Carleton Island Villa: A Souvenir The Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence River by John A Haddock, 1895

Standing on the peninsula-like head of Carleton Island, so named in honor of Sir Guy Carleton—afterward Lord Dorchester, on what was known in 1778 as “Government Point,” is the summer residence of Mr. W. O. WYCKOFF, President of the Wyckoff, Seams & Benedict Company, of New York, better known, perhaps, from their connection with the manufacture of the Remington Typewriter.   To this residence he has given the very appropriate name of “Carleton Villa.”  Its situation, for many reasons, would be difficult to improve.  In its immediate front the broad expanse of the American branch of the St. Lawrence divides into two channels of more than a mile each in width, flowing away on either hand, forming two beautiful bays which afford ample security for the pleasure-craft moored therein, natural harbors whose picturesque shores add much to the beauty of the scene, lying on either side of an isthmus which connects the old “Government Point” with the mainland of the island itself.  To these are given the name, respectively of “North” and “South” Bays.  In front of the villas, the view stretches out on the vast expanse of Lake Ontario.  To the left, one gets a pleasant view of the village of Cape Vincent, almost hidden in a forest of maples, and a view of the mainland of the American shore for miles down the river, while on the right stretches away the broad expanse of Wolfe Island, beyond which, in the distance, are plainly seen the spires and towers of the city of Kingston, once the capital of Canada.

Photo: John A. Haddock, A Souvenir The Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence River by John A Haddock, 1895

Just back of us rises a steep bluff in a height of some sixty feet, on which are the ruins of Fort Haldimand, built by the British in 1778;  and which was captured by the Americans in 1812.  One hundred and fifteen years ago this was a busy place.  It was the most important point above Montreal.  It was the great naval and military station of the lake and river.  So great was its importance that Fort Frontenac, now Kingston, hitherto the most noted of any point above Montreal, was for years entirely neglected while Fort Haldimand and the navy yard which it protects was an object of the greatest interest.   The history of Carleton Island would form a most interesting bit of old-time reminiscence, if written by itself;  but it must be omitted for the present.   Aside from the interesting history it affords, the locality is one to be chosen because of its healthfulness.   There is no malaria.   The air is pure and bracing even in the midst of the heated term.  The death rate of Cape Vincent, according to the statistics found in the report of the State Board of Health, averages only eight per 1,000 per annum.  There are no insect pests.   Mosquitoes are unknown, and to add to the attractiveness of the location, it is in the midst of the finest fishing in the world.  Muscalonge, black bass, pike and pickerel abound in every direction.  It is an ideal home for a sportsman.   Numbering down the river, Carleton Villa is the first of the Thousand Islands cottages, and in point of elegance of design and completeness of finish, it is easily first among all the summer palaces on the river.  All others, including the celebrated “Castle Rest” [G. M. Pullman residence] and “Greystone Villa,” [H. H. Warner residence] must necessarily take second place.  In a brief article, as this must necessarily be, it is by no means easy to convey a very clear conception of this elegant structure, and hence an outline must suffice.

THE VILLA

Imagine a building 102.7 in length by 73.8 feet wide, and four stories in height, with huge bay windows on each side, giving a cruciform effect to the general plan.   Great crypts of cellars extend underneath the entire structure.  Here is a gas-room fitted with one of Terrill’s equalizers, which supplies illuminating gas to every part of the house;  and extensive laundry with all its appurtenances;  a huge refrigerator, with rooms for a ton or more of ice.   Then comes the furnace room, fitted with two heaters furnished by the American Boiler Company;  then there is an iron shop, a carpenter shop, a coal room, a canned-goods storeroom, and a vegetable cellar.   All this in the basement.   In the rear of the next or first floor is the servants’ dining-room, connected at this point with the tower by one of the ‘bridge rooms,” of which there are two.   Then comes and ample kitchen, 16 x 20 feet in size, completely furnished, as are also the roomy pantries adjoining.  These would win the heart of any good housekeeper in sight.

