Cultural Connections
The History of ‘Chicago’s Only Castle’

At the corner of 103rd Street and Longwood Drive in the Beverly community on the South Side sits a medieval-looking building that’s often called “the castle.”
Built in 1886 and 1887, Givins’ Irish Castle was home to the Givins family. In its 125-year history the castle has only had five owners:
• The Givins family (on and off from 1887-1909)
• Julia Thayer and the Chicago Female College (1895-1897)
• The Burdett family (1909-1921)
• The Siemens family (1921-1942)
• Beverly Unitarian Church (1942-present)
A new documentary by filmmaker Errol Magidson, "Chicago's Only Castle: The History of Givins' Irish Castle and Its Keepers."
“The main goals of this production are to preserve the history of the iconic Castle and its five keepers, and to raise money to help preserve and maintain the Castle,” said Magidson.
“This feature-length film captures an important part of Chicago’s history, not only about the building, but also about important events that occurred in Chicago which were associated with the Castle keepers.”
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