Mystery Castle

Mystery Castle can be found at E Mineral Rd 800. The following is offered: Tourist Attractions. The entry is present with us since Sep 10, 2010 and was last updated on Nov 14, 2013. In Phoenix there are 40 other Tourist Attractions. An overview can be found here.

When to Go: The castle is closed from July through September.

The castle is closed from July through September.

At the foot of South Mountain lies a curious dwelling built from desert rocks by Boyce Gulley, who came to Arizona to cure his tuberculosis. Full of fascinating oddities, the castle has 18 rooms with 13 fireplaces, a downstairs grotto tavern, a roll-away bed with a mining railcar as its frame, and some original pieces of Frank Lloyd Wright–designed furniture. The pump organ belonged to Elsie,...

Built for a daughter who longed for a castle more permanent than those built in the sand at the beach, Mystery Castle is a wondrous work of folk-art architecture. Boyce Luther Gulley, who had come to Arizona in hopes of curing his tuberculosis, constructed the castle during the 1930s and early 1940s using stones from the property. The resulting 18-room fantasy has 13 fireplaces, parapets, and...

In Short
The story of Mystery Castle is one of bygone Phoenix, when folks could settle in a limitless desert and build more or less whatever they fancied without thought of city codes or...

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, Washington, to the Phoenix area and began building the house from found or inexpensive materials. Boyce Gulley died in 1945, and Mary Lou and her...