Mystery Castle is a creation by one man in the 1930s who was struggling with health issues. The castle is a testament to the hard work and sacrifices he made while unable to have contact with his family. While it may not be as old as your typical European castle, it still has a great story to tell…
THE HISTORY OF MYSTERY CASTLE
The first thing you’ll notice about Mystery Castle is it’s not your typical castle. Generally, when people think of castles, they typically think of large European medieval castles where battles once took place many centuries ago.
Mystery Castle is nothing like that, it was only built in the 1930s. It’s also not very big, not compared to a lot of famous castles. It’s also not European, as this one-man castle was built in the foothills of South Mountain Park, just outside of Phoenix, Arizona.
At first glance, the “castle” looks like a mishmash of styles, part Mexican, part cowboy-town American, and, to be honest, part ‘built by an eccentric guy’… as far away from civilization as possible.
We have seen the latter style plenty of times before, at places such as Hard Luck Mine Castle, Bishop Castle, and Goose Creek Tower. In every single case, it has been the hard work of one single man that has made each structure happen.
As with those other properties, Mystery Castle has been built in the most unusual way, wheel rims for windows, coloured glass bottles wedged between stones, petroglyphs etched in the rocks, amateurish stone stacks, and much more.
So how did Mystery Castle come to find itself being built on the outskirts of the bustling city of Phoenix? Well, this castle’s story starts back in the late 1920s, when Boyce Luther Gulley was spending time with his daughter Mary Lou building sandcastles on the beach in Seattle.
Troubled by the tide washing away her sandcastle, Mary Lou turned to her father and stated that she needed to build her sandcastle somewhere dry.
Just a few years later, in 1930, Boyce was diagnosed with the infectious disease tuberculosis and given only months to live. With the belief that desert air was able to help dry moisture from the lungs of those afflicted with tuberculosis, and with him not wanting to infect his family, he left behind his wife Frances and daughter Mary Lou and headed for Arizona.
The family, Mary Lou (left), Frances (center), and Boyce (right)
With the memories of the family he left behind, including those of the sandcastles on the beach with his daughter, Gulley began collecting anything he could find to use as building materials. Mountain rocks, old phone poles, railroad tracks, automobile parts, anything he could find, he would collect, knowing that his time was severely limited due to his illness.
With the materials collected, Boyce began building what would become a two-story dwelling, featuring 18 rooms, 13 fireplaces, a chapel, and of course, what every “real castle” needs, a dungeon. A stone fireplace on the second floor keeps the living room warm, as well as the master bedroom located behind it. Other features include seating areas, a wishing well, and a guest space called the Saguaro Room.
Thankfully Boyce had enough time to complete much of Mystery Castle; despite being only given months to live, he survived another 15 years, passing away in 1945. After his death, his family was notified by an attorney that they had inherited the property. So shortly after, his wife Frances and daughter Mary Lou made the move to Arizona.
In 1948, just a few years after moving to Mystery Castle, their story was featured in Life Magazine, with a photo of Mary Lou posing at the top of a staircase leading to the roof of the castle. This newly attracted attention led to Frances and Mary Lou (who was now 25 years old) offering tours of their isolated home to the public for 25 cents.
After Frances Gulley died in 1970, she left Mystery Castle to Mary Lou, who would keep the house her entire life.
MYSTERY CASTLE IN RECENT YEARS
As the housing boom progressed in Phoenix, new developments encroached closer and closer to Mystery Castle and its grounds, making it far less isolated than it once was. While it is still on the very outskirts of the city, neighbors are now but a few hundred meters away.
In 1992 electricity and plumbing were finally added to the castle after over half a century without them. However, despite the upgrades, parts of the castle are still unfinished, left how they were since Boyce Luther Gulley died.
Mystery Castle also became a Phoenix Point Of Pride, one of thirty-three landmarks in the city voted on by residents to represent the city’s best features.
In November 2010, at the age of 87, Mary Lou Gulley died. Mystery Castle then passed into the hands of the Mystery Castle Foundation, a non-profit organization that Mary set up to help with maintaining the castle after she could no longer do so.
Mary Lou Gulley (center)
Unfortunately, in March 2022, Mystery Castle was vandalized and suffered an estimated $100,000 in damage. The castle was then forced to close for tours while repairs were carried out; it reopened to the public just a couple of weeks later. Nobody has ever been charged with the damage caused.
Today, Mystery Castle remains open to the public for tours throughout most of the year, you can even get married at the chapel there, as hundreds of couples have done over the years. However, in the peak summer months, the castle is closed, largely because it’s far too hot, but also because of a problem with the local rattlesnakes.
If you like Mystery Castle, check out Gillette Castle, while it was not built by one man, it has some similarities.
