Gillette Castle is a popular tourist attraction located in Gillette Castle State Park, East Haddam CT (Connecticut). When Bill recently took a tour of Gillette Castle he thankfully remembered to bring along his Nikon digital camera and so you can enjoy these beautiful photos and images of Gillette castle, beautiful!

William Gillette, famous for his acting portrayals of legendary sleuth Sherlock Holmes, hired 20 men to work full time for five years in building the 24 room 1919 fieldstone castle for what was then an astounding one million dollars.

Gillette Castle renovations were completed in 2002 at a cost of eleven million dollars and the castle receives roughly one hundred thousand visitors per year. The grounds now include a museum, hiking trails and a picnic area.

William designed some unique and interesting features into the castle such as unusual door knobs and a surveilance system built entirely of mirrors that allowed him to watch the public rooms from his master bedroom.

Gillette also designed a working mini steam locomotive to ferry visitors around his castle grounds. After his death the train and much of the track was purchased by Lake Compounce to ferry visitors around the lake. The rest of the track has been replaced by walking trails.

Interesting Fact: When William Gillette died he had no wife or children to pass the castle to so in his will he included the words “blithering sap-head who has no conception of where he is or with what surrounded” as a way to make sure an unworthy soul didn’t inherit his work. Shortly after his death the government took control of the castle and created the Gillette State Park around it.

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