4350 Garrett Rd. - Mini Golf Castle

35.955701, -78.973774

4350
Durham
NC
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minigolfcastle_120912.jpg

12.09.12

This former "Amazing Castles" mini-golf / arcade / go-kart place was rocking back in the early 90s, but is likely Durham's only abandoned castle as of 2012.

Tax records show that the land is owned by Builders of Hope. Perhaps they plan to re-locate the castle? Given the recent struggles of that group, I doubt this land is going to be transformed anytime too soon.

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I poked my head in there a year or two ago, hoping to find a room full of mothballed arcade games or something else interesting, but the interior has been completely and utterly destroyed by vandals. The walls have been stripped down to studs and the bits of sheetrock that remain are covered in graffiti. You can hardly walk around for the debris that covers the floor. It's going to take a LOT of effort to clean up if anybody wants to make it habitable again.

Certainly there must be some RenFair freaks who can restore this fine castle to it's former glory. Or perhaps a live re-enactment of Monty Python and the Holy Grail!

I have to wonder, perhaps there is enough material for a 'Weird Durham' book.

It's now SuitePaws, a "pet resort" which also has a Raleigh location. The crenellation has been removed, some additions to the exterior have been built and the entire thing painted such that while the structure is still largely the same it looks signfiicantly different.

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