Built in the 1890's by Cleveland oil pioneer Feargus B. Squire the
castle has enchanted generations of Cleveland Metroparks visitors.
Squires original plan called for a large country home to be built
on 525 acres. The structure was only intended to be the
gatekeeper's lodge. Squire used the lodge in the early 1900's as a
weekend retreat. Squire sold the property in 1922 and the Cleveland
Metroparks acquired it in 1925. For those who are into haunted
houses it is purportedly haunted by Squire's wife Rebecca. An urban
legend says she tripped and broke her neck there but she really
died in Wickliffe, Ohio in 1929.
Squire came to the United States when he was ten years old. An
American success story, he began as an office boy for an oil
company. Later he built and operated his own refinery. By 1885, he
had joint Standard Oil of Ohio as a co-manager with Franklin
Rockefeller, brother of John D. Rockefeller. Among Squires
accomplishments was the construction of the first tank wagon for
overland shipment of oil.
Squires Castle special geological feature is that the exterior
is made up of Berea sandstone. The Berea Sandstone was named for
exposures near Berea, Cuyahoga County, where it was quarried at an
early date for grindstones. The Berea is fine-grained, but the
grains are angular rather than rounded, which makes this stone
ideal as an abrasive. It has been quarried in many areas as a
building stone and was used for foundations, sidewalks, bridge
abutments, and for buildings. Many large pubic and private
buildings were constructed of Berea Sandstone. It is still quarried
at South Amherst, where it reaches a thickness of more than 200
feet. Traditionally, the Berea was considered to be of
Mississippian age but recently it has been assigned a Late Devonian
age. The Berea formed when sand was carried by streams into the
Ohio sea from the Canadian Shield to the north and from the
Catskill Delta to the east. Berea sandstone is considered to be the
worlds most generic sandstone. It's easy to quarry and there is a
lot of it.
Logging Requirements:
1. What was to be the original name of the estate that his home
was to be built on ?
2. Find any corner block of the building that you would consider
to be an average sized block. Please calculate the weight of the
block in tons. Multiply the length x width x height and divide that
number by 26,417. Your final answer will be the approximate weight
of the block in tons.
3. What is the color and texture of the Berea sandstone ?
4. Where was Fergus B. Squire born ?
5. What year was he born and what year he died ?
6. Take a picture of yourself in front of Squires Castle and
post it on your log.
**Any logs that do not meet the above logging requirements may
be deleted**
References: "Berea Sandstone", Ohio History Central, July 13,
2007.