The Tenney Castle Gatehouse is a historic gatehouse at 37 Pleasant Street in
Methuen,
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. It was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
on January 20, 1984. It is the only surviving element of the large estate of
Charles H. Tenney
Charles Henry Tenney (July 9, 1842 – April 27, 1919) was proprietor of C. H. Tenney & Co., established 1868, and become one of the most successful commissioned merchant and hat dealers in the world. He was also a director of the Bank of the M ...
, a leading local industrialist.
History
The gatehouse was originally a two-story rough stone farm house built by Richard Whittier between August and November 1830. In April 1882, it was purchased by Charles H. Tenney. It was redesigned in 1883 by architects
Damon Brothers into a gatehouse for the Tenney estate known as
Grey Court.
When first built, it was a two-story stone structure with five bays on its front facade and a central entry. The modifications by Damon gave the building a distinctive Queen Anne Victorian character, changing the roof to be hipped, and adding an ornately decorated tower with weathervane on one corner. A porch was added to shelter the entry, whose gable has rows of decorative shingles. The interior features Anglo-Japanese wallpaper that was replicated in 1999.
In 1951, the Tenney family gave to the town for Tenney High School (now Tenney Grammar School). The family offered the castle and the 80-acre estate to the town of Methuen which rejected the generous gift. It was later sold to the
Basilian Salvatorian Order
, abbreviation = BS
, nickname = Salvatorian Fathers
, formation =
, founder = Archbishop Euthymios Michael Saifi
, founding_location = Saida, Lebanon
, type = Monastic order of pontifical righ ...
. In the 1970s, after the Basilian Salvatorian Order vacated the property, the castle was used as a substance abuse treatment center and was then abandoned, boarded-up, looted and vandalized. A series of fires over a number of years heavily damaged the mansion. A major fire, intentionally set, destroyed the roof and most of the interior. Instead of preserving the still-impressive ruins of this Carrere and Hastings Beaux-Arts mansion, which despite the fire, still featured original exterior terracotta details, brickwork, and granite walls, the remains were almost completely demolished by approval of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management. The town government of Methuen did not act to prevent the demolition either. Of the mansion, only a very small corner and a section of the interior courtyard arcade exist. The ruins are currently in poor condition and continue to be vandalized. The Gatehouse, is now home to the Methuen Museum of History and maintained by the Methuen Historical Society. The Stock House or Stables remain standing as part of the original estate. The Tenney estate is currently a Massachusetts state park, known as Greycourt Park.
See also
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References
{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Castles in Massachusetts
Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Buildings and structures in Methuen, Massachusetts
Gates in the United States
Methuen, Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Methuen, Massachusetts
Gatehouses (architecture)