Palmer man's home is his castle

PALMER -- From the inside, the domicile could easily be mistaken for an ordinary house, with carpet and vinyl, couches and a ping-pong table situated on the first two floors. However, the door in the corner leading to a tall tower and the second-floor deck ringed with square battlements dissuade any doubt: this is most definitely a castle. Anyone even driving by the structure off Palmer-Fishhook Road can see that.

One would expect a deposed monarch, or at least a complete eccentric, to occupy this unusual structure. However, its maintainer, Tom Hepola, is a mild-mannered working man more at home with a welding torch in his hands than a scepter.

From the castle's highest tower, visitors can see all the way to the Knik Glacier even on a cloudy day. The building is situated on a small knoll that makes the view even more expansive, a vast "kingdom" stretched out as far as the eye can see.

Hepola has lived in 15 of the 50 states, and prior to his Valley life spent several years working on the Slope and in small Interior villages. He has also spent time working at the Sitka pulp mill, and lived for a time near the site of what is now Sears in Wasilla.

Hepola is currently renovating the third floor and repairing siding and floors in the two towers. The roof needs to be sealed, the dangerous, rotting crow's nest needs to be removed, the wiring needs work, and the spiral staircase in the tower could use a central rail, he said.

Still, the castle is in considerably better shape than it was 10 or so years ago, when Hepola set to work on a shambling wreck of a building.

"It was trashed," Hepola said. "There were broken light fixtures, broken Sheetrock, holes in the walls, and plywood doors."

He also recalls chasing out dozens and dozens of mice that had decided the castle would be better served under their rulership.

"The structure was here when I started," he said, "but I basically built the rest from the ground up."

When he's not working on his demanding home, Hepola commutes to Anchorage to work as a welder for Enstar. His skill with metal has led him to create not only functional devices, but several pieces of nickel-plated steel sculpture. Adorning the castle is a metal fish with thin, delicate bones, a large mosquito made from bent metal and springs, a heavy, horned steel helmet reminiscent of the Vikings, and several shiny western-themed sculptures complete with brushed metal cowboy hats and braided steel lassos suspended by a fine string of metal.

Despite the novelty of castle life, Hepola is currently endeavoring to sell his medieval-inspired home and make for a more traditional residence in Wasilla. His family has already purchased some lakeside property, and the sale of the castle would enable him to build a new home on the site.

Hepola said the castle is not only a difficult maintenance task for one man, but it is also considerably more distant from his Anchorage workplace than a Wasilla home would be. He said, however, that the building, with its proximity to Hatcher Pass, would make an excellent bed-and-breakfast or other small business venture.

Nevertheless, Hepola said it's slightly difficult to find someone in the Valley in the market for a four-story wooden castle.

"We had it up for sale a while ago, but everyone just wanted to come up and look out the window," he said. "Everyone's a sightseer."

Contact Daniel Spoth at daniel.spoth@frontiersman.com.