in 1891 that the cottage became known as the Castle. She was Queen Rosa, famous for sophisticated friends and gala parties.

Berkeley Castle has gone through several hands since Rosa was evicted in the 1920s. It served at various times as a tearoom, summer camp and focus of tours. Living quarters were added in 1938. Most of the overblown stories were created for the tours.

Built of local stone, the castle has 13 rooms plus a basement dungeon, which was popular during ghost tours. The Great Hall has a high ceiling, hardwood floor and stone fireplaces at each end. A pine-paneled dining room on the main floor also has a fireplace. A wide stairway curves up to second floor bedrooms and a paneled library. A narrow staircase leads to the turretted rooftop trimmed with battlements and offering a fabulous view of the town. Three crosses are sunk into the stone walls of the turret.

SR9 now cuts through the castle property; a stone gatetower is stranded on the opposite side of the highway.

After years of being open for tours, the castle is now privately owned and is currently closed to the public.

billchamb · Joined: 22 Sep 2004 Posts: 15 Location: Pittsburgh, PA

There is also [i]this[/i] website: [url]http://www. .dupontcastle. .com/castles/[/url]

HydeAway · Guest

All right, all listen up. A little bit of history lesson here. Before this question can be answered, one needs to look at the purpose of building a castle as well as the historical reasons that led to its decline.

Castles were generally built to fend off arrows and catapault type projectiles and thus, its fortified walls made it very hard for attacking armies to invade.

Around the 15-16th century, guns/cannons were invented which would forever revoluntionize the way wars were fought. This literally rendered castles obsolete as the effects of cannons on castle walls, no matter how heavily fortified they were, would have been very devastating - no stone wall no matter how strong could stand up to a constant bombardment of cannon balls.

The United States of America was founded in 1776. At that time, guns/cannons were already the norm on the battlefield. Thus it doesnt make any sense for anybody to want to build castles anymore, at least not from a military point of view, not to mention the huge costs both in terms of $$, time and effort required to build them. Castles just werent needed anymore, unless you were very rich and had nowhere to spend your money, a person might consider building a castle for fun!!.. Shocked

Hope this answers your question.. Wink

Green Knight · Joined: 10 Apr 2005 Posts: 3

The reason why there aren't any castles in America is cos the British had no ned to build them in America. Also america itself was founded in 1776 and by that time you had no enemies except us and no threat of invasion. You therefore didn't need any and still don't.