Château Laroche, also known as the Loveland Castle, is a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

on the banks of the

Little Miami River The Little Miami River ( sjw, Cakimiyamithiipi) is a Class I tributary of the Ohio River that flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 26, 2011 through five counties ...

north of

Loveland, Ohio Loveland is a city in Hamilton, Clermont, and Warren counties in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. Considered part of the Greater Cincinnati area, Loveland is located near exit 52 off Interstate 275, about northeast of the Cinc ...

, United States. Built in the style of a Medieval

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

, construction began in the 1920s by

Boy Scout A Scout (in some countries a Boy Scout, Girl Scout, or Pathfinder) is a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement. Because of the large age and development span, many Scouting associations have split ...

troop leader, World War I veteran, and

medievalist The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

Harry D. Andrews. He built the castle on promotional plots of land that were obtained by paying for one-year subscriptions to ''

The Cincinnati Enquirer ''The Cincinnati Enquirer'' is a morning daily newspaper published by Gannett in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. First published in 1841, the ''Enquirer'' is the last remaining daily newspaper in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, alth ...

''. Andrews named his castle after a military hospital in the Château de la Roche in southwest

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, where he was stationed during the First World War. Its name means "Rock Castle" in French. For over fifty years, Andrews worked on his castle project. He pulled stones from the nearby Little Miami River, and when that supply was exhausted, molded bricks with cement and quart milk cartons. When Andrews died in 1981, he willed the castle to his Boy Scout troop the Knights of the Golden Trail (KOGT). The Castle has been extensively upgraded and renovated in the years since Andrews' death and has been mostly completed by the KOGT. The East tower now houses a short video presentation on Andrews' quest to finish his dream. The walls of the upstairs chapel feature many stones brought back by Andrews in his world travels and others sent to him from foreign locations by his friends and followers. Recently completed are an expansion to the outside gardens and a greenhouse. Tales of the castle being haunted – often coming from Chateau Laroche's own volunteer knights – have been reported over the years.

Gallery

Chateau Laroche 2019a.jpg, Exterior Chateau Laroche 2019b.jpg, Exterior arches Chateau Laroche interior 2019a.jpg, Interior Chateau Laroche interior 2019e.jpg, Interior

References

External links

{{commons category
Chateau Laroche
Castles in the United States Folly buildings in the United States Historic house museums in Ohio Museums in Hamilton County, Ohio Reportedly haunted locations in Ohio Scouting museums in the United States 1929 establishments in Ohio