Castles of "United States" MYSTERY CASTLE vs NICHOLS HALL

MYSTERY CASTLE

Mystery Castle is located in the city of Phoenix, Arizona, in the foothills of South Mountain Park. It was built in the 1930s by Boyce Luther Gulley f...

Mystery Castle is located in the city of Phoenix, Arizona, in the foothills of South Mountain Park. It was built in the 1930s by Boyce Luther Gulley for his daughter Mary Lou Gulley. After learning he had tuberculosis, Gulley moved from Seattle to the Phoenix area and began building the house from found or inexpensive materials. Boyce Gulley died in 1945, and Mary Lou and her mother were notified by attorney that they had inherited the property. Shortly after, the mother and daughter moved in. Their story attracted attention, giving the home some renown as well as its exotic name: A Life Magazine story (January 26, 1948) used the headline "Life Visits a Mystery Castle: A Young Girl Rules Over the Strange Secrets of a Fairy Tale Dream House in the Arizona Desert." The photograph featured Mary Lou posing atop the cantilever staircase leading to the roof of the house. That same year, Mary Lou and her mother began offering tours of the home. Said to be held together by a combination of mortar, cement, calcium, and goat milk, the sprawling 18-room, three story castle is built from a wide range of materials — stone, adobe, automobile parts, salvaged rail tracks from a mine, telephone poles, etc. It features a chapel, cantina, and a dungeon. Parts of the castle remain unfinished, and electricity and plumbing weren't added until 1992. As the housing boom progressed in Phoenix, new development encroached close to the castle and its grounds, making it far less isolated. Mary Lou Gulley died on November 3, 2010. The property is now maintained by the Mystery Castle Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit organization. The Mystery Castle has been designated as a Phoenix Point of Pride.

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NICHOLS HALL

Nichols Hall is a building on the campus of Kansas State University. This building was originally built in 1911 and appears from the exterior as a cas...

Nichols Hall is a building on the campus of Kansas State University. This building was originally built in 1911 and appears from the exterior as a castle with battlements. Its interior was destroyed by fire in 1968; the structure was rebuilt in 1985. The building currently houses the Department of Communication Studies, Theatre, and Dance. At the start of the 20th century, the two major needs of the Kansas State University campus were a livestock pavilion and a gymnasium. The president of the University, E. R. Nichols, lobbied hard for money for these projects, and the gymnasium was christened Nichols Hall in his honor after he retired in 1909. The initial funding and construction of Nichols Hall began during 1910 and was finished in 1911. The initial budget for the construction was $25,197. More money was allocated the following year to finish the building. Construction of the building included the use of state-of-the-art construction techniques. Nichols Hall was one of the first buildings in the United States to be built using continuously poured concrete flooring. The concrete was mixed using horses.

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