This show is part of the deluxe edition network. Check out all the other amazing podcasts at deluxeedtionnetwork.com. Shoutout to the podcasts of the month (insert podcasts of the month)
There is a castle located in the thousand islands in northern NY on heart island. The castle and island have a history and a story of love and heartbreak. A classic rags-to-riches story. Grab your tissues and get ready because we are going to jump into this.
Boldt Castle is a major landmark and tourist attraction in the Thousand Islands region of the U.S. state of New York. Open to guests seasonally between mid-May and mid-October, it is located on Heart Island in the Saint Lawrence River. Heart Island is part of the Town of Alexandria, in Jefferson County. Originally a private mansion built for American millionaire George Boldt, it is now maintained by the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority as a tourist attraction.
The story of the island starts long ago but began in 1871 when it was known as Hemlock Island located opposite the Crossmon House at Alexandria Bay, N.Y. At that time, Elizur K. Hart, who less than a year later would serve a (very) short term in the New York State Assembly, purchased the island for a reported $100 and renamed it “Hart’s Island.” He would proceed to build an 80-room wooden cottage. Hart would later serve in the U.S. House of Representatives and pass away in 1893.
Let’s talk about George Boldt. He was a Prussian-born American hotelier. A self-made millionaire, he influenced the development of the urban hotel as a civic social center and luxury destination. He was sent to America when he was 13 years old because his father knew there was not enough opportunity for him. He began as a kitchen worker in New York and, at age 25, was hired (by his future father-in-law) to manage the dining room of Philadelphia's most exclusive gentlemen's club, The Philadelphia Club. Boldt's first hotel was the Bellevue (1881), at the northwest corner of Broad & Walnut Streets, in Philadelphia. He soon bought a competing hotel, the Stratford, at the southwest corner. Two decades later, on the site of the Stratford, he built the largest hotel the city had ever seen, the 1,090-room Bellevue-Stratford Hotel (1902–04, now the Hyatt). William Waldorf Astor built the Waldorf Hotel (1890–93) in New York City, with Boldt as proprietor. John Jacob Astor IV built the adjoining Astoria Hotel (1897). Boldt mediated between the feuding millionaire cousins, leasing the Astoria himself and merging the two buildings under his management as the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The Empire State Building now occupies its site at 34th Street and 5th Avenue. He is credited with popularizing Thousand Island dressing at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Boldt catered to this new super-rich class, charging the highest prices for the very best, and becoming one of them in the process.
Between 1893 and 1895, George Boldt would visit Hart Island which had apparently fallen behind on its maintenance and upkeep. Boldt would form a real estate venture, incorporating it with a number of other individuals into the St. Lawrence River Real Estate Association in 1895 with a capital of $20,000. The names of the other directors were big: William C. Brown, Charles G. Emery, Edward Dewey, E. R. Bolden, Charles I. Hudson, James C. Spencer, James H. Oliphant of Brooklyn, and George M. Pullman of Chicago. On July 1st of 1895, the Watertown Daily Times would report the sale of Hart’s Isle.
One of the first things on George Boldt’s agenda was to change the name of the island from Hart Island to Heart Island.
By mid-July of 1897, Boldt had entirely rebuilt the wooden cottage on Heart Island and constructed a new boathouse, landscaping, and new walks around the island. The Watertown Daily Times would say his efforts, costing an estimated $100,000 at the time, had “so improved the island that one would hardly know the old place.” In addition to his own property, Boldt would purchase a tract of land on what was then still known as Wells Island (Wellesley Island today) where he would build a bicycle track.
The following year, in October 1898, George Boldt would have plans drawn up for a large, elaborate boat house on Heart Island where the former Westminster Park warehouse once stood. The North Country would have to wait just short of another year to see just how big and elaborate George Boldt’s vision really was for his island.
1900 would prove to be a busy year for Boldt’s ambitious projects. Work would begin on the large yacht house on the island. In April, Boldt would procure three different tracts of land on Wells Island for an undetermined use for a total of over $7,500. A few months later, he would add yet another parcel for nearly $3,000.
In late August, plans for Bold’s “mammoth cottage” were completed by architect William Hewitt of Philadelphia with an estimated cost of $200,000 with combined expenditures totaling $400,000 with the work already completed. Per the Watertown Daily Times, this included “the tower, which is a reproduction of a tower on the Rhinê, cost $15,000, the powerhouse, $40,000, yacht house, $50,000 and the peristyle $25,000.”
It was believed at the time that the castle would be completed in 1902 and cost in the neighborhood $2,000,000. Which would be equivalent to 72,645,000 today.
It was only days later another effort was announced: to build a sea wall, 16 feet from the shore, around the island at a cost of $50,000. Of note, a month earlier in July of 1900, the Watertown Daily Times would report on the 17th that workmen had begun to tear down the cottage on Heart Island. Three days later, it would report “The portion of the cottage on Heart Island which is to be removed preparatory for the erection of a new one is to be moved in sections and re-erected at the golf links on Wellesley Island, where it will be used for a clubhouse.” It has been long reported that these sections were moved during the winter over the frozen river, but there’s no other mention of this other than in July.
Work would continue during the next two years with various undertakings here and there added to the list of accomplishments, such as a canal Boldt would have constructed on Wellesley Island between the mouth of Mud Creek, opposite Alexandria Bay, and Lake Waterloo. When he wasn’t working in New York City or inspecting the work of a small army constructing his summer home, Boldt would busy himself with dispelling rumors that he was building a hotel on the island and assuring people it was a summer home.
The crew that was working on the castle mean mammoth cottage was over 300 people including stonemasons, carpenters, and artists who built the six-story, 120-room castle, complete with tunnels, a powerhouse, Italian gardens, a drawbridge, alster tower (children’s playhouse) and a dovecote. Not a single detail or expense was spared. It was a six-story "castle" that was a present to his wife.
In 1903 Mrs Boldt visited the island for the last time as she passed away unexpectedly on January 8th, 1904 in Manhattan after being ill for a while.
With Mrs. Boldt’s sudden death came the end of George Boldt’s vision for Heart Island. Work on Boldt Castle would be halted immediately, the spark that lit the passion and inspired the work now gone. Instead of a testament to the love for his wife, Boldt Castle would become a symbol of shattered dreams and broken hearts. Though George Boldt would return to the 1000 Islands many times until his death in 1916, he never stepped foot again on Heart Island. Boldt would die 12 years later of a heart attack.
For 73 years Boldt Castle would sit abandoned on Heart Island, exposed to the elements, time, and the occasional vandal. In 1977, the Thousand Island Bridge Authority would purchase Heart Island, Boldt Castle, and the yacht house on Wellesley Island for $1.00 under an agreement that revenue generated from its operation would go toward restoration.
While the first two floors have seen extensive renovation, some areas have not though the facilities themselves seemingly are under some stage of renovation at any given point in time.
As of 2021, over $50,000,000 has been spent in the restoration of Boldt Castle and its surrounding structures, a large amount of money invested into what has become a major tourist attraction in an area known for its tourism.
In 1980, a low-budget horror movie, Fear No Evil, would be filmed using Boldt Castle as its narrative centerpiece. In fact, young filmmaker Frank LaLoggia from Rochester, N.Y., had an uncle who helped finance the film having seen the location and asking his nephew to base a story around it. Although it was a relatively campy movie, LaLoggia would strike a minor cult classic with his follow-up several years later, The Lady In White.
If you are in the area or planning to come to the area make sure you make time to see such an amazing castle with a wild past.
“Whatever success I have had was due to my attention to my guests…” George C. Boldt
Sources -