THE HEART OF THE THOUSAND ISLANDS

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Today we toured the Boldt Castle, a spectacular mansion designed by George Boldt as a gift to his wife, Louise.   It’s constructed on an island originally called Hart Island.  Boldt changed the name to Heart Island as a love gesture.  The Boldt coat of arms or crest contains a heart and a stag (hart).  

Building commenced in 1900 and ended in 1904, when Louise died.  It languished and deteriorated for 73 years, until the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority acquired it in 1977.  The restoration – which is still underway – is breathtaking.  It is really special when someone with Boldt’s money also is a man of vision and taste.

There’s a series of docks on the west side of the island for pleasure craft like ours, and tour boats pull in and out on the north side docks.  

Mine is the red hull on the far right – gives you a perspective of how large this castle is – 60,000 square feet

Access to the island is only by water, so this magnificent gate is where guests would have entered.


1,000 feet across the bay, there’s a magnificent Yacht House, where we saw more antique boats from the ABM (Antique Boat Museum) collection.

Now, we’re tied up at the Thousand Islands Club, which we’re told has been a river tradition since 1923.  It’s just across the St Lawrence River from the resort town of Alexandria Bay, right in the stretch of the river called Millionaire’s Row.  And it’s about 5 minutes from the Boldt Castle.  Perfect.  

This entire stretch of river has a unique personality.  The homes are often made of stone from the local quarries, and many of the houses feature turrets.  And boy! Do they love their river!  I am amazed at the amount of boat traffic – and it’s a weekday.  

So many cute little homes too! To count as an island, the island must have one tree.

If there’s one downbeat note it is this – the Club’s restaurant is closed tonight.  From what I’ve read, I think we are missing a real treat.  But the way our luck has been running, it will somehow turn out to be a good thing.

Tomorrow we make a big U-Turn and head west – back up the river along the Canadian shore.  I apologize if you were puzzled by our last blog post … I mistakenly said that we would be heading southeast.  Not so.  WSW is the direction we’ll take toward Kingston.  

There are actually over 1,800 islands in the “Thousand Islands”.  Our course tomorrow takes us by about half of them!