8b: Yates on Paper

Man's home really is castle

EXTRA! Yates Castle, a piece of local history, is for sale

Posted By SUSAN GAMBLE, EXPOSITOR STAFF

Updated 1 day ago

Just two families have owned the remarkable house called Wynarden in the past 145 years.

But now there's a chance for a third person to own the stuff of dreams: a "castle."

The remarkable Wynarden property up for sale -- commonly known as Yates Castle -- is one of the most unusual homes in the city, but also a bit of a mystery.

The Talos family, owners for the last 80 years, avoided publicity to some degree.

They declined home and garden tours because of the number of tenants who live on the property and, except for a massive renovation that took place in the 1980s, the home has rarely been brought to the public's attention.

Painters and photographers have found the allure of the house and it has been written about in architectural books. But the best way of discovering Yates Castle has been serendipitously -- getting lost behind Terrace Hill Street on Usher Street and gasping at the startling sight of the mansion sitting across from the train tracks.

Henry Rushton Yates was the railway magnate who built the house and spared no expense.

His legacy was raved about in The Expositor of 1865: "It has splendid suites of rooms for all

Yours for $1,855,000

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