Bannerman’s Castle

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Bannerman’s castle – now in ruins – on Pollepel Island in the middle of the Hudson River, just north of Cold Spring. Looks impressive, but was never more than a very fancy military surplus warehouse (although a smaller structure was used as a residence).

It’s quite hard to get close enough to take a picture. The metro north train lines get in the way. The last picture was taken from a metro north train on a separate occasion. There is an overlook, but it’s quite hard to find and even when you do (as I did) the views are not particularly good. I imagine that the you would get the best pictures from a boat, which unfortunately I don’t possess. There are tours to the island, but they finish at the end of October so I don’t see me going this year.

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Remains of the Tioronda Hat Factory

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Beacon was apparently once known as the hat capital of the United States. These are the ruins of one of the factories that made the hats. Demolition was supposed to have started in 2012, but if that’s the case it doesn’t seem to have progressed very far.

According to Tom Rinaldi and Rob Yasinsac’s Hudson Valley Ruins site:

The Tioronda Hat Works on the Fishikill Creek in Beacon has been undergoing demolition since September 2011 (or earlier). Begun in 1879, the mill, like many in the area, expanded with new construction in the following decades. The last mill to occupy the brick buildings was the Merrimac Hat Company. In 1949, Merrimac sold the property to Beacon Terminals Corporation, which used the buildings for warehousing. In 1997, real estate developer William S. Ehrlich formed a different company under the name of Beacon Terminal Associates and acquired the former Tioronda Mill and about 20 other properties in Beacon, NY, many of which have remained vacant.

The Tioronda Working Group says that Tioronda means “place of the council fire where the two rivers meet”

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Old Waterworks at Pocantico Lake

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Satellite Building

Taken at the old water works/pump house on Pocantico Lake (near the Rockefeller Trails). I’ve been here a couple of times and it was a bit dilapidated with ivy growing, windows broken, and locked doors hanging off their hinges. Now the area around it has been much improved: a new access road has been put in and grass and other undergrowth has been cut back and tidied up. But the building has gotten much worse: the doors have now fallen off completely and the inside is accessible; portions of the roof have caved in and the ivy now almost completely covers the building.

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Collapsed Roof

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Interior

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The Red Dress. In one of the rooms I came across this red dress amongst the crumbling masonary and rusty machinery. It almost looks posed.

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Overgrown Main Building

Ruined Gatepost

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As is often the case I came across some ruins in the woods. I liked the patterns and the textures particularly in contrast to the fairly smooth green vines. Something about this reminded me of pictures I’ve seen of the discovery of pre-Columbian ruins in Mexico (not that I’m suggesting that these are pre-Columbian. Clearly they’re not). Maybe it’s the geometric patterns?

Romantic Ruins at the Leon Levy Preserve

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As long as I can remember I’ve been fascinated by ruins. While I like derelict buildings I’ve always been particularly attracted to stone ruins covered by greenery. I don’t really know where this fascination comes from, but I suspect it’s from watching a movie (possibly something like ‘Jungle Book’) or seeing a photograph when I was a child. I’m also interested in all things “Romantic”: poetry (e.g. Keats, Wordsworth, Shelley), music (e.g. Wagner, Mahler, Bruckner), art (Turner, Constable, Friedrich) etc. so maybe it’s just something in me. These ivy covered remnants of stone buildings in the Leon Levy Preserve were “right up my alley”.

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