"Mystery Castle" (per Life magazine)

In about 1930, a father and husband abandoned his daughter and wife in Seattle with no explanation. Fifteen years later they received a letter that they'd inherited a castle in Phoenix, Arizona. They moved south and inhabited the sprawling 8,000 sq ft building, made entirely of locally salvaged products (car parts, for one).

The man, Boyce Gulley, ran away because? he had TB, and recovering from it in the dry climate, proceeded to build a castle based on two years architectural training. When he succumbed to cancer in 1945, he left it to them.

I love the American West, with a special place for the Southwest: it's architecture, landscapes, food, warmth, succulents, you name it. The castle captured my imagination despite it's weirdness; I had an emotional response to the design that overrides my usual cognitive response. My only criticism is the now octogenarian daughter might not have decorated with so many stuffed animals and mannequins.

It's all in the details, isn't it?