I have seen some pretty detailed accounts of this castle. It's a part of the Cleveland Metroparks. It's in a city called Willoughby Hills. The park it's located in what is called The North Chagrin Reservation, which is part of the so called "Emerald Necklace" of parks that ring the city of Cleveland, Ohio. It's located in Lake County but is run by Cleveland Metroparks. It lies about a half mile from the borders of Cuyahoga County. The park straddles both countys. You can reach it from Interstate 90. Exit at State Rte. 91 South in Willoughby, Ohio. It's only one mile from the Highway. The Cleveland Metroparks could probably send you more information than I can recall at the moment. They can be reached at (216)-351-6300.
Later, I received E-Mail that said:
It is located on the North Chagrin Reservation at 3037 SOM Center Road in Mayfield Village. More information can be obtained by calling (216) 473-3370.
Later, I received E-Mail that said in part:
The castle had a face-lift for the celebration of its 100th aniversary, including bars on the window (to the displeasure of kids who would jump out the windows). I remember reading in a bulletin circulated by the Metroparks called, "The Emerald Necklace", a bunch of facts about the castle and a complete history of it. So, if you could some how find issues of the bulletin, it probably would be of use to you. I live near Kirtland (Hills) too, but I don't know of any castle-houses in the area.
Later, I received E-Mail that said:
I thought you would be interested in some history of "Squires Castle". There used to be a large brass plaque inside the structure detailing it's history. It was built somtime in the 1890s by locally-famous William Squire. He was a wealthy man known for his gifts to Western Reserve University, including his country estate, Squire Valleevue Farm.
The "castle" is actually a gatehouse, that was to sit at the entrance to an estate that was never built. (And all the more shame for that, seeing how lovely the gatehouse is.) Mr. Squire's wife died shortly after the gatehouse was constructed, and so he cancelled the project and gave the majority of the estate to the Cleveland Metroparks, forming the nucleus of the North Chagrin Reservation, the second largest "link" in the emerald necklace.
Later, I received E-Mail that said:
This gatehouse "castle" was built by Feargus Bowden Squire, and the estate was intended as a summer retreat and hunting ground to be centered around a hunting lodge. He was one of the partners of John D. Rockefeller in his early oil businesses in Cleveland, and later a vice president of Standard Oil. Rockefeller's companies made many men wealthy from what was originally a roughneck business, and they and other industrialists with grand aspirations built many enormous houses and estates in medieval and tudor styles all around Cleveland, intended to last for generations, which almost all disappeared within a few decades.
Squire married an aunt of my grandfather, and I believe that also like many of Rockefeller's partners he came from humble origins and rose by being a hardnosed and shrewd dealmaker, and that he was not noted for any philanthropy; Squires sold the estate for development, and only later did it end up in the parks system . His daughter did give some of the family's lavish clothing, jewelry and furnishings to the Western Reserve Historical Society and the Cleveland Museum of Art, including fabulous Tiffany Studios enamel pieces, where they can sometimes be seen on display (anyone truly curious can look for pieces donated in memory of Fergus and Louise Squire, by Irma Squire Rust).
The gatehouse was lavishly finished and the family stayed there at times, but it is now an empty shell. I don't know for sure about the death of Mrs. Squire, but I think that the wild accounts of her death on the estate are exaggerated. The "castle" had nothing to do with a prominent Cleveland family named Squire that is still memorialized by some of their gifts to the community, as another e-mail mistakenly indicated.
Later, I received E-Mail that said:
The information that was sent to you about Squires Castle being a sometimes used summer house is completely false. It was only an unfinished gatehouse, and the other story on that site is absolutely fabricated!
Visit another webpage with more information by clicking here.
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On 5-15-05, I received E-Mail that said:
Squires Castle (gatehouse) was originally intended on replacing the Squire's summer home in Wickliffe Ohio, just off Rockefeller Road. The Squires spent the Winter months at the Euclid Avenue mansion, and then spent late spring through early fall at the house in Wickliffe. When the Castle was planned, Wickliffe was being built up with starter homes, so the move down into the Chagrin River Valley was planned, but never executed.
On 7-11-06, I received E-Mail that said:
The story of the castle originally being built for use as a gatehouse is in fact TRUE. It is also true that the owner did not construct any other estate buildings on the property due to the death of his wife. It is also true that the building WAS in fact used periodically used by Mr. Squire as a weekend retreat until his death, at which time members of his family donated it to the park system,who in turn dismantled the building's interior. Although impressive looking, the structure is now more or less a concrete/stone shell containing only a few of rooms.
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Thanks to Phil Bilzor for finding the other web pages.