• The Original Text is now on the Web! The Castle: A Great House of the Gilded Age from Guy Altree, one of John Paine's students from the early 70s
• Photos and Commentary by Edward Herscher and Carolyn Seaman, Summercore 97, Session#1 (July 13-17, 1997) . Edward and Carolyn are English teachers at Friends Academy, Locust Valley NY.
• Henry Hobson Richardson -- Architect, perhaps?
• short audio clip from John Paine ... audible, depending on your browser and what version you are running ... here is a picture from the walking tour .. in our next technology release, we will hopefully have a one minute digitized movie of Mr. Paine as he tours you into one of the secret passages!

• Located on a 101 acre estate, the house was built for Albert Nickerson, director of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad and head of Arlington Woolen Mills. Construction began June 4, 1887 and was finished 3 years later. This view is the road approach to the Castle entrance.
• Notice the rounded arch in the picture with a porch underneath and above and the medival tower to the right.
• The front facade in the picture conveys the feel of a massive medieval fortress yet is very Richardsonian in the use of the great arch for an entranceway, the recessed balconies on the second and third floors, the rough stone exterior and the medieval roofline.
• Notice the depth of the window and the holes surrounding the window where iron bars were once installed. All of the iron bars, which were on most of the windows, were removed to make armaments for the First World War.
• Typical of a Richardson Romanesque building is the massive round entrance arch. This one even has an iron portcullis that comes all the way down to bar the entrance just like in a castle.
• In the limestone entrance hall by the curving stair to the main floor, there is a stone seating alcove where guests could wait for their carriages.
• The back of the house features three towers (two shown here) each of which enclose staircases: the one on the left was for the servants; the one on the right, for family and guests.
• Pink Quincy granite outlines the rear door and the windows. Also the eyelid window and dormers over the back entrance are derived from medieval traditions.
• To the right of the staircase tower is the servants' wing which houses the kitchen and living quarters for the maintenance staff, which was mostly Irish.
• This is another view of the main staircase tower. Notice the shape of the windows follows the ascent of the staircase.
• The curved wooden staircase follows medieval models with narrow two inch treads beginning at the spindles expanding to a width of approximately eighteen inches at the outer edges.
• Taken from the second floor, this view of the staircase illustrates its dramatic spiral.
• This detail shows the exquisite woodworking detail which characterizes the castle. All woodwork was done by local labor.
• The house has a series of trap doors and secret passages. One of the passages is behiind this wooden sculpture over the dining room fireplace. Inside is a passage way with a ladder going up to another floor.
• Notice the elaborate ceiling, the wonderful chandelier near the garden entrance and the wrought-iron door stop that hangs from the ceiling. At one time the rounded ends may have been magnetized.
• The third floor hallway echoes in the wainscotting the wooden panels from downstairs and the doorway, the rounded arch of the main entranceway.
• The house contains many of its original lighting fixtures in wrought iron as well as elaborate carving which often resembles motifs in the Book of Kells.
• Notice the symmetry of the garden view with the three towers. The house cost $225,000 when it was built, which would have been over $6,000,000 by today's money.
• Mr. Nickerson enjoyed his house for only three years before his death. After an economic depression, his family limped on in the house until 1921 when it was sold to the school.