The fascinating history of Seely’s Castle, also known as the Overlook, is overshadowed by rumors of Satanic rituals and human sacrifices by “rich, elite and powerful” satanists of Asheville, North Carolina.
Seely’s Castle in Asheville, North Carolina
“I have personally done many years of hands-on research, often dangerous, in and around the city of Asheville, NC,” Pamela Schuffert wrote. “Asheville is known as the satanist/pagan mecca of the east coast. Nestled in the mysterious Blue Ridge mountains as they descend from Virginia, such remote mountains and valleys have long been the desired sites for bizarre and often violent cult rituals, many culminating in human sacrifice.”
This may read a bit like the introduction to a Lovecraft story, but Schuffert presents it as fact in her 2001 “report” Satanism in America Today, which seems to have been originally posted in installments to conspiracy-themed Yahoo groups and a website hosted on the free 50megs platform called American Holocaust. She details rumors of rampant satanic activity throughout Asheville society, from high school students sacrificing animals, to the city’s wealthiest and most influential residents sacrificing their own infants to earn their dark lord’s favor.
“Every year across America, up to one million innocent victims are abducted or bred for human sacrifice by Satanist cults,” Schuffert explains. “They die in agony, their screams unheard by mainstream America. Their remains will never be discovered: they were tortured, cannibalized, cremated and disposed of.”
Schuffert describes herself as a Christian woman with apparent ties to this group through her father. She relates harrowing encounters with them while spiritually protecting other Christians under attack by these shadowy individuals.
It’s a narrative that sounds exactly the same as numerous other Christian writings of the last several decades.
The infusion of the Christian perspective tends to get tedious, but I love a good story about the world’s most powerful people conjuring Satan for demonic blood orgies. I was raised on (read: traumatized by) heavy doses of Christian paranoia and satanic panic in the 1980s and 90s. As a child, I attended eerily cult-like small town churches who preached fire and brimstone End Times teachings about how the government was run by Satan. We would be forced to take the Mark of the Beast or face certain death. And – I swear this true – the song “Achy Breaky Heart” by Billy Ray Cyrus, a staple of popular country radio at the time, was a demonic portal that would damn your soul to an eternity in Hell just by listening to it.
My mother once even took me to a highly attended conference where Christian fundamentalist Texe Marrs presented (often with photographs) all the horrible things he alleged Satanists were doing to innocent people to spite God. Christian gore porn. They love all the gruesome details.
After years of nightmares and the onset of a crippling lifelong anxiety, I eventually came to find a certain comfort in the absurdly dark caricature of evil presented in these claims. Some of it might be real, some less so. I mean, does the Illuminati really carry out human sacrifices in the catacombs of the Vatican? Do the Cremation of Care ceremonies at Bohemian Grove really mean demons have infiltrated the upper echelons of world government? Are lizard people actually pulling the strings to manipulate world affairs?
Probably not, though that would surely make things more interesting.
Do the Blue Ridge Mountains conceal the vile secrets of Asheville’s Satanic elite?
I stumbled upon Schuffert’s report in the early 2000s, a time when a video called Loose Change was convincingly spinning the narrative that 9/11 was an inside job, Alex Jones had smuggled a video camera into Bohemian Grove to expose our country’s leaders as giant stone owl-worshipping weirdos, and chemtrails were definitely controlling our weather. Or our minds. Or both.
This was long before QAnon, Flat Earth and the “COVID scam-demic,” even before thousands of guillotines were being stored at US military bases to eradicate Christians. You know, the good ol’ days when the world was just being controlled by Illuminati Satanists who assassinated JFK to cover up UFOs and bring about the Antichrist and the New World Order.
I found Schuffert’s work on a website called Educate Yourself, which somehow still exists, and touts the dangers of FEMA concentration camps, vaccines, wifi and cell towers, while promoting the health benefits of colloidal silver and bioelectrification.
Satanism in America Today is published on the site as a 7-part exposé of alleged Satanic activity in the Asheville area, where the mountains supposedly conceal great caverns of evil that Schuffert claims she even clashed with herself during her decade of research.
