In 1908, San Francisco rail magnate Henry Harrison McCloskey, grandfather of Congressman Pete McCloskey, modeled and built Sam’s Castle to replicate his wife Emily’s childhood home in Scotland. McCloskey erected the castle by the sea as a safe haven after his San Francisco home was severely damaged in the 1906 earthquake. With its century-long reputation as a speakeasy, an illegal abortion clinic, a brothel and Coast Guard barracks during World War II, the castle was purchased and restored in 1959 by the late Sam Mazza who filled it with wondrous works of arts and antiques collected during his career as a theater painter/decorator for 20th Century Fox. The Castle is occasionally open to the public for tours by the Pacifica Historical Society, courtesy of the Sam Mazza Foundation.