Stokes Castle - Austin, Nevada
Posted by: 
Volcanoguy
N 39° 29.602 W 117° 04.794
11S E 493129 N 4371531
Stokes Castle in Austin, NV.
Waymark Code: WMVEXF
Location: Nevada, United States
Date Posted: 04/09/2017
Views: 1
Stokes Castle was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 14, 2003. The following information comes from National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (
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Stokes Castle, located in Austin, Nevada, is one of the state's most recognizable historic landmarks. The three-story granite tower was built in 1897 for Anson Phelps Stokes, the driving force behind the Nevada Central Railroad and Austin's mining industry at the end of the nineteenth century. Stokes modeled his romantic summer home on a family painting of a tower in the Roman Campagna, and he sited it on a prominence with sweeping views of the Reese River Valley. The Castle featured balconies cantilevered on railroad rails (the rails survive), plate-glass picture windows, a castellated parapet, and a rooftop terrace once shaded by a suspended canvas awning. The floors in the simply detailed interior were removed years ago to deter intruders. Anson Phelps Stokes, his sons, a Chinese cook, and guests occupied the Castle on several occasions in 1897 and 1898. For much of the twentieth century the Castle was boarded up and subjected to deterioration and vandalism. Threatened with removal to the Las Vegas Strip after 1950, it was saved by Stokes relative Molly Knudtsen and today stands as a testimony to her foresight.
The Castle is a three-story granite tower, square in plan, that retains remnants of a castellated top and interior finishes. Stokes Castle is constructed of large granite blocks with scored grapevine-like joints. A change in stone and mortar color marks the addition of the third story within a few months of the completion of the lower two stories. The Castle measures almost exactly twenty-three feet and three inches to a side. The front elevation faces south (slightly southwest) and is distinguished on the first story by a single large entry that formerly contained double-leaf doors. The front elevation is also distinguished by projecting iron railroad rail supports for former balconies at the second and third-story floor levels and for a roof over the third-story balcony.