“I have narrowly escaped several abduction attempts in those mountains,” Schuffert wrote, “and I was told (by my father’s former high priest) that had they succeeded in their attempt, I would have been seized and hauled down in chains in a Ryder rental truck and then chained to the altar in their great Satanist caverns of the Smokies, which stretch far into Tennessee, and most brutally sacrificed for having dared to stand against them.”
Yes, apparently Satanists rent moving trucks to haul their sacrificial victims to their evil mountain lairs.
“Ryder and other rental trucks are frequently used to secretly haul human sacrifice victims to sacrifice locations nationwide,” Schuffert explained.
Next time you see a U-Haul in the neighbor’s driveway, ask yourself: Are they moving, or is it just another human sacrifice?
The grand Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina
“The satanists in the mountains of North Carolina are never shy about announcing their presence,” Schuffert wrote. “In fact, they have often let it be known that they are quite proud of their exploits! But then, why not? The jewel of Asheville, NC, is the famed ‘Biltmore Estate,’ former home of the great Illuminati Satanist millionaire, George Vanderbilt! In his Illuminati mansion, one large room contains a coven’s table, with 13 seats on either side. On the door is a plaque with the words, ‘Assemblage of the Gods.’”
I’ve never been to Asheville, but it sounds great. Schuffert should have been put in charge of the tourism department.
Asheville, it seems, will be the epicenter of the Luciferian NWO. At some point, martial law will be declared and “our corrupt government” will round up Christians and “Patriot resistors” into boxcars fitted with shackles (which Schuffert claims already exist, were even brought out for Halloween one year) and transport them to death camps throughout North Carolina.
In one case, Schuffert says a young woman (a Christian and a virgin, of course) had been targeted for sacrifice by the Asheville Satanists, so Schuffert was asked to help.
“In 1992, as I was investigating Satanism in the mountains of North Carolina, I was tipped off by a Satanic crime investigator about a young woman whose life was living hell: she was marked for abduction and sacrifice by local Satanists, and they were systematically destroying her life. Her social life was cut off: most of her previous friends had been slowly frightened away. Even pastors had been frightened to stand with her, apparently. The investigator suggested I could provide spiritual comfort and support for her if I moved into her trailer with her.”
The attacks began months prior, when the girl’s mother received a phone call.
“We’re gonna get yer daughter for SACRIFICE,” a voice said, and hung up.
“Knowing that victims fall more easily into Satanist traps IF terrorized prior to abduction (fear creates confusion and tends to paralyze),” Schuffert wrote, “they started off their conquest of Cindi with these words.”
Schuffert writes that this was followed up by “roadside abduction traps,” poisoning, stalking, Satanists cutting off electricity and phone service at the girl’s home, and even tapping her phone so they could interrupt conversions by shouting “Kill!”
Of course, it only got worse once Pam got involved.
“The Satanists worked double time after I moved in,” she wrote. “Sensing that my friend was now receiving the needed Christian support and teachings in order to evade them, they became more violent and insane in their efforts. We endured many episodes of life on the wild side. I found myself spending countless hours on my knees in prayer for our protection, having both a Bible for support and carrying a loaded handgun in a beltbag 24 hours a day for emergencies.”
So the Satanists brought in the big guns, so to speak: A “curse pin.”
“In the months that following, she endured many attacks,” Schuffert wrote, “including suffering a ‘curse pin’ that was secretly planted in a car seat she sat in unsuspectingly one morning on the way to church. Satanists often use ‘curse pins,’ fine pins planted in locations wherein the unsuspecting victim may encounter them.
“They are coated with deadly poisons and assigned demons of destruction to the victim as well. After she sat in this car seat, the fine pin slowly worked itself into her leg which was in contact with the seat. The pain was tremendous. She screamed as the burning spread through her leg and her body. Her friend pulled the car over to the side to the side of the road, and then rushed her off to the firestation.”
Cyndi was taken to the Memorial Mission Hospital in Asheville, where Schuffert says she was initially refused treatment when the emergency room staff learned she was suffering from a Satanic attack.
“As a former high level Satanist in Asheville had warned me, who had worked in that hospital, this hospital was filled with both Satanists and witches as doctors, nurses and other employees,” Schuffert claimed. “In fact, the Satanists and the witches were in constant invisible battles with one another there, hurling ‘summoned demons’ and curses at one another, etc. They would not TOUCH my friend at first, therefore, when warned that it was Satanist-attack connected. Finally, she was stabilized and was able to come home.”
