{{short description|Historic house in California, United States}} {{Use American English|date=July 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox NRHP | name = Rubel Castle Historic District | nrhp_type = | image = Rubelia -Wide View.jpg | caption = | location = 844 N. Live Oak Ave., Glendora, California | coordinates = {{coord|34|9|1|N|117|51|17|W|region:US-CA_type:landmark|display=inline,title}} | locmapin = USA Los Angeles Metropolitan Area#California#USA | area = | built = {{daterange|1959|1986}} | architecture = Folk art environment | added = October 7, 2013 | refnum = 13000810<ref name="nris">{{Cite web |url=https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/upload/weekly-list-2013-national-register-of-historic-places.pdf |title=National Register of Historic Places Official Website--Part of the National Park Service |access-date=2016-01-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160131041649/http://www.nps.gov/nr/listings/20131101.htm |archive-date=2016-01-31 |url-status=live }}</ref> }}
'''Rubel Castle''' (AKA '''Rubelia''' or '''Rubel Pharms''')) was established in Glendora, California, by Michael Clarke Rubel (April 16, 1940 – October 15, 2007) and is owned and operated by the Glendora Historical Society.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.glendorahistoricalsociety.org/castle |title=Michael Clark Rubel |publisher=Glendorahistoricalsociety.org |date=2005-03-16 |accessdate=2020-07-01}}</ref>
In 1959, a teenage Michael Rubel purchased a {{convert|1.7|acre|m2}} plot dominated by an old reservoir and packing house from a recently defunct citrus orchard.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/upload/weekly-list-2013-national-register-of-historic-places.pdf|title=Rubel Castle Historic District, National Register of Historic Places Nomination|date=November 5, 2012|access-date=January 20, 2019}}</ref> Continuing a childhood passion of building forts and other improvised structures, he and his friends soon embarked on a building program that was only completed in 1986. Rubel Castle was constructed out of concrete as well as nontraditional materials including scrap steel, rocks, bedsprings, coat hangers, bottles, and other repurposed materials that Rubel salvaged from the neighborhood as the old ranches and barns were giving way to tract houses.
To this day, chickens and other animals are frequently sighted on the grounds.<ref name="Lynda Siminske 2008, p. 1">Lynda Siminske, “A Castle In Our Town...”, ''San Gabriel Valley Examiner'', March 20–26, 2008, p. 1.</ref>
==Background== thumb|upright|Michael Rubel on his porch, 2000. In 1959, Rubel bargained for the defunct Albourne Rancho property and took up residence in the citrus packing house. Rubel's father, Henry "Heinz" Scott Rubel, had been an Episcopal priest and gag writer for Joe Penner, a radio comedian and movie star.<ref name="latimes12302007">{{Cite news | last =Rasmussen | first =Cecelia | author-link =Cecelia Rasmussen| title =Trash was turned into a treasure at Rubel Castle | newspaper =Los Angeles Times | pages =B2 | date =December 30, 2007 | url =http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-then30dec30,1,3390521.story?coll=la-headlines-california }}</ref> In the 1960s, Rubel's mother, one-time Broadway actress and Greenwich Village Follies dancer<ref>{{cite news|title=Wed Minister, But Ex-Star Is Still Dancing|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=0HVFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5936,4133185&dq=henry+rubel&hl=en|accessdate=2013-02-28|newspaper=The Telegraph-Herald and Times Journal - Dubuque, IA|date=November 25, 1928 |page= 31}}</ref> Dorothy Deuel Rubel, moved into the packing house with her son. She used the venue to throw parties.{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}} Guests arrived weekly by the hundreds, arriving inside a tin fruit packing house which had been transformed into a giant dance hall. Inside, surrounded by art and antique furniture remaining from Rubel ancestors, they mingled and danced to a small orchestra. The parties led to the packing house becoming known as "The Tin Palace."{{Citation needed|date=July 2022}}
Notable people who visited "The Tin Palace" in that time include Sally Rand, Dwight Eisenhower, Vivian Duncan of the Duncan Sisters, Woody Strode, Beatrice Kay, Harry Townes, Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Kid Chissell, Angie Dickinson, and Alfred Hitchcock.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.glendorahistoricalsociety.org/castle/ | title=Rubel Castle | Glendora Historical Society }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Rasmussen |first=Cecilia |title=Trash was turned into a treasure at Rubelia Castle |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-dec-30-me-then30-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250222110119/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-dec-30-me-then30-story.html |archive-date=February 22, 2025 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=December 30, 2007 |access-date=September 23, 2025}}</ref>
Fellow castle builder "Colonel" Jirayr Zorthian was a supporter and friend involved in the project.
==Construction of the castle== <!-- Deleted image removed: left|thumb|An orange crate label from Rubel Farms. --> Though Rubel slept in one of the giant citrus refrigerators, the walls of thick cork were not sufficient sound insulation to allow him peace from his mother's parties. Beginning in 1968, Rubel began building a small get-away house in the empty {{convert|548884.709|liter}} concrete reservoir, using cement and discarded champagne bottles.<ref>LA County Tax Assessor records indicate reservoir measures {{convert|124|ft|m}} in diameter, and a depth of {{convert|12|ft|m}}</ref> The walls of the reservoir provided privacy and a noise barrier while he built the bottle house. The project lasted 20 years, culminating in what is now called the ''Rubel Castle''.
