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CTMQ > Everything Else > Houses, Communities, Libraries, & Businesses > Aborn Castle

Aborn Castle

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This Place Wasn’t Just Aborn Yesterday
Aborn Castle
Somers Road (Rte 83), Ellington

2018 Update: You can now book a weekend at Aborn Castle and stay there!

I had never planned to write a page about this place. But I’ve gotten emails about it, and I’ve seen it featured on a couple television shows. So here you go… No, I didn’t visit it or go inside it at all. I drove into the driveway once, many months ago, and took a terrible picture of it and went about my day.

Photo from Air BNB listing

Fortunately, there are plenty of good pictures on the Intertubes of this place that I’ll be borrowing. Oh, and the entire rest of this post will be borrowing from a couple sites that follow these types of castle houses: dupontcastle.com and an article from the Reminder News, something which no longer exists apparently.

Have you ever driven down Somers Road on Route 83 and wondered about the castle up on the hill? If you’re like most, it’s crossed your mind from time to time when you’ve been enroute past the house with the stone façade and the unmistakable imperial look.

It was this interest and curiosity that prompted the recent tour of 265 Somers Road, the imposing castle-like home that sits atop a hill. The structure was built in 1918 and named Aborn Castle for Harry Aborn, owner of a general store set in the center of Ellington. Aborn became fascinated with the castles of England at the time and decided to try to replicate the grand look in his own home. Along with his brother Edgar, who was a mason, Aborn built the regal house, bringing this medieval English style to Ellington. The residential home on 7 acres boasts a turret tower and lion statues which keep watch over the property.

Aborn Castle underwent some major renovations not so long ago, under the careful eye of former owner John DeAlba, who meticulously renovated the interior of the home and the outdoor grounds from top to bottom, paying careful attention to maintaining the integrity of the home’s original style.

DeAlba spoke of the curiosity most people have felt in passing the house year after year and wanting to know what it looked like inside. “People would drive up the driveway to take a closer look, and I would invite them in,” said DeAlba.

Air BNB picture

CTMQ Notes: Aww man, I had no idea he was that cool.

DeAlba acquired Aborn Castle in 2001 at auction when it was in disrepair and recently sold the property. He still speaks of it fondly, though. “In terms of aesthetics, I did everything myself. I have an interest in buying properties and fixing them up to re-sell . In this case, I did everything from the patio and adding a pond, to updating the kitchen and bathrooms. Then I sold the home fully furnished.”

With a distinct vision, DeAlba took on the details of the immense restoration with vigor, using creative materials and flea market finds here and there to accent the décor with antique-looking furniture like a chaise lounge in one bedroom and a claw-foot tub in the bathroom. There is even a crackled cameo headboard that resembles a look from the past in the “Red Room,” one of three distinctly different bedrooms. There are also textured walls and a spiral staircase leading up the turret, where you can see all the way to Simsbury’s Heublein Tower, and imported trees in the front yard like Norwegian weeping firs that add to the overall look of the home. It is in these details that this house preserves its originality and period look.

That’s right, there’s a turret. And there you have it, one of Connecticut’s castles. By the way, here’s MY picture of this place that I took in 2010:

Having now seen what DeAlba did to restore Aborn Castle, I’m hugely impressed. I’ve also been impressed with my AirBNB experiences, so… there you go.

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Comments

  2. I lived in the castle in the early forties,my parents John & Beatrice Mcconville,rented it from Harry Aborn. I remember climbing the steps to the tower and looking over Ellington. We have a picture of my father in his Marine Corps uniform and I on the front steps. I only remember a few things, since I was very young. The garage was narrow and damp,I was told that the castle might have been used as a “Speakeasy” at one time.
    I grew up in Ellington and was inside the house several times when the “Wittams (sp?)lived there. Great place to see. Brian Mcconville

  3. I lived in the house previous to 2001 just before the gentleman that bought it through auction did and I can tell you that he tells quite the story. Most of the outside renovations were done by my family and myself. He mulched the nice flowing grass hills out front probably so he didn’t have to mow them. The crazy fir trees in front have been there at least 25 years so he definitely had no part of that. The fountain in front was used as a flower bed when we first bought it and we dug it out and sealed the inside and eventually got it running again, it looked amazing. It has turned out that a long time ago probably when new, the fountain was fed via steel pipeline from an underground spring which might still exist if that gentleman didn’t bulldoze iron the back yard half way up from the red barn in the back. Im pleased to see he is attempting to give people history on the house and property but not to see that he’s trying to take credit for this great renovation. He cleared trees, eliminated grass on the front hills and decorated the interior. We had made a decent patio in the back entrance area also where he said he did that as well. The house and history is pretty amazing and to anyone wanting to know more can get all the history right at the Ellington town hall. Visit when you can and ask questions, myself or the gentleman that lived there in the forties or anyone else other than the guy that bought it in auction will tell you more info.

  4. My father either owned or rented here when I was a child for a few years in the 80s. I didn’t live with him full time but I have fond memories being picked up to look over the edge of tower. Pretty amazing place for young kids.

  5. This is all very intetesting, but who owns the house now? Is it available for tours/events?

  6. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS AMAZING, I’LL HAVE TO GO AND SEE IT THE NEXT TIME I’M IN CT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  7. I recall as a child growing up in Ellington in the Seventies, that it was referred to as the “Weather Lady’s House” A reference to the weather reporter on one of the local network affiliates (there were only three, plus CPTV at the time) Don’t know who she was or what channel.

  8. ooh this is on airbnb now if anyone is interested in staying there! it’s owner is an 89 year old portuguese woman and she’s very nice

  9. I actually lived in the “Castle” from Sept 1950 until I graduated from UConn in June of !968. When in town I stayed there until I married Feb of 1970. My father had died in 1946 and my mother Clarice married my step-father in 1950. It was a fun place to live (except for mowing the 4 banks of lawn). My mother died Feb of 1968. A few years after that Frank Campbell, my step-father, married Barbara Allen the meteorologist from channel 3 CBS in Hartford. The castle has a colorful past. I was told , by some locals when I was older, the the Castle had been a “Speakeasy” with other services available in the red barn up the hill. I remember that the rooms in the barn were painted pastel blue, green and pink. Growing up in Ellington was great.

  10. I am researching the Aborn Castle for the Ellington Historical Society and would love to get my hands on a pictures or information that anyone has of the castles past. I am particularly interest in finding anything the could substantiate the rumors that the castle was a speakeasy and/or brothel.

  11. Sherry White – Would Love to talk to you about the 3(?) years I lived there.
    Yep, there is/was a ghost. Yep, we had a few encounters. And Yep, I saw the ghost on the staircase, in the middle of the night, smiling at me & Tipping his hat.
    We (my ex) left an old suit of armor our friends gave us, at the bottom of the stairs one Halloween night & we dubbed him, Uncle Henry.
    Speak Easy w/ a barn up back for men wanting “company” There was also a story about one of my kid’s ancestors that was Constantly being brought back to their house next door, by his wife, during Prohibition.

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