The Samuel Taylor Suit Cottage, also known as the Berkeley Castle or Berkeley Springs Castle, is located on a hill above Berkeley Springs,

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...

, United States.

History

The castle-like house was built for Colonel

Samuel Taylor Suit Samuel Taylor Suit (1832–1888) was a Maryland politician and landowner. Suit was born in Bladensburg, Maryland, the son of innkeeper Fielder Suit. At age 14 he left home and traveled first to Keokuk, Iowa, and then to Louisville, Kentucky. In Ken ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

as a personal retreat near the spa town, beginning in 1885. It was not complete by the time of his death in 1888 and was finished in the early 1890s for his young widow, Rosa Pelham Suit, whom Suit had first met at Berkeley Springs, and their three children. The post 1888 work is of noticeably inferior quality. The fifteen-room interior features a ballroom wide and long. The design is attributed to Washington architect

Alfred B. Mullett Alfred Bult Mullett (April 7, 1834 – October 20, 1890) was a British-American architect who served from 1866 to 1874 as Supervising Architect, head of the agency of the United States Treasury Department that designed federal government build ...

, who is alleged to have drawn a rough sketch of the plan on a tablecloth at the Berkeley Springs Hotel. The design may have been based on elements of

Berkeley Castle Berkeley Castle ( ; historically sometimes spelled as ''Berkley Castle'' or ''Barkley Castle'') is a castle in the town of Berkeley, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom. The castle's origins date back to the 11th century, and it has been desi ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Detailed design and construction supervision was carried out by Snowden Ashford, who designed Washington's Eastern Market, apprenticed for Mullett and is also credited as an architect. Mrs. Suit entertained lavishly at the house until her money ran out and the property was sold in 1913.

Purchase by the VDare Foundation

In February 2020, the property was purchased by the VDARE Foundation, a tax-exempt affiliate of anti-immigration organization VDARE, which publishes writings by

white nationalist White nationalism is a type of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that white people are a raceHeidi Beirich and Kevin Hicks. "Chapter 7: White nationalism in America". In Perry, Barbara. ''Hate Crimes''. Greenwoo ...

s. The purchase was met with resistance from residents and leaders in Berkeley Springs. VDARE founder and editor

Peter Brimelow Peter Brimelow (born 13 October 1947) is a British-born American white nationalist and white supremacist writer. He is the founder of the website VDARE, an anti-immigration site associated with white supremacy, white nationalism, and the alt-r ...

stated "We absolutely will not be having rallies, marches or demonstrations. We've never been involved in anything like that, and we never will be," and "We just want to be quiet, good neighbors. "The only public events we're anticipating right now are the local charitable functions that we understand the castle has traditionally hosted. We hope to have some private meetings and functions, but don't have plans for any public VDARE events." VDARE purchased the house for $1.4 million and the source of the money is unknown.

In popular culture

Berkeley Springs, including the Samuel Taylor Suit Cottage, inspired a location in the

online multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system ( couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

game

Fallout 76 ''Fallout 76'' is a 2018 online action role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is an installment in the ''Fallout'' series and a prequel to previous entries. ''Fallout 76'' is Bethesda ...

References

External links

Atlas Obscura: Berkeley Springs Castle Berkeley Springs, West Virginia A wealthy widow lived the high life in this Gilded Age country house.

Andrew Gosline, Owner of Berkeley Springs Castle, Dies at 74

Bath (Berkeley Springs), West Virginia Castles in West Virginia Houses completed in 1891 Houses in Morgan County, West Virginia Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in West Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Morgan County, West Virginia Stone houses in West Virginia Victorian architecture in West Virginia {{MorganCountyWV-NRHP-stub