Please enter the mansion via the front door. Once inside, you will find yourself in the Entrance Hall.
Welcome to the Lucknow Mansion. You’ve just entered the home the way Tom and Olive Plant and their guests would have. Take a moment to look around. The interior of this house was once described as being “most livable with its air of restfulness and home comfort. It is rich, without looking costly, a simple, yet beautiful and artistic home in a wonderful setting of natural beauty.”
Although this tour focuses on Tom and Olive Plant, the house has gone through other periods of inhabitance since their years here. In 1942, Fred Tobey, a lumber-baron from Plymouth, New Hampshire, purchased the Lucknow Estate. Tobey utilized his timber rights on the property, while his wife, seven adult children, and numerous grandchildren enjoyed the estate as their summer refuge. In 1956, Tobey sold to Richard S. Robie, a tycoon in the rental car industry, who intended to develop the property into a private hunting retreat. For unknown reasons, Robie instead opened the estate to the public in 1959, renaming it Castle in the Clouds and offering tours of the mansion.
In 1991, the Castle Acquisition Partnership, including millionaire investor J. Paul Sticht, purchased the estate and continued the tradition of giving mansion tours while also developing a water bottling plant using the property’s natural mountain spring water. Lakes Region Conservation Trust took ownership of the historic estate in 2002. They still own and maintain over 5000 acres of Tom Plant’s original property.
Remarkably, these later owners made only cosmetic changes to this home – introducing new paint, wallpaper, carpets, and textiles over the years – but never changed the footprint of the building or its floorplan. Today, Castle in the Clouds is owned and operated by the Castle Preservation Society, whose work to restore the mansion’s interiors to their appearance at the time of construction has been in progress for over 15 years. As you tour today, please note that about 90% of the furniture you see was purchased by Tom and Olive Plant for this home. However, the small items which make the home feel lived in – the books, clothing, china, etc. – are period appropriate but did not belong to the Plants.
Now, let’s return to the story of Tom and Olive Plant.