# 33 Circa 1870 castle overlooks mountains of Maine, N.H.

What should sit at the end of a dirt road, on the top of a hill, looking over a lake and off to the mountains of New Hampshire and Maine? A castle, of course!

Dr. James Nichols built the castle in 1873 after a stay in England. He named it 'Winnekenni', after the Algonquin word meaning "very beautiful". This was his summer house, complimented by a boat house down by Lake Kenoza. A chemist and inventor, Dr. Nichols experimented with chemical fertilizer on his fields, below the castle.

Well aware of the endless supply of stone in New England farm land, he thought we should build with it, and he built his castle as an example. It has 4 foot thick foundations, 20 inch deep walls, quoins on the corners, crenelations at the roof, and arches over the windows.

Arches such as these are built over a wood form, and when the last stone - the 'key' stone at the top - is placed, the wood form can be removed. The wedge-shaped stone then locks the whole arch in place: gravity pulls the keystone down; its shape pushes out against the other stones, the wall keeps those stones from moving, and the whole arch stays up.

The Castle isn't really any style, but it borrows the shape of a medieval English fortress, including its battle stations. And an American summer residence is surely a Victorian gesture.

Winnekenni Castle became a part of the Haverhill park system in 1895. The inside was gutted by fire in 1967, and then rebuilt, so the Castle can be used. It is now administered by the Winnekenni Foundation.

#115 - Searles Estate / Presentation of Mary Academy, c1891 (07/27/93)

For Searles, his home was definitely his castle

Imagine a knight standing under that stone arch, before an oaken door. Looking out, he would control the space, easily barring the curious visitor. Overhead are slits for the arrows of bowmen, and above that the parapet extends out, giving the defender, protected by battlements, a good view of any intruders. The walls are well built – rubble, then cut stone topped by solid caps to keep the water out. If the first wall is breached, two more protect the king within. So what is this incredible structure doing in Methuen? Edward F Searles, who built this wall, liked castles - he built two, this one in Methuen, and another in Windham, NH. And, he had a good reason for his walls. Mr. Searles was an interior decorator, traveling across the United States and around the world for interior and furniture designers, the Herter Brothers, when he met a widow, Mrs. Mark Hopkins of San Francisco, and married her. She was 22 years older than he, and when she died – leaving her estate to him – the will was contested. The case, tried in Salem in 1891, was covered daily by the national press. So, like modern day celebrities, Mr. Searles wanted his castle walls for privacy.

Stephen Barbin of Methuen, Mr. Searles’ biographer, adds another reason for the walls – Edward Searles’ association with The City Mission (a Catholic charitable society) in Lawrence, on Jackson Street. He knew that many of the Italians who had recently come to Lawrence could not find work. So while Mr. Searles and his architect, Henry Vaughn, designed the walls, and the master stone masons, Billy May and Alex Stone, built them, Mr. Searles hired the unemployed Italian immigrants to gather the stone (from where? - ed), enough for six miles of walls.

After Searles' death in 1920, some of the buildings became Presentation of Mary Academy, a Catholic girls' school. When I wrote this column, the school was still on site and Searles' house was occasionally open to the public

(color photo is from the Castles of the United States website. -ed)