The harassment continued with threatening phone calls for weeks as Cyndi recovered at home. Frustrated, Schuffert grabbed the phone one day and “blasted” them:
“Listen…you Satanists are nothing but a bunch of wimps and cowards like your father Satan,” she told the Satanist on the phone. “Think I’m impressed when it takes ten of you ‘men’ or MORE to sacrifice just one little helpless baby? COWARDS! Get a life…instead of taking a life. Get Jesus Christ in your lives instead.”
Because they’re evil, this ridicule only made things worse.
“This infuriated the leader, code name of ‘King One,’ Schuffert wrote. “King One,” apparently one of the most powerful Satanists in America at the time, responded by calling back later.
“Tell Pam she has forty-hours to leave your trailer…OR ELSE!” King One told Cyndi.
Schuffert told Cyndi to tell King One, “Sorry…I DON’T take orders from Satanists…ONLY JESUS CHRIST!”
When Schuffert refused to leave, the Satanists descended and terrorized them throughout the night by hiding in the woods and making scraping sounds on the outside of Cyndi’s mobile home.
“I paced from one end of the trailer to the other, Bible held high, and standing on the Word of God for Divine protection,” Schuffert wrote.
They made it through the night, but the wasn’t the end.
“One night, the harassment went into the extreme, however. Cyndi had by this time moved her mattress onto the living room floor so that she would not be window level when she slept at night. Her head was ground level, right next to an air duct. One night she came to me and said, ‘I’ve been smelling something strange for the last 15 minutes…’ I had smelled nothing. A few minutes later she said, ‘what are those funny black spots doing around your head?’ She then collapsed and fell on her knees, her head and shoulders fallen on the sofa. I ran and lifted her entire body up on the sofa. She was totally unconscious by now.
“We later figured out, they had introduced some type of chemical weapon into her ventilation system, but not strong enough to affect everyone in the trailer…only her, since her face had been directly next to the vent. She and I had heard sounds coming from underneath her trailer that night, and we KNEW that they had spent some time under there…but we dared not go out to confront them at night.
“When she came out of this state many hours later, she admitted to having a most marvelous angelic visitation in which she believed God had visited her and promised her victory in this battle.”
Eventually, Cyndi’s family left Asheville to escape the harassment.
“She and her mother were forced to relocate far out of the area to avoid further attack,” Schuffert wrote. “But these murderers never succeeded in getting her after all. Nor did they succeed in getting me, although they made numerous attempts on my life after that through abduction attempts, poisoning, even sending into my life a Satanist posing as a Christian who needed counseling.”
Many of Schuffert’s details are vague, such as the locations of the caverns where Satan is summoned upon a golden throne to witness human sacrifices. But she does mention one location by name.
Schuffert recounts the story she says a high school student related to her about human sacrifice, which supposedly took place in an imposing mansion outside Asheville known as Seely’s Castle.
“He admitted that the baby sacrifice took place in Ceilie’s [sic] Castle, long reputed to be a location for the satanic rituals of the ‘rich, elite and powerful’ satanists that populate Asheville and the surrounding region,” Schuffert wrote. “This grim, grey castle can only be glimpsed through the woods as one drives towards the city of Asheville from the interstate 40 exit. Or, if one has the courage, to drive up Town Mountain Road (where many of the Satanist elite have large mansions) and to park in front of it’s somber metal gates with surveillance cameras. As other former satanists have admitted, many a human sacrifice ritual has taken place within it’s grey stone walls.”
Seely’s Castle certainly does look like the ominous headquarters of a Lovecraftian cult. The tall, ivy-covered brick facade feels more like a dungeon than a home.
Fred Loring Seely, a chemist, newspaper editor and businessman, is credited, along with his father-in-law Edwin Wiley Grove, with transforming Asheville into the most popular resort city in the southeast in the early 20th century. Grove, a patent medicine tycoon whose company produced well-known products like Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic and Laxative Bromo Quinine tablets, gifted ten acres on the top of Sunset Mountain, a promontory called Overlook Park, to Fred and his daughter Evelyn Grove Seely to build their new home.
