White Castle

White Castle may refer to:

Castles

Settlements

Literature

Food and drink

Films

White Castle (restaurant)

White Castle is an American regional fast food hamburger restaurant chain located in the Midwestern and Mid-Atlantic United States, generally credited as the first fast food chain in the United States. It is known for its small, square hamburgers. Sometimes referred to as "sliders", the burgers were priced at five cents until the 1940s, and remained at ten cents for years thereafter. For several years, when the original burgers sold for five cents, White Castle periodically ran promotional ads in local newspapers which contained coupons offering five burgers for ten cents, takeout only.

On January 14, 2014, Time labelled the White Castle slider the most influential burger of all time.

History

White Castle was founded in 1921 in Wichita, Kansas. The original location was the NW corner of First and Main. Cook Walt A. Anderson partnered with insurance man Edgar Waldo "Billy" A. Ingram to make White Castle into a chain of restaurants and market the brand and its distinctive product. At the time, Americans were hesitant to eat ground beef after Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel The Jungle had publicized the poor sanitation practices of the meat packing industry. The founders set out to change the public's perception of the cleanliness of the industry. To invoke a feeling of cleanliness, their restaurants were small buildings with white porcelain enamel on steel exteriors, stainless steel interiors, and employees outfitted with spotless uniforms. Their first restaurants in Wichita, Kansas, were a success, and the company branched out into other Midwestern markets, starting in 1922 with El Dorado, Kansas. White Castle Building No. 8, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, originally built in 1936 and remodeled (photo, right), was an example of the chain's prefabricated porcelain buildings. The building measured 28 feet (8.5 m) by 28 feet (8.5 m) and was made to resemble the Chicago Water Tower, with octagonal buttresses, crenelated towers, and a parapet wall.

White Castle, Wales

White Castle (Welsh: Castell Gwyn) is a medieval castle located 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the village of Llantilio Crossenny in Monmouthshire, Wales, near the B4233 between Monmouth and Abergavenny.

Known as one of the “Three Castles” with Grosmont and Skenfrith, there has been a defensive structure at the site since the late eleventh century. The castle was originally called Llantilio Castle (recorded in the Pipe Rolls in 1186), after Llantilio Crossenny, the medieval manor of which it was a part. The name "White Castle" was first recorded in the thirteenth century, and was derived from the whitewash put on the stone walls. The castle ruins are Grade I listed as at 19 November 1953.

History of “The Three Castles”

The term “The Three Castles” is used to collectively describe White Castle, Skenfrith Castle and Grosmont Castle, all of which are located in the Monnow Valley in south Wales in modern-day Monmouthshire.

The River Monnow valley was an important route between Hereford and South Wales in medieval times, due to its position as an area of relatively open land, which provided a break between the river cliffs of the Wye Valley to the east, and the hills around Abergavenny to the west. The Three Castles are usually grouped together by historians because for almost their entire history they were part of a block of territory under the control of a single lord.