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CNN Live Today

Tour of Medieval Mansion

Aired May 21, 2002 - 14:57   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Want to take you now to New York state, where there's a medieval mansion. In fact, it's been in the making for several years. The area in which it's located, more accustomed to Amish farm houses and barns, right near the Connecticut border. Mary Beth Wenger, of our affiliate WRBG, with a tour of the castle.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETER WING, CASTLE BUILDER: This was going to be a barn with some silos. It just started to look more like a castle.

MARY BETH WENGER, WRBG REPORTER (voice-over): That was over 30 years ago, when Peter Wing came home from Vietnam to Millbrook County. He wanted solitude and this panoramic vista.

WING: Just come up here and reject everything. Just please, you people, just please stay there and leave me alone.

WENGER: But life often throws you a curve just when you ask for something.

WING: It's funny how that turns around on you, because now it's attracted everyone.

WENGER: The castle Wing built, a three-decade whimsical work in progress, is made entirely of recycled materials: stones, metal, glass that someone else discarded.

WING: Those were curvings from a turnaround. It was the bottom of the Pleasant Valley water tower. And that's a '49 Packard hubcap.

WENGER: Poor as newlyweds, Wing and his wife collected recycled items for a song. Some methods were a bit unorthodox.

WING: We blew up a railroad bridge, initially.

WENGER (on camera): How did you get permission to do that?

WING: We didn't.

WENGER (voice-over): Dragons are a recurring motif. And, yes, there's a mote. Inside there are suits of armor, a boat and carousel horses that cost $1.50 a piece. His kids never refused a bath in this tub that was a planter in a former life. The sink is a reincarnated bird bath.

Don't peek behind the curtain.

WING: You hear someone go hup! Then you know they looked in the closet.

WENGER (on camera): Wing was 18 when he went to Vietnam. He returned nine months later. I wondered, would this castle be what it is without that tour of duty in southeast Asia?

WING: In my unit, 63 guys got killed. And the oldest one was like 22, you know? So that leaves an impression on you. You got a chance to do something with your life, and you better do something with it. Even if it's rolling a rock uphill for no reason.

WENGER (voice-over): The man who wanted privacy found people showing up to look around.

And you'd be 40 minutes arguing with them in the driveway. "Can I come walk around your house?" Well, no!

WENGER: His wife figured they could keep people away by charging for tours. Well, instead, they now come by the bus load, from China and Czechoslovakia and the Channel islands.

WING: This is my wife yelling at me.

WENGER: The castle takes on mythological proportions with Wing's stone sculpture of Sisyphus. You remember him, forever condemned to roll a stone up a hill, which automatically fell back once he reached the top. Well, the irony isn't lost on the artist.

WING: It is a curse. I feel like I'm cursed to roll a rock forever.

WENGER: Wing doesn't really seem to mind. In fact he warms to the role of historian.

WING: You are just a curator of all this stuff anyway. You are going to pass away some day and hopefully it goes on to the next generation. Hopefully you held a piece of America for someone.

WENGER: Mary Beth Wenger, Channel 6 News, Millbrook, Duchess County.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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