Stokes Castle

Stokes Castle
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
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Location	Castle, US 50 W of Austin, Austin, Nevada
Coordinates	39°29′37.13″N 117°4′47.49″W / 39.4936472°N 117.0798583°W / 39.4936472; -117.0798583
Built	1897
Architect	Anson Phelps Stokes; Wholey, John C.
Architectural style	Late Victorian
NRHP reference No.	03000757 [1]
Added to NRHP	August 14, 2003

Stokes Castle is a three-story stone tower located near Austin, Nevada. It was built by Anson Phelps Stokes, a mine developer, railroad magnate, and banker. Intending the building as a summer home, Stokes began building the castle in 1896, completing it in 1897.^[2]

The castle is patterned after a tower that Stokes had seen and admired in the Roman Campagna in Italy. The castle is built of hand-hewn native granite, and the stones were hoisted into place with a hand winch and held in place with rock wedging and clay mortar.^[3] The kitchen and dining room were on the first floor, while the second floor contained the living room and the third floor housed two bedrooms.^[2] Each of the floors had a fireplace, and the second and third floors each had a balcony. The roof had a battlemented terrace.^[3]

The family occupied the Stokes Castle for a short time. The family traveled west in June 1897 with friends and spent about a month in the castle. They spent a few more days in October 1897. They returned in the summer of 1898, but they sold their mine, the milling equipment, and the castle, and never returned to the town.^[2]

Eventually, the castle fell into disrepair until Molly Magee Knudsen, a cousin of Stokes, bought the castle in 1956.^[2] The tower was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.^[1] The "Castle" was owned by HW Trapnell of Austin, Nevada and Dunsmuir, California until he died on July 19, 2018. It is now operated by the Austin Historical Society.

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