Castles 08/22/2021 – Adventures in the Dirt Yacht

We got to visit Boldt Castle on Heart Island and Singer Castle on Dark Island in the last few days while Ryan, Bill and Cheryl were visiting. Randy did a trip to Boldt two times since Ryan’s visit did not coincide with Bill and Cheryl. Randy toured Boldt Castle with just Ryan and then again a few days later with Bill and Cheryl when I joined them too. I did not want to do too much on the boat so Randy and Ryan explored the Canadian side of the River by themselves too. When Randy and Ryan toured Boldt Castle they also toured the Yacht House which we did not do on our trip to Heart Island. I liked being able to explore Boldt Castle at our leisure more than the tour of Singer Castle because the Singer Castle tour was a guided tour with a limited time frame of 45 minutes. I wish we could have explored the dungeon, tunnels and secret passageways in Singer Castle, but all we were allowed was a quick peek. I think they were trying to entice anyone to come back for an overnight stay so you could explore the entire castle. The day we toured Singer was probably one of the warmest days all summer so it was a little hot inside the castle too. It was fun taking Sweet Thing to both of the castles, instead of having to take one of the tour boats, even if the ride back from Singer was a little bumpy!

Boldt Castle is named after George C. Boldt, a Prussian immigrant who made his fortune in the hotel business. He started as a kitchen worker, but quickly rose up the ranks because of his strong work ethic and his commitment to customer service. George Boldt is credited with coining the phrase, “The customer is always right.” At the age of 25 he was hired by his future father-in-law to manage the dining room of Philadelphia’s most exclusive gentlemen’s club, The Philadelphia Club. George and Louise were married on June 14, 1877 and had two children, George Charles, Jr. in 1879 and Louise Clover in 1883. With the help of wealthy members of The Philadelphia Club, they established the Bellevue, a small hotel in Philadelphia. George Boldt went on to manage the luxurious Waldorf Astoria in New York City and owned the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. Louise’s recommendations of feminine touches of fresh flowers in every room, candies on the tables and other luxuries combined with George’s vision of customer service helped create luxurious hotels that catered to the rich during the Guilded Age and helped make him a multimillionaire.

After purchasing Hart Island from the estate of Senator E. K. Hart for $10,000, George planned a full size rhineland castle in Alexandria Bay on Hart Island as a present to his wife, Louise Augusta Kehrer Boldt. The island was renamed to Heart Island and by adding seawalls the island was reshaped into a Valentine’s shaped heart. In the Fall of 1899, the original home on the island was disassembled and moved over the frozen River to Wellesley Island where it was rebuilt to make room for the castle. Construction occurred between 1900 to 1904 with a cost of $2.5 million or over $65 million in current dollars.

Just months before their anniversary and the anticipated completion date, Louise died unexpectantly in January 1904 at the age of 43. Boldt ordered the 300 stonemasons, carpenters and artists working on the six story, 120 room castle complete with tunnels, a powerhouse, Italian gardens, a drawbridge, a children’s playhouse and a dove-cote to stop all construction and the castle was abondonded. Boldt never returned to Heart Island, but continued to spend summers in the 1000 Islands at the Boldt’s Wellesley House near their Wellesley Island Farm until his death in 1916. After George’s death, E. J. Noble, owner of the Beechnut Fruit Company and inventor of the Lifesaver candy, bought the castle in the early 1920’s and ran it as an unimproved tourist attraction for more than 50 years. Unfortunately time took its toll on the property and when visitors were allowed free run on the island, vandalism caused further damage and the castle was in ruins.

Seventy-three years after work was halted, the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority acquired the dilapidated property in 1977. Net revenues from the castle operations finance the preservation, rehabilitation, restoration and improvment of the structures. Since 1977, several million dollars have been spent to improve Boldt Castle. It is now a major landmark and tourist attraction on the St. Lawrence River open to guests between mid May and mid October.

Singer Castle was built between 1902 – 1904 as an island hunting retreat for Commodore Frederick Gilbert Bourne, 5th president of the Singer Manufacturing Company. The stone structure was modeled after a castle in Woodstock, England, that was described in Sir Walter Scott’s book, Woodstock. Orginally known as The Towers and Dark Island Castle, Singer Castle was built for $500,000 from the same granite quarried from nearby Oak Island used in Boldt Castle. The original structure was four stories tall with just 24 rooms, an elaborate boathouse that also housed a workshop and powerhouse as well as a steam-powered boat, a 2-story ice house, dungeons, underground passageways, secret passages, turrets and tunnels. Many of the same Oak Island workers that worked on Boldt Castle also worked on Singer Castle after work was halted on Boldt.

After Frederick Bourne’s death in March 1919, two of Bourne’s daughters, Marjorie (Mrs. Alexander D. Thayer) and May (Mrs. Ralph Beaver Strassburger) bought out their siblings for $389,000 to become the new owners. In 1921, May and her husband gave Marjorie lifetime use of the island. Marjorie and her husband spend the next 36 summers at Dark Island where she made many large additions including a breakfast room, a third story apartment over the plazza, a tennis court and a squash court. The island was also used for rumrunning from Canada during the Prohibition years of 1920 – 1933. Shortly before her death in 1962, Dark Island was deeded to the LaSalle Military Academy for $1. Because the Academy did not have any use for the remote island, Dark Island was sold for $5,000 in 1965 for use by the Harold Martin Evangelistic Association. During this time The Towers became known as Jorstadt Castle. After many years where Dark Island was listed for sale, it was finally sold in 2001 to Dark Island Tours, a venture of German businessman Farhad Vladi and two European business partners. After extensive restoration, tours were started in 2003. Dark Island was again listed for sale in 2006. I do not believe it has sold and is still for sale for $24.5 million. Today, Singer Castle is the only remaining castle on the St. Lawrence that was completed, fully furnished with residents during the heyday of great builders. Guided tours are available to the public as well as overnight stays in the Royal Suite which is an entire wing of the castle that can sleep up to six people. It might be fun to spend the night!

Boldt Castle