This Eccentric Castle Is Your Next Fall Getaway
Plus, Abercrombie & Kent wants to become the 'LVMH of travel.'
Wandering the tile-bedecked halls of Fonthill Castle is like something out of a dream, or, if you like straight lines, a never-ending nightmare. The halls of this self-built turn-of-the-century concrete castle twist and turn, opening now and then into rooms of camera-clutching beauty. Roaming its interior is a bit like exploring a kaleidoscopic sandcastle, but its exterior is haunting–an asymmetrical folly perfect for a Tim Burton movie set.
With misshapen doorways, rooms that simultaneously compress and soar, and treasures from the ancient world hanging in chicken wire or embedded into columns, Fonthill can seem magical in one moment, unhinged in the next. Sometimes, both at once.
The home of an eccentric, lifelong bachelor, Fonthill is found down a leafy drive just outside the center of one of the most charming small towns in America–Doylestown. With its grounds doubling as an arboretum, it’s a perfect fall day excursion, especially when combined with Doylestown and Mercer’s nearby museum on pre-industrial tools. And it’s all easily accessed by commuter rail from Philadelphia.
“Fonthill is very unique just like the man who built it,” chuckles my enthusiastic but frazzled tour guide to start the tour, with a tone intimating that we’re all supposed to at least smirk because we, too, find Henry Chapman Mercer’s life cheeky. As a Gilded Age heir to his aunt’s fortune, Mercer initially led the life of an intellectual dilettante–heading Penn’s archaeology department and collecting vast amounts of pottery, ancient artifacts from the likes of Mesopotamia, and early American tools.
But his obsession with pottery took a fortuitous turn and he founded his own successful tile business (Moravian Pottery and Tile Works) whose artistic works still decorate the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Kykuit, the Casino at Monte Carlo, the St. Louis Public Library, and most notably, the Pennsylvania State Capitol.
In the early 20th century, Mercer set out to construct a castle on dozens of acres he purchased in Bucks County. No architect was chosen, nor was there a master builder.
“The house was planned…by me," wrote Mercer, "room by room, entirely from the interior, the exterior not being considered until all the rooms had been imagined and sketched.” The 6,000 pounds of concrete were hand-mixed, lifted by a horse, and poured onto earthen molds with the tiles already face down. All told, the 19,000 square-foot house has 1,600 pieces of tile from around the world as well as thousands of tiles made from more than 1,000 original molds created by Mercer. After construction started in 1908, it took two years for the building to go up, and another two for the interior.
With sentiments that were far ahead of his time and would make him a kindred spirit with many a starchitect today, Mercer loved the honest and rough texture of pressed concrete, and so left it untouched.
Some rooms were modeled after ones he’d seen in mansions in Turkey, others were inspired by ones in paintings or prints that he treasured, like Rembrandt's The Philosopher in Contemplation. His study has a bunch of desks in various parts of the room because he would follow the sun around.
My two favorites are the library and the dormer room, with its bedroom nook elegantly lit by an oversized arched window. (In the library, a number of books from his collection are on display, and you should look at his notes on some. For instance, he wrote about Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms: “As convincing as a tapeworm, as charming as a bottle of dead flies.”)
Mercer was a quiet, bookish man. A lifelong bachelor who collected pottery and tiles and dreamed wistfully of bygone eras, he was zealous about preservation. He wore a Tyrolean cape everywhere. A snob, he considered The Times of London alone worth reading. It’s hard not to hear every detail about him and want to scream “HE WAS PROBABLY GAY!” (In fact a book about gay collectors and preservationists, A Passion to Preserve: Gay Men as Keepers of Culture, has as its introduction the story of Mercer.) But you’ll hear little speculation on tour about his personal life beyond a shrug and the phrase “lifelong bachelor.” As Mercer aged he would periodically take pen and scissors to his personal papers, cutting and blotting out bits relating to private details. A visit to a whorehouse in Alexandria, Egypt with his Harvard classmates cuts off in his journals:
“Rattling their tambourines they began to dance while an old woman seated on the ottoman sang a monotonous song keeping time with a tomtom. As they danced neither very gracefully, nor originally, their garments one by one…” and there it ends.
There are really only two bits known about his personal life–he said he had his heart broken by a Baltimore socialite and he likely contracted gonorrhea as a youth which he said prevented affairs of the heart. He died in 1930 at 73 years old, leaving his castle and tileworks to his housekeeper and her husband, with the former to eventually be turned into a museum.
The castle alone would be worth making a visit to this part of greater Philadelphia, which has arguably the most beautiful suburbs of any major U.S. city. That was my original plan for years. But when I finally made my way over this summer I thankfully learned you could easily turn it into a charming weekend getaway. The town of Doylestown is immaculately preserved with those picturesque Pennsylvania fieldstone houses and two main streets that stretch for a handful of blocks in either direction of their intersection.
In a park in the center of town is a second castle Mercer built, this one to house his collection of American pre-industrial tools. It’s the largest collection of early American artifacts, and spread across seven floors. The Mercer Museum can be enjoyed by all ages, and Henry Ford reportedly said it was the only museum worth visiting. (In my opinion you can skip the third Mercer “museum,” the former factory where he made his tiles. They charge you and then just show you an old video and let you wander.)
