Squire's Castle

Squire's Castle in Willoughby Hills is the abandoned gatehouse of a Standard Oil executive whose wife refused to live in the countryside. Visitors report a red lantern glow and a woman's figure in the second-story window, though Rebecca Squire actually died of a stroke in Wickliffe, miles away, in 1929.

The most famous ghost at Squire's Castle never actually died there. Rebecca Squire died of a stroke in Wickliffe, Ohio, in 1929, five years after her husband sold the property. But the legend is too good to correct, so people keep seeing her anyway.

The story goes like this: Rebecca, wife of Standard Oil executive Feargus B. Squire, hated living in the countryside. During one of her restless nighttime walks through the gatehouse, she tripped over one of her husband's animal trophies and broke her neck. Her ghost carries a red lantern through the empty shell of the building, visible from the surrounding woods after dark.

None of that happened. But the real story is almost as interesting.

Feargus Squire arrived in Cleveland from Exeter, England, in 1860. He joined Standard Oil of Ohio in 1885, working as co-manager alongside Frank Rockefeller (John D.'s brother). He's credited with designing the first tank wagon for oil shipment. By the 1890s, he had enough money to buy 525 acres in the Chagrin Valley and commission what he called "River Farm Estate," a pair of baronial mansions designed by a New York architect.

He only built the gatehouse. The structure was made from silt stone (also called Euclid bluestone) quarried locally, with castellated towers, turrets, a library, a breakfast porch, and leaded glass windows. It was meant to house the caretaker while the main mansions went up behind it.

Rebecca refused to leave their Euclid Avenue home on Millionaire's Row. The mansions were never constructed. Squire improved the land with roads, bridges, and ponds (including Sunset Pond), but eventually gave up on the country estate idea. The couple built a home called Cobblestone Garth in Wickliffe instead, where Feargus served as mayor. He sold the Chagrin Valley property in 1922. Rebecca died seven years later. Feargus died in 1932.

The Metropolitan Park Board acquired the land in 1925, and it became North Chagrin Reservation. Park officials stripped the gatehouse interior for safety, removing floors, staircases, and fixtures to prevent injuries from vandalism and decay. Today it's a stunning, well-maintained shell: stone walls, open sky through the upper windows, castle-shaped but hollow.

That hollowness may be part of the appeal. During the 1960s and 1970s, the site attracted occult practitioners, biker gangs, and at least a few documented suicides on the grounds. The castle's reputation grew darker during this period, feeding the ghost story that was already circulating.

Visitors report a red lantern glow moving through the building after sunset. A few have described a woman's figure in the second-story window. The park closes at dusk, so most of these sightings happen from the surrounding trails or the parking lot nearby.

The building is open to walk through during daylight hours, free of charge. The architecture alone, even gutted, is worth the visit. Whether Rebecca Squire walks there is between her and the bluestone.