Boldt Castle–Other Buildings and Yacht House

This blog post continues our tour of Boldt Castle on Heart Island. If you haven’t read the previous post, you can access it HERE.

The power house contains gasoline- and diesel-powered steam generators for electrical power. The architects designed it to be beautiful as well, with an arched stone bridge, illuminated clock faces and the music of chimes to be heard by passing river traffic.

Alster Tower wasn’t open for visitors during our tour, due to reconstruction work in progress.

This tower was the first thing built on the island by Mr. Boldt and is said to be a replica of a castle on the Rhine River in Germany. It was intended to be for recreation and guest quarters. It contains a two-lane bowling alley in the basement, and room for musicals and dancing on the first floor. The upper floors contain a billiard room, library, cafe and kitchen. It was the only new structure on the island that was completed by George Boldt, and served as a temporary home for the family while construction of the castle was in progress.

This water gate was intended for the arrival of guests from Alexandria Bay on the mainland. There was to be a swan pond nearby.

A beautiful gazebo is near Alster Tower.

Here’s the Yacht House as viewed from the castle.

And from the shuttle boat that took us there.

Mr. Boldt owned over 60 boats, including this beautiful wooden sailboat.

I don’t know a lot about boats, especially antique boats, so I’ll just post these pictures for the enjoyment of those who do.

The Yacht House was built in 1899. This picture was taken in 1909 and shows the house boat “La Duchesse” in the slip that was built specifically for it on the right.

In addition to the boat slips, the house includes living quarters for the caretaker of the boats. Not too shabby for hired help! Pictures below show the living quarters; the bedrooms upstairs were not included on the tour.

 

Outside is a steam yacht built in 1892 and restored in the late 1980s, the Kestrel.

Our last stop on the tour was the gift shop, where I found this sign.

And Don bought me one of these bug-free wine tumblers, as both a souvenir and a useful item when gnats/mosquitoes try to get drunk at my expense. I chose the one with the red lid, as I usually drink red wine. You can barely see the Boldt Castle emblem on the side, which raises its value tremendously from the versions you can buy at the dollar store!