Casco Castle
In 1903, Amos F. Gerald, of Fairfield, Maine, built the castle as a resort, with rooms for around one hundred guests, to encourage travel by trolleycars. It was his second attempt; the first, Merrymeeting Park, in Brunswick, Maine, was a failure. The grounds featured a hotel and restaurant, a picnic area, a baseball field, and a small zoo. The hotel burned in 1914, but its stone tower was spared. It stands today on private property.
Trolleycars of the Portland & Brunswick Street Railway, of which Gerald was general manager, brought visitors from nearby Freeport. After alighting, they crossed 70 foot (21 m) above Spark Creek on a steel suspension bridge, then climbed steep steps to the hotel's entrance.
Casco Castle Park was served by the Harpswell Steamboat Company, whose steamers stopped in South Freeport en route to and from Portland and Harpswell Center.
The advent of the automobile contributed to the decline of trolley and steamer travel, and the resort closed in 1914 after an eleven-year run. It reopened the same year with new owners, but a fire broke out and destroyed the hotel. The stone tower survived.
A photomechanical print of Casco Castle is in the archives of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
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The trolleycar Camilla, of the Portland & Brunswick Street Railway, pictured at the castle's bridge during the winter of 1903 and 1904
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A 1906 advertisement for the castle in the Board of Trade Journal
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The castle's tower in 2023, viewed from Casco Bay
Design and construction
The builder of the all-wood hotel was Benjamin Franklin Dunning. He used gray shingles to make the exterior look like stone. A bridge connected the main building to the stone tower.
The designer of the property's gardens was John J. Turner.