The story behind Sheldon, Mosher and Boom Castles in Fairhope
The first one started in 1946 as a garage, workshop and laundry room. That got our attention. So we went to see them.
It started in 1946
Craig Sheldon and his wife, Annie ‘Butch’ Sheldon, were renting an apartment at Whittier Hall on Magnolia Avenue and began building on their property in 1946.
The plan was not to build a castle.
They were building a garage, workshop and laundry room, with plans for a Mexican-style house elsewhere on the lot. Before that happened, the family got tired of the apartment they were renting and moved into the unfinished structure.
The garage became a bedroom. The workshop became the living and dining room. The laundry room became the kitchen.
Craig Sheldon was a carpenter, sculptor, writer, environmentalist and World War II Marine. He also used what he had.
The exterior was built with Clay City tile and covered with Mobile Bay stone. He worked old tools, bottles, cookware, pieces of glass and even Civil War shrapnel into the walls.
The patchwork roof came from leftover shingles he brought home from construction jobs.
In the 1950s, he added the round tower with help from his son. Sheldon had always wanted to build a round room, so the tower ended up with three of them.
That became Sheldon Castle – Read the history here.
Then his daughter built next door
Craig and Butch Sheldon’s daughter Pagan married artist Dean Mosher in 1978.
In 1983, Dean bought a rundown structure on the property next door and started what became Mosher Castle.
This one has the biggest tower. The stonework includes pieces of glass and pottery, along with pieces from places considerably farther away, including the Great Wall of China and the Berlin Wall.
It has the tall tower, bridge, ponds, drawbridge, moat and a dragon named Hendrix on one of the turrets.
Dean and Pagan still use Mosher Castle as their home and Dean’s studio. Dean has continued adding to it over the years. Local stone and wood are used throughout, along with pieces of glass, pottery and objects collected from other places.
By 2020, there were three
Longtime friends Glenn and Sally Boom bought the old blockhouse next to Mosher Castle.
Dean Mosher agreed to help with the design and with exterior trim and stonework so the new property would continue the same general theme.
The A-frame Gate House came first.
Then came Boom Castle, also called the Hobbit Castle. It was completed in 2020.
It has a seven-foot round dragon door inspired by Tolkien’s Shire.
Because apparently a regular front door was no longer an option by this point.
They really do feel like a little village
Seeing them in photographs is one thing. Walking around them is different.
The three properties sit together, so you get towers, bridges, stonework, gardens, signs, odd pieces worked into walls and things you probably missed the first time you walked past them.
One sign caught our attention:
HATE HAS NO HOME HERE.
No hate here.
We liked that.
There are also wagons, carved details, bits of sculpture and a fairly impressive number of places where someone clearly said, “We could make this normal,” and then chose not to.
People live here
This is worth knowing before you visit.
The Storybook Castles are not a public attraction in the usual sense. These are homes.
Mosher Castle is Dean and Pagan Mosher’s home and studio. The Booms built Boom Castle as their home. Part of the original Sheldon Castle has been converted into private guest accommodations.
The families do welcome visitors.
According to the official Storybook Castles site, visitors may walk down the front drive and through the front yards. There are signs on site with guidelines, and large-group tours can also be arranged.
In other words: look around, take pictures and remember you are standing in somebody’s yard.
You can also stay in one
Official Fairhope Storybook Castles website here
Part of Sheldon Castle is now a private guest suite.
Part of Sheldon Castle has been converted by Dean Mosher into the Castle BnB Suite, and the property has been featured on HGTV, Alabama Public Television and other outlets.
Sheldon Castle guest accommodations here.
Craig Sheldon’s work is elsewhere in Fairhope, too
If you want to keep going, you can.
The Fairhope Museum of History has a collection of Craig Sheldon’s carvings and a larger-than-life statue of him. The Eastern Shore Art Center also has work by Sheldon, and Dean Mosher’s art can be found around town as well.
So the castles aren’t an isolated oddity. They’re part of a much longer Fairhope art story.
More places connected to the castles around Fairhope here.
Eighty years later
What started as a garage, workshop and laundry room in 1946 became Sheldon Castle.
Craig Sheldon’s daughter and son-in-law built Mosher Castle next door.
Their friends later added Boom Castle.
That’s the story.
We came to see a castle.
We found three.
And yes, that is Fairhope.