Greater Astoria Historial Society 35-20 Broadway, 4th Floor | L.I.C., NY 11106 718.278.0700 | www.astorialic.org Gallery Hours: Mondays & Wednesdays 2-5 PM Saturdays 12-5 PM Exhibits ~ Lectures ~ Documentaries ~ Books Walking Tours ~ Historical Research Unique & Creative Content For more information visit us on the web at www.astorialic.org This image adapted from an invitation to the Long Island City Athletics 33rd Annual Masque Ball, 1909. 32 OCTOBER 2015 i LIC COURIER i www.queenscourier.com ■LEGENDS Death Knell for a Citadel So Halloween is upon us and it’s timely that we talk about the ghosts and legends of a castle where timid neighbors believe echoes of the past can be heard in the gloomy structure on stormy nights. By the 1920s, the faded glory of Bodine Castle, by then offices of a lumber firm was the subject of a newspaper feature that was imaginatively written – but had not a scrap of truth. “Bodine Castle, a huge, parapeted structure of granite within a lance’s toss of Queensborough Bridge,” the story began, “is reminiscent of jousts, noble knights and damsels in distress patiently or otherwise to be rescued. It looks like a fugitive from a medieval landscape. Surrounded by the typical, unsightly modern industry, the Castle gives the impression of a be-wigged crone in the middle of a group of jitterbugs. “The 18-room building, erected toward the close of the 18th century by a French nobleman fleeing the wrath of the guillotine, had a beautiful but willful daughter who fell in love with the handsome footman. The parent learned of the matter and had the two thrown into the stone-lined dungeon beneath the castle,” the newspaper noted. “The nobleman’s neighbors, strongarmed farmers, were angered at this and forced their way into the house with pitchforks. But the dungeon was empty. Legend has it that the pair was spirited away through the tunnel to Blackwell’s Island and never seen again.” It seemed that each room has its own ghost – there was a story about the blue-blood builder, whose name was lost over the years and the wife of one of the later owners committing suicide. When the three-inch pine doors were removed, workers swear they heard laughter flow from the house into surrounding gardens. Reality, although more prosaic, was grand. Owner John Bodine ran for New York Mayor in 1876 and lost on the Independent Democrat ticket, entertained his friend, President Ulysses S. Grant there, and rented it one summer to actor Edwin Booth, brother of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth. Its use as an elegant mansion was but a dozen years. By the late 1860s when Standard Oil built one of the earliest refineries in the country, Bodine moved out. Soon he was dead, and after a few brief owners, it was turned over to industry. Fast forward to the 1960s. Amazingly, a family was in residence and their unique home was the object of another newspaper story. Fireplaces still worked, and, although the tunnels to the river were filled, one could still climb the staircase to the castle tower. Bodine Castle was sold to Con Edison in 1961. When the New York Landmarks Commission was created in 1965, the enchanted edifice was on a short list for review and designation. The evening before designation, in 1966 Con Edison demolished it.
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