Jordanville, New York

Jordanville is a hamlet in the town of Warren, Herkimer County, New York. Jordanville is in the northwest part of Warren, at the intersection of New York State Route 167 and County Route 155. The community was settled by European Americans after the Revolutionary War and before 1791. Its name was derived from the nearby Ocquionis Creek, which was used by settlers for baptisms and likened by them to the Jordan River.

This castle was built in 1836 by Harriet Douglas Cruger, with stone sourced from Little Falls, New York. She had been inspired as a young woman by seeing Gelson Castle, owned by her uncle in Scotland, which she visited. Harriet Douglas was described as an independent and eccentric woman, who had her marriage bed sawed in half and used as two couches after an acrimonious divorce. She was profiled in Miss Douglas of New York, a book written by Angus Davidson in 1953.

The property passed to her niece Fanny (Monroe) Robinson, daughter of Harriet's sister Elizabeth Mary (Douglas) and her husband James Monroe, nephew of President James Monroe. Fanny Robinson left the castle to her son Douglas Robinson. He married Corrine Roosevelt, the sister of President Theodore Roosevelt. Their eldest son, Theodore Douglas Robinson, married Helen Roosevelt, a half-niece of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Helen Roosevelt Robinson was the last family member to live in the house, passing away on July 8, 1962.

After Helen Roosevelt Robinson died, her grandson, Douglas Robinson Jr., sold the property to Jan Blair of New Jersey, who operated a retirement home on the premises. She sold the property to the Asian Conservation Laboratory in 1974. This organization subsequently sold the property to Frances Kudla, who operated a retirement home there.

Mrs. Kudla sold the property in 1979 to Mstislav Rostropovich, the Russian cellist who became musical director and conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC. In 1983 he and his wife, soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, constructed a million dollar 8,300 sq ft (770 m²) contemporary residence on the sprawling estate grounds, yards from the castle.

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