Loveland, Ohio: Chateau Laroche, Loveland Castle

We learned more about Harry Andrews, the builder of the castle, from an April 2001 article and from the caretaker when we visited in June 2002. In World War I, Harry was a medic in the army because he was against violence. Harry saved the life of a French earl's son on the front lines. The earl knighted him. According to the article, "Shortly after returning to the States, Andrews moved to Cincinnati and formed the Knights of the Golden Trail, a group he said would be dedicated to 'helping save Civilization.'"

The castle caretaker is one of the Knights of the Golden Trail. He constantly talked about his boyhood with Harry as his role model. Several times during our visit we heard him quote Harry, saying, "Every knight needs a castle."

One of the most amazing things we heard about Harry was that he carried nearly 50,000 buckets full of stone up the bank of the river and from a nearby gorge. He lived in the castle and worked on it until he died in 1981.

In October, the Knights dress the castle up as a haunted house. We visited in early summer, and the gardens were blooming with a variety of ornamental flowers as well as practical herbs.

The Chateau La Roche (meaning "Rock Castle") was built almost entirely by one man: Harry Andrews. Harry Andrews was a remarkable man who lived a long life full of many highs and lows. The story of the Castle begins in 1927 when he purchased some land in Loveland, Ohio. The land sat on the bank of the Little Miami River and was perfect for his plans. He planned to have a place where he could take the young men from his Sunday School class to camp, fish, and swim. After a couple of years, the tents used by the boys had begun to decay, so Mr. Andrews had the boys gather some stones from the river. He built a "stone tent" with two rooms.

From this came the Knights of the Golden Trail whose purpose was to uphold the Ten Commandments along with the traditional principles of knighthood. Of course, the Knights would need a castle, and so the Chateau La Roche was born on June 5, 1929. The name was in honor of the castle where Mr. Andrews was stationed during World War I, the "Chateau de La Roche" (located in southwest France).

Chateau LaRoche is a brick-by-brick castle constructed by Harry D. Andrews (4/5/1890 until 4/16/1981) on the banks of the Little Miami River in the tradition of British and (French) Normandy architecture in medieval times. Now operated by the local Boy Scouts, admission is ... well, drop a dollar per person into their bucket). Open on weekends.