Date: Fri 07-Nov-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Castle-Ronald-Crouch-Cruson

Full Text:

Remembering Newtown's Fabled Castle Ronald

(with photos)

BY KAAREN VALENTA

As a young teenager in the mid-1920s, Frederick David Crouch earned pocket

money by giving tours of Castle Ronald, the mansion that for years stood atop

what would become known as Castle Hill.

Dave's father was caretaker of the mansion, long empty of furnishings and

sporadically unoccupied.

"In the winter, we lived on the south end, where it was warmer," Mr Crouch,

now 85, said. "In the summer we lived on the north end. The only heat was in

the kitchen, from the big stoves that burned coal."

The large indoor swimming pool had been drained years earlier; the huge

third-floor conservatory with its glass roof which held orange and fig trees

and strawberry plants that produced fruit year-round was gone. So were the

gymnasium, bowling alley and billiard room, eliminated during earlier

renovations.

But from the 20-foot-square observatory, 60 feet above the ground, you could

still see Long Island Sound on a clear day. Only later would trees grow to

blanket the area and obstruct the view.

"The hardest part of living in the castle was keeping warm," Dave Crouch

recalled recently in an interview at the home of his daughter, Dina Walsh, in

Newtown. "All the boys slept in one room, the girls in another. There were ten

of us, but I'm the only one still alive."

The Crouches moved to Newtown from Redding in 1920 when Dave Crouch was eight

years old. "We moved in a wagon, pulled by a team of horses," he said. "My

father worked on farms, and later he did carpentry and painting and also was

into real estate, buying and selling property."

When they moved into the castle, it was to watch over an enormous structure

that had been built by Peter Lorillard Ronalds of New York in the late 1880s.

For years the castle, its construction, and the lives of those who were

involved with it would be the biggest news in town. An article in The Newtown

Bee in 1890 described the man and his mansion:

"Mr Ronalds is an extremely wealthy and somewhat eccentric New York gentleman

who traces his lineage in direct line more than 1,000 years to the ancient

Scottish kings. He is about 64 years old and has spent much of his life

traveling. He spent considerable money building a place in New York State but

was dissatisfied so 3-4 years ago he came to Newtown and bought of Mrs Henry

T. Nichols a plot of about 50 acres on the brow of Taunton Hill, the highest

point around, which quickly became known as Ronalds Peak.

"There he proposed to build a structure which would be entirely original and

stand as a monument to the House of Ronald. To that end, he bought 1,000 tons

of granite at Mine Hill, Roxbury, 500-600 tons from local quarries and about

500 more of cut stone and in the spring of 1888 began building Castle Ronald.

"The house, which he designed himself, required an army of masons and

carpenters. The walls of the castle were solid stone two feet thick. The front

was 110 feet long and ran east-west, flanked by two 108-foot wings running

north-south. There were three arched hallways 13 feet high in the center

section, the middle corridor opening at the ends and making a driveway right

through the house."

"You could drive a horse and wagon right through it," Mr Crouch said. "The

center courtyard was 12 feet wide."

The wings held a 53-foot cistern, servants quarters, wine rooms, furnace

space, gymnasium, swimming pool, bowling alley and billiard room. Upstairs

were drawing rooms, banquet halls and sleeping quarters. The 15 bathrooms had

trap doors in the floors, under which were sunken pools equipped for baths of

rainwater, described as "of the Turkish or Russian variety." The pools were

filled by the pumping of a windmill whose flashing blades reportedly could be

seen for miles around.

A system of speaking tubes provided communication throughout the vast

structure and bells reached the outlying buildings. Stables, an ice house,

cowbarns, carriage houses, farmers' houses, tennis court, driveways and

gardens also were part of the plan.

Historian's Research

Town Historian Daniel Cruson has spent a great deal of time searching old

issues of The Newtown Bee and other sources to learn as much as possible about

Peter Lorillard Ronalds. His conclusions are contained in an essay, "Newtown's

Castle," published in the current issue of the Newtown Historical Society's

newsletter, The Rooster's Crow.

Peter Lorillard Ronalds was the son of Thomas Alexander Ronalds, a successful

New York merchant, and Maria Dorothea Ann Lorillard, an heiress of the

Lorillard tobacco fortune. Peter, who was born in 1826, attended private

schools, and started a plumbing supply business, according to Mr Cruson.

In 1859 he married Mary Frances Carter of Boston; they had four children

during the first six years of their marriage. The Ronaldses lived much of the

time in Europe, and Mrs Ronalds remained in London even after the castle was

built.

