After being closed throughout most of the pandemic, a tucked-away castle often known only to Pacifica locals has opened to the public again, and visits to the 115-year-old palace are busier than ever.
On an unusually sunny Saturday afternoon in Pacifica, dozens of visitors traversed up a steep hill along Mirador Terrace to be buzzed into the gates of Sam’s Castle, the colossal, 22-room medieval-style masterpiece that since the early 20th century has served not just as an architectural oddity but also a living vessel of several dramatic eras in Bay Area history.
The towering structure is located just off Highway 1 on a cliff at the end of a suburban street, just one of the many eccentric details about its origin story. Traumatized by the 1906 earthquake and fire, Henry McCloskey — an attorney for the Ocean Shore Railroad — moved his family away from the city and decided to build a concrete fortress in Pacifica as a kind of safe house. McCloskey’s grandson is long-serving California politician Pete McCloskey.
The McCloskeys, who had three children, didn’t get to enjoy the castle long, as the expensive project had bankrupted the family and became impossible to maintain after Mr. McCloskey died, said Deidra Crow, a volunteer docent who gives tours with her husband, Jerry Crow. In the castle, the couple is known by their aliases: Mr. and Mrs. McCloskey, and they dress the part.
Jerry Crow and Deidra Crow are volunteer docents at Sam’s Castle in Pacifica.
Annie Vainshtein/The ChronicleDeidra, who was decked out in a Edwardian-era Royal Blue gown outfitted with black silk gloves and a faux crow hat, regaled the tour group — which had to be split in two because it was so large — with the many lives the castle has lived since the McCloskeys built it. It was next sold to a “doctor” named Galen Hickok who transformed the space into a recuperative building for “ladies who elected not to become mothers,” said Deidra.
Hickok ran the abortion clinic for years until a local sheriff noticed the “comings and goings” and raided the building. Hickok and eventually his son were arrested and sent to San Quentin. In the 1920s, it turned into a gambler’s “party house” called Chateau LaFayette, where prohibition-era Canadian whisky was served and stored.
Deidra, a longtime volunteer at the castle, said there is one character she would like to check off her bucket list: to be a Chateau LaFayette girl.
The castle had many more transformations after its prohibition days. The Eakins family, who next bought the property, hosted events for the Red Cross and eventually leased it to the Coast Guard to become a “coastie boarding house” during World War II. Even William Randolph Hearst got involved, pitching in to fund the extension of electricity into the castle for the Coast Guard when it ran out.
The foyer of Sam’s Castle.
Annie Vainshtein/The ChronicleAfter a period of fly-by-night owners and neglect, a Sicilian painting contractor from San Francisco named Sam Mazza who was driving south and had had “more than a few Gin fizzes” bought the castle for $29,000 in 1959 as a palace to store the thousands of antiques he’d collected over the years until his death in 2002.
Now, the castle is filled with numerous pieces Mazza managed to salvage from now bygone San Francisco theaters.
The Sam Mazza Foundation, which was set up after his death, has continued to run operations at the castle. The building has served as a meeting place for nonprofits, the Pacifica Historical Society, and even the Miss Pacifica Local Pageant.
An entertaining room at Sam’s Castle.
Annie Vainshtein/The ChronicleOn tours, visitors get to marvel at the sheer quantity of ornate pieces from Mazza’s collection — with rooms showcasing the late painter’s swords, coats of arms, Oriental collectibles, perforated brass hangings, statues, paintings and even a throne.
“There was really no theme to Sam’s collection,” said Mr. McCloskey, also known as Jerry Crow, as he led a group of visitors around the castle’s “religious room” a small space filled with ornate European paintings, candles, a Virgin Mary statue, and more recently, an object to honor the paranormal goings-on in the castle that some volunteers swear by.
“The crystal ball is new,” said Crow, just before he led visitors into the “Crocker Room,” a bedroom-like area outfitted with the famed family’s bedroom set, a lavish vanity, and a crown, cape and scepter that reportedly belonged to the film actor, Clark Gable.
An ornate crown, specter and cape believed to have belonged to Clark Gable at Sam’s Castle.
Annie Vainshtein/The Chronicle