Our History
Gilded Age Troy
The Gilded Age (1870s-1900) in the United States was marked with rapid economic growth and wealth, and Troy greatly benefited as well, counting itself among the wealthiest cities in the nation.
Driven by its dominance of iron manufacturing and shirtless collars, Troy
The Early Years
The Castle was built in 1896 by John Welles Paine (1832 - 1913), a wealthy financier and attorney, as his personal residence. A masterpiece of the Gilded Age, at the time of its completion at a cost of $800,000 (almost $25 million in 2020 dollars) it was considered the "Grandest House in Troy," which was itself at the time one of the wealthiest cities in the United States.
Paine was heir to a large fortune and showed skill in business that allowed him to expand upon that fortune. He married Julia Dickinson, member of a prominent Washington, D.C. family, whose own wealth was quite substantial. 20 years after Julia's death in 1872 due to complications from childbirth, he decided to build a new family home on 2nd Street, site of the original Paine family homestead, settled by his grandfather in 1800. He retained the services of prolific architect Thomas Franklin Schneider, as sole designer of the property.
Paine modeled the rooms of his house on those he had seen in other grand homes around the world, giving The Castle a distinctly eclectic style. Each room is different from the others, yet all of them seem to fit together seamlessly, a testament to the skill of T.F. Schneider and the hundreds of craftsman and artisans who worked on the house.
The exterior is made from rough cut Indiana limestone, and the roof is crowned with Spanish tile. The interior features intricately carved cherry and mahogany woodwork, much of which is gilded. There are 6 bedrooms, a billiards room, 16 fireplaces, 15 stained glass windows, silk wall coverings, tapestries, mosaics, marble, frescoes, countless other period details, and, of course, the famous "Angel Window" - a masterpiece of opalescent glass designed by the Ford Studio in Boston. The formal dining room features the original table for up to 12 guests and a mezzanine from which a string quartet could perform during meals.
The Castle has been owned by the alumni of the Alpha Tau chapter of Pi Kappa Phi (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) since 1951. For nearly 70 years, the brothers have meticulously cared for this historical and architectural gem, preserving and protecting its Gilded Age splendor. As a result of the quality of its preservation, the Castle was used in the filming of Martin Scorsese's 1993 adaptation of Edith Wharton's "The Age of Innocence," starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Winona Ryder, and Miriam Margolyes. The film won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design and was nominated for Best Art Direction, in part due to the decoration of the Castle.
The Castle Years
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