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Thorne was fascinated with the grandeur of
old English estates and the wealthy man was determined to reinvent his
own castle and dream house. Built to last through the centuries, Thornewood Castle has solid three-foot-thick foundations, 18 inch
floors of concrete and cinder, 10 inch walls, and hand hewn woodwork
from ancient English oak, held together by solid wood dowels. Three ships had to be commissioned to transport the original bricks,
wood and windows around Cape Horn to the Pacific Northwest.
After the house was built Thorne hired
a landscape architectural firm that turned 37 of the estate’s 100
acres into formal English gardens that required a full-time staff of
28 gardeners. Inside, the staff included 40 servants to look
after the needs of Chester, his wife, Anna, and their daughter Anita.
Over the years, the house hosted many fine
garden parties and dinners with the likes of Presidents Theodore
Roosevelt and William Howard Taft among some of the guests.
Alas,
the wealthy banker and businessman died on October 16, 1927, after
having enjoyed his home for over a decade and making significant
contributions to the Seattle/Tacoma area. Anna Thorne was
elected to the board of directors of her husband’s bank, and continued
to oversee her husband’s philanthropic efforts in the community, as
well as the mansion and gardens. By that time, their daughter had
married Cadwallader Corse and the couple, along with their son, also
lived in the large manor.
Later, the pair would divorce and Anita
remarried Major General David C. Stone. When Stone was
transferred to the Panama Canal Zone, Anna found Thornewood to be to
big and lonely and moved to a smaller Georgian home that she had built
at the corner of North 5th Avenue and D Street in Tacoma. When the Stones returned to Thornewood, Anna also returned to the
castle, dying peacefully in 1954.
When General Stone passed away in 1959, Anita
sold the house and grounds to Harold St. John, who subdivided the land for
30 home sites. Just over four acres were reserved for the mansion, along
with 110 feet of the lake front. Over the next several years the house
was sold several times until it was purchased by current owners, Wayne and
Deanna Robinson in 2000.
Today, the
historic castle is said to host a number of spirits that refuse to leave,
either for their love of the manor or for the tragedies that occurred over
its long history. The most prevalent sighting is that of Chester
Thorne himself, who has reportedly made several appearances over the
years. In what was his former room, light bulbs are often found to
be unscrewed.
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