There's a Castle in Pacifica?!

Bay Curious

KQED

Places & Travel, History, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2021

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Krisi Riccardi was a girl, her father used to take her on leisurely Sunday drives down Highway 1. She'd enjoy the beautiful scenery until they hit Pacifica, where something odd always caught young Krisi’s attention — a stone castle perched high on the hill. Not exactly what you'd expect to find in a laid-back beach town. “As I got older we would walk up to this castle and walk around it. I’ve never been inside, but I looked over the wall. I’m now 68 and I always wondered what the history was of this castle,” Krisi said. She isn’t the only one curious about this place. Her question won a Bay Curious voting round. Today, Katrina Schwartz takes us inside the castle to explore why it was built, and the many lives this place has lived. Additional Reading: Rum Running, Ghosts and Speakeasies: The Many Lives of Pacifica’s Castle Sam Mazza Foundation website Reported by Katrina Schwartz. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz, Sebastian Miño-Bucheli and Brendan Willard. Additional support from Erika Aguilar, Jessica Placzek, Kyana Moghadam, Isabeth Mendoza, Paul Lancour, Suzie Racho, Carly Severn, Lina Blanco, Ethan Lindsey, Vinnee Tong and Jenny Pritchett. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	From K-QED. I'm Olivia Alan Price. This is Bay Curious, the podcast that answers your questions
0:08.8	about the Bay Area. Today we're going to take on a question that has been on one woman's mind for 60 years.
0:17.0	Hi I'm Christine Ricardo. I live in Dachaville, California. I'm from South San Francisco and when I was a little girl my father would take us on
0:25.0	Sunday rides.
0:27.0	They drive down Highway 1 along the coast and take in those sweeping ocean views.
0:35.5	That drive, it's so stunning, it can be hard to take your eyes off the water.
0:39.5	But when passing through the town of Pacifica, there is this one bizarre thing that demanded
0:46.3	little Chrissy's attention.
0:48.1	We would look at this council, but we never knew what it was.
0:52.2	On a high hill above the Sharp Point neighborhood,
0:55.0	there's a castle.
0:56.0	Seriously, it's made of stone and has four turrets.
1:00.0	I've never been inside, but I've been to the outside and I've looked over the wall and I've always wondered what the history was of this castle. Today on the show we're digging into how this medieval looking castle ended up in a laid-back beach town.
1:24.0	Plus we'll get to know some of the characters that have called this castle home.
1:28.0	From rum runners to eccentric rich people to quack doctors.
1:32.8	This place has it all.
1:34.2	And oh yeah, it might also be haunted.
1:36.9	Chrissy, you are in for a treat.
1:51.0	Support for Bay Curious is brought to you by Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, still family-owned, operated and argued over. Explore their brews wherever fine beverages are sold and taste and new favorite beer today.
2:08.0	Bekurious producer Katrina Schwartz got a private tour of the castle. Despite its apparent grandeur, she found that things inside aren't always what they seem. I can see why this building caught
2:15.7	Chrissy's attention. It looks like something out of an English fairy tale
2:19.7	except the setting is all wrong. There's no vast hedge maze or rose garden around it,
	...

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