Palatial Passport: Singer Castle (2010)

History and tour of the Singer Castle.  A part of American history and local folklore meet at Singer Castle on Dark Island, located on the St. Lawrence River. Singer Castle is the only remaining/existing castle on our river to be completed, fully furnished and resided in during the heyday of the great builders and industrials in New York. Calumet and Castle Rest (Pullman) were both completed and lived in. (And both were prior to Towers.) The Castle remained in the possession of the original owners, the Bourne family, from its construction in 1905 until the mid 1960’s. Frederick Bourne was the fifth President of the Singer Sewing Machine Company, which is where the name “Singer Castle” came from. When the Bourne family summered there, it was called “The Towers” which comes from the inspiration that Ernest Flagg, the architect whom designed this structure, had after reading the book Woodstock by Sir Walter Scott.