Gillette Castle

Gillette Castle State Park sits high above the Connecticut River and straddles the towns of East Haddam and Lyme, Connecticut. The mansion belonged to William Gillette, an American actor best known for playing Sherlock Holmes on stage. He built it between 1914 and 1919, with an addition finished in 1924, on a 184-acre tract at the top of the southernmost of the Seven Sisters hills, and lived here from 1919 until his death in 1937.

Gillette designed the house and oversaw every phase of construction. It has three stories plus a tower and 24 rooms, built of wood and cement on a steel frame and covered in local field stone, with hand-hewn white oak inside. Parts of the walls were put up much like a stage set, and seaweed and paper served as insulation. Some have called the style medieval Gothic and others a blend of Victorian and Arts and Crafts, and it was once even nicknamed "Gillette's Folly".

Inside, Gillette designed many oddities himself: 47 doors with carved wooden latches and trick locks, wooden light switches, built-in couches and a table that moves on tracks. A series of mirrors above the great hall let him watch visitors from his bedroom, and a secret door near the staircase let him appear suddenly among his guests. A small hidden room is reached by a staircase that drops down when a handle is pulled. He also shared the house with up to 17 cats and made toys for them.

Outside, he ran a 3-mile narrow-gauge railroad with switches, trestles, bridges and a tunnel, along cliffs above the river. The engines were later sold to Lake Compounce in Bristol and came back to the park as a donation in 1992; they are now at the visitors' center. The roadbed became walking trails, and his "Grand Central Station" train stop still stands. The State of Connecticut took over the property in 1943, and the castle reopened in 2002 after a four-year restoration.