Castle Warden

The Castle Warden was first built as a winter home for William Warden and his family. Built in 1887, this moorish castle style home was renovated into a hotel in the 1940s by Pulitzer prize winning writer Majorie Kinnan Rawlings and her husband Norton Baskin. By 1950 the hotel was transformed once again into America's first odditorium. Robert S. Ripley stayed at the Castle Warden Hotel and wanted to buy it to house his collection of oddities. In 1950 Ripley's family purchased the Castle Warden and opened the first Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum. The museum is open to visitors, still displaying Ripley's original collection.