Laura Wright 
Haunted Houses of Yesteryear
There once stood an enormous stone castle in Florida that became known for nearly a century as the “House of Tragedy.”
Its story contained almost everything required of a great Gothic legend: a mysterious French nobleman, a frightened young girl, murder, gambling, violent death, a magnificent mansion abandoned by terrified owners, and a haunting so disturbing that one skeptic reportedly fled the house carrying his dead child.
Then Castle Lamier disappeared.
Today, even many historians seem to have forgotten a place that was once a fixture of Florida folklore.
Yet the story of Castle Lamier survives.
The Mysterious Marquis Lamier
In 1803, a man known only as Marquis Lamier arrived in Florida.
He was described as dark and dashing, and rumors suggested that he had fled France because of a terrible reputation and possibly numerous crimes.
Florida was still a wild country under Spanish control. It would be another seventeen years before the territory became part of the United States.
The Marquis chose land along the banks of the Caloosahatchee River for his new home. He acquired a great deal of property and constructed a magnificent stone house surrounded by an equally impressive stone gate.
Approximately twenty slave cabins, also constructed of stone, stood about a quarter of a mile from the main house.
The only nearby settlement would eventually become known as Samville or Woodrow.
For whatever purpose had brought the Marquis to Florida, the isolated property apparently suited him perfectly.
A Plantation With a Mysterious Fortune
The Marquis purchased numerous enslaved people and established a plantation.
Yet there was something peculiar about his wealth.
Although he supposedly operated a farm, it was obvious that farming was not the source of his enormous fortune.
Money seemed to be no concern.
The Marquis imported fine wines and exquisite liquors from throughout Europe and lived extravagantly in his isolated Florida castle.
Once the house was completed, two additional people arrived.
The first was a young girl named Antoinette Breezac, whom the Marquis described as his ward.
The second was Mrs. Pierre, whom he introduced as his housekeeper.
The two settled into their quarters, and life at Castle Lamier continued as normally as life there apparently could.
Strange Visitors at Castle Lamier
Much of what became known about the castle supposedly survived through stories whispered among the enslaved people who lived on the plantation.
Strange men frequently visited the house.
Wild parties were held at night. Gambling was common, and card games sometimes continued for days.
Antoinette was subjected to ridicule and raucous comments from the Marquis’s guests. Because she spoke little English, her ability to communicate with others was limited.
During the parties, the Marquis kept the young girl confined to a corner of the room while drunken men mocked her.
Antoinette was only fifteen years old.
Her one source of comfort was an enslaved woman known as Aunt Cleo.
Antoinette and Aunt Cleo
Antoinette looked upon Aunt Cleo almost as a mother, and the older woman apparently felt the same affection for the frightened girl.
Whenever they were permitted, the two remained inseparable.
During the Marquis’s parties, Aunt Cleo would sometimes stand outside where Antoinette could see her.
She could do little else.
The drunken guests continued tormenting the girl, while Aunt Cleo knew that doing anything to anger the Marquis or his visitors might only make matters worse.
For approximately a year, life continued this way.
Then came Christmas Eve.
Antoinette Runs for Help
On the morning of Christmas Eve, Antoinette fled from the castle wearing only her nightdress.
She ran to Aunt Cleo’s cabin, sobbing and gasping for breath.
It took several minutes for Aunt Cleo to calm her enough to understand what had happened.
Antoinette begged her not to allow the Marquis to touch her.
According to the terrified girl, Lamier had told her that he could do whatever he wanted because she was his ward.
Then he told her something worse.
Her father would never come for her.
The Marquis claimed that he had killed him himself.
Antoinette said Lamier threatened to kill her as well if she refused to allow him to do as he wished.
The Death of Antoinette Breezac
It was not long before the Marquis and Mrs. Pierre arrived at Aunt Cleo’s cabin.
They physically carried Antoinette back to the castle.
