The story of a stunning castle, lovingly built in 1900 by an American hotelier for his wife, ended in heartbreak when the wife died suddenly at 31. The project was abandoned, and the castle stood empty for seven decades.
Boldt Castle is the jewel in the crown of Heart Island, a five-acre private island among the Thousand Islands in the Saint Lawrence River near Alexandria Bay, New York. But its fairytale facade and 120 grand rooms across six stories have never housed the family it was built for.
Boldt Castle with Alster Tower seen on the left and the power house on the right. (Alexander Sviridov/Shutterstock)
(JohnnyJBoy/Shutterstock)
Heart Island’s power house. (Felix Lipov/Shutterstock)
Alster Tower. (Fabian Junge/Shutterstock)
George C. Boldt immigrated to New York from Prussia at the age of 13, the New York Times reported. He ascended the vocational ranks from dishwasher to successful hotelier, eventually becoming the millionaire manager of New York’s world-famous Waldorf Astoria Hotel. He married his beloved, Louise Kehrer Boldt, and welcomed two children, George Jr. and Clover….