History and Art Meet at Hammond Castle

By Gerry Barker
Photos by Gerry Barker

One of the stops on our recent “New England Explorer” cruise on American Cruise Lines’ ship, American Constitution, was Gloucester, MA., a coastal town of 30,000 famous as a center of ship building, fishing and pleasure boating. What I didn’t expect to find is a medieval castle.

Go north up the coastline and you’ll see the towers of Hammond Castle Museum, once the home of inventor John Hays Hammond Jr., known as “The Father of Radio Control.” Holder of over 400 patents, and over 100 foreign patents, Hammond’s inventions included single dial radio tuning, controlled pitch propellers and the radio remote control utilized in today’s missile guidance systems and unmanned aerial vehicles.

On our stop here, we have signed up for an excursion that includes a tour of Hammond Castle, to learn more about how this castle — a mainstay of European river cruises — became a popular tourist attraction in New England.

View of the rooms, including the dining room, right

Aside from being a prolific inventor, Hammond had a fascination with European castles and history from an early age, rooted in family travels. That, plus his love of art, inspired him to build the castle, known as Abbadia Mare (Abbey by the Sea) over a three-year period (1926-1929) at a cost of $500,000. Not only did it serve as the home of Hammond and his wife, Irene, but also housed his laboratory and workshop complex.

From the drawbridge and moat to his extensive collection of medieval and Roman art that fill the rooms, it is a castle in every respect, and nowhere more so than when you enter The Great Room. Almost 70 feet long, 22 feet wide and 56 feet high, you feel as if you’re in a Gothic cathedral, complete with stained glass windows. Perched high above is Hammond’s prized pipe organ, boasting 8,000 pipes and built over a period of decades. (The guidebook points out this one is not to be confused with the “Hammond Organ,” an electric keyboard popular with jazz artists.)

Upon leaving The Great Hall, you enter a Roman-inspired outdoor courtyard under a glass roof. It features a bronze statue of a nude man (it’s been rumored Hammond modeled for it). According to the guidebook, at one time Hammond thought it a good idea to keep songbirds there — but the inventor’s cats had other plans for them. Oops.

During construction, Hammond has constantly making adjustments to the blueprints as he scouted Europe for artworks and furniture, sending “as many as 83 telegrams” with changes he wanted.
The Invention Room, formerly a guest bedroom, showcases the many innovations and inventions Hammond fathered, including a photo of Hammond with one of his mentors, Alexander Graham Bell. Other mentors who took a special interest in his work included Nicola Tesla and Thomas Edison.
While he was on the RCA Board of Directors, and worked closely with the U.S. military on projects, some classified, not all his inventions were serious. He holds one patent for “a cigarette case which dispensed and lit cigarettes simultaneously,” allegedly for his wife.

Hammond was also known as a practical joker. It was reported he “terrified sailors by affixing a 75-foot, custom-built rubber ‘sea serpent’ to a radio-controlled torpedo and maneuvering it around Gloucester Harbor at night.” One can’t help but wonder if the inventor ever visited Loch Ness.

One of the fascinating stops on the tour is Greek-revival style library, which borrowed designs from friend and famed interior decorator, Henry Davis Sleeper (Sleeper’s Gloucester home, Beauport, is also an historic museum). It houses his collection of 2,000 books and features an arched ceiling. We are told if you stand in the middle of the room, your voice will reverberate. I tried it by singing a quick verse of the “Jet Song” from “West Side Story.” I thought I sounded pretty good, if I do say so myself — Pam has no comment. Side note: Hammond also dappled in fiction, and particularly enjoyed writing science fiction, including “The Termite Monster” and “10,000 A.D.” His wife also penned an astrology column for Smith’s Magazine.

Outside, you get views of the Gloucester coastline from the lawn in back, and by the moat there’s a short nature walk near the spot where Hammond is buried on the property. In a 1924 letter to his father, Hammond noted, “I want to build something in hard stone and to engrave on it for posterity a name of which I am justly proud.”

Standing beside his creation, two words come to mind: Mission accomplished.