Aunt Cleo remained behind, terrified of approaching the house. She feared that the Marquis and Mrs. Pierre would take their anger out on the girl.
At noon, her fears were confirmed.
Someone summoned the local sheriff and coroner.
Aunt Cleo approached the castle and discovered Antoinette’s body on the main staircase.
The girl was doubled over on the third step from the top.
Her head had been almost severed from her body.
Blood had poured down the staircase and collected in a pool at the bottom.
A Death Ruled Suicide
Aunt Cleo remained silent only until the authorities arrived.
Then she accused the Marquis.
She claimed he had murdered Antoinette because the girl refused his sexual advances. Although Aunt Cleo had not actually witnessed the killing, she desperately wanted the Marquis held responsible.
She told the authorities that she had watched him cut the girl’s throat.
Lamier had her forcibly removed from the house and escorted back to her cabin.
He promised that he would deal with her later.
Then he turned his attention to the lawmen.
The Marquis offered them a substantial amount of money for their trouble.
He and Mrs. Pierre described Antoinette’s supposedly deteriorating mental condition following the death of her father.
The money, accompanied by several bottles of fine wine, apparently proved persuasive.
The coroner ruled Antoinette’s death a suicide.
The Death of Mrs. Pierre
Antoinette was gone, but tragedy remained at Castle Lamier.
Six months later, Mrs. Pierre was suffering from the later stages of delirium tremens.
The enslaved people on the plantation had endured enough of her cruelty.
While she was weakened by her condition, they pursued her through the upper floor of the castle.
Mrs. Pierre fell down the staircase.
She died from the fall.
But Castle Lamier had not yet claimed its master.
The Marquis’s Final Card Game
Around the anniversary of Antoinette’s death, another visitor arrived at the castle.
His name was Alphonse Letoure.
He and the Marquis began playing cards.
Letoure suggested a game in which they would continue until one man had lost everything.
The game lasted for three days.
By Christmas morning, Letoure was ruined.
Rather than accept his losses, he accused Lamier of cheating.
The Marquis stood.
Both men drew pistols.
Both fired.
Letoure died instantly.
The Marquis survived for only a few minutes before dying from his wounds.
Within approximately two years, Antoinette, Mrs. Pierre, Letoure, and the mysterious Marquis himself were dead.
Castle Lamier remained.
A House No One Could Live In
For decades, no one seemed to know what to do with the enormous stone house.
Purchasers came and went almost as quickly as the property could be sold.
The castle was beautiful. It occupied prime land along the river.
But no one seemed able to live there.
Eventually, the property attracted the attention of Richard Martin Smith.
Richard Martin Smith Restores Castle Lamier
Smith had worked hard in the Alaskan gold fields and accumulated enough money to retire.
He wanted somewhere warm and comfortable to spend the remainder of his life.
Castle Lamier seemed perfect.
Local residents attempted to warn him about the property’s reputation, but Smith dismissed their stories as superstition.
Structurally, the castle remained in remarkably good condition. It simply needed renovation.
Smith restored the entire house.
He installed electricity, brought in new furniture, and completely redecorated the interior.
When the work was finished, he moved his family into Castle Lamier.
Their first day was uneventful.
Smith congratulated himself on having found an extraordinary bargain.
Then night fell.
The Phantom Party
Castle Lamier came alive.
Throughout the night, the Smith family heard wine glasses clinking.
Champagne bottles seemed to pop somewhere inside the house.
They heard poker chips being tossed across tables.
Lights appeared and disappeared throughout the hallways as though an invisible crowd had gathered for another of the Marquis’s wild parties.
Footsteps moved everywhere.
Then the sounds changed.
Antoinette’s Death Repeated
Suddenly, hurried footsteps raced past the bedroom doors on the upper floor.
A young woman screamed.
She pleaded for her life.
A man swore and shouted angrily.
Another scream followed.
Then the family heard the unmistakable sound of a body tumbling down the main staircase.
