Elaborate homes a reflection of hotelier’s work
Boldt Castle still stands as one of the largest mansions in the U.S.
CLAYTON, N.Y.— He already had a nice cottage on a small island in the middle of the St. Lawrence River, close to the Canadian border, but George Boldt wanted something bigger.
So he brought 300 tradesmen out to his island to build the largest home in America. You know it as Boldt Castle.
He was building it for his wife, Louise, whom he married when she was 15. But at age 41, she suddenly died and Boldt never again went near the island and his castle.
He sent telegrams from his Manhattan office to the tradesmen who had nearly finished his 120-room mansion, telling them to put down their tools and stop building.
But the tradesmen actually took their tools about 19 kilometres downstream to another island, where they went to work building another 28-room cottage — Singer Castle.
It was built for Frederick Gilbert Bourne, president of Singer Sewing Machine Company.
While the stonemasons were still building Boldt Castle, Boldt would come out to his island to watch the progress and relax in the beautiful environment.
But he couldn’t stay in his old cottage — now dismantled — so he built a floating penthouse, tied it to his island and was rocked to sleep at night by the undulating waters of the mighty St. Lawrence.
He called his floating barge/ cottage La Duchesse, and you, too, can go into Boldt’s bedroom and feel the movement of the river. The 117-year-old La Duchesse still rides the river’s flow moored at the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, N.Y., just across the river from Kingston.
Some of Bourne’s fast, steamdriven race boats from Singer Castle are also tied up at the Antique Boat Museum.
Much like the plans for his castle, Boldt spared no expense for his temporary cottage. The two-storey, 32-metre-long barge had no engine and was pushed around by tugboat. Its interior was finished with the same splendour as the cottages lining millionaire’s row along the Thousand Islands stretch of the St. Lawrence.
La Duchesse had10 bedrooms, five bathrooms, a servants quarters, a deck for dancing, an elaborate dining room with a skylight and, of course, what boat doesn’t have a fireplace.
Following Louise’s death, the six-storey castle sat empty for 73 years. In 1977, the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority purchased the island and mansion for $1 (U.S.) from the Boldt estate and has since spent more than $3 million restoring it to Boldt’s original dream.
The nearby Thousand Islands Bridge is actually five bridges hopscotching across various islands and soars over the St. Lawrence Seaway to connect Ontario and New York state.
La Duchesse was towed to the spectacular Boldt Yacht House on a nearby island, where it sat for 27 years until it sank at its indoor dock in 1943.
Boldt’s neighbour Andrew McNally III, who produced Rand McNally globes and map books, bought the sunken vessel, raised it off the river bottom and had it towed to a Kingston boat yard for extensive repairs and renovations.
For years, La Duchesse was seen cruising along the river as a floating cottage for the McNally family, who also rented it out with a serving crew to wealthy vacationers.
The McNally family donated La Duchesse to the boat museum in Clayton. The museum also has vessels moored inside the Boldt Yacht House on Wellesley Island, also open to public tours.
Boldt owned his own four-star hotel in Philadelphia, but was best known as manager of the historic Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan. Waldorf Astor hired Boldt to manage his luxury hotel on Fifth Avenue. Before long, Astor’s wealthy cousin John Jacob Astor IV built the luxury Astor Hotel next door and the two cousins competed fiercely. Boldt persuaded the cousins to bury the hatchet and combine the two hotels with several 300-metre-long corridors. Boldt took over operations of the combo, then the largest hotel in the world.
Its dining room became famous for the Waldorf Salad and Thousand Island dressing, both in hot demand today.
The hotel was torn down in 1929 to make way for the 102storey Empire State Building on Fifth Avenue, for years the tallest building the world. A new 47-storey Waldorf Astoria was built elsewhere in 1931.
The Thousand Islands area of Ontario and New York is famous for its boating heritage and luxury cottages, but had a shortage of short-term tourist accommodations.
Clayton had not seen a new hotel in its region in 30 years, which is why David Hart of Buffalo decided to build his 1000 Islands Harbour Hotel near the boat museum in Clayton on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River. New York state contributed $3 million to its construction to stimulate tourism for the quaint town.