Boldt Castle
Boldt Castle, located on Heart Island (New York) in the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence River, along the northern border of New York State, is the major landmark and tourist attraction of the region.
George Boldt, proprietor of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City and his family for several summers enjoyed an earlier frame cottage on Hart Island (the original name) which they greatly expanded. In 1900 the Boldts launched an ambitious construction campaign to build a huge masonry structure, one of the largest private homes in America. They engaged the architectural firm G. W. & W. D. Hewitt and hundreds of workers for a six-story "castle," a major international landmark. In addition four other masonry structures on the island are architecturally notable. Equally distinctive is a huge yacht house on a neighboring island where the Boldts had another summer home and a vast estate, incorporating farms, canals, a golf course, tennis courts, stables, and a polo field.
The construction of Boldt Castle ceased abruptly in early 1904 after the death of Boldt's wife, Louise Kehrer Boldt. For 73 years, the castle and other stone structures were left exposed to the harsh winter weather and occasional vandals. The Thousand Islands Bridge Authority acquired Heart Island and the nearby yacht house in 1977, for one dollar, under the agreement that all revenues obtained from the castle operation would be applied towards restoration, so that the island would be preserved for the enjoyment of future generations. Since the purchase of the island several million dollars have been used to restore and improve the Heart Island structures. The goal of the restoration of Heart Island was not to finish what hadn't been completed, but to restore the island to the state it was in when construction was halted.
Today, Boldt Castle is accessible by ferry from Alexandria Bay; Gananoque, Ontario; Rockport, Ontario; and Ivy Lea, Ontario; and most of the grounds and buildings can be explored by the public for a fee. The boat-owning public may also dock on Heart Island for free and there is a US Customs and Immigration office on Heart Island. International visitors coming from Canada should have appropriate identification.
The rooms on the first floor of Boldt Castle are fully furnished, but they are mainly blocked off, or have signs on them prohibiting they be touched, to prevent accidental damage or vandalism. The basement is mostly poorly lit tunnels that accumulate to a fountain/swimming pool built deep in the ground, which is not accessable to guests. Most of the rooms from the second floor to the top floor have been left unfurnished, but there are exhibits in some of these rooms and hallways showing pictures and artifacts of the Thousand Islands region during the era in which the Boldts' lived. These rooms are also left unfurnished to give the visitor an opportunity to imagine what the castle may have looked like if it had been completed. Since the restoration, an archway that was originally intended by George Boldt to be the entranceway for boats, has been fully restored, but has a bridge connecting the two sides. Recently opened after renovations is a balcony which overlooks the southern half of the island and Alexandria Bay, NY. There are numerous fountains located around the castle, including one that was originally to be used as a swimming pool in the basement, most of which have statues of lions spitting a continous stream of water from their mouths.
Two other buildings on the island are the Power House and the Children's Tower; both are open to the public. The Power House was built to hold a generator to supply the island with power, and now is more of a museum of how electric power was obtained in the early 1900's, as well as a few stories of getting tools and equipment to Heart Island during the castle's construction. The Child's Tower was built as a playhouse for the children of Boldt. It is purposely constructed with slanting and uneven walls, ceilings, and roofs. The public who enter the Children's Tower are able to climb out a doorway and walk on some of the roofs, which are more of balconies and outside portions of the tower, but are slightly slanted and miscolored to seem like the roof.
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Power house -
Child's Tower -
Entrance -
Power house -
Main Gate and Child's Tower -
Boldt yacht house -
Boldt yacht house -
References
- Lucas, Roger. Boldt Castle, Heart Island. Cheektowaga, N.Y.: Research Review Publications, 1992.
- Malo, Paul. Boldt Castle: In Search of the Lost Story. Fulton, N.Y.: Laurentian Press, 2001.
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