Loveland Castle — Knights in the Midwest
Loveland, Ohio
East of Cincinnati on the banks of the Little Miami River sits Loveland Castle. This was the home of Harry Andrews or Sir Harry as he was called. He built Loveland Castle or “Chateau Laroche” out of the limestone taken from the Little Miami river valley and also fashioned bricks from cement or quart milk cartons. Not only that, he built Loveland as an ode to the times of chivalry and knighthood. Sir Harry didn’t have a high opinion of modern civilization instead preferring the medieval age of knights and damsels, kings, princes, and queens. His booklet even proclaimed to all the reason for the castle’s existence:
“Château Laroche was built as an expression and reminder of the simple strength and rugged grandeur of the mighty men who lived when Knighthood was in flower. It was their knightly zeal for honor, valor and manly purity that lifted mankind out of the moral midnight of the dark ages, and started it towards a gray dawn of human hope.”
So almost singlehandedly, from the vision of one man, Loveland Castle formed from the stones of the Little Miami. Like a true castle, Loveland has murder holes, where archers in the Middle Ages would shoot arrows or crossbows at the enemy; ramparts; and the most prominent feature of the castle, the watchtower. Gardens grace the outside of the castle and even includes vegetable gardens complete with hothouses. Preppers take note as Loveland could be self-sufficient even if society as we know it would somehow stop functioning. Not to mention defensible. Sir Harry built the castle just like the castles of old. The door was built to be ax-proof — several types of wood were cobbled together making it hard to chop through — and the “night door” rose only four foot high so guests would be in a vulnerable position when they had to bend over to enter the castle. Like the castles of old as well, Loveland lacks indoor plumbing, an inconvenience now but perhaps not so in a prepper scenario!
Sir Harry’s Castle
Inside, Sir Harry’s castle boasts fifteen rooms including a banquet hall, a great hall, an armory containing period weaponry, the watchtower room, a dungeon, and Sir Harry’s master bedroom containing the famed domed ceiling. Though not an architect himself,, architecture students from the world over come to Loveland and study how Sir Harry made it. His over 180 genius IQ most likely helped to construct his castle home.
Harry D. Andrews or Sir Harry seemed to be a man born out of his time. During WWI, on his tour of duty as a medic, Sir Harry admired the castles of France and Europe. On the Western Front, he contracted spinal meningitis and was officially but erroneously declared dead. His fiancé went off to marry another man upon hearing the news. Sir Harry pressed on with his life, however. He never married the rest of his days.
In 1929, Sir Harry began work on Chateau Laroche, “stone castle” in French and named after the Chateau de la Roche, the same castle he worked in France, which had been converted to a hospital during the war. Two years before, he had started a Boy Scout troop called the Knights of the Golden Trail whose only orders were to follow the Ten Commandments. The Cincinnati Enquirer had then offered plots of land along the Little Miami in Loveland, Ohio in exchange for a full year subscription. The parents of two of Harry’s Boy Scouts donated their plots to the Troop, and the KOGT soon used the site as a camping ground.
The wilderness and random lay-abouts would make camping difficult as their equipment would be damaged or stolen, and so Sir Harry resolved to build two stone tents for his Knights. But like real knights, the KOGT needed their own castle, and from 1929 to his death in 1981, Loveland Castle rose on the banks of the Little Miami. As each decade passed, the burgeoning castle grew and grew and word spread about Loveland. A king even once visited the castle. Elvis Presley, the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, visited the castle and it so impressed the “All Shook Up” singer that he offered to buy the castle. But Sir Harry refused, and after his death, he willed the castle to the Knights of the Golden Trail. The Knights are still going strong, and to this day still guard the castle, a testament to Sir Harry’s vision and perseverance.
Loveland Castle Today
Today, Loveland is a local tourist attraction and museum, and as you would expect from a castle, a favorite for weddings. It’s a popular camping ground as well, but for those easily deterred, Loveland lacks central heating or air conditioning, though there is a fireplace inside for cold winter nights. Two porta-potties can be found in the parking lot for bathroom needs. The garderobes of old probably won’t pass the local health codes. All the well, perhaps, the castle is said to be haunted. And preppers take note once again, the dungeon in Loveland was once called the safest bomb shelter in Ohio.
As for Sir Harry, he died from his injuries (he had set himself on fire somehow), but his castle still stands recalling a time of grandeur and romance and the lofty ideals of knighthood.
