Wilson Castle

Wilson Castle is an improbable Victorian Gothic mansion about 5 miles southwest of Rutland, perched on a hilltop with a 115-acre estate of lawns, forests, and meadows. The exterior is all turrets, towers, and decorative stonework. Inside there are 84 rooms filled with European antiques, tapestries, and a collection of stained glass.

Tours run from May through October, led by guides who are notably candid about the building's eccentric history and the succession of owners who struggled to maintain it. The setting — a mid-19th century English castle fantasy dropped into a Vermont hillside — is genuinely strange in a way that photographs don't fully capture. It's about a 10-minute drive from Rutland centre.

things to do sight historic house architecture
A story
Dr John Johnson built Wilson Castle in 1867 after returning from a career in England, intending it to look like an English manor house. He may have overdone it. The resulting structure has 84 rooms, 32 rooms with imported European fireplaces, 13 imported European stained glass windows, and a ballroom that was too large to heat properly. Johnson went bankrupt during construction. The castle passed through several owners, was used as a summer residence, fell into disrepair, and has been operated as a tourist attraction since the 1950s.