Mystery Castle by mediafury licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0
This week’s crazy building is the Mystery Castle in Phoenix, Arizona.
In the 1930s, Boyce Luther Gulley made some drastic life changes. After learning he had tuberculosis, he moved to Phoenix and started building a house for his daughter Mary Lou.
He created it from cheap or scavenged materials—everything from stones to car parts and telephone poles—and held it together with mortar, cement and (for some reason) goat’s milk. The Mystery Castle is three stories tall and has 18 rooms including a chapel, cantina and dungeon.
Once Boyce died in 1945, his wife and daughter were informed they had inherited the property, and quickly moved in. The media soon took notice, and the mother-daughter pair began offering tours to take advantage of the attention.
The home’s sprawling, ramshackle look has since captured the imagination of countless tourists, and it has been designated a “Phoenix Point of Pride” landmark by the city.
Explore more uncommon castles in my posts on the Lonely Castle, Solomon’s Castle, and Swallow’s Nest.
