Stokes Castle

Started in the fall of 1896 and completed in June, 1897, Stokes Castle was built by Ansom Phelps Stokes, a mine developer, railroad magnate, and member of a prominent eastern family, as a summer home for his sons, principally J.G. Phelps. After the castle, or the tower as the Stokes family called it, was completed, the family used it for one brief period in June and July 1897, and since then, with one possible exception, the structure has remained unoccupied. Built of native granite hewn and set in place by the ancestors of people still living in Austin, it was constructed with huge stones raised by hand winch and secured by rock wedging and clay mortar. Its architectural model was a medieval tower Anson Stokes had seen and admired on the Italian campagna near Rome. It originally had three floors, each with a fireplace, plate glass view windows, balconies on the second and third floors, and a battlemented terrace on the roof, along with plumbing considered very adequate for the times and sumptuous furnishings. The structure stands as an abiding monument to the men who built it and to those who helped develop the mines of Austin.

Austin, Nevada · United States