Stokes Castle

Anson Phelps Stokes — Eastern money, railroads, mines — built this granite tower above Austin in 1896 and 1897 as a summer house for his sons, modeled on a medieval keep he had admired near Rome. Three floors, a fireplace on each, plate-glass windows, balconies, a battlement on the roof, and plumbing fine for its day. The family used it for about a month in the summer of 1897 and never again. It has stood empty ever since, hauled stone by stone into place by hand — a Roman folly keeping watch over the Reese River valley.

What the plaque says

Started in the fall of 1896 and completed in June, 1897, by Ansom Phelps Stokes, mine developer, railroad magnate and member of a prominent eastern family, as a summer home for his sons, principally J.G. Phelps. After the castle (or the tower, as the Stokes family always referred to it) was completed, it was used by the family for one brief period in June and July, 1897. Since then, with one possible exception, the structure has remained unoccupied. Stokes Castle is made of native granite, hewn and put in place by the ancestors of people still living in Austin. The huge stones were raised with a hand winch and held in position by rock wedging and clay mortar. The architectural model for the castle was a medieval tower Anson Stokes had seen and admired on an Italian campagna, near Rome. It originally had three floors, each with a fireplace, plate glass view windows, balconies on the second and third floors, and a battlemented terrace on the roof. It had plumbing very adequate for the times and was sumptuously furnished. The structure stands as an abiding monument to the men who built it and to those who helped develop the mines of Austin.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Austin — 0.6 mi
  A silver boomtown that hit ten thousand and fell to under two hundred — the living ghost town at the high middle of US-50
• Hickison Petroglyphs — 23 mi
  Western Shoshone rock art cut into soft white tuff at a 6,500-foot summit — the easiest rock art to meet on the loneliest road

More markers nearby

• Austin — 0.3 mi
• International Hotel — 0.4 mi
• Austin Churches — 0.5 mi
• Reuel Colt Gridley “Citizen Extraordinaire” — 0.9 mi