Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society » VISIONARY ARCHITECTURE WEEK: Quigley’s Castle

March 1st, 2006

VISIONARY ARCHITECTURE WEEK: Quigley’s Castle

We love the Quigley Castle, outside of Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Each floor of the home is set back form the front wall to leave room for trees to grow just behind the large plate glass windows. The building is covered in shells and stones, the garden is filled with trees made out of colorful bottles, and the interior is decorated with Mrs. Quigley’s vaguely Cornell-esque art. Here’s the story of the house, as told by Mrs. Quigley’s grandson, who now lives in the house:

My grandmother’s maiden name was Elise Fiovanti. She was Italian. She came to the Ozarks when she was nine. She loved the outdoors and began to collect rocks as she walked along a creek bed to school. When she was 18 during the depression, she married my grandfather, Albert Quigley. He was the type of fellow who brought her rock collection with them to the site of his farm and lumber mill. They lived in a lumber shack and had five children. My grandfather promised her a house with the lumber cut off their own property. In 1943 she designed a house that would allow her to bring nature indoors. It would be her dream house. The lumber was cut and drying in a long chicken house below the shack. However, WWII was going on, and supplies were rationed. My grandfather thought they should wait to build the house, especially as the design called for 32 large windows, and glass was rationed. They argued about it for several months. In June, when my grandfather left for the mill, grandmother and the five children, three of them teenage boys, tore the lumber shack down. She moved them into the chicken house. That is where my grandfather found he was living when he came home that evening and where they lived while he, the sons, and a great uncle built “the castle.” They were able to move into the wooden structure by that winter, but it took three more years before the war was over and they were able to get the 32 window spaces called for in the unique design. My grandmother used the three years to cover the outside walls of her new home with her rock collection.

The front:

An interior wall:

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VISIONARY ARCHITECTURE WEEK: Quigley’s Castle

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