MarysLibrary

Castle Drogo

Wilhelm likes to watch what he calls The High-Def-for-Its-Own-Sake channel and this afternoon he stumbled across a program they were showing about the last castle to be built in England, Castle Drogo. The place was designed by Edward Lutyens and was built in the 1910s and 1920s.

The owner, Julius Drewe, liked gadgets and that was a perfect time to wow the world with the modern installations in his new house. Turbines in the river to generate electricity, modern showers with multiple shower heads in the seven bathrooms, telephones in nearly every room, and a central vacuum cleaner system.

Gertrude Jekyll did the gardens, of course.

Historic House Tour

Today Wilhelm and I went on the annual house tour of the Spokane Preservation Advocates. We saw three Tudor-revival houses built in the first decade of the 20th century for the Comstock family. All are listed by the National Trust of Historic Places.

The house in the picture was built in 1910. You have to picture it with snow on the lawn and the roof and generally looking like a Christmas card. And inside it has all those features beloved of the Arts and Crafts movement: built-in bookcases and dining-room cabinets, box beam ceilings, pocket doors, graceful room dividers, and polished wood everywhere.

It's a pleasure to see what people have done to bring these houses back from decay and unfortunate renovations to look much like what they did when new. There was lots of art glass, Grueby tile, and Stickley furniture along with old textiles, Morris chairs, original gas and electric light fixtures, and Craftsman pottery.

There are thousands of houses in Spokane built between 1900 and 1930 or so, some larger than the Comstock houses, most smaller, and many like these (and ours) in intact neighborhoods with a minimum of "intrusions." This is a truly beautiful city.