Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...

No search results found for
“”

Make sure words are spelled correctly.

Try searching for a travel destination.

Places near me Random place

Popular Destinations

  • Paris
  • London
  • New York
  • Berlin
  • Rome
  • Los Angeles
Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Sign In Join
Places near me Random place
All the United States Pennsylvania Doylestown Mercer Museum and Fonthill Castle

Mercer Museum and Fonthill Castle

Eccentric concrete mansion and museum designed and built by hand from the inside out.

Doylestown, Pennsylvania

Email
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list
CAPTION
  Michelle Enemark
  Michelle Enemark
  Michelle Enemark
  Michelle Enemark
The Mercer Tile Factory, a “working museum” where reproductions of his famous tiles are still being made today. Like his home (and only a stroll away from it), the factory is made of concrete so it would be fireproof.   Michelle Enemark
  Michelle Enemark
  http://curiousexpeditions.org/?p=319
The Columbus Room’s inlaid tile ceiling.   http://www.mercermuseum.org/images.htm
Fonthill on its haunted, 60 acre grounds.   http://www.mercermuseum.org/images.htm
  Andriy Boychuk
  Michelle Enemark
  Michelle Enemark
  Michelle Enemark
  Andriy Boychuk
  Andriy Boychuk
  Andriy Boychuk
  Andriy Boychuk
  Andriy Boychuk
  travelsyte / Atlas Obscura User
  travelsyte / Atlas Obscura User
  travelsyte / Atlas Obscura User
  travelsyte / Atlas Obscura User
  travelsyte / Atlas Obscura User
“Plus Ultra,” Mercer’s personal motto.   lakupper13 / Atlas Obscura User
October   lakupper13 / Atlas Obscura User
Rollo’s stairs   lakupper13 / Atlas Obscura User
mercermain room   trking8 / Atlas Obscura User
The Mercer Museum Library   Naturally Cherish / Atlas Obscura User
Display of Traps   jennsylvania / Atlas Obscura User
Rollo’s Stairs   jennsylvania / Atlas Obscura User
Rollo’s Stairs Sign   jennsylvania / Atlas Obscura User
  travelsyte / Atlas Obscura User
Kid’s Area   travelsyte / Atlas Obscura User
Kid’s Area   travelsyte / Atlas Obscura User
  travelsyte / Atlas Obscura User
main room   trking8 / Atlas Obscura User
Mercer’s opinion of Hemingway was succinct and brutal.   jimdunn27 / Atlas Obscura User
mercer museum library   trking8 / Atlas Obscura User
mercer museum statues   trking8 / Atlas Obscura User
  travelsyte / Atlas Obscura User
  MrsSchmidt / Atlas Obscura User
  MrsSchmidt / Atlas Obscura User
  MrsSchmidt / Atlas Obscura User
  MrsSchmidt / Atlas Obscura User
  travelsyte / Atlas Obscura User
  jyackabonis / Atlas Obscura User
Arched Window at Fonthill Castle 05.16.2019   Raven Traveler / Atlas Obscura User
Roof Tiles at Fonthill Castle 05.16.2019   Raven Traveler / Atlas Obscura User
One of the Many Rooms at Fonthill Castle 05.16.2019   Raven Traveler / Atlas Obscura User
  travelsyte / Atlas Obscura User
  travelsyte / Atlas Obscura User
  travelsyte / Atlas Obscura User
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list

About

Henry Chapman Mercer, a renowned archaeologist, tile maker, and collector of Pennsylvanian pre-industrial household utensils wrote of his home, Fonthill:

"The house was planned by me, room by room, entirely, from the interior, the exterior not being considered until all the rooms had been imagined and sketched, after which blocks of clay representing the rooms were piled on a table, set together and modeled into a general outline. After a good many changes in the profile of the tower, roofs, etc., a plaster of Paris model was made to scale, and used until the building was completed."

Finished to Mercer’s exact specifications in 1912, Fonthill remains an ornate, architecturally unclassifiable mansion constructed entirely out of poured concrete.

Besides being an archaeologist, Mercer was a self styled anthropologist, ethnographer, and perhaps most importantly, collector. When Mercer began to collect artifacts for his museum, his aunt informed him that she had a vast collection of medieval armor. Mercer was delighted, as he wanted the Mercer Museum to contain not only relics of American history, but world history as well. The armor was kept in storage in Boston while Mercer continued to collect. But the storage building was made of wood, in the year 1872, the Great Boston Fire destroyed much of the city, and all of Mercer’s armor.

Devastated, Mercer realized that he could not risk fire erasing his collected Americana before future generations could learn from them, and concrete was his answer. The people of Doylestown thought he was crazy, spending years immersed in building his concrete castles, but Mercer had the last -- possibly crazed -- laugh when, years later at the completion of Fonthill, he climbed to the very top terrace and built a huge bonfire, high enough for all of Doylestown to see. Fireproof.

