The storybook stone castle of actor William Gillette crowns a rocky bluff on the east bank of the lower Connecticut River above the Chester-Hadlyme Ferry. The fortress, perched on a range of granite hills known as the Seven Sisters, was built of local fieldstone between 1914 and 1919 with profits from the Hartford actor's highly successful Sherlock Holmes plays. Gillette oversaw every detail right down to the locks on the doors. To entertain his guests, Gillette installed on the 184-acre property a narrow-gage railroad, which he sped around on three miles of track. The actor eventually deeded his beloved Castle to the State, writing famously in his will that the bequest would prevent the property from falling into the hands "of some blithering sapheadwho has no conception of where he is or with what surrounded."