Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
By 1943, Elise Fioravanti Quigley had already moved from California to the Ozarks, survived the Great Depression, married young, and had five children. She was also now in her mid-thirties and tired of living in a lumber shack while waiting for her husband, Albert, to finally start building the house he had promised her.
So one day in June, after Albert went to work at the lumber mill, she and her children tore down their three bedroom home and moved all their belonging into the chicken coop. When Albert returned from work, he discovered he had little choice but to finally fulfill his promise.
With the help of a neighbor, Albert built the house according to Elise’s three-dimensional model of her ideal home—a building that brought nature indoors—out of lumber from their own property. Elise then spent three years covering the exterior in the rocks, fossils, glass fragments, and arrowheads she had been collecting since childhood.
Among the “Castle’s” more unusual features are an indoor fish pond lined with shells and rocks; the large hole in the second story floor through which Elise’s tall, tropical plants grow to their full height; and the many large windows, which the Quigley’s were unable to fill until glass became available again after the war. But perhaps its most impressive attribute is its “Butterfly Wall,” a giant, complex collage made up of photographs, prints, stones, and the butterflies and moths Elise raised herself.
Elise and Albert’s grandchildren now kindly open the home to the public for about nine months of the year and host a website with more information on the Quigleys and their Castle.
Rear exterior of Quigley’s Castle near Eureka Springs, AR, covered in stones collected by Elise Fioravanti Quigley. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
View of Quigley Castle’s living room with the decorative fish pond in one corner. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
Covered jars and fishbowl decorated with Elise Quigley’s collection of rocks, butterflies, and moths. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
One of Elise Fioravanti Quigley’s many birdcages located on the first floor of Quigley’s Castle near Eureka Springs, AR. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
A few feet of the ground floor was literally left open to the ground. Mrs. Quigley’s plants continue to grow from here, up to the second floor ceiling. Just as she intended. Quigley’s Castle, Eureka Springs, AR. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
On the second story: a place to sit, relax, and watch the plants grow through the hole in the floor. Quigley’s Castle, Eureka Springs, AR. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
View into bedroom with Elise Fioravanti Quigley’s “Butterfly Wall.” Opposite the door, visitors can see the top of a plant growing up from the ground floor. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
Part of the Joseph Cornell-like “Butterfly Wall,” a collage of prints, stones, moths, and butterflies in Quigley’s Castle, Eureka Springs, AR. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
Bottle trees and edged garden on the grounds of Quigley’s Castle near Eureka Springs, AR. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
Seating and table made of cement and local stones in the garden of Quigley’s Castle outside Eureka Springs, AR. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.
Decoration in the gardens of Quigley’s Castle, Eureka Springs, AR. Although most of the stones used in the house and garden were found locally by Elise, some, like the large crystalline clusters pictured here, were purchased. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.