Inside the Sherlock Holmes castle: trick mirrors, secret doors and more

Step inside America's most mysterious castle

Playful, unusual and mysterious are all words you could use to describe the enigmatic Gillette Castle. Perched in East Haddam high above the Connecticut River, this weird and wonderful building was designed by William Gillette, the American playwright and actor who played the first ever Sherlock Holmes in the late 19th century.

A fitting home for the fictional detective, Gillette Castle is bursting with eccentric details, trick mirrors and doors that lead to hidden passageways and covert rooms.

Read on to step inside and uncover the secrets of one of America's most remarkable homes...

Who was William Gillette?

William Gillette was born in July 1853 in Hartford, Connecticut. His parents, former US Senator Francis Gillette and Elizabeth Daggett Hooker Gillette, were highly progressive and supported reform movements including the abolition of slavery.

After studying law at Yale, Gillette decided to pursue acting and landed his first professional role in 1874 in Mark Twain’s theatrical adaptation of The Gilded Age.

Later in his career, Gillette wrote the first authorised play adaptations of the Sherlock Holmes novels and in 1899 he took to the stage to portray the fictional detective. Gillette went on to star as Sherlock Holmes more than 1,300 times over the course of 33 years.

An iconic landmark for an iconic actor

To bring the iconic character to life, he adopted a deerstalker cap, a long travelling cloak and a curved pipe – items that are now synonyms with the sleuth. Gillette was even responsible for the iconic catchphrase, “Elementary, my dear Watson”.

Gillette made a fortune playing Holmes and used some of his money to build his very own American castle inspired by medieval architecture, which he named the Seventh Sister Estate.

Unusual design

The home's exterior is certainly an unusual sight in rural Connecticut. The early 20th-century mansion, with its uneven rooflines, jutting towers and raw fieldstone façade, was built to make a bold first impression.

Gillette designed the entire thing himself and even oversaw the building work, hiring local firm Porteus-Walker Company to bring his vision to life. The project was completed primarily by a team of 20, including five master carpenters.

Let's head inside and find out more...

A forever home

Constructed between 1914 and 1919 from steel and local Connecticut fieldstone, the project was intended as a retirement home where Gillette would spend his later years.

The actor married actress Helen Nichols in 1882 but sadly she passed away in 1888 from a ruptured appendix at the tender age of 28. Gillette promised her he would never remarry and he kept his word, residing alone at the castle until his death.

Gillette modified and extended the house between 1923 and 1926. At its centre sits this enormous 1,500-square-foot (139sqm) Great Hall, with a double-height ceiling, exposed stone columns and rustic timber decorations.

All the mod cons

Hardly a modest spot for retirement, the completed property stretches 14,000 square feet (1,301sqm) and contains 24 rooms. It's thought the project set Gillette back $1.1 million, which is more than $19 million (£14.7m) in today's money.

As well as all the necessary living spaces – a kitchen (pictured), lounge, study, bedrooms and bathrooms – the castle was also equipped with modern utilities including electricity produced by a generator. Gillette Castle was the first house in the town to have access to electric lighting.

Bespoke lighting

Instead of buying ready-made light fixtures, Gillette decided to make his own. Throughout the home, you'll find plenty of distinctive lights like this one. Gillette made this particular light fixture by combining multicoloured pieces of broken bottles in a mosaic-style arrangement.

Elsewhere, there are said to be a few lighting fixtures that were designed and made by Tiffany & Co too. The house also boasts hand-carved wooden light switches that were reportedly inspired by backstage theatre levers and railroad operating switches.

Gillette's private study

The study is one of the most impressive rooms in the castle and everything except the telephone is original. The furniture you see was brought to the house from Gillette's family home in Hartford. The desk chair sits on tracks, allowing it to be moved back and forth without damaging the floor.

The study is also home to a small staircase that leads to nowhere and numerous seemingly random doors, one of which is short and square and conceals Gillette's safe. More on one of the other doors later...

Quirky design details

Other amazing design details include exposed stone walls finished with red mortar, grass wall coverings – which can be seen here – and decorative stained-glass elements.

