Constitution State We Go

 We left under the threat of rain again, but it turned out to be a nice drive, no rain.

We thought we would visit the Pillsbury Museum in Longview, MA, but I think we were doomed when Garmin gave directions, time, and distance:

The actual  miles were only 90, but hassling with Garmin, we decided to drive straight to Connecticut.

HOORAY

Once off the highway the roads get a little tougher. Most of the roads to the campground were not designed for large vehicles, even though they are drivable. The biggest problem was the closeness of the trees, shrubs, and mailboxes to the roads. Pulling into the campground gave us the impression we were going off roading to get to our site.

Our site was easy to find, it was one of the less level spots at the campground.

OUT THE DINING WINDOW

I would consider this a "full service" campground. There was fishing, swimming in the pond, or river, a full basketball court, tennis court, activity center, laundry, and a small store and grill. There were many seasonal residents. This was the first campground I have seen that had full hook-up, with the sewer being for grey water only (shower and sinks only). The RVers using these sites had to take their black water (toilet) to the dump station.

Our first night we hooked up with some friends and went to dinner at a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant, the food was good.

SHANKS BY THE WATER

We arrived early and waited for our friends in the circus tent by the water. Shanks also had tables upstairs, and they had a great view of the river.

Next store was another seafood restaurant that I suspect is owned by the same company that owns Shanks.

LOBSTER LANDING

We closed the restaurant down and we all headed to our respective homes. The restaurant closed at 8 pm by the way.

One of the days we took a trip to the Gillette Castle (Seventh Sister Estate) for a tour/self-guided tour. We thought we would leave early enough to catch an early tour... wrong, we arrived an hour late. Fortunately we were still able to get a fairly early tour time.

Visit: https://ctparks.com/parks/gillette-castle-state-park. Also visit: https://www.gillettecastlefriends.org/history-of-the-castle

(Courtesy of Tall Timbers)

FROM THE VISITOR CENTER

VISITOR CENTER FROM THE CASTLE

It was about a 300 yard walk to the castle from the visitor center. On the way visitors pass a mini-stage, and can walk through Grand Central Station.

William Gillette, the original owner preferred to call the castle "Seventh Sister Estates". The name Seventh Sister came about because riverboat captains used the ridge of seven peaks, called Seven Sisters, as a navigation point, the seventh peak being the tallest.

William Gillette made his money in the theatre industry, as an actor, playwright, and producer. William loved three things in his life, his wife, trains, and theatre. His wife did not get to enjoy the castle, as she passed before he built it. Before his wife passed he promised her that he would never marry again, and he kept that promise to his death. William lived in the castle by himself for the most part, along with 15 cats. The castle construction was started in 1914, and completed in 1919.

Mr. Gillette enjoyed the estate on and off for several decades before he died in 1937. His most famous stage character was Sherlock Holmes, playing him more than 1300 times on stage. In 1932 he retired from the stage, and 1936 was his last performance. Once retired from acting he chose to engage in his love for trains, riding the rail system around his 200+ acre estate. William had two trains, one electric, the other steam.

7TH SISTER RAILROAD

ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE

ONE OF SEVERAL OPEN CARS

William wasted no time in building his train, starting in 1920, utilizing a local company to design and build the train. His rail system included over three miles of narrow gauge track around his estate, a tunnel, swing bridge, and two terminals (125th, and Grand Central).

STEAM LOCOMOTIVE PULLING OPEN CARS

A couple of notable folks that rode the train were President Calvin Coolidge, and Albert Einstein.

Grand Central terminal still stands today, 125th St. was replaced by a snack bar, but the building itself is the original building.

This is Grand Central Station. Over the two arches are two cats who were watching over passenger boarding the train.

Most of the track is still in place, just not around his property. The track is used elsewhere in A park with another train running the line.

IN THE PARK ACROSS THE RIVER

When his estate was auctioned off in 1943, the trains and track were sold to Lake Compounce amusement park. That track is the same track I showed you earlier with the train on it across the river. In the mid-1990s, the amusement park donated the train and cars back to the state for display at the state park. A group raised funds to refurbish the locomotive.

The estate castle was a 40+ room, 14,000 sg. ft. home. When this home was being built, all the creature comforts for the time were added, such as bathrooms, and electricity which the surrounding area did not have at the time. This was a stone and wood home, with steel "I" beams. He even thought of the cats, building areas for them to climb on or sleep.

The state of Connecticut bought the property in 1943 at auction for $50,000, and had a hard time coming up with the money, but they did. Unfortunately the state let the place go into disrepair, and didn't do anything until around mid-1960s. During that time they spent somewhere around $11M to retore the castle and build the visitor center.

The vestibule we first entered had three doors, a staircase, and bathroom. One item of interest is the doors in the entire house, all 40+. All wood in the house is white oak, including the doors, but that's not what makes them interesting, its the designs on the doors, everyone of the doors had a different design.