Something liquid seemed to drip from the stairs onto the floor below.
Whispers surrounded them.
Drunken laughter returned, followed by the sounds of fighting.
The family heard slaps and punches.
Then came the noise of someone being struck on the head.
By morning, Richard Martin Smith had reconsidered his opinion of the local superstitions.
Something on the Third Step
After a sleepless night, the Smith family emerged from their bedrooms.
Even in daylight, something seemed wrong with the staircase.
There appeared to be something on the third step from the top.
At the time, the family did not know that this was supposedly the exact location where Antoinette’s body had been found.
They had experienced enough.
The family quickly agreed that Castle Lamier was not the home for them.
Smith placed the property on the market for a ridiculously low price.
It was promptly purchased by a real estate man named John Phillips.
John Phillips Decides to Debunk the Haunting
Phillips believed he had acquired the bargain of a lifetime.
Despite buying the castle immediately after Smith’s disastrous attempt to live there, Phillips remained convinced that he could make a fortune from the property.
He even wrote articles for Florida newspapers arguing that superstition was destroying the value of an otherwise excellent home.
Phillips decided to prove the stories false once and for all.
He invited twelve distinguished men from throughout the state to spend an entire week at Castle Lamier.
They were carefully selected, educated, successful men.
One was a minister.
Another was a priest.
Phillips wanted witnesses whose judgment would be respected.
To demonstrate just how little he feared the supposed haunting, he brought along his four-year-old daughter, Mary.
The Child and the Staircase
The group arrived before lunch.
Phillips immediately decided to disprove the story about Antoinette’s staircase.
He knew there was nothing on the steps.
His young daughter, he reasoned, provided the perfect test.
Mary was only four years old. Phillips argued that there was no possible way she could understand the stories surrounding Castle Lamier, much less believe them.
He placed a dish of candy on a table at the top of the stairs.
Then he instructed Mary to climb the staircase and take a piece.
The little girl began climbing.
When she reached the third step from the top, she stopped.
Then Mary carefully maneuvered around something that no one else could see.
Once past the invisible obstruction, she continued toward the candy.
The demonstration did not have the effect Phillips intended.
Twelve Men Refuse to Stay
The invited witnesses had already developed an uneasy feeling about Castle Lamier.
Watching the little girl deliberately avoid something on the staircase was enough.
They wanted to leave.
Every man in the group begged Phillips to take his daughter out of the house.
Phillips refused.
He argued that the men must somehow have influenced Mary. Perhaps she had overheard them discussing the staircase.
The twelve guests left.
Phillips could not be persuaded, and they could not force him to abandon his own property.
He remained inside Castle Lamier with his four-year-old daughter.
The following morning, people in Samville heard him screaming.
The Death of Mary Phillips
Phillips emerged from Castle Lamier carrying his little girl in his arms.
His hair had turned white.
Mary was dead.
Physicians determined that her heart had stopped from shock.
Phillips was described afterward as a shell of his former self.
No one could persuade him to discuss what had happened during his final night at Castle Lamier.
Like Richard Martin Smith before him, Phillips abandoned the property.
He was willing to let anyone take it.
Fifty Years of an Empty Castle
Castle Lamier remained virtually empty for approximately fifty years.
Owners came and went, but according to the legend, none could remain inside for more than a night.
Eventually, the old castle’s fate was decided.
In 1906, plans were made to demolish Castle Lamier on January 1, 1907.
The surrounding community intended to level the old house and construct a resort on the property.
History did not preserve a documented account of the demolition.
What happened to the property afterward, or what was eventually built there, remains unknown.
The House of Tragedy disappeared.
Its story did not.
Who Was Marquis Lamier?
The history behind Castle Lamier raises nearly as many questions as its ghosts.
In all likelihood, Marquis Lamier was not the man’s real identity.
French peerages contain no Marquis Lamier or similar noble title.
The name itself is intriguing.
