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With a name like Lakewood, you can only imagine that this Washington city is a land of lakes, and so it is, with five lakes within its city limits.

But what has really put this suburb of Tacoma on the map is its very own castle, built from bits and pieces of old English castles and mansions, constructed in the early 1900s as an homage to the grand homes of the British Isles.

Lakewood’s Thornewood Castle began as the dream of Chester Thorne, a businessman who helped found the Port of Tacoma and who was president of the National Bank of Commerce in Tacoma for more than three decades. An influential figure in early Washington state history, Chester became fascinated with old English estates and descided that he wanted to build his own, and to create a structure that would last for centuries.
Designed by architect Kirtland Cutter, Thornewood took almost four years to complete, and was finished in 1911. The 27,000-square-foot Tudor Gothic manor incorporated 400-year-old bricks from an English castle as well as British-made crystal windows and stained glass panels that dated from 1300, elements that required three ships to transport from England to Pacific Northwest by rounding Cape Horn.

Thornewood Castle, built on American Lake, was constructed with 3-foot-thick foundations, 10-inch walls, and hand-hewn beams of English oak. The castle boasts 54 rooms — a number that includes 28 bedrooms and 22 bathrooms — and it took 40 servants to staff as well as 28 gardeners to look after the English-style formal gardens, as well as tutors for Chester’s daughter Anita. Chester commissioned a “secret garden” for his wife Anna, a half-acre sunken English garden designed by the Olmsted Brothers, famous landscape architects of the period.
There, the Thornes entertained the rich and famous of the early 20th century, including U.S. presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, both of whom stayed at the castle at different times. After Chester died in 1927, his widow continued to care for the manor and grounds.

After Anna’s death in 1954, Thornewood’s ownership passed to Anita, who sold it in 1959. The castle passed through several owners’ hands over the years before being purchased by Wayne and Deanna Robinson in 2000. The Robinsons restored Thornewood and opened it as a bed-and-breakfast inn, as well as offering the castle as a venue for weddings and special events.

The castle is on the National Register of Historic Places and still has its original half-acre sunken English garden, and guests also have the opportunity to fish, swim and go boating on the lake. In addition, the castle has served as a movie set for several films and TV miniseries, including “Rose Red” and its prequel “The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer,” and the Oscar-winning “There Will Be Blood.”

Like Chester Thorne, students dream big, and their dreams of academic achievement can become reality with the help of Lakewood tutors, who work with all ages and grade levels.