Boldt Castle: In Search of the Lost Story

by Paul Malo

Each summer a quarter-million people visit Boldt Castle and learn its tragic love story. Louise Boldt, forty-one years old and mother of two, died just as her husband was attaining great wealth and fame. In January of 1904 a telegram from George Boldt stopped work on their dream house. Despite millions of dollars spent, he abandoned the project forever. Contrary to this official version, generations of local folk have told "true stories" about what really happened. This largest book to study the Boldts and their fantastic building project presents startling revelations that alter all versions of the tragedy. The author's "Search of the Lost Story" is recalled as a series of conversations about the Boldts and their projects. The informal dialogue presents decades of research and reports interviews with family and others who have shared information, experiences, and personal impressions.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2001

Reviews

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently visited Boldt's Castle on vacation which I found to be very intriguing. Something just did not feel right as I was walking thru the home. Vibes? so I found this book in a shoppe. Put some of questions into perspective. Very enjoyable.

[Hope Irvin Marston · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was delighted to find this book as I searched for information on the restoration of Boldt Castle. My joy soon faded as I plodded through three hundred pages of rambling, gossipy conversation among four fictitious characters. It was purported to be the “Lost Story” of the Boldts. Written sans chapter divisions, it did not ring true to me.
However, the voluminous sharp, black and white photos gave me information I had no seen elsewhere.
Hope Irvin Marston, author of THE WALLS HAVE EARS: A BLACK SPY IN THE CONFEDERATE WHITE HOUSE.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had such potential. It turned out rather disappointing. The author gives us his information in conversational form between characters. This is meant to be a nonfiction book, but it certainly reads just like a fictional novel. Another HUGE drawback is the absence of footnotes. The author had them done away with to keep the size of the book in perspective. I maintain that this was a huge mistake and would have gone a long way to making this book seem more factual than it was. I do give the author points for trying, however it seems that a new book on Boldt Castle is in order so that the reader can properly distinguish between fact and fiction.

[Bethany Hudson · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a piece of writing, this book gets 1, maybe 2 stars. It’s trite, paternalistic, and occasionally racist. But if you’re interested in Heart Island, it really is the most comprehensive book. Just read with a grain of salt and be prepared to follow up the author’s leaps with further research.

[Patrick Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review? See: * (below)

Not many people have castles in their front yard.
I didn’t. But I did have one up the road and out on the river. When I was a youth (a mere five and a half years ago, yah) Boldt Castle was considered a “romantic ruin.” Built at the turn of the 20th century by hotel magnate George Boldt (the Waldorf Astoria) but never completed, the massive stone buildings littered the island like giant withering medieval carcasses. In a time of excessive opulence, wealthy New Yorkers built castles in the 10,000 Islands for their summer get-a-ways. Most are gone now. The largest, built my Mr. Boldt, rotted and decayed away for seventy-five years before undergoing a massive restoration.

But back to my youth. I did have one. And it was a beaut.
In the summer, tour boats would stop at the castle and let people roam freely. Most chipped away pieces and took them home for souvenirs. There was nothing to see except endless graffiti covered broken plastered walls branching off endless floors of corridors and room overlooking the St. Lawrence. Not a single pane of glass remained in any of the three hundred rooms (my number, although I think there are probably a lot less). The statues on the grounds had been worn to the nub by vandals and many of the secondary buildings had collapsed.

I rarely went to the castle in the summers. Ogling sightseers were inevitably disappointed there were no spectacular rooms appointed with pseudo-European antiques cordoned of with velvet ropes swung between brass stanchions. The indoor reflecting pool was a pond of black fetid muck. I couldn’t bear listening to inane comments. No one really saw the incredible romance of the place. The aching beauty it could have been. I stayed away.

But in the fall, the castle’s boat dock was closed off and the island put into hibernation. By mid winter, the river would freeze across the shipping channel. You could walk to the castle.

Like Yuri Zhivago wintering in Yuriatin, snow drifts rippled across the ball room. The silence and the cold amplified the creaking floor and intensified the loneliness and mystery of the place. I loved the castle in the winter. I spent endless days exploring all the sections that had been blocked off to tourists. Crates and crates of ‘stuff’ had been stored during construction. Debris sat pilled in room after room more than three-quarter of a century later. For a teen with an overactive imagination, having this sallow palace to myself was better than a dream.

*And the book? Oh yah. It’s a (deluxe trade) history of the island, the buildings, the man who built them, his wife’s death which prompted him to abandon the entire project and the recent purchase by a government agency which is putting it all back together again. Researched to the Nth degree and an informative read. Lots of pictures!!!

Nowhere in the book is there mention of a sixteen year old boy who imagined himself Knight Errant with an icicle for a lance wearing a parka for armor.

[Mark Greene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting if you've visited and wanted to know more. The early 20th cent was a heady time for the 1%