County's Handsomest House: The Story of Somerville's American-Gothic Classic

Somerville New Jersey has a municipal and library building that looks like something out of a Gothic romance. At the end of what appears to be a typical suburban Main Street sits a castle. The story of how Somerville acquired its "castle", the man who built it, and the preservation of an award-winning classic of American Gothic architecture stretches from the early 19th to the 21st century. It involves the growth of a small town and the rise and tribulations of a colorful, but not widely known, colonial-American family. Victorians believed one's home was one's castle, but this philosophy was realized in the Daniel Robert House. History and architecture buffs will be intrigued by the artistry and planning of one man's private castle, one that now is a building serving the public and a National Register site.