Fred designed it himself, and work began in 1914 using native granite rock from the surrounding mountain.
The 20,000-square-foot Overlook Castle, as Seely called it, was completed ten years later. Besides the Medieval style parapets, the Jacobean ceilings and the lattice windows, Seely included a number of subtle but fascinating features.
The door of the courtyard entrance was made of beams from the 14th century ancestral Seely home in Ireland. The curved oak door to Seely’s office, now gone, had 10 hand-carved panels depicting scenes from the Bible.
A Tudor mantel in the library came from an English manor once owned by Queen Victoria.
In the Great Room, with 32-foot-high ceilings and massive beams made from whole trees, a stone from the Tower of London and a piece of the Blarney stone were set into the fireplace.
In the bedrooms, the closet doors were wired by Thomas Edison with switches that automatically turned the lights on when the doors were opened.
The lions on each side of the tunnel entrance are said to have been from the courthouse in Atlanta that Sherman’s army burned down during the Civil War.
Seely’s creation was both impressive and foreboding.
Described in its 1980 nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, the castle is described as “one of Asheville’s most pretentious private residences.”
“Asheville tradition maintains that the building is a reproduction of Forde Abbey, Dorset, near London, a mid-twelfth century monastery with Abbot’s Lodging dating from the sixteenth century,” the nomination submission reads. “The central tower of the Abbot’s Lodging provides the best comparison, if any, to Overlook. Both structures are of stone construction in the English Gothic style, and are accented by parapets, lattice windows, and stone trim.”
Seely intended the top of the tower on the south side of the castle to be an observatory. Due to the “depressed economy,” however, he altered his plan and “roughed the tower walls off in keeping with the ‘ruin’ effect of ancient English manor houses.”
The Overlook served as a summer home for the Seely’s, who spent much of their time in the Far East buying quinine, the primary ingredient in Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic. The popular medicine claimed to cure colds and prevent malaria.
When they were staying at the castle, the Seely’s were said to have some impressive guests, including Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone. Thomas Edison would camp on the castle grounds while visiting Asheville.
“Seely attended Princeton as a grown man, studying architecture. During this period, he became friendly with Woodrow Wilson, who was then the university’s president,” Asheville native Jerry Sternberg wrote. “Seely later became a significant fundraiser for Wilson’s presidential campaigns. During his second term in office, Wilson suffered a stroke, and legend has it that the government was secretly being run by his wife and “Colonel” Edward House, the president’s longtime adviser. Every day, to fool the public, they would pretend to wheel Wilson out onto a porch at the White House to enjoy the afternoon sun, but this was just a stand-in: Supposedly, Wilson was actually being kept out of sight in the castle’s master bedroom.”
“It’s also said that papers related to the Teapot Dome scandal, having to do with oil leases during the Harding administration, were locked in the enormous safe in the counting house in the castle’s west wing,” Sternberg noted. “It is not known what connection, if any, Seely had with all that.”
Fred and Evelyn lived in the Overlook until Fred’s death in 1942. Evelyn sold it to the Asheville-Biltmore College in 1949, and the school occupied the property until they eventually outgrew it in 1961.
Two owners of the Holiday Inn hotel chain bought the castle and 29 acres of land, but they had no use for the castle and put it back on the market.
“Sadly, it had deteriorated considerably due to lack of maintenance, water damage and vandalism,” Sternberg said. “Some former students had been holding some pretty interesting parties up there.”
The castle was in rough shape, and several offers had fallen through. Sternberg, who owned a junk business in Asheville, eventually bought Overlook for $40,000. If it came down to it, he figured he could at least make some money salvaging the leaded windows, chandeliers, antique doors and other architectural materials.
He moved his family in, got a former police dog to serve as security, and began making much-needed repairs. His family enjoyed their life in the castle, where the Great Room had more square footage than the entire house they left behind.
The kids’ bedrooms had large blackboards left over from the college, and the library became a playroom where they could make as much noise as they wanted, since, as Sternberg says, “the living quarters were one-tenth of a mile away.”
“My most vivid memory is getting up at 4 a.m. on July 20, 1969, sitting with my family in my castle and continually nodding off as we watched Neil Amstrong land on the moon,” Sternberg recalls.