As you might expect, grass tiles are not exactly durable so in recent years textile conservation studio Museum Textile Services was hired to preserve and restore these important features. "Years of tourism had taken a toll and the textiles were faded, dirty, water-stained and had been picked at by souvenir hunters," Museum Textile Services explained. Amazingly, nearly 4,000 square feet (372sqm) of wall coverings were repaired, repainted and coated with a UV-absorbent protective layer.

A place to read and write

Meanwhile, the wall coverings in the library – pictured here – were replaced with replicas woven from raffia and cotton. While some of the grass tiles are simple in their design, others are very elaborate, decorated with floral motifs, vases and even bowls of fruit.

A keen reader and writer, Gillette no doubt spent plenty of time in his library, researching material and penning new plays. He also created his very own art gallery.

47 one-of-a-kind doors

The woodwork throughout the interior is truly stunning. Gillette designed 47 one-of-a-kind doors for his home, each with intricately carved patterns and elaborate latches. A team of five master carpenters brought them to life using hand-hewn southern white oak.

This is just one of the striking doors inside the castle and highlights Gillette’s distinctive sense of style. However, some of the other doors are a little more mysterious.

Secrets and staircases

This narrow door can be found on the main staircase, which leads from the ground floor to the first floor. It acts as a hidden entrance into Gillette's study.

The actor is said to have created covert corridors and trick doors like this so that when friends came to visit, he could sneak up on them using the secret passageways and entrances as shortcuts. Of course, the hidden corridors also worked well for a quick and inconspicuous escape. Very Sherlock Holmes! This isn't the only secret door either...

Hidden rooms

At the end of the hallway on the third floor next to the main tower room, there's a mysterious door that leads to a servants' staircase. Inside the small space is what appears to be a vertical, wooden shelving unit. A hidden lever in the ceiling allows the unit to fall backward slightly, turning the shelves into a staircase.

The lever also simultaneously opens a hatch in the ceiling, providing an entryway into this secret room above. Pictured here in a YouTube video from Friends of Gillette Castle, the covert space is small and features stone walls, a fireplace, a window and a door that leads onto the roof.

Playful tricks

The home also reportedly boasts roll-away tables and a series of trick mirrors that were designed by Gillette himself to surprise and bewilder his guests.

The built-in bar in the Great Hall conceals one of the castle's most iconic tricks. When Gillette felt like pranking visitors, he would remove a secret pin in the unit, which would covertly lock all of the cabinet's doors. He would then invite his guests to fix themselves a drink and excuse himself upstairs to this second-floor balcony. From here, he had a clear view through one of three strategically placed mirrors and could watch as guests fumbled and struggled to open the bar.

Spying and socialising

Another trick mirror can be glimpsed from just outside Gillette’s former bedroom, pictured here. The mirror reflects the Great Hall below, which allowed Gillette to see who was arriving through the main doors and decide if he wanted to socialise with them. He'd then have time to plan his grand entrance. Friends of Gillette Castle refer to this mirror as Gillette’s “caller ID”.

Gillette's bedroom also features a light fixture above the bed with a switch on a wooden extension, enabling him to turn the light off from his bed. There's also a call button near the door that he could use to attract the attention of his servants.

Notable guests

The castle is home to numerous other bedrooms where friends and family of Gillette would stay when they came to visit. Notable guests of the castle included American actress Helen Hayes who stayed in this room with her mother for a time.

Hayes was eventually given the nickname the 'First Lady of American Theatre' and was the second person and first woman to have EGOT status, having won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award. Gillette is said to have helped her greatly at the beginning of her 82-year career.

Innovative bathrooms

Unusually for the time, the castle also boasted a central heating system, so all the bathrooms, which were kitted out with a modern toilet, sink and bathtub, were connected to hot water. This would have been a real luxury at the time and something that Gillette no doubt took full advantage of.

The central heating originated from a coal-fired boiler in the basement and provided steam to fill the cast-iron radiators situated around the historic house.

Whimsical indoor garden

Gillette also designed this unusual indoor garden or greenhouse. It features boarders and flowerbeds created using the same Connecticut stone that covers the façade, while tall columns seem to hold the room up. A lattice timber ceiling sits below the glass roof, allowing light to filter into the space.

