Suit, Samuel Taylor, Cottage

The Samuel Taylor Suit Cottage, also known as the Berkeley Castle, is located on a hill above Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. The castle-like house was built for Colonel Samuel Taylor Suit of Washington, D.C. as a personal retreat near the spa town, beginning in 1885. It was not complete by the time of his death in 1888 and was finished in the early 1890s for his widow, Rosa Pelham Suit, whom Suit had first met at Berkeley Springs. The post 1888 work is of noticeably inferior quality. The fifteen-room interior features a ballroom wide and long. The design is attributed to Washington architect Alfred B. Mullett, who is alleged to have drawn a rough sketch of the plan on a tablecloth at the Berkeley Springs Hotel. The design may have been based on elements of Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom. Detailed design and construction supervision was carried out by Snowden Ashford, who designed Washington's Eastern Market. Mrs. Suit entertained lavishly at the house until her money ran out and the property was sold in 1913. Snowden Ashford, also credited as an architect, apprenticed for Mullett. The house is now privately owned and is available for rentals for special occasions.