Beginning in 1968, with the help of his friends and close family, the castle grew to be thousands of square feet with towers five stories high. Rubel and his associates built the structure without architectural plans, using salvaged river rock, cement, steel, aluminum, telephone poles and wine bottles.<ref name="latimes12302007" /> Old motorcycles, tires, sand-filled rubber gloves, a camera, a golf club and a toaster are some of the items that protrude from the castle walls.<ref name="latimes12302007" />
A restored 1911 Seth Thomas clock works runs the brass bells and clock that crown one of the high towers, which is {{convert|74|ft|m}} high. In the middle of the property sit a 1940s-era Santa Fe caboose, as well as old trucks and tractors. There is also a cemetery with rejected marble tombstones, but it contains no graves.<ref name="latimes12302007" />
==Legacy== Huell Howser interviewed Rubel for ''Videolog'' in 1990 and, after Michael's death, his nephew Scott, in 2011.<ref>[http://www.podcast.tv/video-episodes/california-s-gold-video-log-classics-the-rubel-castle-2845909.html Glendora, CA - Huell Howser Videolog: Rubel's Castle<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
The castle has hosted royalty including Prince Philip.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=McPhee |first=John |title=Los Angeles Against the Mountains I |magazine=The New Yorker |date=26 September 1988 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1988/09/26/los-angeles-against-the-mountains-i}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=McPhee |first=John |title=The Control of Nature |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |year=1989}}</ref> Some other notable guests have been former president Dwight D. Eisenhower, Henry Kissinger, the Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie, and Governor George Deukmejian.
In March 2005, Rubel donated the Castle to the [http://glendorahistoricalsociety.org/ Glendora Historical Society].
Many television programs, music videos, and movies have been filmed on castle grounds, including NBC's Heroes,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://lavernemagazine.org/2020/03/inside-the-castles-gates/ |title=Inside the Castle's Gates |publisher=La Verne Magazine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200516184901/https://lavernemagazine.org/2020/03/inside-the-castles-gates/ |archive-date=May 16, 2020 |access-date=July 5, 2025}}</ref> Our Flag Means Death,<ref>{{cite web |last=Gokhale |first=Stuti |title=Where is Our Flag Means Death Filmed? |url=https://thecinemaholic.com/where-is-our-flag-means-death-filmed/ |website=The Cinemaholic |date=March 3, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220306234136/https://thecinemaholic.com/where-is-our-flag-means-death-filmed/ |archive-date=March 6, 2022 |access-date=July 5, 2025}}</ref> and a Frankenstein commercial by T-mobile.
Rubel Castle was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.<ref>{{cite web|title=Weekly List of Actions Taken On Properties: 10/21/13 Through 10/25/13|url=https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/upload/weekly-list-2013-national-register-of-historic-places.pdf|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=November 4, 2013}}</ref>
==Gallery== <gallery> File:Rubelia -Clock Tower.jpg|Clock Tower File:Rubelia -Cannons.jpg|Cannons File:Rubelia -Entrance.jpg|Entrance to Rubelia File:Rubelia -Flag.jpg|Flag </gallery>
==See also== {{Commons category|Rubel Castle}} * Antoni Gaudí, a Catalan architect with a similar style, particularly the Sagrada Família in Barcelona. * Hermit House, a unique residence located in Herzliya, Israel with intricate mosaics constructed by one man over thirty years. * Mystery Castle, a house in Phoenix, Arizona built in the 1930s in a similar style. * Nitt Witt Ridge, a house in Cambria, California constructed in a similar style. * Ferdinand Cheval, a French postman who constructed an "ideal palace" out of rocks in his spare time. * Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village, another folk art environment built with recycled materials. * Watts Towers, a famous landmark in Los Angeles built from concrete and discarded materials. * Lummis House, a historic home built out of river rocks and concrete known as El Alisal, also in Los Angeles County. * Abbey San Encino, a unique river rock house and tribute to letterpress printing, built in Highland Park, Los Angeles by Clyde Browne (printer), grandfather of songwriter Jackson Browne.
==References== <references />
==External links== * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6uIq5ebAmg John Bartell's Backroads on ABC10] * [https://californiathroughmylens.com/rubel-castle Video tour with California Through My Lens] * [https://esotouric.com/2014/11/03/canteatsunshine86 Episode #86: Esotouric's San Gabriel Valley Visionaries] * [https://fascinatingnouns.com/scott-rubel Fascinating Nouns Interview with Dan Glenn & Scott Rubel] * [https://www.flickr.com/photos/rubelcastle/albums/72157626610354635 Hundreds of historic and contemporary images on ''Flickr''] * [http://glendorahistoricalsociety.org Glendorahistoricalsociety.org: Rubel Castle tour information] * [http://www.podcast.tv/video-episodes/california-s-gold-video-log-classics-the-rubel-castle-2845909.html Huell Howser Videolog: Rubel's Castle] * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rpJaRbkTEw KCAL News] * [http://www.theshriek.net ''The Shriek'': A 1970s newsletter of Rubel Castle] * [https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/Archive/Rubel-Castle-2A3BF1QT5W4OK Over 2,000 images from Rubel Castle period of significance from 1968-1986 scanned and hosted at the ''University of Southern California'' web site.] * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVdVkxNX1MI ''You Asked For It'' 1981 Interview of Michael Rubel]
Category:Castles in California Category:Glendora, California Category:Buildings and structures in Los Angeles County, California Category:Houses in Los Angeles County, California Category:Historic house museums in California Category:Museums in Los Angeles County, California Category:Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in California Category:Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles County, California Category:Outdoor sculptures in Greater Los Angeles Category:Stone houses in the United States Category:Visionary environments Category:Eclectic architecture Category:Rustic architecture in California Category:Landmarks in Los Angeles County, California Category:Open-air museums in California