Rev. Buckley and his Stone Tower
Rev James M. Buckley, who once said that “Waterville has everything but a ruin,” had this tower constructed in 1880. It was never possible to enter the tower. It was built filled with rubble to be a ruin. Its name, “Non-a-me Castle,” is carved in a stone near the base and can be deciphered by grouping the letters to read “No Name.” The corner of this stone would have given the original year of construction but is missing.
In 1880, Rev. Buckley led the Methodist congregation in Brooklyn, the largest in the country. He was a leader of the Methodist Church for forty years and edited its weekly newspaper, The Christian Advocate, for 32 years. His editorial on January 27, 1881 led to the founding of the first Methodist hospital, Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, which is now known as New York Methodist. Today, there are over fifty Methodist healthcare facilities in the U.S. Rev. Buckley was a director of the hospital for thirty-five years. He also published a detailed account of his climb to the top of the North Tripyramid slide soon after it fell in 1885, during which he had to scramble to avoid sliding down the loose rubble.
In 1877, Rev. Buckley built the home visible behind the tower as a summer cottage. He sold it in 1888 to the Goodrich family, whose members spent summers in Waterville for six generations.
Waterville Valley Historical Society
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