A 140 year old castle with underground caves in San Francisco's Hunters Point district! Albion Castle was built in 1870 by John Hamlin Burnell as the site for his brewery - the Albion Porter & Ale Brewery. The castle, which was partially constructed from cargo ship ballast stones, sits above two 200ft wide stone cisterns, each capturing 8,000 - 10,000 gallons of spring water per day.
When Prohibition forced the brewery to close in 1919, the building was taken over by the Albion Water Company which bottled the spring's water between 1928 and 1947. In 1961 Albion Castle was slated to be bulldozed due to highway construction but was saved due to the spring's value as a "non-contaminated source of fresh water in the event of a nuclear attack." Between the 1939 and 2005 Albion Castle has been used as a residence, art studio, and occasional party location. As of July 2011 it is currently for sale.
The Albion Castle was established as a historic landmark in 1974.
