Bannerman Castle - Pollepel Island, New York
About 50 miles north of New York
City, and only a thousand feet from the Hudson River's eastern shore, there is
a small, rocky island named Pollepel. On it stands what appears to be a
crumbling Scottish castle. It is indeed the remains of an empire.
Francis Bannerman VI purchased the
island in 1900 for use as a storage facility for his growing surplus business.
After the Spanish-American War Bannerman bought 90% of the US army surplus,
including a large quantity of ammunition. Because his storeroom in New York
City was not large enough, and to provide a safe location to store munitions,
in the spring of 1901 he began to build an arsenal on Pollepel
The castle, clearly visible from
the shore of the river, served as a giant advertisement for his business. On
the side of the castle facing the eastern bank of the Hudson, Bannerman cast
the legend "Bannerman's Island Arsenal" into the wall. Construction
ceased at Bannerman's death in 1918. In August 1920, 200 pounds of shells and
powder exploded in an ancillary structure, destroying a portion of the complex.
After the sinking of the ferryboat Pollepel, which had served the island, in a
storm in 1950, the Arsenal and island were essentially left vacant. Once an uninhabited
place, accessible only by boat, it was considered haunted by some Indian tribes
and thus became a refuge for those trying to escape them.
