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A DREAM COME TRUE
  It Was "A Dream Come True." What seems like a mysterious mirage in Los Angeles' backyard, on the beautiful rolling hills
near Del Sur, is a stone replica of a medieval Irish castle. It is one of Southern California's most overlooked landmarks,
home to such characters as a cowboy star, the builder of Hancock Park and a playboy radio-TV heir. Secluded on a tranquill
hilltop, in the vast openness of the smog free high desert, Antelope Valley's most curious architectural secret is a single-turreted granite palace fortified in mystery, and fantasy, its story often known only through a web of rumors.
The surrounding land is still untouched as it was when a Los Angeles real estate baron who co-founded Hancock Park decided
to build this storybook fortress in 1924. It would become known as Shea's Castle, after its builder, Richard Peter Shea. The
estate, which now encompasses 506 acres, sits hidden in fairy-tale fashion along a section of the California Aqueduct
about 15 miles west of Lancaster/Palmdale and 20 miles NW of Valencia, invisible from the nearest thoroughfare, Munz Ranch
Road.
It began as a labor of love for Shea's frail, ailing wife, a palace inspired by a painting Shea once saw of a castle
near Dublin, Ireland. And when the job was finished, in 1924, he mounted on the castle's entrance a plaque, since vanished,
that read, "A dream come true."
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The interior walls are raw desert rock, the ceilings are massive hand-hewn beams, and mullioned windows filter the bright
sunlight. Over two of its seven fireplaces, Shea installed blue-green rock he imported especially from Ireland. But in its
sprawling one-story layout, the castle is more California modern than medieval Irish. Its hidden location has kept
the castle from the public and has fueled speculation about its history. But tales from a booklet compiled by Grace Graham
Pickus, whose father-in-law helped build the castle, provide its best history. In the early 1920s, New York-born Shea was
drawn to California and Lancaster by the area's isolation and hopes that the clear, dry air would improve the health of his
wife, Ellen. Flush with cash after subdividing Hancock Park and other wealthy Los Angeles enclaves that sold $56 million worth
of property within three years, Shea reportedly spent $500,000 on his eight-bedroom, seven-bath, seven-fireplace, two-kitchen
castle. It was a boost to the local economy. Shea hired more than 100 laborers to quarry thousands of tons of granite from
boulders on the property to form the castle's 3- to 5-foot-thick walls. A stable in a similar motif was built just a
short distance away from the castle. Not long after the work of two years was done, the couple moved in. But the 1929 stock
market crash sent Shea's finances plummeting, forcing the couple to abandon the castle and move back to Los Angeles. There
they rented an apartment on Wilshire Boulevard. Shea borrowed heavily against his castle, and it was taken over by the bank.
In October 1932, Shea's beloved wife died of pernicious anemia, a blood disease, and other complications. Two months later
a despondent Shea walked into the ocean and drowned himself. He was 57 years old.
The bank was the castle's second owner. A succession of at least 15 owners and renters over five decades followed. Each
left some mark on the castle.
In the 1940s, the property was purchased by a nonprofit flying club and named The
Sky Castle. A 3000' dirt runway, a stone dam, and the lake were built to accommodate the flying enthusiasts
who flew in for a few hours or the weekend. Click here to read the Flying Magazine's, March 1948 article about the property.
Ms. Delores Fuller Burchett was also one of the earlier owners of the Castle. Her story is told by her daughter,
Ms. Dee Beaugez, in a web site dedicated to her mother's memories called the " Castle of Dreams". The most celebrated tenant of the property was Roy Rogers, the singing cowboy star of movies and TV, who leased
the site for a time and trained his famed horse, Trigger. Its most notorious owner was millionaire playboy Tommy Stewart
Lee. In 1934 his father, media magnate Don Lee, died, and Tommy Lee inherited a Cadillac dealership and radio and TV stations.
Eventually, $10 million in cash also came to him. He spent the money on a racing car career and, in 1948, on Shea's Castle.
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When Lee wasn't drag-racing his Alfa Romeo or Ferrari on city streets, he cut a striking figure squiring singers and
movie stars like Joan Crawford to the Brown Derby, Ciro's and other Hollywood nightspots. He even opened a talent agency to
help some of the aspiring starlets he dated. Although he drove with gusto and some skill, Lee wrecked a car in 1942 and was
left with several smashed vertebrae. The severe pain and resulting insomnia led him to a dependence on painkillers. Although
the pain turned his hair gray, the drugs let him keep racing his cars. Lee had taken his race cars to the Lancaster desert
before World War II turned the area into a bombing and gunnery range. Another speed lover, jet jockey Chuck Yeager, would
make Muroc Dry Lake famous when he broke the sound barrier flying above the area that would become Edwards Air Force Base.
