Beaverkill Lodge -
Craig-E-Claire (Bradford's Summer Residence)
Roscoe, New York
N 41°
58.087' W 74° 51.853'
ca. 1891
Formally known to local residents as the "Dundas Castle".
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 21, 2001
(01000245 NRIS)
In 1891, Bradford Lee Gilbert acquired several hundred
acres of land and constructed a beautiful summer home, known as Beaverkill
Lodge. The lodge was supplied with water, heat, electricity,
telephone, call bells, and baths.
His system of baths is worthy of description.
He designed that his guest first played the game of "squash", a game of
English origin which is played in a fine court adjoining the bath. After the
game the player takes the electric douche, needle and plunge baths in
succession and the order named. The finishing touches are added in the "Rest
Room" which is a superbly appointed compartment among striking features of
which is the frescoing of birch bark and scores of handsome mottoes on the
walls, indicative of rest and ease.
After Bradford passed away in 1911, much of his land was
sold to Maurice Sternbeck, and later sold to Ralph Wurts-Dundas in 1915.
Soon after buying the property and lodge, Mr. Dundas started converting the
lodge into his castle. Unfortunately, he died in 1921 and never got to
see his castle completed. Since his wife and daughter were confined to
an institution due to mental instability, no one lived in the castle since.
There is a legend: In the 1930s, a seductive woman
with the long blond hair who regularly lured unsuspecting fishermen to an
afternoon's adventure. Rumor had it that the sole occupant was a
beautiful but demented young girl, who used to let down her golden hair from
an upstairs window and lure unwary anglers into her granite castle, for what
probably amounted to nothing worse than an afternoon's pleasant seduction.
Today, the castle remains vacant and picked through by
trespassers.
The history of the name Craig-E-Claire came from when
Bradford's wife Marie who was a native from Ireland visited Beaverkill.
It reminded her so much of a small village called Craig-E-Claire by the
scenery that when the post office was named, she picked "Craig-E-Claire".
*Special thanks to contributors: Goodnightclover Photography,
Doctor Joyce Conroy, Rusty Tagliareni, and Christina Mathews.
Sources of interest are shown at the
bottom
of this page.
Just click on a thumbnail image below to open the corresponding picture.
|
