''America's Castles'' is a

documentary television series Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. * Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

that aired on

A&E Network A&E (an initialism of its original name, the Arts & Entertainment Network) is an American cable and satellite television network and the flagship property of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Walt Disney Company ...

from 1994 to 2005. Through interviews, historic photos and newly shot footage, the program documents the mansions and summer homes of the

high society High society, sometimes simply Society, is the behavior and lifestyle of people with the highest levels of wealth, power, fame and social status. It includes their related affiliations, social events and practices. Upscale social clubs were open ...

of The Gilded Age. The series is narrated by Joe van Riper and many episodes feature architectural expert

Richard Guy Wilson Richard Guy Wilson (born 1940) is a noted architectural historian and Commonwealth Professor in Architectural History at the University of Virginia. Wilson was born and raised in Los Angeles (residing in a house designed by Rudolph Schindler). H ...

Featured homes

* Agecroft Hall *

Belcourt Castle Belcourt is a former summer cottage designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt for Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont and located on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island. Construction was begun in 1891 and completed in 1894, and it was intended to ...

Biltmore Estate Biltmore Estate is a historic house museum and tourist attraction in Asheville, North Carolina, United States. The main residence, Biltmore House (or Biltmore Mansion), is a Châteauesque-style mansion built for George Washington Vanderbilt II ...

Bishop's Palace A bishop's palace is a form of ecclesiastical architecture constituting the official residence of a bishop.The term was not used in the British Isles until the Church of England was restructured following the Norman Conquest of 1066 AD. However, th ...

(

Galveston Galveston ( ) is a Gulf Coast of the United States, coastal resort town, resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island (Texas), Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a pop ...

, Texas) *

The Breakers The Breakers is a Gilded Age mansion located at 44 Ochre Point Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island, US. It was built between 1893 and 1895 as a summer residence for Cornelius Vanderbilt II, a member of the wealthy Vanderbilt family. The 70-room mans ...

Cà d'Zan Cà d'Zan () is a Mediterranean Revival architecture, Mediterranean revival residence in Sarasota, Florida, adjacent to Sarasota Bay. Cà d'Zan was built in the mid-1920s as the winter retreat of the American circus mogul, entrepreneur, and art c ...

Camp Pine Knot Camp Pine Knot, also known as Huntington Memorial Camp, on Raquette Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State, was built by William West Durant. Begun in 1877, it was the first of the "Adirondack Great Camps" and epitomizes the "Great Cam ...

* Camp Uncas *

Castillo Serralles Castillo (Spanish for 'castle') may refer to: * Castillo (surname), including a list of people with the name * Castillo, Dominican Republic * Castillo, Álava, Spain * Castillo CF, a Spanish football team See also

* * Del Castillo (disambi ...

(in 1996)Reinaldo E. Gonzalez Blanco. ''El Turismo Cultural en Ponce durante el Plan Ponce en Marcha, 1900-2000.'' Neysa Rodriguez Deynes, Editor. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Professional Editions. 2018. p.74. *

Casa Loma Casa Loma (Spanish for "Hill House") is a Gothic Revival castle-style mansion and garden in midtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that is now a historic house museum and landmark. It was constructed from 1911 to 1914 as a residence for financier S ...

Chapultepec Castle Chapultepec Castle () is located on top of Chapultepec Hill in Mexico City's Chapultepec park. The name ''Chapultepec'' is the Nahuatl word which means "on the hill of the grasshopper". It is located at the entrance to Chapultepec park, at a he ...

* Château-sur-Mer * Eagle's Nest * The Elms *

Evergreen House Evergreen Museum & Library is a historic house museum and research library in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is located between the campuses of the Notre Dame of Maryland University and Loyola University Maryland. It is operated by Johns ...

Fair Lane Fair Lane was the estate of Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford and his wife, Clara Ford, in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was named after an area in Cork, Ireland, where Ford's adoptive grandfather, Patrick Ahern, was born. The ...

Filoli Filoli, also known as the Bourn-Roth Estate, is a country house set in of formal gardens surrounded by a estate, located in Woodside, California, about south of San Francisco, at the southern end of Crystal Springs Reservoir, on the east ...

* Fonthill Castle *

Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio The Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio is a historic house museum in Oak Park, Illinois, United States. It was built in 1889 by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who lived there with his family for two decades and expanded it multiple ...

