Heading back north June 22, 2022

  We're headed north to visit with friends and family. Our first destination was Lumberton,  NC, after an 8+ hour drive. Weather was fine, but hot, and traffic heading out of FL was heavy. There were lots of trucks, and we passed several backups of standstill traffic on the southbound route.

Wednesday's drive took us to Fredericksburg,  VA via Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Henrico, VA about an hour apart.

Lewis Ginter was beautiful, with lovely and well cared-for gardens. There was a nice butterfly house that had a large selection of butterflies. The only downside was that the day was hot, and the butterfly enclosure was not air conditioned. I was melting! The flower gardens were gorgeous and more naturally arranged and not what I would call formal. We decided to take a walk into a wooded area, and then heard a rumbling. Our phones issued a weather alert: severe storms with high winds were on the way. We continued on until the wind really started to pick up. Then we decided to turn back. Thankfully we had brought umbrellas, because we needed them when it started to pour. We made our way back to the visitor center which by then had lost power. We figured we'd just wait out the storm. After about 15 minutes, once the worst of the storm seemed to have passed, we headed out again. It was still raining,  but not hard. After a few minutes, we were called back by staff. They were concerned about lingering lightning reports in the area, and decided to close the garden early.

So we left and headed to our hotel for the night. 

Fonthill Castle June 23, 2022

 

The Wikipedia entry will give the story: Fonthill Castle was the home of the archaeologist and tile maker Henry Chapman Mercer. Built between 1908 and 1912 in Henrico, VA, it is an early example of poured-in-place concrete and features 44 rooms, over 200 windows, 18 fireplaces, 10 bathrooms and one powder room. The interior was originally painted in pastel colors, but age and sunlight have all but eradicated any hint of the former hues. One room in the Terrace Pavilion (built on the site of the former home's barn), has a restored paint job so visitors can view the home's former glory. The castle contains built-in furniture and is embellished with decorative tiles, made by Mercer at the height of the Arts and Crafts movement. The castle is filled with an extensive collection of ceramics embedded in the concrete of the house, as well as other artifacts from his world travels, including cuneiform tablets discovered in Mesopotamia dating back to over 2300 BCE. The home also contains around 1,000 prints from Mercer's extensive collection, as well as over six thousand books, almost all of which were annotated by Mercer himself.

The Castle was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, and was later included in a National Historic Landmark District along with the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works and the Mercer Museum. These three structures are the only poured-in-place concrete structures built by Mercer. The walls, ceilings, roofs, floors and even some of the furniture are all poured concrete. He used no mechanized equipment in construction. He had 10 men and 1 horse throughout all the construction. The Moravian Pottery and Tile Works is located on the same property as Fonthill Castle, and the Mercer Museum is located about a mile away.

Fonthill Castle and the Mercer Museum are owned and operated by the Bucks County Historical Society, whereas the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works is operated by the County of Bucks.

This place is amazing. The approach to the house is through an Allee of sycamores. The house itself from the outside does not betray the wonders inside.

The castle was appended to a house that was already on-site when Henry Mercer bought the property with money left him by his aunt.

He designed everything inside and out. He made the castle entrance to resemble the entrance to a cave, reminiscent of the caves he accessed in his work as an archeologist. He blackened the ceiling of the entrance to complete the effect. All the 44 rooms are adorned on walls and ceilings with his tile work or art he collected. It's mind-blowing when you consider this.

Photos are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/2pz5gGNS1gm1d1V8A

In the photos, the castle looks black. It's completely made of concrete, and the heavy rain of the day before darkened it. When dry, it's gray.