During peak fall foliage this whole area must be breathtaking, but the same could be true when there is snow. So if you can’t make it until winter, keep in mind that in early December they do a reenactment of Washington crossing the Delaware about 30 minutes away on the banks of the Delaware River.
Tours of Fonthill Castle are guided and last one hour. A separate ticket must be purchased to visit the Mercer Museum which is self-guided. I would recommend booking in advance for Fonthill.
If you do go, grab lunch in town at Heirloom–the mushroom tart is divine and I still dream about the peach, cinnamon, and butter toast they serve in the summer.
I wrote a little guide for Bloomberg on experiencing a less touristy version of Barcelona, including restaurant, hikes, beaches, and cultural attractions.
DEPARTMENT OF GRIEVANCES
I don’t want to constantly beat up on Hotels.com, so maybe my frustration is from a place of heartbreak. I really loved it. It was laid out in an easy to navigate manner and had a straightforward and actually rewarding rewards program. I almost never booked directly with hotels because Hotels.com was the same or better price and my loyalty was richly compensated. I’m still a platinum member. Now, I’m heading to Europe for work in a week and every single one of my bookings was made directly with hotels. The direct booking prices were equal or better than Hotels.com, even with my Platinum member “discount.” Since the One Key rewards are now often something like $10 for the entire booking, there was essentially no value. We know from recent reports I’m not the only one fleeing Hotels.com, but I do wonder if hotels themselves are seeing more direct bookings. Their websites and booking experiences (except for you, Marriott) have gotten much better, which certainly made this all easier.
As of a couple days ago, JetBlue’s most restrictive fare class now includes a carry-on bag. This change comes as the airline has struggled. Many in the industry believe cuts to their network to be imminent. The move is part of a larger trend of airlines in the U.S. becoming more consumer friendly–killing most change fees, for instance–and that is especially the case for the low-cost carriers like Spirit and Southwest which are changing longtime seating policies. More of interest to me is that this leaves United Airlines with the most restrictive Basic Economy fare of the major carriers. The airline still does not allow a carry-on (unless you’re a cardmember), so it will be interesting to see if this pushes the airline to move on this. Thanks to pretty healthy competition in the U.S., there tends to be a domino effect when one airline shifts
.European destinations should charge foreigners ridiculous prices for things that have become social media draws–the foreigners in question will pay it, and Europeans can bring in some much needed revenues. It might force people with taste to reconsider what’s worth it in the days of overtourism.
Having experienced the distasteful crush that comes with even strolling by it, my first instinct in regards to news that Rome plans to charge tourists for access to the Trevi Fountain was positive. But the more I read of the plan and the more I think about it, I think it’s a terrible idea. For two main reasons. First, aesthetics. Maybe I’m suffering from a lack of imagination, but any kind of structures put in place that will block people in the square surrounding the fountain (which will remain free) from the steps leading to the fountain (where people congregate for photos and throw coins) will look ugly. Second, it will be another step to turning the cities of Europe themselves into museums and not lived-in places. One of the great joys of Rome is wandering its labyrinthine streets and stumbling on a church or fountain. And if it eventually all becomes roped off and segmented, the romance of this city will be gone.
Shohei Ohtani, the Japanese baseball wonder now suiting up for the Dodgers is having an effect similar to that of Taylor Swift, with thousands traveling every week from near and abroad to come and see him play. It’s yet another example of the way in which sports tourism remains such an untapped coverage area for the travel industry.
Most airline (and train) wifi remains a joke. So, whatever one thinks of Elon Musk, I am grateful that more and more American and Middle Eastern airlines are taking a hard look at Starlink to provide high-speed internet on planes. It really is that good. Good luck, of course, expecting anything useful out of European carriers or even Air Canada. I just flew from Vancouver to D.C. on Air Canada and that 4.5 hour flight had no wifi at all, one single snack, charged for headphones to watch the seatback entertainment, and no sparkling water.
The most important line in the announcement that the Department of Transportation is investigating the major airlines over frequent flier programs has to be: “many Americans view their rewards points balances as part of their savings.” Airlines often brag about how important their credit cards now are (Delta touted last year that 1% of U.S. GDP went on the Delta-branded AmEx cards, bringing in $7 billion in revenue). But I think what’s drawing Big Brother’s eye is this idea that people “earn” thousands and thousands of dollars from these companies that at any point can turn around and devalue them dramatically, essentially wiping out the “savings” of consumers. It will be interesting to watch how this plays out, and what legal and regulatory leverage the DOT thinks it has.
Finally, are there any actually good protein bars? Was hiking a lot the past couple weeks and everything in that arena still tastes terrible.
TRAVEL INDUSTRY NEWS
Abercrombie & Kent is reportedly plotting an IPO to become “the LVMH of travel”
The Meliá Collection’s Casa de las Artes opened its doors in Madrid’s Barrio de las Letras
A popular Hawaii hiking trail is closed due to potential norovirus outbreak
These are the most exciting routes launching in September (h/t to Ned Russell, author of one of my favorite Substacks, Airport Architecture)
High-speed rail in Texas took another step towards reality
Hotels are chasing higher rates, not occupancy
I’m kind of obsessed with the car designed for Belmond’s Venice Simplon-Orient Express by the artist JR
