Mystery Castle is located
in the city of Phoenix, Arizona, in the foothills of South Mountain
Park. It was built in the 1930s by Boyce Luther Gulley for his daughter
Mary Lou Gulley. After learning he had tuberculosis, Gulley moved from
Seattle to the Phoenix area and began building the house from found
or inexpensive materials. Boyce Gulley died in 1945, and Mary Lou and
her mother were notified by attorney that they had inherited the property.
Shortly after, the mother and daughter moved in.
 Their
story attracted attention, giving the home some renown as well as its
exotic name: A Life Magazine story (January 26, 1948) used the headline
"Life Visits a Mystery Castle: A Young Girl Rules Over the Strange
Secrets of a Fairy Tale Dream House in the Arizona Desert." The
photograph featured Mary Lou posing atop the cantilever staircase leading
to the roof of the house. That same year, Mary Lou and her mother began
offering tours of the home.
Said to be held together by a combination of mortar, cement, calcium,
and goat milk, the sprawling 18-room, three story castle is built from
a wide range of materials – stone, adobe, automobile parts, salvaged
rail tracks from a mine, telephone poles, etc. It features a chapel,
cantina, and a dungeon. Parts of the castle remain unfinished, and electricity
and plumbing were not added until 1992. As the housing boom progressed
in Phoenix, new development encroached close to the castle and its grounds,
making it far less isolated.
Mary Lou Gulley died on November 3, 2010. The property is now maintained
by the Mystery Castle Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit organization. The
Mystery Castle has been designated as a Phoenix Point of Pride.
Extensively vandalized on March 6, 2022, the Mystery Castle suffered
an estimated $100,000 in damage. No arrests have been made. The Castle
was closed for tours, but reopened on March 18, 2022. Tours have since
been suspended.
The two RV Gypsies think that since It is designated as a Phoenix
Point of Pride so it should be open. (Anything is subject to change
as time passes.)
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