|
A Virtual Tour
Boldt Castle on beautiful Heart Island rises magestically up from the St.Lawrence River mid-way between Wellesley Island and Alexandria Bay - in northern New York State.
More than 4 million people have toured the six-story, 127-room mansion since 1977 when it was given as a gift to the Thousand Island Bridge Authority, which has spent more than $14 million on continuing renovations and improvements.
Boldt Castle was to be more than a grand dream. It was to be a physical-and-enduring testament of George Boldt's love and adoration for his wife, Louise. As millionaire proprietor of the world-famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, money was no object to Boldt, who set out to build a full-size Rhineland castle on an island once owned by E.K. Hart, a New York Congressman. Beginning in 1900, Boldt's family spent four summers on the island while as many as 300 stonemasons, carpenters and artisans worked. The plans included an indoor pool, 16 fireplaces, a powerhouse, a drawbridge, Italian gardens, a swan pond, a three-story dove-cote, a Roman archway that was to be the formal entry for launches delivering guests to the island, and service tunnels equipped with trolleys. The Alster Tower, where the family lived those summers during construction, was one of the first buildings built on the island. Also called the Playhouse, it contained a billiard room, a dance hall, library, bedrooms, kitchen and a two-lane bowling alley in the basement.
In 1904, tragedy struck when George Boldt's wife, Louise, died suddenly. Boldt immediately telegrammed his construction foreman on the island, and ordered that all work be stopped. A broken-hearted Boldt could not imagine his dream castle without his beloved Louise. He never finished it, and he never returned to Heart Island.
You can do all of this and much more inside BOLDT CASTLE: a Virtual Tour!
If you can't make it there in person, make it there online!
Site Map
|