Today, it is still home to a variety of plants as well as a small water feature decorated with faux frogs and other strange and mysterious sculptures.

Childhood dreams realised

Outside, the castle's sprawling grounds stretch 122 acres (49.4ha), so there was plenty of space for Gillette to play with.

The actor had harboured a love of trains since childhood and always wanted to drive one – a dream that he finally realised at the castle. In 1927, he built a quarter-scale, narrow-gauge railroad that traversed the estate. The railroad included two engines, one steam and one electric, as well as passenger cars. Sadly, little is left of Gillette's beloved railway today and all that remains of the track is this small section.

Grand Central

The railway track stretched three miles (4.8km) and the route featured bridges and a tunnel. There was even a railroad station known as Grand Central, pictured here.

Today, the old station is a picnic area that provides lovely views of the Connecticut River, while the train tracks are part of a series of modern walking trails, allowing visitors to follow the course of Gillette's long-gone train.

Railroad tunnel

One of the trails takes hikers through the train tunnel, which cuts through the hillside. Stretching 75 feet (22.9m) long, it would've offered guests aboard the train a thrilling ride on what Gillette called the Seventh Sister Railroad.

Esteemed visitors who reportedly experienced the narrow-gauge train in all its heyday glory included Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein and 30th US President Calvin Coolidge.

Perfectly preserved

Visitors to Gillette Castle can find out more about the actor's remarkable railway and its construction in the dedicated museum and welcome centre.

Following Gillette's death, the railroad was sold off to a local amusement park, which used the trains as a ride from around 1943 to the early 1990s. At that point, the two engines and passenger cars were gifted back to Gillette Castle and you can see one of Gillette's former locomotives standing proudly in the entranceway of the museum.

Idyllic grounds

This image shows the pastoral grounds of Gillette Castle State Park as it is now known. There's a picturesque pond, which would once have been home to Gillette's collection of goldfish, as well as several wooden bridges that are just as elaborate and memorable as the home's interior decorations.

Feline frenzy

There are plenty of mysterious and quirky touches scattered across the grounds and exterior architecture if you know where to look. This cat sculpture can be found sitting on top of the castle's battlements as if keeping watch over those walking through the grounds.

In fact, there are countless cat figurines dotted around the estate, on top of garden walls, poised on rooftops and sitting on shelves inside the house. Gillette is said to have been a big fan of felines and is thought to have had around 17 pet cats when he resided at the castle. According to the Friends of Gillette Castle, a reporter who toured the mansion claimed to have counted at least 77 cat-themed objects across the interior.

Curious façade

We've explored the staircases that lead to nowhere within the castle, but these curious features also continue outside. If you walk around the building's façade, you might just be able to spot a few perplexing ladders and staircases that seemingly have no destination.

This image really highlights the rustic nature of the property, with its handmade stone canopies protecting the delicate windows from heavy rain and wind.

Battlements and balconies

This close-up shot shows the Gothic-inspired castle's exterior balconies, which seem more than a little precarious with their delicate stone details. You'll also spot handmade stone cairns – stones of decreasing sizes stacked on top of one another – decorating the roofline.

After Gillette

Sadly, Gillette passed away in 1937 at the age of 83. He left the estate to his cousin and brother-in-law, who tried to sell it at auction in 1938. However, the highest bid, which was submitted by a real estate broker, was rejected by Gillette's relatives in line with his wishes.

Gillette had clearly stated in his will that he did not want the home to be “in the possession of some blithering saphead who has no conception of where he is or with what surrounded". Essentially, he wanted his castle to belong to someone who would appreciate its unique craftsmanship and quirky features.

An extraordinary legacy

In 1943, the State of Connecticut, aided by the Connecticut Forest and Park Association, purchased the property from the Gillette family for $30,000. In today's money, that equates to $544,628 (£422k). Gillette Castle State Park opened to the public in October 1944 and now operates as a museum and park.

Around 300,000 visitors are said to flock to the castle every year to learn more about the enigmatic actor and his magnificent home, ensuring Gillette's extraordinary legacy lives on.