Historic $425k Cottonland Castle For Sale In Waco, Texas

The Historic Cottonland Castle Awaits Restoration

The Cottonland Castle is a historic 129-year-old castle located in Waco, Texas which has returned to the market priced at $425,000. Since the purchase four years ago, much behind-the-scenes work has been completed and this iconic property has been painstakingly disassembled where necessary, building materials meticulously cataloged and carefully preserved. This magical German-style stone castle needs a new guiding hand to complete the work so lovingly begun by the current owner. The lucky buyer will one day be able to reveal the 9-foot oak front door (weighing 400 lbs), the elaborate Honduran mahogany mill-work, fine quartersawn oak, intricate diamond-paned windows, eight fireplaces (one of carved French Caen stone and another of pink granite), and exquisite light fixtures all of which have been thoughtfully protected.

The Castle's Rich History

There is still much to do to complete a renovation of this magnitude, however, once completed The Castle as Wacoans fondly refer to it will once again shine brightly. According to Waco History, the Cottonland Castle was originally built by local stone contractor John Tennant as a home for himself before his financial situation forced him to sell the unframed house to Ripley Hanrick, a cotton broker, in 1906 with an agreement that Tennant would continue doing the stonework for the home.

Ownership Changes and Renovation Attempts

By 1908, however, the two abandoned the home due to ongoing financial problems. Eventually, businessman Alfred Abeel purchased the castle and hired Roy E. Lane to transform and complete the frame as a castle by 1913 to use as his residence. After the castle was complete, it changed owners many times between the early 1940s and 2000s before it fell into disrepair. Most recently in 2014, Dirk Obbink, Tom Lupfer Jr, and Sterling Johnson were said to have begun the process of renovating the castle, but it was never completed. Until Chip and Joanna Gaines from the television show, Fixer Upper got their hands on it, of course.

Architectural Inspiration and Design

The Cottonland Castle was modeled after a small German castle near the Rhine River with white sandstone and some limestone on the exterior. Inside, Lane's three-story castle with a basement included eight fireplaces, servants' quarters, and a tower. Waco History also adds the variation of beautiful interior accents in every room, including imported materials such as Caen stone from France, Carrara marble from Italy, and Honduran mahogany paneling.

Behind the Scenes of the Restoration

Chip and Joanna Gaines take you behind the scenes of their boldest restoration project yet as they share a stunning black-and-white archival photo of the Cottonland Castle from the Texas Collection at Baylor University on the Magnolia Instagram account. And it turns out that their favorite design duo found something beautiful in this abandoned home. If you look past the cracks in the masonry, past the rotted floorboards, past the wilderness in the backyard, there is a lot of beauty to be found in this old castle. It will be a renovation project worth seeing as the couple has plenty of experience renovating homes throughout the Waco area. This is like no other renovation project they have done before.