Lane transformed the frame into a castle complete with three stories and a basement, eight fireplaces, servants’ quarters, and a tower. Abeel employed Lane to complete the frame. Alfred Abeel to purchase the home in 1913. He convinced notable Wacoan and Civil War veteran Capt. Some expressed concern over the abandoned and unfinished home, but Lane saw the building as a blank slate of potential. Lane to construct the elite Huaco Club in the same area as the castle. However, when financial difficulties continued, the pair abandoned the house in 1908.Ī few years later, local investors employed Roy E. After struggling to make ends meet, he sold the unframed house to cotton broker Ripley Hanrick in 1906 under the agreement that Tennant could continue to do the stone work on the house. The reality of Tennant’s financial situation did not quite match up to his grandiose dreams. Tennant took leftover stone from his latest construction job, the Provident Building at the corner of Fourth Street and Franklin Avenue, in order to begin construction on the basement and foundation of his new home, situated at the outskirts of the city. The deal provided Tennant with a plot of land in exchange for a stone obelisk to mark the Mann plot in Oakwood Cemetery. In 1890, local stone contractor John Tennant decided to build himself a new home after striking a deal with banker J. Near the turn of the twentieth century, a booming cotton industry was quickly establishing Waco as one of the major urban centers of the South, encouraging many residents to more readily invest and spend their money locally.

Abandoned castle