{"nrhp_refnum":"82004953","name":"Searles Castle","other_names":["Kellogg Terrace","Barrington House","Hopkins-Searles Mansion"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Great Barrington","county":"Berkshire County","state":"MA","lat":42.18993259800004,"lon":-73.36118594866618,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-04-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Landscape Architecture","Art","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Searles Castle is a late-nineteenth century French Chateau-style mansion and estate on about 64 acres on Main Street in Great Barrington, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, designed by McKim, Mead and White and completed in 1888.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is an accomplished work of McKim, Mead and White in the Chateauesque style and one of the finest estates in the Berkshires (Criterion C). It is also tied to railroad magnate Mark Hopkins, his wife Mary, and decorator Edward Searles (Criterion B).","narrative":"Searles Castle is a forty-plus room mansion in the center of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, set behind high stone walls on about 64 acres between Main Street and the Housatonic River. Designed by McKim, Mead and White in the French Chateau style and finished in 1888, it is built of rock-faced blue dolomite from a quarry on East Mountain, with seven towers, many gables and a steep slate roof. Inside are oak woodwork, a pink marble atrium, a Louis XIV drawing room and a large music room that once held an organ. The estate also includes a carriage house and a lagoon with a fountain. Construction began for Mary Hopkins, widow of Central Pacific Railroad founder Mark Hopkins. Interior decorator Edward Searles supervised the work and later married her. Listing recognizes the building as a fine work of a leading architectural firm and as a site linked to prominent late nineteenth-century business and society figures.","period_of_significance":"1883-1888","architect_builder":"Architect: McKim, Mead, and White (Stanford White); Builder: Norcross Bros., Worcester, MA","architectural_style":"French Chateau / Chateauesque","criteria":["B","C"],"status_note":"Listed as occupied, in excellent condition, unaltered and on its original site; present uses include museum, commercial and educational. A golf course covers most of the grounds below the castle.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.565068-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/76/7941/63794176/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/82004953.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82004953/f413afd3fb-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82004953/f413afd3fb-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Kenneth C. Zirkel","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Searles_Castle_in_Great_Barrington,_Massachusetts.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Kenneth C. Zirkel</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Searles_Castle_in_Great_Barrington,_Massachusetts.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63794176","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searles_Castle_(Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7441763"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/berkshire-county/searles-castle-82004953/"}