# 1901: Bannerman's Castle, Pollepel Island NY



## Skydog (Jan 25, 2021)

*1901: Bannerman's Castle, Pollepel Island New York *

Anybody who has taken the Metro North Hudson Line to NYC may have noticed the ruins of a large castle on an island out in the middle of the Hudson River.  

The location of the ruin is Pollepel Island, Fishkill New York - about an hour or so north of NYC - exactly the kind of location one would expect to find an abandoned Scottish Castle in utter ruins today. 

The picture on the left is how the ruins look today and I believe the picture on the right was taken before a good portion of the castle collapsed in 2009. 








The picture on the left is from the 1940s and the picture on the right was probably taken not that long afterwards based on the looks of it. 








*Brief, Brief Description:*

The ruins of Bannerman's Castle, an abandoned military surplus warehouse, still stand in the middle of the Hudson River. In the early 20th century, a New York City entrepreneur bought Pollepel Island and built the eye-catching structure to advertise his explosive business.

You can read more about this tall tale on a number of fun and easy to access mainstream websites, why not start with the official story here: 

Bannermancastle.org

*Construction Process:*

Below are some descriptions of the construction process from other websites I've come across researching this gem (I took the cheeky liberty of emphasizing a few of the more egregious points): 

"In a nod to his Scottish heritage, Bannerman decided that his next warehouse would resemble a castle. *Built by day laborers—and without architects, engineers, contracts, or blueprints—the castle was designed by Bannerman himself, sketched on whatever scrap paper he had on hand.* “He wasn’t just the boss and the brains, he got his hands dirty,”

Roadtrippers Magazine

"In 1901, Frank Bannerman began building the seven-story Scottish- and Moorish-style castle (as well as six other buildings on Pollepel Island) to store his company’s cannons, munitions, steel beams and other items. *He used bed frames to reinforce the walkways, bayonets to bolster interior walls.*"

NY Times

*In Other Media:*

Bannerman Island is the secret location of George Washington's tomb, built by the Masons, in the fictional drama Sleepy Hollow (2013 - 2017) on the FOX network.


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## JWW427 (Jan 26, 2021)

Why such a fancy castle for an arsenal?
Somthing's weird here.

There's nothing else suspicious on the Hudson....


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## Skydog (Jan 26, 2021)

JWW427 said:


> Why such a fancy castle for an arsenal?
> Somthing's weird here.


Classic "re-designation" situation as the great Jon Levi would say. Nobody uses "bed frames to reinforce the walkways, bayonets to bolster interior walls" on new construction. Give me a break - how are bayonets going to bolster interior walls in the first place? Perhaps old Bannerman simply won the squatting rights to this little river-monster the old-fashioned way. By bayoneting the existing riff-raff that surely beat him to the punch and forcing the rest of the island detritus to do his rudimentary renovation work - bed frames, rusty nails and all.


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## JWW427 (Jan 26, 2021)

Bedframes and bayonets are a poor mans rebar, perhaps. But I agree.


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