The estate Thornewood is located in Lakewood, Washington, as it is today. Three structures make up the estate, including Thornewood Castle, which was constructed using imported English bricks from a destroyed 15th-century home.
The Castle served as the backdrop for Rose Red, a Stephen King movie. The house is currently used as a bed & breakfast, holiday rental, wedding venue, and event space. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
History of Thornewood Castle
Mr. Chester Thorne and his wife, Anna, provided the specifications for the construction of Thornewood Castle. Chester, a renowned banker and one of the architects of the Port of Tacoma, spared no cost in designing and building this extraordinary rural mansion for his family.
Thornewood’s construction was a true labour of love. Mr. Thorne bought a 400-year-old Elizabethan estate in England in 1907 and had pieces of it disassembled and sent separately. In 1908, the main house and those components were constructed. This fascinating Tudor Gothic project was under the direction of renowned architect Kirtland Kelsey Cutter.
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Architecture and Design
Exterior Design
Thornewood Castle is built of steel and concrete on a sturdy three-foot foundation. Brick and concrete are used for the outside walls, which have 10-inch walls with steel reinforcement. Old English oak was used for the hand-hewn woodwork.
There are ten inches of concrete on the flooring. The building process, which lasted three years from 1908 to 1911, used a lot of components from the English castle, including the front door, the oak panelling, and the oak staircase. The estate’s exterior red brick facing was imported from Wales. Three ships were hired to deliver these building materials from the Pacific Northwest around Cape Horn.
Interior Design
The stained glass panels date back to 1300, and the crystal windows were constructed in England under the direction of renowned architect Kirkland Cutter. The 54-room English Tudor/Gothic home is one of the few authentic private castles in the country, with 28 bedrooms and 22 bathrooms.
Movies at Thornewood Castle
Rose Red (2002)
Here at Thornewood Castle, ABC filmed the first season of the Stephen King television miniseries Rose Red. The project was restored, built, and filmed here at Thornewood over the course of six months in the second half of 2000. Filming also took place at a few additional adjacent Seattle-area areas.
The majority of the movie sequence in the Great Hall was filmed on the Thornewood Castle set, which also served as the haunted home “Rose Red” in the film.
The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer (2003)
Based on Ridley Pearson’s best-selling novel, parts of Ellen Rimbauer’s journal follow a string of violent incidents that take place around the Rose Red estate and change the innocent and subservient wife of a wealthy industrialist (Brand) into a woman tormented by the evil entities who live in her house. The executive producers are Thomas Brodek and Mark Carliner, while the producer is Stephen King.
The Eyes of the Totem (1927)
Harvey C. Weaver, who founded the H.C. Weaver Studios production firm in Tacoma in 1924, was responsible for the creation of this silent movie. Chester Thorne was one of Weaver’s financiers (the founder of Thornewood Castle).
Thornewood Castle’s facade and the entrance are both shown in Eyes of the Totem. The doors and lighting fixtures seen in these images are still in use today, as viewers may have noticed.
In Tacoma, Weaver Studios made three movies. The movies were thought to be lost for a long time when a Tacoma historian found The Eyes of the Totem in the New York’s Modern Museum of Art archives. The movie was shown to the public for the first time since the 1920s in 2015, following restoration and the creation of a new soundtrack.
Thornewood Castle Wedding
For a ceremony and reception, the rental cost ranges from $3,450 to $7,950 and covers 50 guests as well as 6 hours of event time, including setup and cleanup. A price of $500 per hour or 25 guests can be established for extra guests and hours.
- English Garden Submerged (Outdoor Ceremony, 200 guest max)
- Lakeside Lawn (maximum 200 guests for an outdoor ceremony or reception)
- 200 maximum guests for outdoor weddings/receptions on the front castle lawn
- The Loggia (Large covered porch ideal for buffet location or cocktail hour)
- Dining room (Indoor Reception, 125 guest max)
- Big Hall (125 guests maximum for indoor ceremonies; dance floor)
Hotels near Thornewood Castle
Best Western Lakewood
3.2 miles from Thornewood Castle
Hampton Inn & Suites DuPont
4.2 miles from Thornewood Castle
Best Western Liberty Inn Dupont Jblm
5.0 miles from Thornewood Castle
People also ask:
Is parking available at Thornewood Castle?
Absolutely, visitors are entitled to free parking.
Which room amenities are available at Thornewood Castle?
A kitchenette, air conditioning, and a flat-screen TV are among the top accommodation facilities.
Who owns Thornewood Castle?
The movie and a sequel were filmed there in 2000 and 2002, respectively. On the shores of American Lake, the real businessman Chester Thorne constructed his 27,000 square foot estate in 1911. Deanna and Wayne Robinson currently own it and operate it as a bed & breakfast.
Sources : thornewoodcastle.com | Please dm for removals.
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