forums
new posts
donate
UER Store
events
location db
db map
search
members
faq
terms of service
privacy policy
register
login




UER Forum > Archived US: South > Sauer's Castle (Viewed 679 times)
kgrandon 


Location: Kansas, USA
Gender: Female




Send Private Message | Send Email | Yahoo! IM
Sauer's Castle
< on 5/13/2008 6:33 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
This is a place in Kansas City MO that I love. I have not been inside, as I believe someone lives in the back rooms and is attempting to restore it, but it is one of my favorite places ever. I love driving by repeatedly. Supposedly, it is haunted, for those of you who are into that type of thing. I really just love it for its history.

Sauer's Castle is a 3 story, 18th century German Gothic inspired brick mansion built by German businessman / entrepreneur, Anton Philip Sauer for his 2nd wife Marie and their 5 daughters. It has a tall watchtower and a walkway on the roof. The double front doors are huge, being 10 feet wide as a unit, 10 feet high and 6 inches thick.

The inside was /could be beautiful, with 12 foot ceilings, with an impressive entry floor, which alternates walnut and oak. There is a 4 story staircase which connects the floors, attic and tower together. The first floor rooms have marble fireplaces. Imported chandeliers provided light in the rooms.

German-born, Anton Sauer, his 5 children and his first wife, Francesca immigrated to New York City in 1858. They spent the Civil War years in New York, building up his businesses. In 1868, Francesca died, and Anton Sauer was ill with TB, which he had caught in Europe. As his disease was progressing and for business purposes as well, Anton moved his family to Kansas City, where he fell in love with his second wife, Mary who herself was a widow with two daughters. Mary's family showed Anton the undeveloped hill property, which he bought to be the new site of their new home, which was big enough for all the children, plus the five children Anton and Mary would make together.

A lookout tower was built on the top of the mansion as well, because this property was close to the old Santa Fe Trail, which was the main highway for wagon trains and other not so nice folks traveling to the greener grass in the West.

Sauer's Castle was finished and the family moved in during the year of 1872, a home with all the bells and whistles, which were 25 years ahead of what was commonly offered in your standard mansion. Anton Sauer succumbed to his disease in a second floor bedroom in 1879, leaving his wife and family very well off financially.

Around 1930, Sauer's Castle got the reputation of being haunted, which only grew as the years rolled by. By the time the Sauer family sold the family mansion to entrepreneur Paul Berry, it was widely thought to be so, which drew not only curiosity seekers, but vandals and would-be looters, who Paul had to run off regularly. Paul lived there alone with his dog, trying to maintain the mansion, being kept busy repairing windows busted by rocks, repairing damage from break-ins and even surviving a physical assault. He lived here until he too died in 1986.

In 1987, Bud Wyman and his son and daughter-in-law, Cliff and Cindy Jones bought the mansion and owned it briefly for little over a year, hoping to fix up the mansion and pay for it by giving tours to visitors, dressed in 1800's attire. However, they sold it in 1988 to the current owner after the city yanked their building permits for giving unsafe "sneak peek" tours to people. The status of the mansion is unclear as of yet. Supposedly, the current owner bought it with a long held dream of restoring the estate, though it appears rather dormant.




100965.jpg (35 kb, 504x418)
click to view

100966.jpg (25 kb, 418x381)
click to view

100967.jpg (57 kb, 490x373)
click to view

100968.jpg (26 kb, 504x332)
click to view

100969.jpg (29 kb, 425x314)
click to view



Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important.
fwexplorer 


Location: DFW TX
Gender: Male




Send Private Message | Send Email | fwexplorer
Re: Sauer's Castle
<Reply # 1 on 5/14/2008 12:34 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Very cool looking old mansion. Too bad you haven't been able to see the inside of it.

Imbroglio 


Location: DFW
Gender: Male


The glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

Send Private Message | Send Email | Noel Kerns Photography
Re: Sauer's Castle
<Reply # 2 on 5/14/2008 12:54 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Great find and cool history...thanks for sharing!

http://www.noelkernsphotography.com
Senseriffic 


Location: Elizabeth, NJ


I am drowning in a digital sea

Send Private Message | Send Email | 
Re: Sauer's Castle
<Reply # 3 on 5/14/2008 4:34 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
thats so col they were giving a tour of hte place... of course the fuzz has to kess it all up!!!

The blind lead the blind into bottomless pits,
Still we smile and deny that we're cursed.
But of all our iniquities ignorance may be the worst.
kgrandon 


Location: Kansas, USA
Gender: Female




Send Private Message | Send Email | Yahoo! IM
Re: Sauer's Castle
<Reply # 4 on 5/14/2008 4:48 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Yeah, tell me about it. One of my life dreams is to buy this place. My dad seems to think that someone is living in the back rooms, but we're not really sure. I may just have to go knock on the door and invite myself in for tea.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important.
fwexplorer 


Location: DFW TX
Gender: Male




Send Private Message | Send Email | fwexplorer
Re: Sauer's Castle
<Reply # 5 on 5/15/2008 2:11 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Sounds like a plan. Just make sure you take your camera to the tea party.

Ardamass 


Location: Dallas Tx
Gender: Female


Coming to a Drain near you

Send Private Message | Send Email | AIM Message | My Deviantart
Re: Sauer's Castle
<Reply # 6 on 5/21/2008 2:08 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
get a basket put some cookies in it knock on the door and say hi im your new neighbor

http://ardamass.deviantart.com/
http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?ardamass
sUrD 


Location: anywhere the internet takes me
Gender: Male


Hello wasteland!

Send Private Message | Send Email
Re: Sauer's Castle
<Reply # 7 on 5/21/2008 2:14 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
love the architecture

...the wings on my shoes shrank now the moths won't eat my kidneys, when i shake my state capital it only yields 3 fairy napkins, but how do i know my banana slippers are like water boats because when the moon winks it burns my hamster punches, and that's how you get to llama school rowing your canoe backwards up main street when the front bumper falls off, do mermaids get to drink orange juice?
Raticus 

Moderator


Location: Tyler
Gender: Male


Ratus exploricus abandonae

Send Private Message | Send Email
Re: Sauer's Castle
<Reply # 8 on 5/26/2008 12:56 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
That is a really nice looking old house. And the story/history you wrote about it is good, well written. Adds a lot to the pictures.

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools speak because they have to say something.
hardcoregirl 


Location: Dallas
Gender: Female


So many places, so little time.....

Send Private Message | Send Email
Re: Sauer's Castle
<Reply # 9 on 5/26/2008 9:54 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Sometimes we just have to ask permission to get into some places. When you flatter them about the property, I've rarely been turned down.

I am the shadow at your side......
UER Forum > Archived US: South > Sauer's Castle (Viewed 679 times)



All content and images copyright © 2002-2024 UER.CA and respective creators. Graphical Design by Crossfire.
To contact webmaster, or click to email with problems or other questions about this site: UER CONTACT
View Terms of Service | View Privacy Policy | Server colocation provided by Beanfield
This page was generated for you in 93 milliseconds. Since June 23, 2002, a total of 737089895 pages have been generated.