Castle in the Clouds

On July 12th, we embarked on another great day trip from our place in NH. This was a place Mike went as a child and thought I would enjoy. He wanted another look as an adult because he remembers being a bit disappointed as a kid. I mean, he heard "Castle in the Clouds" and was expecting, well, a castle, complete with a moat, in the clouds. Who can blame him....seems like a accurate vision of the title.

So, after having some breakfast, we set out on the 45 minute drive to Moultonborough (in the lakes region of NH), grabbing some sandwiches for lunch along the way. Other than a little bit of heavy traffic for the folks heading to the lake, we got there pretty easily but then had to wait in line to get onto the grounds. We just so happened to choose the day of the annual classic cars show. Wahoo! Even more bang for our buck.

Once we got in, we spent some time looking at all the cars. It was truly a broad range of vehicles. Everything from Model T's to 60s and 70s muscle cars. One of my favorites was the Austin Healey.





After we checked out the cars, we headed up to the house. It was a short but steep walk up the stairs. And this is what we saw when we got to the top:

This is actually the back of the house, but it's the best part. Check out that view!

The lakes and mountains, people, not me! ;)

Inside, it was a self tour. So, we wandered around, read the cards in the room and took some pictures. Here are a few of them.

The office. The picture posted above the desk is of the owner's shoe factory

in JP (my old hood) where he made the big bucks to build this house.

Cool stove, huh? And, I don't know if you can see it well in the picture, but the floor is made up of rubber, interlocking tiles. Very cool....I've never seen anything like it before.

Gryphon in the library. The owner had a secret room

off the library where he would escape to and read.

The gutters and downspouts on this house were even cool.

One of the dormers.

And let's just check out that view again. Truly spectacular!

For the full history of the house, click here. Basically, this guy, Thomas Gustave Plant, retired a millionaire from the shoe making business in 1910. He and his wife then started building the house, then known as "Lucknow" in 1913. Apparently, he was a bit of a player and the marriage didn't stay happy for long. Also, Thomas apparently got a little bored in retirement and tried to continue investments. He bought Russian bonds just before the Bolshevik revolution and US stocks right before the great depression. His unfortunate luck made him a poor man in his later years. Lucknow was put up for sale, but given the economy of the 30s, never sold. He died while still in Lucknow, but, according to our briefing before the self tour, the house was in some state of foreclosure.

Kind of sad. BUT, the house was well kept by families after that and many of the original furnishings remained. The Lakes Region Conservation Trust, the current owners, have been refurbishing the home and furnishings back to their original state. Their goal is to have the project completed by the home's 100th anniversary (which I think is next year some time).

After touring the house, we picnicked by the pond down by the fields where the car show was (wrapping up at that point) and then took a little hike on the conversation land. That will be my next post!