The Great Room of Seely’s Castle
One of the most common questions Sternberg has been asked was if the Overlook was haunted.
“If you sat in the Great Room on a dark night, you would occasionally see an eerie, sylphlike figure wisp through the room, never pausing and never threatening,” he wrote. “The kids gleefully called it ‘Chippie’ and squealed with delight in its presence.
“Unfortunately there were no bizarre happenings that anyone knew of that might have spawned this supernatural being, and while I hate to dispel romance and adventure, I always figured it was a reflection of some kind of light from Tunnel Road — OR WAS IT?”
The fireplace in the library from a manor owned by Queen Victoria
Another odd aspect of the castle is what Sternberg called the “secret room” in the library.
“In the far corner sat an antique fireplace that had once belonged to Queen Victoria,” he writes. “Set at an angle, it guarded the famous ‘secret room.’ Visitors were mesmerized by the fact that although you could see two windows from the outside, that area was inaccessible from within. People would stand in front of that fireplace for hours, searching for a knob or button that would cause it to open like in the old ‘B’ movies, revealing a hidden treasure trove. I never shared their conviction, but it certainly contributed to the castle’s mystique.”
Lions guard the original courtyard entrance to the Overlook
Sternberg’s children grew up and moved out, and Sternberg lived there alone for several years before he decided to sell it. Finding a buyer this time proved to be as difficult as when he bought it years earlier.
“Unfortunately, in those days, there were not a lot of buyers for a mansion in the sky,” he wrote. “We had plenty of tire-kickers and hood-raisers who really just wanted a Cook’s tour, but no offers.”
He then sought out a nonprofit organization he could donate the Overlook to for use as a community center or a museum, and eventually a Bible school took up his offer.
“Everybody dreams of being king for a day, but I became a king for several years,” Sternberg wrote of his life in the castle. “Not really, though I did get to live in a real castle, which was certainly a very special life experience.”
Overlook Christian Ministries assumed stewardship of the castle in the late 1970s. They were a full gospel ministry that believed in speaking in tongues and the “gifts of the Pentecost,” which some claim may be the root of the rumors of satanism.
They wrote a book about their ministry called A Castle in the Kingdom.
The castle was acquired by the Wells family in 1984, who seem to be the last known owners, though another rumor claims executives of BonWorth purchased the castle from the Overlook ministry for use as a company retreat.
It is unclear exactly when Schuffert says Satanic rituals and human sacrifices were taking place in Seely’s Castle, but it sounds as though those claims date back to the 1990s. Online records don’t seem to provide any information on its ownership at that time, so it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly who may have been hosting these infernal gatherings.
The library of Seely’s Castle
Is Asheville and Overlook Castle concealing dark, Satanic secrets? Tell me what you think in the comments below.
I attended Asheville-Biltmore College at the castle from 1956-1958 and have many fond memories of this beautiful building. It has two floors plus a basement. As I recall, there were two classrooms plus a bathroom on each floor. I think the physics class met in the basement; the ping-pong table and student union were also there. The main floor also had a large beautiful room with floor to ceiling windows, and a big room where we assembled every Tuesday – often to hear Dr. Bushy’s history of the college. This room was also used for the dances.
Did you reside there as well?
Sadly, Loren Wells died last September 15, 2018 in Hendersonville
I went to church there in the 70’s, knew the owners well. They originally were from the West Asheville Assembly of God church, on Haywoid Rd ,moved and now known as Crossroads Assembly on S. Bear Creek Rd.
Here is the tax info on the Castle 🙂
In the early 60’s I worked for William (Winky) Digges, at the Register of Deeds office for Buncombe County. He told a story of being driven in a limosine up to Seely’s castle to play with the children. I assume he was talking about the original Seely family who lived there in the 30’s.
The Digges were in political office for many years. Winky had been voted into the office his father had held for many election cycles. He was a good man and a fine boss.
I’m ready to buy this castle for Jesus again! Let’s do it!
You want to create more horror stories?
Good stories…thanks…love to see it..Maybe I can do some metalwork for them..
