The Dark Story of the Gilded Age Mansion Hidden on a Private Island for a Secretive Billionaire

On March 9th, 1919, Frederick Gilbert Bourne died at his hundred-room Long Island estate. He left behind forty-three million dollars and a castle on a private island few Americans knew existed. Twenty-eight rooms. Secret passages through hidden panels. A dungeon carved into bedrock. A five-story clock tower with Westminster Chimes sounding every fifteen minutes. Built between nineteen oh three and nineteen oh five for five hundred thousand dollars. The castle sat on Dark Island in the St. Lawrence River, yards from the Canadian border. Bourne called it The Towers and claimed it was a hunting lodge, though the seven-acre island was too small for hunting. Bourne was the fifth president of Singer Sewing Machine Company. He transformed it into perhaps the first modern multinational corporation, employing tens of thousands across three continents. Those workers struck in nineteen eleven. Eleven thousand walked off the job in the largest sewing machine workers' strike in history. They earned fourteen to sixteen shillings per week polishing wood in Scottish factories. Bourne earned millions. In February nineteen eleven, twelve women in a Glasgow factory refused additional work without additional pay. Within weeks, eleven thousand workers had walked off the job. Management called it socialist agitation. The women returned to work. Wages remained fourteen to sixteen shillings per week. Bourne's response was not recorded. One worker died during castle construction. His name was not preserved. Approximately one hundred sixteen workers labored on Dark Island. Italian stonemasons carved griffins into granite. Their names were not recorded. In nineteen sixty-one, Marjorie Thayer sold the castle to LaSalle Military Academy for less than one hundred dollars. In nineteen sixty-five, Harold Martin's religious organization bought it for thirty-five thousand dollars, renamed it Jorstadt Castle, claimed tax-exempt status while using it as a summer home. Neighbors contested. Martin won in court. The property deteriorated for thirty-six years. In two thousand one, Dark Island Tours purchased it for one point eight million dollars, restored it, renamed it Singer Castle. Tours began in two thousand three. Fourteen dollars seventy-five cents per adult. The tour emphasizes architectural marvels. The nineteen eleven strike is not mentioned. The workers who built it remain anonymous. Subscribe to see which robber baron castle we investigate next.
Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction
1:48 - Chapter 1: The Clerk Who Became a Commodore
9:18 - Chapter 2: The Strike of 11,000
16:20 - Chapter 3: The Island Called Dark
23:46 - Chapter 4: Secrets in the Walls
31:11 - Chapter 5: The Family Summers
38:46 - Chapter 6: The Daughters' Dispute
46:30 - Chapter 7: The Evangelical Fraud
53:25 - Chapter 8: The Restoration
1:00:32 - Chapter 9: The Workers Who Built It
1:07:24 - Chapter 10: The Legacy of Dark Island
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Educational documentary created for commentary, criticism and research.
Archival material used under Fair Use (Section 107, U.S. Copyright Act).

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