CO-OP PEOPLE CO-OP PEOPLE A co-op member’s childhood dream comes to fruition in Washington County. BY RANDY EDWARDS
A man and his castle I
t stands to reason that a man who has made his living battling termites might choose not to build his house of wood. But Bill Grizer, an exterminator from Whipple, Ohio, and a member of Marietta-based Washington Electric Cooperative, wanted no ordinary house made of bricks or stone, either. He dreamed of a castle.
Today, Grizer Castle sits on high ground on Scotts Ridge in Washington County, occupying a site with a defensive position any medieval lord would covet. Polished suits
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of armor guard the entrance, and the castle’s Great Hall echoes with the joyous sounds of weddings — or it did, before the great plague recalling the Middle Ages temporarily shut down mass revelry. With towers rising 50 feet above its hilltop foundation, Grizer Castle is the concrete manifestation of a dream that was inspired, as many are, by Hollywood. As an 8-year-old, Grizer was fascinated by the 1968 film, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and his obsession with castles was launched while watching Dick Van Dyke pilot his flying car over Bavaria’s Neuschwanstein Castle.
