Maybe because this was my first post-COVID museum, or maybe because I have a thing for eccentric homes built by ultra-rich early 20th-century Americans, but I have only superlatives to say about Fonthill Castle in rural Doylestown Pennsylvania.
Henry Chapman Mercer, an independently wealthy archaeologist and tile manufacturer, had this palace made between 1908-1912. Influenced by the many months he spent touring around Europe but also by a quirky fear of fire, he decided to have the whole thing built from poured concrete. He later tested his “will it burn” theory by lighting parts of it on fire, much to the chagrin of the local fire department. You can see places where he deliberately left burned concrete on some of his ceilings.
But with 18 fireplaces, at least 200 windows, and 44 rooms, the castle is extravagant. And he liked things fancy, so the walls and ceilings — which are high and filled with arches reminiscent of early Medieval churches — are covered with his extensive tile artwork. And every room is stuffed with paintings, artwork, and books from his vast travel and career experience.
For instance, turn a corner and see roof tiles from the Temple of Heaven, c. 1700 China built into a stairwell. (Slide 2). If you like Mespopotamian history, you can appreciate the clay tablets of lists of kings from Ur dating to 2300 BCE embedded (and helpfully labeled) on a column in one of the reception rooms (Slide 4). Indeed, the entire structure is filled with Easter Eggs to put together Mercer’s sensibilities and love of history. The skull in this study (Slide 5) was meant to be a sort of memento mori to remind Mercer of the fleeting nature of life. But it is positioned right next to the poems of Lord Byron, paragon of Gothic fascination with death — an accident, or intentional?
Mercer loved knowledge and he had an exuberance for life and that came through in Latin messages that were written in tile all around the castle. One stairwell (Slide 3) says much about Mercer’s attitude toward life, spent in the pursuit of learning: “FELIX QUI POTUIT REM COGNOSCERE CAUSAS” (happy is he who can know the cause of stuff).
