Squires Castle

I have blipped many pictures in the North Chagrin Reservation, but this is the first time I have taken my camera to the part of the park known as Squires Castle. In the late nineteenth century, a man named Feargus Squires, one of the founders of the Standard Oil Company, purchased land in the country outside Cleveland, where he intended to build a magnificent estate for his wife and daughter. History tells us that he never completed the estate, due to the death of his wife at a young age, and the only building completed was the gatehouse.Today that is known as Squires Castle.

The Cleveland Metroparks purchased the property in 1925, eventually gutting the inside of the structure and removing the window panes and upper floor for fear of vandalism. Legend tells a very different story, wanting us to believe that Mrs. Squires fell and broke her neck one night while wandering through the "castle" and that she can still be seen today, carrying a red lantern to light her way from room to room. In reality, Mrs. Squires never lived in the house, but in the minds of some, the legend is much more interesting than the truth.