Alsace receiving their education there. The Hintere Haus or rear building was used as the school building while the teachers lived in the Landvogtei. In 1853 the institution had to close because Lippe was gravely ill. In 1860, the canton sold the castle for 60,000 francs to Konrad Pestalozzi-Scotchburn of Zürich. Little is known about him. In 1872, for 90,000 francs, the castle came into the possession of Friedrich Wilhelm Wedekind. He had emigrated to San Francisco after the failure of the March Revolution of 1849 and there made a sizeable fortune speculating in land during the California Gold Rush. Returning to Europe in 1864, in protest against Prussian domination of the German Empire he emigrated once more, this time to Switzerland, and settled in the castle. His 6 children, among them the singer Erika Wedekind and the authors Frank Wedekind and Donald Wedekind, spent their childhoods there. To make division of the inheritance possible, the Wedekind family sold the castle in 1893 for 120,000 francs to the American industrialist Augustus Edward Jessup. He was from Philadelphia, but was a long-time resident of England. He was married to Mildred Marion Bowes-Lyon, the aunt of the Queen Mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, and thus allied by marriage to the British royal family. Under Jessup's leadership, the castle underwent a comprehensive renovation and by dismantling of the newer construction and military facilities was largely returned to its condition in the Middle Ages. In addition, he furnished the interiors with expensive furniture and installed modern facilities such as central heating, plumbing and electricity. He defrayed the half a million francs in costs from his personal fortune. Another American industrial magnate, James Ellsworth, who collected medieval art, learnt that Lenzburg Castle contained a table from the period of Friedrich Barbarossa. Wishing to add it to his collection, he found it impossible to purchase it without also purchasing the entire castle. As a result, the castle changed hands in 1911 for 550,000 francs. His son, the Polar explorer Lincoln Ellsworth, inherited the castle in 1925 but lived there only intermittently. Recent history After Lincoln Ellsworth's death in 1951, ownership of the castle passed to his widow Marie Louise Ellsworth-Ulmer. In 1956 she sold the castle together with its contents for 500,000 francs to a foundation set up by the town of Lenzburg and the Canton of Aargau. This made it possible to open the castle to the