In 1947 Lee and his friends were racing again across the dry lake when they came across Shea's Castle. The next year, when
his father's estate finally emerged from years of litigation, Lee went on a spending spree, buying more cars, airplanes--and
the castle. With Lee in residence, the castle soon became a favored hangout for fast-driving, hard-living friends. They landed
their planes on the private airstrip that Lee upgraded. He converted the stable into a garage for his race cars, and a midget-car
racetrack soon wove its way through the rolling hills behind the castle. But within a few months of his buying the place,
Lee's relatives and business partners had him declared mentally incompetent. Doctors blamed all those painkillers. Thereafter
he lived more quietly and divided his time among the Las Encinas sanitarium in Pasadena, a rented bungalow at La Quinta near
Palm Springs, and the castle. His mental state deteriorated. In 1950 Lee had a dental appointment at the Pellissier Building
on Wilshire Boulevard, in the same building that houses the Wiltern Theatre. Lee smoked his last cigarette and jumped to his
death from a fire escape at the top of the 12-story building. In later years, through a succession of owners, the castle became
a backdrop for movies, such as the 1967 " Blood of Dracula's Castle," and for TV episodes, including "Bat Masterson," "Air Wolf", "Rat Patrol" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." The longest-lasting
tenants on the property were Native Americans. They left grinding holes (morteros) and pictographs from their occupancy some
thousand years ago, and five acres of the property has been designated as a cultural reserve to protect what the Indians left
behind.
Undoubtedly the Castle and the beautiful landscape has put indelible memories in the hearts of everyone who has
visited or owned the property.
More info about the area:
I recently found this excerpt from a Blogger who knows the Elizabeth Lake area:
"Here's my notes and the
books I got them from Lake
Elizabeth Tidbits:
Elizabeth Lake - there are at least 10 Elizabeth Lakes in the state
of California. Elizabeth Lake in Los Angeles County is the oldest, mentioned in 1853 in the Pacific Railroad Reports as Lake
Elizabeth - this is according to Gudde’s California Place Names.
Stagecoaches going
north from San Bernardino stopped at Elizabeth Lake. These stagecoaches were started sometime in 1861, and were a part of
the New Orleans - San Francisco stage route. The route went from Cajon, above Llano, past Gale Henry’s above Littlerock
to the Cienega, then pas Barrel Springs and Harold or Alpine as it was known then. Old red buildings surrounded with eucalyptus
trees with lettering Alpine Springs were seen up until the 1980’s apparently. The post office, hotel, and stage stop
was all here. The road went across the floor of the reservoir to Lansing place or Johnson’s Dairy, then down to Ana
Verde Valley to the City Rancho then into Leona Valley and on out to Elizabeth Lake, over the Tejon and on to San Francisco.
In a book published by The Kern Antelope Historical Society entitled Antelope Valley Pioneers:
John Munz traded his holdings in Palmdale for 160 acres of undeveloped brush land at Elizabeth
Lake. The land was only reachable by cattle trails. He and his family traveled in an old wagon with four bony but good horses
and camped under a tree. It was just John and his 8 children , as his wife had died in childbirth They dismantled a Palmdale
house and moved it to Elizabeth Lake. The house was then moved to a museum site at Tropico Gold Mine. The house was operated
as the post office for a time, with Gertrude W. Munz, the wife of Elias Munz, one of the original 8 children, as post master.
The post office was also known as the Roosevelt Post Office just before a new stone building became the Lake Hughes Post Office,
which serves the entire area now.
John Munz himself was not a very good farmer, and the
family probably would not have survived if Illinois relatives had not shipped out supplies such as molasses and flour. Munz’s
sons worked on wheat and barley farms in the west part of the valley and made a few bucks here and there. The Munz Brothers
Ranch was formed with extensive cattle and grain production going on for many years. John Munz himself went on to become a
Justice o the Peace and was honored y the LA County Supervisors with a camp John Munz Camp named after him. The Munz Ranch
became the headquarters for the LADWP during construction for the aqueduct, and during the construction of Shea Castle. The
Old Butterfield Trail from Fairmont to San Francisquito Canyon passed through the ranch and can still be seen today.
The Munz Ranch is still active in Antelope Valley and operated by sons and grandsons of Eric Munz, one of the
original pioneer siblings. Eliaz Munz had two daughters who developed and operated Munz Resort which still operates as a member
park of a national recreational vehicle park organization. Ruth Etz, Elias daughter, still lived on the original ranch as
of the 1984, granddaughter Ruthann would commute from her home in Glendale to the ranch. John Damann is one of the grandsons
of Elias and is a fire suppression technician living at Lake Elizabeth ranch club, a subdivision development bordering southeast
portion of the lake.
John Munz eldest daughter, Ingborg, married Clifford Holland and
started a pioneer turkey ranch in Antelope Valley.They developed the Holland strain of white turkey.
The Munz Ranch was used by William Mulholland to make a telephone call, at his headquarters there. Trying to
describe new crawler tractors made by Holt Mfg. Co. of San Leandro and how they were working successfully instead of the camels
which had previously been imported to do the work, he replied “Why they are running all over the desert - just like
a bunch of caterpillars!” The name Caterpillar was coined at this time - at list his is what Eliz Munz passed on to
his family.
In a book called Historic Spots in California published by Stanford University
Press original copyright 1932, the book I have is the 3rd printing 1958: La Casa de Miguel Ortiz, a long one story adobe stands
at the left of the old stage road that came up from San Francisquito Canyon and passed Lake Elizabeth on the way to Tejon.
The Lake,a by the way, was known originally as La Laguna de Chico Lopez by the Spaniards. This adobe was said to be the the
first building built at the lake, and was built by a muleteer Miguel Ortiz, who was also an employee of General Beale. Beale
apparently gave him the land. This land is also part of the original grazing lands of Chicle Lopez in the 1840’s and
was a haunt of Tiburcio Vasquez.
Not far from the Ortiz adobe was the Andrada Stage Station,
built of adobe, which at the time of the book writing still stood where old Fort Tejon Road entered San Francisquito Canyon
southward from Lake Elizabeth.
_________________
Cecile"
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