Interesting stories. Would love to tour the Castle. Rather looks “prisonlike” from some of the photos shown. The men in the Upper Room did speak in tongues and when speaking to the people, they did hear in their own languages. Also Paul refers to speaking in tongues as a gift from the Holy Spirit, but it should be done only if there is an interpreter, so that others would be edified. It is also stated by Paul that the Holy Spirit is the one who gives gifts to people and that people should not ask for that gift, because only the Holy Spirit knows who is to receive it. Read your Bible, folks.
I knew someone who was connected with the ‘congregation’ at the castle in the mid to late 70’s. She went to a church that believed in a lot of borderline extremist theology and she told me some crazy nonsense about her mother’s shadow turning into a skeleton that fell down the wall and disappeared. Don’t know if her ‘shadow’ ever came back. I was raised Baptist and our ministers went to Seminary and had extensive education in religious theory. I never saw someone fall down during a service or start babbling when ‘the Lord’ entered the room. Why would God have us speaking in ‘tongues’ today? What purpose would it serve? Don’t we have enough misunderstanding in the Christian world? How would this help? I’ve watched people who claimed to be speaking in tongues. It’s gibberish. No one interpreted anything, either.There’s no pattern to the speech, it’s not a language. Klingon is a more developed language. They get a room all worked up, talking about God’s presence in the room, anointing with cooking oil, falling backwards when the oil touches their foreheads, then they start shaking and vocalizing. It’s absurd. One thing no one mentions about Paul – he was a religious/political prisoner for many years and he was quite crazy. If I remember right, he argued against women being involved in the church, saying instead that they should be quiet and stay out of the way of the men. There are many writings not included in the King James version of the Bible, used by many modern churches and schools. It’s the basis for the protestant religions that began in Europe and the mid east. I don’t believe King James was anything but a man who wished to force his theology on his subjects and control them through the use of scripture. I can imagine Donald Trump would rewrite the Bible if he thought he could get away with it. There’s always a fringe element willing to believe anything if it’s claimed to be the will of God.
Just because you don’t know about it or understand it doesn’t make it wrong or ‘gibberish.’ It’s one of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and Biblical. Sounds like maybe you need to do some reading. I think this is one of the main problems in our world – people bashing things just because they are unfamiliar with them. (I’m not even going to comment on the things you said about the Apostle Paul.)
Agreed!! I was told by a 6 year old little girl when I was attending a Church of God my first time, after I said outloud, why in the world are they speaking that way? Thelittke girl beside me just touched my hand and told me that the devil can understand our spoken words but he can’t understand speaking in tougens and some things are meant to be spoken outloud. Out of the mouth of babes the truth was revealed. I also learned to watch what I spoke outloud, because your words can be used against you. Its a shame that people are so close minded.
Wanda Jones you’re an ignorant botard reject who was picked On in school obviously.
That’s godly… do you feel better by calling someone names… you sound like my grandsons with what I just read… ????????????
Kaelob you are so sweet!
Donald Trump is the best President this country HAS EVER HAD! He is doing God’s work and you sir are a brain washed FOOL.
are you for real!
No english lesson. …..
The actual address of this property is 379 Town Mountain Rd, Asheville, NC 28804
I worked on a Movie set there in the mid 70s. The EO Corporation from Shelby filmed a movie there called, Hot Heir. I don’t think the movie went anywhere but it was a fun job for the summer…
I was a guest at the castle during the winter of 77/78. It was a fun experience. I would love to visit again if the Wells family would agree.
My husband and I are looking for a venue for our vow renewal and I would love to have it in the castle!
Contact OMNI resorts (owners of the Grove Park Inn) as they are going to buy the castle when Mr. Wells sells it soon.
I was a senior in high school & was intrigued by the romantic old castle. I talked my boyfriend into driving me through the gates so I could ask for a tour. Rude, I know, but hey – I was 17! The gentleman who approached us as on the front lawn was understandably upset & said we were lucky that the dogs were put up & that “just the week before they bit the hand off of another intruder”. When I told him that I was doing a class paper on the castle he warmed up & graciously gave us a quick tour. My hubby & I cannot remember it all, but we do recall a small room with an old, bare light bulb that he said was “an original Edison bulb that still worked”. I remember a beautiful stone or marble staircase in the foyer – maybe even a split staircase? Not sure. I remember a not-so-old suit of armor which the caretaker laughingly described it as “obligatory”. I remember him telling us about a hidden room (near a fireplace?) where Mrs. Seely would hide her furs, but I do not remember seeing it.