Half baths off the front entrance are not a new idea, been around for a long time.

The only metal I saw on the doors were the hinges. Visitors went up the stairs to get down to his workshop (not open to the public), but visitors can look in.

Continuing up the stairs visitors saw a secret passage door:

William would use this door to see who was at the door, then decide if he wanted to socialize, if not, he went back to his room.

The home having electricity, it had to come from somewhere, that somewhere was a generator. He had a control box for the power distribution:

His methods for turning on electricity was very theatrical, and hand carved by the master carpenters working the job.

Upper left: mechanism for turning off light.

Upper right: wall light switch.

Lower left: control lighting and outlets in the great room.

Lower right: controlled lighting in vestibule, and power for the trains.

At the top of the stairs was a landing that lead into the great room.

Over the fireplace were ledges built for the cats to climb up to and watch what was going on below, and if they were  on the floor they could play with the dangling wood ornamentation on the table.

Off the great room was a little pond/sun room that is now a wishing well for visitors to toss their spare change in.

POND/SUN ROOM

Off the great room and pond/sun room was the dining room.

FORMAL DINING ROOM

To the right of the dining room is a small nook to the pond/sun room. This room had an interesting door:

DOOR LEADING TO DINING ROOM

This was an unintentional re-design. The furniture was placed before the door was installed, so a work-around was created for the door to open without interfering with furniture. Inadvertently the first cat door was created. 

This is the section of the door that was cut out. A mortise and tenon joint was created so that the piece could be attached to the door when needed.

Off the nook was the kitchen. One would think that a house this size would have a large kitchen, not so.

COOKING AREA

PANTRY AND SINK

FIRE HOSE IN PANTRY

Off the other side of the dining room was his office. The room had some interesting doors in it and to it.

POCKET DOOR TO HIS OFFICE

WILLIAM GILLETTE'S OFFICE

DOORS IN HIS OFFICE

One of these doors is hiding the safe that was in the office. There is one more item of interest in the office...

... his desk chair. If you noticed, it is on wheels, and rolls back and forth. Better than scuffing the floor.

Now we needed to go up another floor to the bedrooms and a room that may have been used as a reading room.

There were four rooms down this wing, one of them was not accessible to visitors. We started at the window end, which was the reading room, maybe.

The room was now set up commemorating the two boats he owned. 

The first bedroom we entered was the "Green Room".

His niece would stay in this room on her frequent visits to the estate. As you will see in all the rooms, the ornate work done on the dressers and walls.

The bedroom saw William's cousin and his bride spending their honeymoon here. It also saw Helen Hayes visit a time or two. 

Helen Hayes in her early acting career had a story to tell about William Gillette. She had been casted in Dear Brutus with William Gillette. The English director had issues with Helen during rehearsal, saying that he could not understand her. Gillette commented that she "simply had a Southern accent". Gillette gave her a copy of Shakespeare Sonnets to read aloud until the issue was resolved. Another time William was dissatisfied with the way the director was handling her, so he took matters into his own hands. They would secretly rehearse, Gillette telling her to forget what the director said, and follow his direction. During rehearsals though, she was to follow the directors demands, but during the play ignore them, and do as they rehearsed.

The last bedroom on this floor was William Gillette's. 

You may have noticed that the furnishings were simple in all the rooms.

There was still one more floor to climb before the self-guided tour was over. This floor contained a library, water storage tank, and several other rooms. Several of the rooms were used to display the various paintings that hung on the walls years before.

On the way up I noticed that his love for wood even extended to the mechanisms for the windows:

Last floor.

WATER TANK THAT FED THE BOILER

LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

This will was made out in January of 1937, and he passed in April 1937, almost three-moths to the day.

From here it was out the door to the courtyard.

THAT'S RIGHT... TO THE COURTYARD

At the bottom of the stairs there was a door blocked open with a water bottle, it provided a view visitors cannot see from the other side of the kitchen:

The top photo is looking through that closed door in the lower photo.

From the courtyard and around to the front of the castle:

This was a very nice place to visit, and the price was good too, only $6.00 a person. 

Back in the truck and home we headed.

Here what I did one afternoon with some of our surplus ground beef.

There was some prep work required before putting this together, and part of it was boiling eggs.

I warmed some almond flour tortillas for the base.

Next was a layer of ground beef pushed into all corners

I sliced the hard boiled eggs and gently pushed them into the ground beef.

I added grated cheese (cheddar and mozzarella).

I then added the second layer of ground beef, pushed to the corners again.

Next was slices of Havarti cheese, more grated cheddar and mozzarella.

Backed in the air fryer oven, on "bake", for 30 minutes at 350°.

It was a good high protein meal. There are a few changes I would make for next time, more cheese in the center layer, and some type of carnivore/keto friendly sauce.

The rest of the stay was preparing to move to New Jersey. See you there.