The St. Lawrence Seaway begins at the Atlantic Ocean and proceeds to the Great Lakes, permitting ocean going ships to navigate all the way to Duluth Minnesota, on the western end of Lake Superior, which is some 600+ feet above sea level and about 2,900 miles inland, made possible by a series of locks, see the chart in the lower left of the photo below.
Many people enjoy living near the water and so the cost of property on the water can be quite pricey. Consequently some of the homes which get built on the water are very pricey. The Thousand Islands area became popular in the years after the civil war because Ulysses S. Grant started spending time there and many others followed. During the depression of the 30's many of the large homes were burned in the hopes of being able to collect on fire insurance policies, but in many cases the insurance companies were in the same financial condition as the home owners and the home owners were without their homes and the money they had hoped to collect from the insurance companies.
There are several notable homes which still remain, one of which, the Boldt Castle, we took several pictures of. George C. Boldt started his working life as a kitchen worker. He was hired by his future father-in-law to manage the dining room of the Philadelphia Club. He later got into hotel management and came to the attention of William Waldorf Astor who hired him to run the Waldorf Hotel. Later John Jacob Astor IV built the Astoria Hotel next door to the Waldorf causing strife between the two cousins. Boldt ended up leasing the Astoria and merging the two hotels to become the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
Boldt's family spent summers on their farm in the Thousand Islands area and in 1900 he employed 300 construction workers to begin building a castle on Heart Island for the love of his life, his wife Louise. In 1904 Louise died suddenly and Boldt ordered all work to cease on the castle. If Louise wasn't there to enjoy it, he had no interest in it. The property was completely abandoned until 1977 when the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority purchased the property for $1 with the understanding that it could never be used for commercial purposes or inhabited permanently. Since then millions of dollars have been spent renovating the structure and finishing some of the rooms. Each year more rooms are finished and eventually the construction will be completed.
This stone tower was intended for entertaining. It contained bedrooms, a library, two bowling alleys, a billiard room, a dance hall, a kitchen and a dining room.
This building was the power house for the island and the clock tower contains Westminster chimes.
Across the channel about a quarter of a mile is the boat house which is designed to house motor boats and sailing yachts note the tall doors to allow the mast to pass through.
There are homes of all shapes, styles and sizes along the Seaway and most of them with a more happy story to tell. Here is a sampling...
The home pictured below is owned by an auto dealer and he is said to have an identical one in Colorado and another in Texas. This home was reported to be on the market for $37M with country music singer Alan Jackson making a serious offer recently but no deal was made.
This quaint little home is owned by the family of the young lady who was the captain of the U.S. Olympic women's soccer team this summer.