Described as a "world traveler, sportsman, bon vivant, gambler and friend of

royalty," P.L. Ronalds was a flamboyant exponent of a flamboyant era. He was

devoted to horses, preferred driving coaches to racing, became known as the

"father of American coaching," and was internationally recognized for his

ability to handle fast teams of horses under the most exacting of

circumstances. Among the famous vehicles which he collected was a wagonette

that formerly belonged to the Duke of Wellington, Mr Cruson said. "He

reputedly had driven this from the Mediterranean shore across Europe to the

Netherlands, shipped it across the English Channel, then toured England and

his ancestral homeland in Scotland. He was known for his long coach rides

which explored the Connecticut countryside, and it was while on one of these

trips that he was supposed to have discovered what would become Castle Hill."

There is little question as to why he chose this spot once he found it, for it

was one of the highest points of land in the area, Mr Cruson said. It was a

delight for its summer views, and the unrelenting wind that whipped across the

hill in the winter would not have bothered Mr Ronalds because he usually spent

the winter months in the south of France.

After paying $4,000 for the land and designing the castle, Mr Ronalds hired

local craftsmen to build it. In addition to more than 2,000 tons of quarried

stone - much of which was hauled by oxen and wagon from the Newtown Railroad

Station on Church Hill Road - more than 100,000 feet of lumber, mostly oak and

yellow pine, plus 20,000 bricks were used. His foreman, L.J. Larry, hired 50

laborers from Danbury and Bridgeport, 44 of whom were masons and stonecutters,

Mr Cruson said.

The work was not easy. According to an article in The Bee, on July 6, 1888,

"Mr R. L. Beckwith, who is at work with his son and Mr Sherman Crofutt

drilling the artesian well on Ronalds Peak, is housed there with his family in

a tent of Mr Ronalds, once the property of the Prince of Wales. The tempest of

Saturday night wrecked the tent, drenching the clothes and bedding of the

inmates and driving them to the barn."

The house eventually would contain a cistern, 53 feet long, 11« feet wide and

7 feet deep, to hold the water for the castle. It was fed irregularly by the

332-foot-deep artesian well and more adequately by a second, hand-dug 45-foot

deep well.

A Disastrous Fire

Then disaster struck. As The Bee reported:

"Many destructive fires have occurred in Newtown during its history, but all

combined could not arouse so widespread interest as the latest, that which, on

the morning of Friday, November 28, destroyed Castle Ronald.

"The owner had left about a month earlier to spend the winter in France. He

sailed on the liner Normandie , leaving his property in the hands of Fred

Hartmann, a German hostler who had been with him for months, and Charles, a

German gardener, who was brought here only a few weeks ago. These, with a

female cook and occasional help from John Bradley or other day laborers,

formed the sole retinue at the Castle, although George W. Stuart still

exercised a supervising care of the whole.

"Friday morning Hartmann and Bradley were at the barn caring for the horses

while Charles was busied keeping up the temperature of the conservatory which

occupied the entire upper floor of the castle, no easy matter with the

thermometer near zero and the wind howling fiercely.

"At 7 Charles says he examined the conservator but did not find it warm

enough. He put a fresh supply of coal on the furnace fire. 15 or 20 minutes

later, he again mounted the stairs to the conservatory. As he entered the door

there seemed to be an explosion and flames burst forth near the top of the hot

air pipe.

"He tried to hook up a hose to a pump near the staircase but in his excitement

he made a misstep and fell headlong down the entire flight of stairs. It was

several minutes before he could rise and make his way down stairs to spread

the alarm. Bradley ran down the hill shouting `Fire!' at the top of his voice.

The Trinity bell was rung and nearly every man in this section of town rushed

to the top of Ronald's Peak, many gaining the Castle before Bradley could run

back.

"Hartmann entered the castle and tried to fight the fire but the flames and

heat were too great; the conservatory floor already had burned through. The

fire grew so quickly that nothing of value could be saved on the second floor.

A few doors were taken out and some articles thrown from the windows. The fire

department was promptly on hand but could work with nothing but buckets as it

was impossible to get the truck up Taunton Hill. Foreman John H. Blackman set

a worthy example to other fire chiefs, working more with his brains than his

hands.

"There was an abundance of water from two hand pumps and the windmill but

scarcely enough buckets. The firemen managed to confine the fire to the upper

two floors, where every inch of wood was burned away. The only point the fire

could get access to the ground floor was at the staircase so this was where

all the energy of the firemen was concentrated. L.B. Booth stood at the

staircase, throwing water at the advancing flames, freezing on one side and

burning on the other.

