Pratt's Castle, Richmond, VA | Documentary 

Hi Maggie! Glad you enjoyed! The city’s permit office unfortunately didn’t have any material related to the castle, although land records does still have the deeds (I believe one of Mary Wingfield Scott’s two books that I cited in this video gives land records’ book and page numbers to locate the deeds…you can pull up PDF’s of both her books online for free). I’m not sure if General Charles Heningsen has any publicly accessible papers or diaries from his stay at the castle, but that may be worth pursuing. I couldn’t locate any of Pratt’s papers that discuss the castle. I searched at UVA and at several museums and libraries in Richmond, to no avail. He was evidently a very private man. A good deal of my research for this video came from contemporary newspapers. The articles cited throughout give descriptions of the castle’s floor plan, decor scheme, and other valuable information. You can access those articles for free through the Library of Virginia’s site or with a Newspapers.com account. Finding detailed information on Pratt’s Castle is sadly not easy, not least of all because it’s just largely forgotten. There have got to be more photos, documents, etc. out there somewhere, but finding them is the trick. That’s the thing which both fascinates and infuriates me most about projects like this…you have to really dig in and play Detective with few, if any clues to go off of. Good luck though! I’d love to hear about anything you might find!

Do you have a source for that information? It’s known that Pratt purchased the land from the Gambles, and it’s also known that Pratt died well over a decade after he sold the castle. If there’s a reliable source which contradicts my research, I’ll be happy to post an addendum in the video’s description.

Not to my knowledge I’m afraid. Given Pratt’s vocation, I’d say there may well have been such images produced of the castle, although they are now either undiscovered or lost.