Outside Of The City: Hammond Castle Museum
Welcome to another blog post for things to do outside of the city of Boston!
The next adventure is to the Hammond Castle Museum! Are you ready to venture back into Medieval times?
Being from Southern Massachusetts, I didn't even know this place existed. From my hometown of Westport to Gloucester, is around 100 miles north- the complete opposite side of the state. We never really ventured over there unless it was to see family. After moving to Boston now, Gloucester is only 45 minutes north. During Covid-19 times, my roommates and I tried to stay busy and do things around our home state as safely as possible. I found about the Hammond Castle Museum from a tiktok and knew I had to go. Mainly because it looks straight out of an episode of Game of Thrones.
But let’s start on who lived in this castle.
John Hammond Jr. was an inventor with over 400+ patents and was a pioneer for the remote control industry. He worked alongside Thomas Edison, the inventor of light bulb!! Throughout the tour, all of his inventions are displayed to see.
When you first look at the facade of this castle, you would assume this would have been build in the 1600’s, but it was actually built between 1926 to 1929. This castle over looking the Atlantic Ocean served as his personal residence. Hammond was known to be described as “a man of the future but chose to live in the past” due to his obsession with European architecture. He pulls in elements of Roman architecture as you see in the courtroom, but also Renaissance style like in the main lobby.
You are able to walk through bedrooms, a war room, dining room, round library and my favorite part- the courtyard. Very similar to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (another treasure you must do while in Boston!) Inside the courtyard is a 30,000 gallon pool but also one unusual feature- a weather control system that he could set to fog, down pouring rain, sunlight etc. If a guest was late to dinner, he was known to turn the system on and drench his guests. lol.
Fun fact- the reason why there are barriers around the pool is a couple years ago a wedding party got too drunk and dived in from the second level. Even though that is what Hammond used to do all the time while he lived there, but of course not appropriate for a museum now.
I have been really missing traveling these last few months, especially after canceling three separate trips. The way this place was designed you would have never thought you were in the United States but transported to Europe.
One quote from John Hammond that stuck with me -“you can read history, you can visit a hundred museums containing their handiwork, but nothing can reincarnate their spirit except to walk through rooms in which they have lived and through the scenes that were the background of their lives. It is a marvelous thing, this expression of human ideals in walls and windows.” I always say one of my favorite things about traveling is being able to step back into time and be able to imagine how life was back then. Having tours in his home years later for the public allows us to do this.
INFORMATION-
ADDRESS: 80 Hesperus Avenue Gloucester, MA 01930
HOURS: 9:30-4 PM
COST: $18 per adult
Must get tickets for a selected time slot in advance, cannot just walk in
I would suggest going to the earliest time slot- there are less crowds that way
Free parking in front of the building so no need to worry about that
If you are not interested in paying for a tour, you are free to walk around the grounds. But then you would miss out in the gorgeous inside- so i would recommend doing the full tour. The guided tour is only around a half hour long and you are free to spend as much time looking around inside as you please
Thanks for reading-
Arrivederci
xo Jenna