* Glensheen Mansion * Great Camp Sagamore *

Hearst Castle Hearst Castle, known formally as La Cuesta Encantada ( Spanish for "The Enchanted Hill"), is a historic estate in San Simeon, located on the Central Coast of California. Conceived by William Randolph Hearst, the publishing tycoon, and his arc ...

* Hempstead House/Falaise *

Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens is a decorative arts museum in Washington, D.C., United States. The former residence of businesswoman, socialite, philanthropist, and collector Marjorie Merriweather Post, Hillwood is known for its large decorati ...

Kykuit Kykuit ( ), known also as the John D. Rockefeller Estate, is a 40-room historic house museum in Pocantico Hills, a hamlet in the town of Mount Pleasant, New York north of New York City. The house was built for oil tycoon and Rockefeller fa ...

* Longwood * Longue Vue House and Gardens * Lyndhurst *

Mar-a-Lago Mar-a-Lago ( , ) is a resort and National Historic Landmark on a barrier island in Palm Beach, Florida, United States. It spans 126 rooms and built on of land. Since 1985, it has been owned by Donald Trump, the 45th and 47th president of t ...

* Marble House *

Meadow Brook Hall Meadow Brook Hall is a Tudor revival style mansion located at 350 Estate Drive in Rochester Hills, Michigan. It was built between 1926 and 1929 by the heiress to the Dodge automaker fortune, Matilda Dodge Wilson and her second husband, lumber ...

Nottoway Plantation Nottoway Plantation, also known as Nottoway Resort, and Nottoway Plantation House, was a historic plantation house located near White Castle, Louisiana, United States. The home was a Greek Revival architecture, Greek Revival and Italianate archit ...

* Oak Alley Plantation/Bon Sejour * Old Westbury Gardens *

Parkwood Estate The Parkwood Estate, located in Oshawa, Ontario, was the residence of Samuel McLaughlin (founder of General Motors of Canada) and was home to the McLaughlin family from 1917 until 1972. The residence was designed by Darling and Pearson, a no ...

(

Samuel McLaughlin Colonel Robert Samuel McLaughlin, (September 8, 1871 – January 6, 1972) was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He started the McLaughlin Motor Car Company in 1907, one of the first major automobile manufacturers in Canada, which e ...

home,

Oshawa Oshawa is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario, approximately east of downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of the Greater Toronto Area and of the Golden Horseshoe. It ...

) *

Ralston Hall Ralston Hall Mansion located in Belmont, California, was the country house of William Chapman Ralston, a San Francisco businessman, a founder of the Bank of California, and a financier of the Comstock Lode. It is an opulent Italianate Villa, ...

* Rosalie Plantation *

Rosecliff Rosecliff is a Gilded Age mansion of Newport, Rhode Island, now open to the public as a historic house museum. The house has also been known as the Hermann Oelrichs House or the J. Edgar Monroe House. It was built 1898–1902 by Theresa Fair O ...

* Rosemount Museum * Sagamore Hill * Salisbury House * Scotty's Castle * Shelburne Farms * Springwood Estate *

Stan Hywet Hall Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens (70 acres) is a historic house museum in Akron, Ohio. The estate includes gardens, a greenhouse, carriage house, and the main mansion, one of the largest houses in the United States. A National Historic Landmark, it i ...

* Stanton Hall *

Taliesin Taliesin ( , ; 6th century AD) was an early Britons (Celtic people), Brittonic poet of Sub-Roman Britain whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the ''Book of Taliesin''. Taliesin was a renowned bard who is believed to ...

Taliesin West Taliesin West ( ) is a studio and home developed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in Scottsdale, Arizona, United States. Named after Wright's Taliesin studio in Spring Green, Wisconsin, Taliesin West was Wright's winter home and st ...

* Vanderbilt Mansion *

Villa Vizcaya The Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, previously known as Villa Vizcaya, is the former villa and estate of businessman James Deering, of the Deering McCormick- International Harvester fortune, on Biscayne Bay in the present-day Coconut Grove neighb ...

Virginia House Virginia House is a manor house on a hillside overlooking the James River in the Windsor Farms neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia, United States. The house was constructed from the materials of the 16th-century Priory Park, Warwick, Priory Hou ...

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London, England. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It ...

* The Winchester Mystery House

References

{{A&ENetwork Shows A&E (TV network) original programming 1994 American television series debuts American English-language television shows 1990s American documentary television series 2005 American television series endings