8 Captivating Castles You Won’t Believe Are Near Washington DC

Near the Navy Yard, stands the Blue Castle or the Navy Yard Car Barn. The building is on the National Place of Historic Places and was formerly a repair shop for the Washington and Georgetown Railroad.

Built in 1911, The Gibbons Hall Castle is part of Catholic University and is a residence hall. It would be pretty cool to say you’re going to college in a castle.

This Scottish Tudor style castle is in Chevy Chase, Maryland, just outside of Washington DC is technically the gatehouse of a much larger castle. The original 30 room castle was originally built by Daisy Calhoun and her husband, a wealthy Washington couple but when the stock market crashed in 1929, the Calhouns moved into this gatehouse and used the castle as a nightclub to make money. By the 1950s the main castle was demolished and the gatehouse is now a private residence.

The Castle Gatehouse is a pumping station in the Georgetown Reservoir that was built in the form of a castle to resemble the Army Corps of Engineers castle insignia. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and is managed by the Army Corps of Engineers.

In the swanky Kalorama district, this building served as the French Embassy until the current one was constructed in 1936. Built in 1910, this castle is a combination of Tudor Revival and Jacobean Revival architecture.

Melrose Castle in Fauquier County, Virginia was built in 1854. It’s currently on the market for sale, if you’re looking for a castle to live in!

Otherwise known as The Castle, the main building of the Smithsonian was completed in 1855 and acts as the visitor’s center for the Smithsonian.