Glowing copper roof plates.  Lofty steeples that tower over surrounding trees. Articulate brick detailing all across every wall. 

A castle with a classic renaissance look to it. It looks as if it came straight out of a fairytale. But for such a unique castle to be planted in a small town in Texas, is what makes it even more of a spectacle. 

Anyone who ventures through the East side of Joshua knows of ‘the castle’, as most tend to call it. Château Woda Nymphée, the official name of the building, has garnered a mass amount of attention from community members over the years. Images and discussions about the castle have surfaced all across the internet; whether that entails Facebook or Reddit posts filled with curiosity of what the building is, or people who live near the château who have had experiences with its residents, it seems that almost everyone in Joshua has something to say about the castle, and its rich, but scandalous, history. 

What isn’t as widely known about as the castle itself by the citizens of Joshua is the castle’s owner. Rodney Harrington, who goes by the title Lord Harrington, is the architect and owner of the tower found on Royalwood Circle. The chateau perfectly blends a mysterious allure with a renaissance charm, making those who pass it all the more curious about its ownership and history. Many Facebook posts have been made on local county community pages, like Joshua Residents Talking, asking a multitude of curiosity filled questions about the history of the castle. 

Built in the late 90’s, Château Woda Nymphée has a lot to unpack, even from just the name alone. The title of the castle is Baltic for “Water Nymph.” The castle was named after and to honor Lord Harrington’s wife. While the castle is easily famous for being so alluring in an otherwise out-of-place location, the architecture of the building is very unique. Harrington stated in a Traditional Roofing Magazine article from 2008 “I designed it as we went, sort of as Antonio Gaudi did with his architecture, in a sort of synthetic organic manner. That and plenty of Johnny Walker Scotch whisky as fortification.” According to all the media and news sources covering the castle, Harrington claims to be the sole architect and designer of the castle. 

No one who wonders about the towering castle would guess though that the owner would have an unseemly reputation. Through researching Lord Harrington, specifically through his personal website, one could learn of his devotion to art and magic. He digitally creates obscure, almost abstract, ‘paintings’. Within his website, there is also a folder dedicated to ‘Magicke’, with a caption denoting “Grimoire, book of Magicke Spells, that Calls the Faithful to their Knees.” This folder encapsulates grimoire pages with illustrations, as well as historical European book pages.  On top of the rather interesting things on his personal website, many people commonly question his Lordship and if it is real or not. He claims that through time spent in England, he gained his title and accent, despite sources on his company’s website saying that his title comes from a long lineage. 

Aside from his personal website, Harrington also has an environmental services company which is equally scandalous. Harrington Environmental Services, owned by Lord Harrington, is widely known and accredited across the metroplex. Their brightly colored red trucks can be commonly seen driving to and from job sites. The website states that Lord Harrington ‘discovered a revolutionary technological way with micro-infrared photography to capture images of hydraulically aspirated minuscule pathogens and bacterium’. Right below that, the website continues on by stating that this technology is being used by the U.S.S.R in clandestine operations. There is no source of fact checking for this information that could be found, especially since this description was more than likely written by Harrington himself. Besides the Illuminati being used as their website logo, and the soviet spy technology, nothing was seen as scandalous or out of the ordinary for the company, despite its eccentric owner. That was until 2019 when Harrington’s company got into legal trouble.

Harrington Environmental Services handles human waste on a daily basis. They empty out septic tanks and safely dispose of their waste. But in 2019, Harrington was disposing of human, treated waste in the rain, allowing for this waste to run off directly into Lake Pat in Cleburne, contaminating the city’s water source for all 30,000 residents and businesses. Because of this, Harrington was given a court order to follow state environmental rules and regulations, which includes not spreading waste when it’s raining or if the ground is wet. Later in his trial, Harrington’s neighbors provided video proof of him and his company’s trucks operating in rainy and muddy conditions– directly violating his court order. Harrington’s attorney claimed the company had permits to dump the waste in order to “enrich the soil.” At the end of the trial, Harrington was ordered to stop dumping waste in Johnson County, and was given a $100 fine for each of the seven counts of him breaking his court orders. 

At the end of the day, nobody truly knows Lord Harrington’s character and truth besides himself. Whether or not he should be defined by his business decisions, or how he decides to express and present himself through his personal website, he still provided Joshua with the gift of an architectural wonder to tower over the whole town.