Castle Clare

From WakWiki

Castle Clare, also known as Hoag's Castle, was built over a period of sixteen years at 3 Acorn Avenue in the Greenwood section of Wakefield. The home was built by Clarence Bradshaw Hoag, who was born in Shelburne, Nova Scotia in 1879. Hoag cleared the land and built the elaborate home himself, finally completing it in 1949.

The castle included a 24 x 51 foot "medieval hall" with a minstrels' balcony, and dozens of other rooms, as well as twin crenellated towers.

After Hoag's death on May 19, 1969, there was a proposal to build 200 condominiums on the site, however the proposal was defeated at Town Meeting. Later the home was divided into apartments and was occasionally vacant. It had been the site of periodic vandalism, and was finally destroyed in a spectacular fire on the evening of Saturday, October 5, 1974.

Hoag had two wives. The first, Maud (Maddicks) Hoag, died in 1947. His second wife, Alexandra (Bradshaw) Hoag, was a well known watercolorist.

References

• Bowen, Roger, "The miracle at Wakefield," Yankee Magazine, February 1967, p54.
• Rossi, Peter, "Historic Castle Clare is destroyed by fire," Wakefield Daily Item, October 7, 1974, p1.
• Cooney, Kevin, "A visionary's dream was Castle Clare in Greenwood," Wakefield Daily Item, March 20, 2002, p1.