I’m still intrigued by the old place & feel very blessed to have been given a glimpse inside.
I know this comment is a couple years old but what year did you say you visited and what was the name of the gentleman who let you in?
I was born in Asheville in 1932 many stories and rumors about the castle, used to play on the grounds in the 1940’s sat on the lions there and played as if there were knights etc there. rode my bicycle up there form down town loved to ride down the mountain coming back. also during the second world way there were rumors that the atomic bomb was designed there and built in ten but never got any conformation on this. I knew Mr. Sternberg when he owned it and lots of rumors there but is a great conversation piece at any rate .
Does anybody know details of the inside ? How many bedrooms ? Is it only two stories ? Is there a large fireplace in each room ? Is there a basement ? How many secret rooms ? What about formal rooms such as a ball-room maybe for entertaining guests with dance’s and such in the early yrs ?? Etc etc etc.
Pam Schuffert’s 2001 so-called article, “Satanism in America Today”, is a complete crock, concocted by a brainless and hopeless mentality that is entirely controlled by fear and ignorance. Christ has a few things to say about such fear and hopelessness, yet many self-described Christians seem to completely ignore many of these teachings. WWJD? Think about it, and LIVE accordingly.
Speaking in tongues is not necessarily satanic, although it can be. On the day of Pentecost, after Jesus arose from the dead and ascended to Heaven, the Scriptures tell us the Holy Ghost landed on the people in the “Upper Room” and they started speaking in tongues. Tongues is actually a real language the person does not know, yet is able to speak fluently. The book of Acts tells us this. I Corinthians 12 lists the gifts of the Holy Ghost. One of those is speaking in tongues. Paul told us “When my spirit prays, my understanding is unfruitful”. This means his spirit is speaking with God in a tongue unknown to him. So, if a Pentecostal Christian is speaking in tongues, it should not be viewed as a satanic practice.
Not so. What happened on the day of Pentecost was that the apostles spoke in their language, and everyone listening heard it in *their* language. Think “universal translator” in the “Star Trek” series. Kind of like that…if I’m speaking English and a Mexican person hears it in Spanish…it was like that.
Agree!
I’ve always known about the old “family castle”, but never suspected such a colorful history! #Related
Forgot to mention that family legend states the stones they built it from were brought over from Scotland. True or false, I don’t know.
Becky Seeley Limbaugh
I heard the same thing about the stones from Scotland. Such a rich and wonderful history. I would love to interview you someday if you would allow me to do so. My cell # is 9707798009. If you’re interested, please send a text.
I remember being told that a castle in Scotland was torn down and rebuilt on the mountain. My mother told me that fact
I did live in the “Castle” in 1979/1980….My son was born in the upper room on the right in the front picture of the castle. The owners at that time did have a Christian church that met in part of the castle. We lived in a part and the owners lived in another part. The church people were good Christian people and never heard a story of “satanic ritual” until I met someone from Asheville that moved here to S.C. about 10 years ago. For the short time we were there we had a good life. My son was born in June of 1980. What child can say he was born in a castle???? It was beautiful on that part of the mountain and we would see red foxes come up to the house all the time. What a good memory!!
did they teach you English… needs work.. two spaces after periods.
Okay, Mr. Oxford Comma, way to be a total ass. Thank you, Ms. Culler for sharing your first hand experience. Such an interesting legacy for your son!
Agreed, Suz! 🙂
I agree with Suz. Thank you Martha for sharing your memory!!!!!….!!!!
Chicago, AP and MLA formats all suggest using 1 space after a punctuation mark. So Martha Culler is correct.
Where did you learn your English, Mr. Elliot? How about using correct punctuation, yourself, if you feel that your idea of proper English needs to be rudely rammed down someone’s throat, and in a context that is entirely inappropriate? By the way, you MIGHT note that I’ve added a “question mark” at the end of my question! You might also better educate yourself regarding the usage of “… “, as well as “.. (sic), which is entirely incorrect within your (did I already state this?) rude response.
You’re a fucking dumbass. I have a graduate degree in English and using two spaces after a period is NEVER done.