Today Fonthill displays evidence, both inside and out, of a reason to Mercer’s madness (including a professed "unbending hostility to ugliness and false taste"), although the architectural rhyme and reason—dormer placement and roof pitch, 32 staircases balanced by only eight bedrooms—are only fully understood by Mercer himself. Ornamentally the same holds true: vaulted ceilings are decorated with glittering inlaid tiles taken from Mercer's factory and personal ceramics collection, despite the walls remaining untouched by paint.

Among Mercer's collection held at the Mercer Museum (located close to but separate from Fonthill), are the everyday tools and things of the average American in the 18th and 19th centuries, from a watchmaker’s gears, to the wares in a tortoiseshell comb maker's shop, butcher’s instruments, even a whaler’s boat. Keep your eyes out for the fake, but neat looking, vampire hunting kit.

The often mentioned haunting of Fonthill’s woods adds a bit of paranormal flair to an already eccentric establishment, though Mercer no doubt would have found it gauche to have the former housekeeper terrorizing his evening guests.

Related Tags

Museums Collections Eccentric Homes Outsider Architecture Homes

Community Contributors

Edited By

imagesaint, dlc31723, mbison, littlebrumble...

  • imagesaint
  • dlc31723
  • mbison
  • littlebrumble
  • aboychuk
  • Raven Traveler
  • jimdunn27
  • jennsylvania
  • Naturally Cherish
  • trking8
  • lakupper13
  • jyackabonis
  • travelsyte
  • sclaus2048
  • MrsSchmidt

Published

October 21, 2009

Edit this listing

Make an Edit
Add Photos
Sources
  • http://www.nj.com/gloucester-county/towns/index.ssf/2009/07/american_castle.html
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fonthill_%28house%29
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Chapman_Mercer
  • http://www.livingplaces.com/PA/Bucks_County/Doylestown_Borough/Fonthill.html
Mercer Museum and Fonthill Castle
525 E Court St & Route 313
Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 18901
United States
40.306903, -75.128278
Visit Website
Get Directions

Nearby Places

Moravian Pottery & Tile Works Museum

Doylestown, Pennsylvania

miles away

Vampa: Vampire & Paranormal Museum

Doylestown, Pennsylvania

miles away

The Grave of Ignacy Paderewski’s Heart

Doylestown, Pennsylvania

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Doylestown

Doylestown

Pennsylvania

Places 5

Nearby Places

Moravian Pottery & Tile Works Museum

Doylestown, Pennsylvania

miles away

Vampa: Vampire & Paranormal Museum

Doylestown, Pennsylvania

miles away

The Grave of Ignacy Paderewski’s Heart

Doylestown, Pennsylvania

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Doylestown

Doylestown

Pennsylvania

Places 5

Related Stories and Lists

Does it Even Matter if These Vintage Vampire-Killing Kits Are Real?

objects of intrigue

By Eve Kahn

Related Places

  • Stuffed bananas at the Banana Museum.

    Sierksdorf, Germany

    Bananenmuseum

    A museum dedicated to the silliest fruit.

  • Stibbert Museum

    Florence, Italy

    Stibbert Museum

    Art and armour fill every inch of this rich kid's Italian villa.

  • Fred and Myrtle’s famous Shell Lounge

    Christchurch, New Zealand

    Fred and Myrtle's Paua Shell House

    A New Zealand couple's shell-adorned home living room, now on display at the Canterbury Museum.

  • Dominguez Rancho Adobe Museum

    Compton, California

    Dominguez Rancho Adobe Museum

    This museum honors the first Spanish land grant in California which is still in the hands of the original owner's family.

  • Ganja, Azerbaijan

    Bottle House of Ganja

    A quirky house created entirely out of glass bottles combines a collector's spirit with an artist's flair.

  • The taxidermed elephant head that’s on display in the main room.

    Rochester, New York

    The George Eastman Museum

    The home, museum, and death site of Kodak's influential founder.

  • Sasamón, Spain

    Museo Salaguti

    Salaguti's live-in museum: a fortress against criticism and consumer art.

  • The bathroom

    Kuwait City, Kuwait

    House of Mirrors

    Lived-in building, bedecked with an astonishing array of mirror mosaics.

Aerial image of Vietnam, displaying the picturesque rice terraces, characterized by their layered, verdant fields.
Atlas Obscura Membership

Become an Atlas Obscura Member


Join our community of curious explorers.

Become a Member

Get Our Email Newsletter

Follow Us

Facebook YouTube TikTok Instagram Pinterest RSS Feed

Get the app

Download the App
Download on the Apple App Store Get it on Google Play
  • All Places
  • Latest Places
  • Most Popular
  • Places to Eat
  • Random
  • Nearby
  • Add a Place
  • Stories
  • Food & Drink
  • Itineraries
  • Lists
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
  • All Trips
  • Family Trip
  • Food & Drink
  • History & Culture
  • Wildlife & Nature
  • FAQ
  • Membership
  • Feedback & Ideas
  • Community Guidelines
  • Product Blog
  • Unique Gifts
  • Work With Us
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Advertise With Us
  • Advertising Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
Atlas Obscura

© 2025 Atlas Obscura. All Rights Reserved.