Rubel Castle: One Man’s Trash a National Treasure?

More than 40 years ago, Michael Rubel fired up his cement mixer, and with pieces of scrap steel, rocks, old champagne bottles and a hodge podge of other junk, he began constructing his impressive castle fortress in the middle of a historic 2 ½-acre citrus orchard.

Now, after years of local campaigning, the Glendora fixture is being considered for national landmark status, with the State Historical Resources Commission deciding on the designation Aug.2.

Landmark status would put Rubel Castle and Farms on the national registry, increasing tourism to the property and qualifying the site for federal grants.

But is Rubel Castle, a local landmark tucked in a quiet, residential neighborhood at 844 N. Live Oak Ave., a national landmark? The castle has been compared to the Watts Towers in Los Angeles, which was designated a Historic National Landmark in 1990.

“The castle is a prime example of folk art,” Glendora Historical Society docent John Lundstrom. “Just the historical connection to California’s great citrus past would be enough to qualify the castle and the farm for landmark status.”

Rubel Castle was completed just 27 years ago in 1986 without architectural plans. But its charm is in its whimsical use of salvaged material, such as telephone poles substituting for cannons, and random pieces of junk, including an old motorcycle, typewriters and beat up work gloves protruding from its stone walls.

“Michael loved castles and he loved building,” said Lundstrom. “And he built the castle with a sense of humor, with things that he loved.”

Before Rubel began building his castle in 1968, he lived with his mother, a former Greenwich Village Follies dancer, on the property’s converted former citrus packinghouse. According to Lundstrom, the castle was built as a refuge from Rubel’s mother’s loud lavish parties in their home, affectionately dubbed the Tin Palace.

Aside from the castle, there is the surrounding farm full of chickens, horses and historical odds and ends – the rusting citrus truck from the farm’s citrus heyday in the 1930s, the train caboose from the 40s that is now a functioning guest quarter and a myriad of other vintage pieces scattered throughout the property. Although no one is buried at Rubel Castle, there is the “graveyard” of recycled marble head stones, each representing one of Rubel’s dearly departed friends.

Despite its location off the beaten path in suburban Glendora, the castle and the property has played host to a number of dignitaries and celebrities, including Henry Kissinger, Dwight Eisenhower, Jack Benny and Alfred Hitchcock.

Not only was the castle a product of Rubel’s eccentric personality, but a beacon of his tireless work ethic and love for local history.

His nephew Scott Rubel, recalls working with Rubel on the construction of the castle.

“Mixing concrete, picking up river rock in the fields, irrigating the orange groves and scavenging building materials from the old shacks and barns as the groves gave way to housing; that was mostly honest work that kept me and a few other guys off the streets,” Scott Rubel wrote in an article for The Glendoran. “I’ll always have my Uncle Michael to thank for whatever trouble I missed out on.”

The Glendora Historical Society is urging community members to send in nomination forms for the State Historical Resources Commission to consider in its decision. Forms can be downloaded at http://www.glendorahistoricalsociety.org/letterToForm.pdf and must be submitted to calshpo@parks.ca.gov by July 15.

The Glendora Historical Society also hosts docent-led tours through Rubel Castle and the farm. Tours can be scheduled by calling (626) 963-0419.