Translated into English, “Lamier” can mean “knife.” It can also refer to nettle or bramble.
Perhaps the mysterious Frenchman was never a nobleman at all.
A Pirate in Spanish Florida?
One possibility is that Lamier was associated with pirates.
Spanish Florida was rife with piracy. Ships traveling through the Gulf of Mexico toward New Orleans provided tempting targets, particularly along the coast of southwest Florida.
If Lamier had connections with piracy, it might explain both his mysterious fortune and his desire to establish an isolated estate.
Despite supposedly operating a plantation, he apparently possessed far more wealth than his agricultural activities could explain.
But piracy is not the only possibility.
A Refugee From the French Revolution?
Lamier may instead have been a decadent French nobleman who fled his homeland during the Revolution.
The suggestion that he left France because of a terrible reputation or criminal behavior would fit the chaotic period.
So would the possibility that “Lamier” was an assumed name.
The French Revolution also produced numerous stories of fortunes, jewels, and treasures disappearing amid the violence.
Perhaps some portion of Lamier’s unexplained wealth originated there.
There is another intriguing clue.
Antoinette’s surname.
Who Was Antoinette Breezac?
The name “Breezac” bears a striking resemblance to Brissac, the name of a prominent French noble family.
The Brissacs were associated with the French monarchy and defended the Crown.
Duke de Cossé-Brissac became one of the victims of the September Massacres during the French Revolution.
After the mob killed the Duke, his head was severed and taken to his mistress.
Whether Antoinette had any genuine connection with the Brissac family is unknown.
But if the names were connected, the young girl living under the guardianship of a mysterious Frenchman in Spanish Florida becomes even more intriguing.
The Missing Spanish Land Records
Another difficulty lies beneath the story of Castle Lamier.
It is unknown whether the Marquis purchased his Florida property or received it through some type of land grant.
Records that might have provided an answer no longer exist.
Florida’s land records prior to 1821 were kept by the Spanish in Cuba.
When the United States assumed control of Florida, those records were lost.
The American government made three separate attempts to locate them.
None succeeded.
Their ultimate fate remains a mystery.
Was Castle Lamier Real?
Castle Lamier supposedly achieved national notoriety, yet many people in Florida knew nothing about it.
Several written histories of the state from the late nineteenth century mention an old stone house that had already stood for more than fifty years.
Many assumed the mysterious structure had belonged to one of the colonists associated with Turnbull.
Could that forgotten stone house have been Castle Lamier?
If so, the physical building may have been real even if generations of storytelling transformed the people and tragedies associated with it.
That possibility is what makes Castle Lamier so fascinating.
The story contains details that sound almost impossibly Gothic: the mysterious Marquis, the frightened French girl, the bloodstained staircase, phantom gambling parties, a child’s inexplicable death, and a skeptic whose hair supposedly turned white overnight.
Yet behind the folklore are tantalizing fragments that suggest the legend may have grown around a genuine place.
The Forgotten Castle Lamier
If Castle Lamier really stood beside the Caloosahatchee River, virtually nothing remains today to identify its exact location.
The stone house is gone.
So are its gates and the twenty stone cabins said to have surrounded it.
The people associated with the legend disappeared into history.
But the questions remain.
Who was the man calling himself Marquis Lamier?
Where did his fortune come from?
Who was Antoinette Breezac?
What became of Aunt Cleo?
What did Richard Martin Smith and his family hear during their single night inside the restored castle?
And most disturbingly, what happened during John Phillips’s final night there that left his four-year-old daughter dead and supposedly turned his hair white?
Perhaps Castle Lamier was never haunted.
Perhaps generations of Florida storytellers simply transformed an abandoned stone house into something much darker.
But if even a portion of the old accounts were true, Florida once possessed a haunted castle whose history has almost completely disappeared.
For a place once known as the House of Tragedy, perhaps being forgotten was its final tragedy of all.
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