Going, Going, Almost Gone…

In April, the website ABay.com published photographs of the crumbling boathouse on Ina Island.  The author, aka Johnny Truesdell suggested: “Once a Grand Dance Hall that entertained socialites back in the area's heyday, the Hagen Boathouse of Ina Island slips further into the Saint Lawrence each year. Unfortunately, the current owners who have been there since 1985 or so, chose years ago to stop the yearly maintenance which consisted of yearly jacking from the ice and re-supporting of the structure among other things”.  His opinion was simple:  “As you can see the old boathouse really took a turn for the worse as of late. And really, if there was ever an Historic location on the river that should have been saved this is probably it. The whole situation is a huge shame. Seems like it will have to be taken down eventually??”

A few days later there were over 100 comments posted on ABay.com’s page agreeing that it was a huge shame.  

On April 26, Brian Dwyer, news commentator for YNN (Your News Now) filed a story ”Once popular boathouse now collapsing into St. Lawrence River”  with a video interviewing local Alexandria Bay residents.  These residents remembered the days of parties in the boat house, and the gracious Island home with its 20-bedroom home built in the Golden Era.   The next day YNN ran a second story, “Family plans to have boathouse taken down this summer.”  Their news staff had contacted the Fulmer family from Pennsylvania, reporting that the family were “working to have the boathouse taken down this summer before it collapses into the river.”

We at TI Life have seen this happen before. In fact our regular coverage of the Carleton Island Villa is an example.  Since Paul Malo created TI Life we have published five stories¹ about Carleton Villa.  As editor, I have posted dozens of comments on these stories. 

Rick Tague,  year-round Wellesley Island resident and president of the Bernier Group the engineering firm that helped stabilize and refurbish the Boldt Yacht House, explains the complications of keeping these structures maintained,  “I understand that an attempt was made to drive steel piles on the North side of the Ina Island boathouse, however nothing was ever done and the project was abandoned.  You can actually see them if you look closely at the pictures.  They may have had trouble finding rock to bear them on."

"I know in our work at Boldt Castle driving pipe piles for dock support that the rock drops off very quickly and the depth of the piles can change dramatically.  Because of the bottom conditions, boat houses were usually built on wood cribs that spread the load out over a larger footprint and typically they would be allowed to settle in the mud for a time before they were built on.  However, as Johnny Truesdell noted if they are not maintained by replacing the rotted timbers holding the stone cribs together, and jacking the building as it settles, then eventually the cribs fall apart and the building eventually collapses”.

"Although the Peacock Yacht House ultimately burned, it essentially suffered the same fate.  When it was no longer used to haul the wooden tour boats out to store them for the winter, the yearly maintenance to replace rotted crib timbers (that rotted due to the yearly cycle of being wet then dry as the water level changed) was stopped and the building literally fell off the deteriorated cribs and its “back” was broken". [See Rick Tague's March 2009 The Peacock Yacht House and April 2009 Peacock Yacht House, Part II]

Trude Fitelson, who received the 2008 Preservation League of New York State’s Individual Excellence in Historic Preservation Award, for her work of several decades at Thousand Island Park, has long been a driving force in protecting historic buildings from demolition or inappropriate alteration. Trude suggests, “As one who has been involved in historic preservation for over 30 years, the collapse of the Ina Island boathouse is sad but emblematic of our times. The structure has not been maintained for many years. The stewardship of these structures is not easy as all of us that own river property that are architecturally significant know. They need constant attention. It is a sad commentary on our society that we do not care enough, as with the Peacock boathouse, once gone, never replaced and the Ina island boathouse was so representative of the golden era in the Thousand Islands”.

This month Kim Lunman’s article Kestrel Finds its 'Castle' at Boldt Yacht House shows how the Boldt Yacht House on Wellesley Island was preserved, but without the dollars invested by the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority, this restoration project would have been impossible. 

What role can we play?  In the words of the late Paul Malo, creator of TI Life. “Individuals tend to bristle when told what they can and cannot do with their own homes.”  It is my hope that by continuing to publish the history of people and places of the Thousand Islands, on both sides of the border, we will all remain passionate about our surroundings and have a strong appreciation of the place.

Susan W. Smith, Editor, www.thousandislandslife.com

In April 2010, Ian Coristine’s wallpaper puzzle pictured an aerial view of Ina Island. Fritz Shantz solved the puzzle with the following: Boy, am I familiar with that area. It was literally my backyard for some part of nearly every summer of my 56 years. Your photo shows a large portion of the Summerland Group, located between Rockport, Ontario, on the Canadian side, and Goose Bay on the American side. The head of Sport Island is in the lower left, with the bridge going to Little Lehigh on the right. Across the top of the photo are the boathouses of Ina, Sunnyside, and Idlewild. The Ina boathouse is now well-known for its state of near collapse, and, based on the condition of the boathouse in your photo, I am guessing that you took this photo about 4 or 5 years ago. My family’s place is on Summerland, the head of which is just visible in the upper left, across the tiny cut from Ina. My great-grandfather, Frank Hawley, was one of the original summer people who spent the summers of the late 1800’s in tents on Summerland before they carved up the side facing the main channel into lots for cottages and left the back of the island as common property, owned collectively by all of the island property owners. I was told as a boy that they used to keep the Summerland Island cow on Ina so that it wouldn’t get into the tents. Ina was later bought by the Hagans, who were from Rochester, New York. My mother, who was from Nassau, Bahamas, was visiting Sue Hagan in the 1930’s, and Sue set her up with a blind date – my Dad - who arrived in his brand new Hutchinson utility, “Deuces Wild.” At the end of the evening, however, my Dad did a switch: he dropped my mom off at Ina and then took Sue for a moonlight cruise! My Mom never let him forget that little faux pas. But my Dad later proposed to my mother on the seawall at Ina, and, happily for my brother and sister and I, she forgave him and accepted. She always recalled the dances that were held in the large ballroom over the now-collapsing boathouse. Sue Hagan later married Godfrey Higgs, a Bahamian barrister who won considerable acclaim for successfully defending Alfred de Marigny. In 1943, De Marigny was accused of murdering his father-in-law, Sir Harry Oakes, a wealthy Canadian who lived in Nassau. Sue and Godfrey Higgs later bought Lotus Island, which is shown in the very top right of the photo. I remember them coming up with their two sons from Nassau to spend summers on the River in the 1960’s. The almost-bare rock between Ina and Lotus is called Elephant Back. The story was that, despite the somewhat grand appearance of the house on Ina, the dress code was “casual.” One guest who refused to abide by this rule was said to have been ignominiously kidnapped one night and marooned on Elephant Back until the following morning. He learned his lesson. Sport is well-known and written up in Paul Malo’s “Fools’ Paradise.” Sunnyside, or Hadassah, is directly below Elephant Back in your photo, and has a beautiful house that faces the Seaway through the channel between Elephant Back and Ina. I could go on. But thanks very much for your photograph. Fritz Shantz, Latham, NY.

TI Life is grateful to Johnny Trusdell and Abay.com for sharing these photographs with our readers in this photograph essay:

Photo Essay:  (Click to enlarge each photograph)

2004, Fritz Shantz	2005, Fritz Shantz	2005, Rick Tague

2007, Fritz Shantz	2009, Rick Tague	2009, Rick Tague
2010, Rick Tague	2010, Rick Tague	2010, Fritz Shantz
April, 2011, Abay.com	April 2011, Abay.com	April 2011, Abay.com
April 2011, Abay.com	April 2011, Abay.com	May 2011, Fritz Shantz

Do you have Ina Islands stories?