Abandoned Places: Millennium Manor
William and Emma Nicholson believed in an interpretation of the Bible that said Armageddon was coming in 1959 and they were among the 144,000 righteous people who would survive and then live for 1,000 years.
Based on this belief, the Nicholsons started building the then-unnamed Millennium Manor in 1937.
“It had to do two things: survive Armageddon and last for 1,000 years. So that's why it was built so incredibly tough,” current owner Dean Fontaine said.
Starting when he was 61 years old, William did most of the work by hand, using levers, pulleys and ramps to lift the Tennessee pink marble from Friendsville and other materials in place to construct a Roman arch and keystone design, similar to the Alamo in Texas. ...
“He never used any contractors that helped him build it. He never hired any big moving equipment. He did this all on his own sheer willpower,” current owner Karen Fontaine said. ...
Emma died in 1950, and William’s original date for Armageddon came and went. He told reporters at the time that he had done his math incorrectly and the world would actually end in 1969. ...
William died in 1965, and his apocalypse-proof home’s future was uncertain.
“You don't need a will if you're not gonna die so [William] didn't have one,” Dean said. ...
Though the Nicholsons never named the house, it has been known as Darby’s Castle, Stone House and Millennium Manor over the years. When the Fontaines took over, they decided to call it the Millennium Manor, which was originally coined in a 1957 article by Hal Boyle, a columnist and friend of the Nicholsons. ...