Really? Now I have to go look up the rules on how many spaces after periods. I was taught to put two. I’m 45. Maybe it has changed over the years?
BTW- I am about the same age and was taught to put two spaces after periods. Also, I have old pictures of the castle that include some of my Asheville relatives who were friends with the Seeleys.
It’s a typing rule. Those of us who took a legit typing class on a typewriter in school were taught to use two spaces after sentences. I like the look of it better, makes more sense……………………… ha.
Also some of you should chill with the childish name calling. It’s fine if you think you’re right and want to explain, but to call someone a dumbass? Lol ? …over and extra space … get a life dude
Did they teach you English, Elliot? Sentences begin with a capital. Question marks follow questions. Ellipses always come in a series of THREE dots, and there is supposed to be a space between each dot. As a hypocritically unkind oaf, you may now retire to your grammar and punctuation book leaving the rest of us to sincerely thank Ms. Culler for suffering such boorishness and unselfishly sharing her story.
Elliot, you need to look at your own mistakes before you try to correct others.
Who owns castle now?
Martha Culler. I am sitting here amazed by what you just wrote! I was 16 in 1980 and was looking for a car. I can’t remember how we come to find the ad about a 1974 Nova. But it was at Seely’s Castle. I was excited about seeing the car but also about seeing the Castle! I remember we were looking at the car and someone stuck their head out of one of the top windows and yelled “it’s a Boy’!! That was around 35-36 yrs ago and I remember it like it was yesterday. I am so glad that I read your comment!
Cecilia Rhymer: I am sitting here AMAZED at life and synchronicity. Thanks for sharing your story!
Yeah right
I was born fall of that yr there
That’s a wonderful memory Martha. May I ask why you moved out ? It would have been an awesome place to stay and raise a boy. Ohh the life stories he could have told.
This is absolutely absurd! Satanism at Seely’s Castle. Who ever wrote that should be ashamed. I went to school with a girl who was part of Overlook Christian Ministry. I did think her family was a bit overzealous about avoiding ‘sin’ but it wasn’t a cult, just a bit too Pentecostal for my Southern Baptist’s tastes. Why not write about a spot in Asheville that was really popular? How about the fellas who roamed the streets around Grove Park Arcade in the 1980s-1990’s? Used to be a genuine pick up spot for gay men – now it’s a posh place to eat and shop. Or, there was always a little place called ‘Sandy Bottoms’, and another little park near the bus garage and transfer station off Brevard Road. Remember My Brother’s Mustache, a popular gay bar, and O. Henry’s pub. And for the ladies, check out Malaprop’s book store. See, Asheville’s past is steeped in lore about the relationships between the leaders of the town and some important historical figures, such as Thomas Edison, Firestone, Ford. Fred Seely was rumored to have been a member of the Masonic Lodge. Perhaps it’s no accident that Asheville has always been accommodating and tolerant of people who are ‘different’. I’m not sayin…. but, you know, the photos are on the walls of the Grove Park Inn, drive by and see them sometime…
missing the connection between possible Satan worship at Seely’s Castle and guys looking to get their rocks off downtown…
And this is “weird” how? Cult of Weird is about urban legend and stories of the odd and stories that often get started and passed down from family to family of the spooky and supernatural.
Wells bought the place and spent much time fixing the place up.
Glad someone with means got it so
it will not be pile of rocks like so
many English castles are today.
Shop BONWORTH and support Seely’s castle restoration.
Loren W. Wells (CEO of Bon Worth) to be more specific, and his choice of 12 foot high barbed wired fencing surrounding the property is very tasteful.
people this day and age don’t know boundaries unless you make it 12′ high with barbed wire.
that’s all thanks to vandals and vagrants. especially these days when the general population doesn’t have morals or thoughts of anything other than self. sadly that’s whats happening to this world. technology has propelled peoples knowledge into the future by having anything they could want at the tips of their fingers, but never having to work to earn it makes it lose some of its hard earned value.
I think that is why people build up walls and fences.
That castle is supposed to be mine.
We’re you supposed to inherit it?
This is not owned by any type of religious order. It is privately owned by Mr. and Mrs. Wells. Mr. Wells is the owner or one of the higher ups of Bon Worth. It is his private estate.