Preston Castle, Ione, CA
The story is really amazing, surprising and at times, unpleasant. The history of the castle is on the Preston Castle page, but it does not include the darker stories you hear on tour or in the town.
Started in 1890 and opened in 1894, this was the local boys prison aka reformatory. You had to be pretty bad to be put here, although the 'home' also housed young boys whose families became unable to care for them. Very sad. There were many famous inmates, including Merle Haggard and actor Rory Calhoun. Wikipedia lists the building as the Preston School of Industry as well as the infamous line of inmates. There is a stunning collection of photos by Eleanor as well as other artists.
The castle is cuddled up next to the current Ione Youth Prison, complete with classic beanstalk guard towers, and a good giant's stone's throw from Mule Creek Prison, the nastiest prison in California with meanest, hardest core inmates available, including the Menedez brothers and Charles "Tex" Watson of Charlie Manson fame. Yee haw. The stones were made in Folsom and San Quentin. Ironic, no? In 1960, the new prison was completed, the old abandoned. The beautiful Romanesque building fell into severe disrepair until the Preston Foundation took over in 2001. Their restoration continues, thankfully, today.
There are four floors , a basement, and a bell tower. The basement is at ground level, making it odd to track which floor you are referring to. The front steps lead up to the first floor. Once inside, you see a hallway, and administration rooms to the left and the right. A fireplace on the left, a safe and a corner drinking fountain on the right. Open the door on the top of the drinking fountain base and you see a deep, aluminum sided box with water pipes circling the sides. Ice placed in the 'cooler' would help provide cold drinking water. I was tickled to see that one. These rooms are painted white and nicely restored. Pass through the doors in the hallway towards the back of the castle and the paint stops dead. The rest of the castle is the same, different but always serious state of rot and decay, heavy with debris of every kind.
I did not manage to keep a record of what rooms were where, and I forgot to bring bread crumbs. My description of the castle could very easily be incorrect, but I will do my best from memory and the incomplete photos. If you think this is confusing, try being there. In the dark.
1st floor: Standing just past the first set of doors you are at the main hallway intersection. You have the left wing hallway, the back annex hallway to the annex, the main staircase and the elevator shaft, and the right wing hallway.
The annex hallway leads to the infirmary, passing windows on the left and destroyed rooms on the right.
The right wing hallway leads to a bathroom with a wonderful tile floor on the right/front of the building. The next room is blocked off, the next is the pharmacy with its crackled paint doors also on the right /front. On the left side, towards the back of the building, is the staff dining room with a grand, old fireplace. The massive beams are shored up with metal piping that can be tightened together with your classic turn buckle. Next to that room is the dumb waiter and a Winchester type stairway to the basement kitchen. Next to that, I believe are one of the many narrow stairs to the second floor, some of which are roped off and unsafe. I do not remember what was in the round room at the far right of the building.
Nor do I remember the left wing at all. This is not right, the pharmacy was on this wing. Sigh.....
2nd floor: Climbing the main staircase, you are again at another major intersection.
The annex hallway leads to a large, two story dorm room I called the dark dorm. The roof lumber and joists are ancient and dark, gloomy, covered in owl droppings and names carved by the boys over the years. What a feat that must have been, to climb those rafters! There is a wide stairway leading both up to the third floor and down to the first floor.
The right wing hallway, you pass a room on the right (front) that has no floor or ceiling. Very uncomfy to see that. Ooops!! Next we have private apartments to the right and left of the hallway. The right side apartment, facing the front of the building, is said to be Anna's. Decaying floral fabric still covers the transom. A little bath, space for a bed, dresser and a chair or two and you can call it home. Next to Anna' is the library, the tower type room on the right as you face the castle. The library starts with a short hallway between two side rooms, then opens up to the complete room, arched wall full of windows in front of you, gorgeous mahogany pocket doors to the right. Our tour guide, Doug, had informed us he felt a distinct warm spot there, in that short hallway. Highly uncomfortable room.
There is a bathroom on the left end of the hallway, right next to another stairway leading to the third floor. At the very end of the hallway is the round room at the far right end of the castle, complete with a fireplace and a first hand view of the devastation of the upper floors. My general contractor David shuddered to think of what it would take to shore this area up, let alone, rebuild it.
Twelve apartments and a few bathrooms complete this floor, along with the usual spooky staircases that lead to the next, forbidden level. What I would have given to have had the courage to climb that stairwell and just peek into the third floor. I understand while there is room for the fourth floor, its flooring is gone. Eleanor has a lovely picture of this area here.
The left wing hallway has been roped off.
Basement: You can hop down to the basement using the main staircase or the cool little Winchester stairway from the staff dining room.
The annex hallway, I just can't remember where that goes.
The right wing passes the baths and the shower room on the right, and the plunge. This is a swimming pool reportedly used to douse the boys for lice. One of the hunters with us told us she saw a man walk across that pool on her last visit, and it wasn't Jesus, nor was the pool full of water. On the left is a partitioned off furnace room and the ktichen and its tiny pantry. This is where the housekeeper, Anna Corbin met her fate in 1950. The sign says she was found in 1950 in the pantry, bludgeoned to death. Rumors say she was found stuffed into the corner of the pantry under the stairwell. The closet door leads back to the Winchester stairway up to the staff dining room. The round room at the very end has a pinkish beige sink in it.
The left wing hallway leads to the 'play room', another set of stairs, and another lift. Pillars line the rooms. This is where the tour guide told us that when those in control beat the boys, they left their jeans on in order to absorb the blood. Here is the original dorm room, and a small room where the boy would be fitted for new clothes, then released by opening the back door and saying, "Goodbye!"
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