Day 10- 6/1/14 Bannerman Island Tour

A view of the Castle Coming up to the Island

Today we woke up bright and early to be at the van by 8:21. Yes the professors interrupted our Sunday, but on the bright side at least we can sleep in tomorrow. To get to the Island, we traveled by boat. It seemed like it was taking forever and it was a perfect time for me to take another quick nap. When we were approaching the island you can see the beautiful castle that we later learned on the tour was a warehouse filled with lots of ammunition and products such as wagon wheels. Our tour guide told us how Frank Bannerman was from Brooklyn. He had a very successful ammunition business. At the time Brooklyn wanted to become part of New York City but they were afraid of Bannerman's ammunition exploding and ruining the town. So this is when Bannerman found this island and bought it. He built this wear house to store his products. Ironically, there was a huge warehouse explosion two years after Frank Bannerman passed away. At this time the family was not spending much time on the Island because they were grieving over their loss. This explosion destroyed one building and blew out the windows. With the windows blown out this allowed for the decomposition of the building to begin. Another tragic event that occurred to this castle was in 1969 when a fire started. With both of these events, people are not sure what caused the fire or the explosion. Looking at the picture above you can notice metal polls coming from the building. These were put up to stabilize the castle because in 2010 the island lost half of the building because of it decomposing and collapsing. If the Island lost the rest of the castle that would most likely cause the tours to stop. This building is so beautiful it would be so tragic to see it fall.

Home of the Bannermen Family

This home was built originally as one floor building. As time progressed, Bannerman drew a picture of what he wanted the second floor of the building to look like and his servants and workers built it just like that picture. Bannerman would frequently draw pictures and want his servants and workers to build exactly what they see. If they did not build it as well as the picture, he would tell his workers to tear it down and start again. If I was one of his workers I would be very frustrated with his requests because I can not imagine how hard it was to build the buildings and benches exactly how he liked them.

Part of Mrs. Bannerman's Garden

One part of the tour that I really enjoyed was the Gardens. I am a big flower fan and every year I have my own flower garden. This is a tradition I started with my grandmother and still continue it every year in her memory. I thought the gardens were really pretty and I loved the different color flowers.