Pietro’s Castle (known also as the Good Counsel Friary, Thoney's Castle, Thoney Pietro's Castle) is a surprising large stone castle located at 493 Tyrone Road on the hilly, forested roads winding around the outskirts of Cheat Lake outside Morgantown, West Virginia in Monongalia County, WV. At first glance, due to the cross on the roof nestled between the castle’s two Turrets one may assume the castle is a church or religious building of some sort. While those assumptions would not be completely misguided since religious ownership is part of the castle’s history, it was actually first erected during the Great Depression in the 1920’s as the dream home of working-class Italian immigrant, architect of the building, and partial builder of the structure, Ferdinando Pitassi, better known as Thoney Pietro. ^[21]

Pietro's successful contracting business that he started with his brothers, the Pietro Paving and Construction Company, in the Morgantown area and beyond along with his years of knowledge, and experience as a Stonemason allowed him to conceive of and build his castle. ^[11]His successful company contributed to the construction of his castle by giving him access to skilled workers that he could trust. It also allowed him to pay these employees twice the regular pay for the time, so his men received around $2 per day. ^[21]Despite the fact that he had well-paid, highly-skilled workers, the castle still took five years to complete. It was constructed between 1928 and 1933 and cost approximately $200,000 at the time ($3 million today). ^[16]

Pietro was very protective of his building even after he donated it along with half of the 40-acre property to the Franciscan friars in 1949. ^[4]The Franciscans tore down two arches at the start of the driveway, for it was too narrow to easily get cars through. ^[4]Pietro, according to his neighbors, was said to be “furious, and used to walk up and down in front of the castle pointing his cane and hollering ‘I thought I gave the castle to God, but instead I gave it to the devil,’” and sadly the troubling changes to his beloved building did not end there. ^[4]

The Franciscans aggravated Pietro even further by constructing an adjacent chapel in 1955 along with a dormitory and offices in 1966 in a California Mission Revival style of architecture that Pietro felt was at odds with the castle’s original Italianate leaning style. ^[4]

When the Franciscans put it up for sale in April 2007, a member of the Monongalia Historical Society, Elsie Carvell, contacted the Franciscans about the sale.

^[8]People were eager to preserve it, for now the building not only held the legacy of Pietro as Pietro’s Castle, but it also held the history of the Franciscans as The Good Counsel Friary.

However, in April 2008 the Monongalia County Commission at first refused a request from the Monongalia Historical Landmarks Commission to schedule a public hearing to create an Historic district that would be called the “Thoney Pietro Local Historic District,” but a month later they did indeed meet on it. ^{[19] [20]}The proposed area would include the Good Counsel Friary and several surrounding properties. ^[19]Commissioner Asel Kennedy wanted more information before considering the historical district stating he wanted “to do it very slowly” since they would be “potentially affecting the value of the property big time, one way or the other,”^[19]Furthermore, the actual castle was in dire need of repairs since it stood vacant for 10 – 12 years. ^{[18] [13]}On the other hand, proponents for the district wanted to protect the castle and the facility from destruction or dramatic alterations. ^[19]Their desires closely reflect Pietro’s own desires of his building. In the end, the historical district never came to fruition, but the Good Counsel Friary was purchased in 2012 by the Calvary Chapel Morgantown who spent about a year in a half starting in 2013 – 2014 restoring the Castle’s interior, and working on the plumbing, the electric, the floors, along with other interior damage. ^[13]Calvary Chapel’s Pastor Shawn Fraser understands that the “property is such a historic component of Morgantown,” and also sees the “long spiritual heritage [of the building] in [the] community,” so hopefully for proponents of the historic conservation of the building this means the new owners will continue to preserve the castle and restore it properly, staying in line with Pietro’s wishes. ^[13]

The design “resembled a castle that he had seen as a boy in Italy,” however he somehow “built the castle without any blueprints,” so Pietro conceived of and brought to life a building that truly came from his dreams.

^[21]Even though such a way of building is impressive, a plan that exists in the mind of only one man could have made work slow and difficult.

Whether it was working without blueprints or the perfectionism of an invested, passionate man that caused Pietro’s Castle to take five years to complete, it was well worth the wait.

The finished castle contains 3,700 square ft.

of space in 23 rooms on three levels.

^[16]The riverstone for the project was pulled from the nearby Decker's Creek.

^[16]The castle is complete with stone patios, a wrought iron staircase, huge marble fireplace, two turrets, Parapets, designed Archways and overall contains all the grandeur and all the elements prominent in most people’s mind that are in castles from fairytales. ^[21]This fairytale like quality is even included the location, for it is nestled among the trees in the mountains. Furthermore, Pietro embedded glass and mirror in the concrete between stones so that the house may shine and shimmer in the sunlight adding further to the dreamy, magical mood emanating from the building. ^[21]This fairytale quality of architectural decisions of the building are visually saying it was a dream house, and it was. It was Pietro’s dream house.