If it’s October, it must be Canada

Last Updated on Thursday, October 04, 2012 11:59 am Written by Cindy Nevitt Friday, October 05, 2012 01:00 am

In Ocean City, Columbus Day is preceded by the annual Indian Summer Weekend and Block Party. In my life, it’s preceded by an annual trip to Canada.

The trek is not to see fall foliage, although by the first week of October, it’s not unusual to see the leaves on some trees turning colors. The trip is not to visit relatives because we truly know no one in Canada. The sole reason for going is to let my mother visit what she insists on calling her castle.

It’s Boldt Castle, and it is indeed a castle. Last month, Yahoo named it one of the 10 coolest castles in the United States. It was built 100 years ago by George Boldt on Heart Island in the Thousand Islands region of New York. Boldt, who owned the Bellevue Stratford and Waldorf Astoria hotels, invented room service, which made him an enormously wealthy man.

Six years ago, when my mother announced her intention to take herself to visit “her castle,” I offered to join her. For 20 years, she and her husband had made one or two visits a year to upstate New York and Kingston, Ontario, the closest town across the border in Canada. Although her husband wasn’t well enough to travel, my mother wanted to visit for sentimentality’s sake. For some reason, she thought going by herself would be a good idea. Since it clearly was not a good idea for a woman in her late 60s to travel alone, I volunteered to accompany her.

That was in October 2007. We took a 10-day, all-Canada cruise in October 2008, then returned to the Thousand Islands region and Boldt Castle in October 2009. This time, instead of staying in Kingston, Ontario, we stayed in Alexandria Bay, N.Y., at a run-down resort known as Bonnie Castle.

Bonnie Castle is situated directly across the St. Lawrence River from Boldt Castle, and its commanding view of the real castle was the only thing Bonnie Castle had going for it for the last four decades. Since new owners purchased the property in May, Bonnie Castle is looking much better, although it will never rise to the level of Boldt Castle because it is a castle in name only.

In 2009, we visited my mother’s castle for the first time since her husband died in late 2008. We deviated from our October schedule and went with my children in August and again with my husband in September. We stuck to the October schedule in 2011 and 2012, both times with my husband joining us.

Boldt Castle closes to the public on Columbus Day, so our annual visit must occur before that date. The 120-room castle is modeled after one in the Rhineland region of Germany, and has other buildings on the grounds, including a power house, an aviary and a children’s playhouse – complete with bowling alley – that is constructed like a miniature castle.

Construction began in 1900 on the six-story main manse, with 300 stonemasons, carpenters and artists working to bring to life Boldt’s gift to his wife, Louise. But in 1904, tragedy struck. Louise died, and with her, Boldt’s passion for the project. Despite the million dollars he had spent in importing materials for the construction, the broken-hearted millionaire ordered work to cease immediately and his three children to never set foot on Heart Island again.

For three-quarters of a century, Boldt Castle was visited only by trespassers. Although it can only by reached by boat, the almost-complete castle was vandalized by ingenious local teens and others who made their way across the water with spray cans of paint in hand and senseless destruction in mind.

In 1977, the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority acquired the castle and set about accomplishing an ambitious agenda to restore the castle to its former glory. Tours of the castle and its grounds began, with the money raised from ticket sales used to repair broken stained glass windows and stair banisters, to haul rubble from the indoor pool, and to remove graffiti from the walls.

It is only in the last decade or so that actual restoration of rooms within the castle has taken place. The Italian gardens have been landscaped into shape; the dove cote, powerhouse and boathouse repaired and opened for tours; and the castle’s first floor with drawing room, dining room, ballroom, library and billiards room replicated with furniture and detail of the day.

On the second floor, Mr. and Mrs. Boldt’s bedroom suites and their private baths have been restored. Next, their children’s bedrooms will be restored, then the guest rooms on the third floor and the servants’ quarters on the fourth floor. The fifth floor contains an empty room that has been cleaned out and opens onto a balcony, where castle visitors can view some of the impressive homes on the closest islands. The sixth floor is an attic, which is still boarded up and in need of cleaning.

With six years of going to Canada behind me, it’s safe to say there are more years of the same ahead of me. As long as my mother insists on calling Boldt Castle hers and wants to make the annual trip, I’m sure I’ll be providing the ride.

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