"The loss to the building is expected to be at least $40,000. A conservative

estimate places the loss to the contents at $100,000, so the fire is expected

to top $150,000. [This at a time when most houses sold in the $6/10,000

range.] It is believed that there was only a policy of $10,000 on the

property.

"Below were the apartments which Mr Ronalds was to occupy, the guest rooms and

the rooms for the exhibit of his vast collection of relics, antiquities,

valuable statuary and paintings, furniture and curios. Of these he had many

thousand dollars' worth, the accumulation of many years of traveling. Most

were still in their packing cases. One painting in particular, which he

described as magnificent, cost $20,000.

"He also has a collection of antique armor, including several full suits,

which he valued very highly. As it was on the lower floor, it escaped

destruction by fire but not by vandals, for several of the pieces are missing.

Most deplorable incidents at the time of the fire was the stealing of a watch

from Charles, a purse from Fred and small articles of Mr Ronalds' property.

But this is far less than the sacking of Mr Ronalds' wine cellar.

"A petition circulated by L.B. Booth received many signatures and the

selectmen have called a special town meeting to take steps to exempt Mr

Ronalds from all taxation in the town for the next seven years on the

condition that he at once rebuild the Castle."

A Second Disaster

Rebuild he did, although he made some minor changes, extending balconies to

run the length of the south side of the house, enlarging the cupola and adding

a promenade deck with a railing. For much of the rest of the time Ronalds

lived in the castle, this cupola had a billiard table in it. "The view while

taking a shot on the table must have been spectacular," Mr Cruson said.

P.L. Ronalds lived in Newtown only 15 years but in that time he had a profound

effect on the town. His love of equestrian sport led him to annually donate

$100 as a prize for one of the horse races that was held during the Newtown

Agricultural Fair. The race was appropriately named the Ronalds Cup.

He also participated in other activities in town, and frequently contributed

to local civic projects. There was one area of speculation, however. The

ladies of the town had fully expected to meet Mrs Ronalds. Instead, Mr

Ronalds' secretary, Miss Elizabeth Blake, was in residence, albeit chaperoned

by an aunt. It was a true local scandal, especially when the news appeared in

1901 that he was divorcing his wife.

The second disaster for the castle occurred in October 1905 when Mr Ronalds

died. According to The Bee , he had left Newtown by train, accompanied by Miss

Blake and by Mr Ball, his personal attendant, and upon arriving in New York

City "it was determined that he was suffering from an infection of the

kidneys. Doctors decided he needed an operation, which was performed, but he

failed to rally and died with his son Peter Lorillard Ronalds, Jr, at his

side.

"He had given up traveling by coach to take up automobiling, and his time at

his country home had been spent learning how to manage a Packard which he had

just bought. He had planned to sail to Europe, taking his car with him, to

make a tour of the Old World," The Bee reported.

He left the house to Miss Blake. But without his wealth and lifestyle, she -

and subsequent investors - were financially ruined as they tried to make use

of the castle. The building became, for a short time, a sanitarium, a health

resort, and a school for handicapped children. Debts run up by Miss Blake to

do renovations led to a foreclosure in 1916. The property changed hands

several times in the next ten years and toward the end held a school for boys.

Another foreclosure in 1928 put it in the hands of William Cole, president of

the Fabric Fire Hose Company, which produced rubber fire hoses in the lower

mill in Sandy Hook. In 1908 Mr Cole built a magnificent residence (later to be

known as the Gretch house and now owned by the Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport)

on the hill on the opposite side of Castle Hill Road from the castle.

Fifty years ago, on January 7, 1947, the castle was sold for the last time. It

was purchased by Mr and Mrs Walter Klavum of South Main Street, who planned to

dismantle the castle, build their own house and subdivide the rest of the

property into building sites.

By now in ruinous condition, the castle was torn down by the Consolidated

Wrecking Company of Bridgeport. Doors and windows were removed and sold. Much

of the rubble from the stonework was used in roadbuilding.

It almost appears that the castle had its own type of revenge, Mr Cruson said,

since the Klavums never did build their house on the hill, nor did they

subdivide the property. That would not happen until years later.

"The Rev Paul Cullens bought the first house to be built there, in the `60s I

think, after he retired and moved out of the [Congregational Church] parsonage

on Main Street," Dave Crouch said. Two decades would pass before construction

of other houses began in the 1980s.

Although it has been gone for 50 years, Mr Crouch said he will never forget

the castle. Now retired and living with his wife in Terryville, he remembers

happy years spent living there and hunting pheasant in the backyard. Sugar

maple trees enclosed the edge of the property, he said, and cedar trees lined

the long driveway.

"That was some place," he said. "I hated to leave it."