National Park Seminary, Castle, Ravine in northeast part of campus, Silver Spring, Montgomery County, MD

Significance: The castle is one of the NPS clubhouses. The fanciful, medieval fortress for the Pi Beta Nu sorority counterbalanced the symmetrical architectural forms, such as the villa and the Colonial House, in this section of the campus. It helped fuse this area with the more informal styles on the main campus. The fairytale-like castle with crenelated tower and Gothic windows is reminiscent of garden follies common in English gardens in the eighteenth century and revived in American suburban and garden architecture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The Gothic Revival style became popular in the mid-nineteenth century, in part, as a reaction against the vast transformations caused by industrialization.

Survey number: HABS MD-1109-I

Building/structure dates: 1904 Initial Construction

Building/structure dates: before 1922 Subsequent Work

sorority houses officers quarters fraternities and sororities education women domestic life recreation prostitution military medicine adaptive reuse gothic revival architectural elements towers battlements silver spring md seminary national park seminary castle ravine northeast part northeast part campus silver montgomery county national park maryland james e ament jack e boucher historic american buildings survey catherine c lavoie cynthia ott pi beta nu sorority virginia b price photo ultra high resolution high resolution united states history library of congress

1904 - 1980

Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/

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