THE MAIN HALL

is elegance itself.  It is a room sixty of eighteen, extending to a height of two stories.   It is surrounded by a gallery resting on beautiful Doric columns below, while the ceiling is supported by forty Corinthian columns disposed in pairs, connected by a tasteful balustrade.  All these columns, as well as the entire woodwork of the house excepting the floors, are of whitewood, elegantly finished and polished.   The great fireplace in the hall is a marvel of simplicity and beauty.  The tiling is plain, of light cream color, with gilt molding;  engaged columns on each side support a heavy entablature, above which the great chimney is enclosed with panel work;  the whole exquisitely finished, as it s, produces a fine effect.   On the south side of the hall is the library, or, as it is familiarly called, the “den,” a spacious room, elegantly fitted up and supplied with well-filled book cases, writing tables, and in fact everything that adds to the comfort and convenience of such a room.  The library looks out on the broad porch, and commands a delightful view of the river and lake.

Across the hall is the spacious dining-room, oval in shape and eighteen by thirty feet in size.   A parlor eighteen by eighteen, is also on this side of the hall.  There are grates in both the parlor and dining-room.  Extending across the entire front of the building and on its south side as far as the library, is the grand porch, about twenty feet in width, supported, as is the whole building, on a massive wall of Gouverneur marble.  For heavy granite pillars support the roof in front, while the main entrance is from a double flight of marble steps beneath an archway of the same material, fifteen feet in width, flanked on each side by a marble column of the Corinthian order.   The whole front is peculiarly grand and imposing.  The lower floors are of oak laid in cement, while all the upper floors are maple, deadened with the same material.  The walls of the building above the Gouverneur marble are of portland cement, and the entire structure is practically fire-proof.

The second floor contains the family rooms, all of which are en suite.  From the second floor up, oriel windows grace the corners of the main building, and from every room there is a beautiful view.  Each room has the one thing dearest to a woman’s heart—an ample closet.   Elegant bath-rooms abound everywhere.   The furniture throughout corresponds with the finish of the building;  birds’-eye maple being predominant.  Nothing dark, dull, nor gloomy.  The servants’ sleeping apartments are on this floor, in the rear of the building.  Their rooms are equally pleasant;  there is not a forbidding room in the whole villa.  The gallery already mentioned is on this floor, and from it and the vestibule every chamber, expect the servants rooms, is reached.   The third floor is occupied by the guest chambers, all finished and furnished in the elaborate style which characterizes every other part of the house.  In the fourth story are great store-rooms, though its crowning glory is a splendid billiard-room with all its appurtenances, available for either a game of French caroms or of pool.  Beginning in [the] rear of the great hall below, a broad oaken stair-case winds its way in the floors above by easy stages and roomy landings.  Chandeliers and gas fixture abound everywhere.  Once lighted, the building will seem as if illuminated.

Separate from the main building is a tower 111 feet in height and 16 x 16 feet at its base.   The basement room of the tower contains the pumping engine which sends the water into the great tanks above, whence it reaches every part of the building.   Above this is a work-room, and then come the great water-tanks [that?] store with [sic] more than two hundred barrels of water.  The tower is connected with the main building by two bridges, on each of which is an elegant room familiarly designated as the “bridge rooms.”

During the entire season brilliant gaslights will burn in the observatory of the tower every night, and it will not be long ere they will become a well known signal to the lake navigator.  From this observatory at the summit of the tower one of the most delightful view of lake, river and shore is obtainable.  The village of Cape Vincent, three miles away, seems to be close at hand, while the spires and towers of Kingston, ten miles away as the crow flies, stand clearly in view.   It is, indeed, a charming prospect.

Throughout the entire building the windows are of heavy plate glass and, indeed, there is nothing lacking in any spot or place that can be in any way conducive to the comfort of either the family or its guests, that has not been thought of and supplied.   The term “palatial” has become very common, as applied to everything among the Thousand Islands, from a steam yacht up to a summer residence, but to “Carleton Villa” the term apples with all that it signifies.

Mr. Wyckoff may well be proud of his summer home, not only because of its quiet and substantial elegance, but because it affords delight to others, in that it appeals to their truest artistic instincts because of its harmony of proportion and of color, demonstrating the fact that strength, solidity and massiveness may also be graceful.

As a setting to the great farm which lies back of it, and the steading [?] near at hand, it harmonizes well. It is not the farm house, of course, but it is a fitting farm residence for an American gentleman of means whose broad domain lies around him, and who delights in passing at least a portion of his time thereon in rural pleasures.