Mystery Castle

You're driving South on 7th St, heading towards the mountain - South Mountain to be exact. You pass Baseline Rd and follow the directions to keep on driving until you see Mineral Rd. A couple minutes pass and you inch closer and closer to the mountain, eyes peeled for Mineral Rd. South Mountain is looming in front of you and in the near distance you see that the 7th St ends in an odd looking round-about. You start toying with the idea that this is going to be 'one of those days' but eyes squinted you finally see the long-awaited Mineral Rd off of the round-about. Mineral Rd quickly turns into gravel but you don't care about that because as you towards you, the outline of Mystery Castle begins to form. Ahhh...



I have to tell you that this half hour tour of this beautiful house is one that made my heart dance with glee. In the 1930's, Boyce Luther Gulley was living in the mid-west with his wife and daughter, a toddler at the time. Struck by tuberculosis, Boyce made the painful decision to leave his family to ensure their health. Before heading out on his journey, little Mary Lou timidly asked her Daddy to build her a castle. Boyce promised his little girl that if it was the last thing he did, he would build her her own castle. Settled in Phoenix, Boyce began to build his daughter the castle she asked for but Boyce believed that he could do it by only purchasing cement. Everything else, he would collect from scrap materials, abandoned goods, re-used tires, etc. Boyce was so way ahead of his time, don't you think?

The four shutters don't exactly match in size but Boyce didn't care. Nor do I.



Does something look familiar? Yup, those are spokes and a rim from a car.

What do you think these are? No really...take a guess!

Boyce had no shortage of rocks being so close to the mountain but can you imagine hauling all of these over to actually build the house with? The wooden logs and recycled tin make the basis of these steps. I love the combination of materials! It is just so raw.

You can't see the sign but it reads "steps to in-law's" room. Just FYI - the stairs lead to an open roof. :)

I wish I could explain but I can't. This room seemed to have an abundance of stuffed toys. It actually was a bit on the creep side because nearly every room had an adundance of stuffed toys.

These windows were recycled from an old train station. I almost want to use the word "rad" but I won't.
You're welcome.


And this my friends is Mary Lou. What a beautiful woman she is. She spoke so softly but oh so fast and her energy - oh man is it alive and jumping.

And she's a talker so you better keep up with her. She'll tell you her story with the same fervor that she did when she started the tours back in the 1960's. I love this woman. No really, I do. I hope that I'm like her when I'm older. In the 10 minutes we chatted, she encouraged us to open our minds, to nurture our creativity, to build our own homes, to work hard and play hard.


Path to the freaky room with all the stuffed toy lions. But at least the path is beautiful!

This hanging I believe was an angel and it was beautiful. Very celestial.

This is the guest bedroom. It was so quiet and calm in here. So very peaceful.

If you're a resident of Phx, please get your butt over to Mystery Castle and meet Mary Lou. As you can tell she's older and well...you know...go visit sooner than later. She's too awesome to miss out on. The tour is only $5 per person. And for those that don't live here, I will take you when you come visit! Fam - this will be on our to-do list!