Benjamin Ames Kimball

Stone castle renovation follows heiress's wishes
Restaurant, inn, nature preserve planned
By Linda Hyatt Young

GILFORD - Charlotte Kimball may soon rest easy.

Forty years after her death, townspeople are follow in instructions she left in her will:  Her 300 acres is now becoming a nature preserve.  And her large, stone castle, long the site of vandalism and kids' parties, is becoming an inn and restaurant.

"It was a rite of passage for teens to sneak up here and get into the castle," said Don Leavitt, who wants to restore the sprinkling of cottages, sheds, castle and stone gazebo here back to their original beauty.

"Everybody's done it for generations.  At least they didn't burn it down; They had some respect for the place," he said.

After Kimball's death, the castle sat here on Lockes Hill full of tapestries, furnishings and personal possessions, including a suit of armor.

All of it was stolen.

The only traces of the antiques' existence is an imprint of Benjamin Kimball's sword, left in soft wood above the mantel.

"This place wasn't boarded up until five years ago," Leavitt said.  "The thing was just open."

But now, as soon as Leavitt and his partner Rick Miller can find investors, they plan to restore the Victorian rock gardens, the interior of the castle and the surrounding cottages into a 20-room inn with a restaurant.

"People say we're crazy," Leavitt said.  "We just really like fixing up old buildings."

Leavitt and Miller are serious about the project.  In August they paid the town $5,000 as a down payment on the castle.  Now they have 18 months to find the money it will take to begin construction.

The two plan to buy 14 acres and the buildings here from the town.  That along with restoration will cost about $2 million.

Right now, Leavitt said he has some interested investors because of his experience.  Leavitt and Miller fixed up a house in Center Harbor and made it into the Red Hill Inn in 1985.  That inn is doing well, even in the poor economy, Leavitt said.

The interior of the castle is breathtaking, even with its boarded up windows and rotting floor boards.

The kitchen is small and dark, but it leads to the core of the house's magic.

A large living room with a fireplace sits under an octagonal-shaped balcony, each with its own fireplace.  Tall pillars, 12-foot windows and ornate oak paneling hint at the beauty the castle once held.

In addition to fixing the castle, Leavitt is moving the old Lakeport Railroad Station to the grounds to remodel into rooms.  Right now, the old station is in storage at the Laconia Airport, covered in plastic.  The station was built by Benjamin Kimball, the same man who built the castle.

"Everyone said why move an old building?" Leavitt said.  "But old buildings have a feel you just can't duplicate."

Fireplaces in the rooms, Jacuzzis and a swimming pool will be added to the grounds.  The restaurant will serve New England cuisine.

"It's projected to be a good money maker," Leavitt said.

Deluxe rooms in the castle will go for $150 per night, while the cottage rooms will go from $110 to $150.

Many people in town are excited about Leavitt and Miller's plans.

"That castle has been in disrepair for years," said Gilford resident Tom Carr.  "It's a historic place getting beat up."

Spread over the estate's other 280 acres sprawls a large nature preserve and trails, Kimball Wildlife Forest.  A new entrance to the preservation will be built on the inn grounds.  Now, people who want to visit the trails, which are free and open to the public, must park in a spot off Route 11.

The land holds a lot of wildlife, including deer, turkeys, downy and hairy woodpeckers, broad-winged hawks, gray squirrels and great horned owls.

Benjamin Kimball, president of the Boston and Montreal Railroad, built the castle between 1897 and 1899.  According to legend, Kimball was inspired to build the castle after he saw German castles along the Rhine.  He chose Lockes Hill for his spot because of its 300-degree view overlooking Lake Winnipesaukee and the White Mountains.

Italian stone masons built the castle with rock quarried from the south side of Lockes Hill.  While they built the castle, the masons lived on a steamship owned by the railroad, The Lady of the Lake.

After the stone masons were finished, the boat was sunk in the lake.  The boat now serves as a scuba diving sight for tourists and residents.

Kimball died in 1920, a year after his son Henry died.  The estate was passed on to Henry Kimball's wife Charlotte, who summered there until she died in 1960.

Charlotte Kimball willed the property to a charitable trust along with a large sum of money.  Charlotte Kimball, however, put one condition in her will:  she wanted the property made into a nature preserve.

No one knows what happened to the money - about $400,000 - Kimball willed to the trust.  But in 1979, because the charitable trust was not following Charlotte Kimball's wishes, the estate was given to the town of Gilford.

The town put a caretaker up there right away, said Sandra McGonagle, chairwoman of the Kimball Castle Wildlife Forest Committee.  In the last three years, Gilford built the trails and declared the area a nature preserve with help from the U.S. Forest Service, the Belknap County forester and the UNH Cooperative Extension.

Inmates from Laconia's shock incarceration program also helped build the trails.

McGonagle, who teaches at Gilford Elementary School, took about 100 students to the castle a week and a half ago.  She wanted to raise the children's consciousness to vandalism and teach them about the castle as well as plant and animal life living on the land.

Police chief Evans Juris is happy about the plans for the Kimball estate.  In recent years he can think of about a dozen arrests the Gilford police have made because of trespassing and vandalism at the castle.

"Over the years, vandalism has occurred.  It is in a remote area," he said.  "I think it's going to be a benefit to the community," Juris said.  "Where else do you find a castle with the view this place has?"

©2004 Peter K Kimball