A tale of love, tragedy and opulence grand enough for a castle

CORNWALL — Jeff Jacobson shared the tragic and romantic history of Cornwall’s mysterious castle at a Cornwall Historical Society (CHS) talk in April.

“A Cornwall Love Story” is a large format, paperback book published by CHS. Jacobson wrote it following a similar talk five years ago, when he first joined the historical society’s board of directors. 

The castle has been in the news since that time. A fire destroyed a carriage house on the property in January 2013. The property is owned by Alphonse “Buddy” Fletcher, a former hedge fund manager now in bankruptcy, and just recently facing court decisions that accuse him of tax fraud and of cheating firefighters out of more than $100 million in pension funds.

The 17-room, 8,412-square-foot mansion and the sprawling property and buildings in Narrow Valley, on the private Castle Road, are a frozen asset listed for sale for several years now. The original asking price of more than $8.5 million has dropped to $5.125 million.

Jacobson quoted a New York Post article that mentioned some of Fletcher’s real estate assets, including three apartments in The Dakota in New York City and “an $8.85 million self-described castle in Connecticut’s tony Litchfield County.”

“I really wish they’d said ‘tony Cornwall,’” Jacobson said, eliciting laughter from a crowd that packed Cornwall Town Hall to hear about one of the town’s favorite subjects.

In the audience was Gus Haller, whose father, Gus Haller Sr., was the longtime caretaker for the castle property — and a valuable first-hand source for Jacobson’s research.

Leaving much of the book’s information for purchasers to explore (all proceeds benefit the historical society) Jacobson told the background, from his chance meeting with key players in the story to an interview on a couch where the castle’s original “monarch,” New York socialite Charlotte Bronson Hunnewell Martin, once sat.

“The book should actually be called love stories,” he said. 

A true tale of real love(s)

It is the story of three couples: Charlotte and her beloved husband, Dr. Walton Martin, a New York surgeon; Vincenzo and Josephine Rondinone, who began their married life there when he was hired to run the castle’s pottery, and proved himself an artist worthy of the building; and their son, Nicholas Rondinone and his wife, Florence. 

When the story begins, Jacobson and his wife, Gail, had recently moved to Cornwall and converted a barn on Valley Road into their home. It is within walking distance of the castle property;  the younger Rondinones, living there in the mid-1990s, passed by frequently.

One afternoon in 1999, Jacobson invited them in.

Nicholas, an architect, was the one who showed him the castle and sparked Jacobson’s interest. In mid-December of that year, the couple was driving down Route 7. At the Kent line, their car drifted into the opposite lane and collided head-on with a dump truck. Florence was killed. Her husband woke from a coma exactly one month later, asked for her, and died shortly after learning she was gone.

In the meantime, Jacobson had become passionately interested in the history of the estate and the fascinating people who brought it to life. His research trail has led him to visit Charlotte’s only child, Louisa, and granddaughter, Frances, and others. He learned much about the woman who was obsessed with European royalty, and had her own castle built. A later owner called it a “crappy castle and a crappy home.”

“It was never intended to be lived in. It was a set for entertaining,” Jacobson explained.

The pottery, too, was a showpiece — it was a status symbol to have a “pottery on premises.” That idea hailed to the days when pottery was crafted on-site for royal households to use. 

At Narrow Valley Pottery, built in 1927, much of Rondinone’s work consisted of gift items. He was a talented sculptor. During the Depression, the pottery was sold in a New York art gallery as a revenue source for the estate.

The pottery has since been converted into a private home. Jacobson said that although it is an amazing building, it would not have made sense to put it close to the castle. It is at the end of Great Hollow Road, and on top of a large vein of red clay. The property also has a pond that was a convenient water source for production. 

The vein travels west into Sharon. After it crosses under the Housatonic River, it is nearly porcelain.

“When the space program started, NASA investigated it as a source for heat resistant tiles.”

Although the castle contains artifacts and materials the Martins collected during travels in Europe, it was built on-site between 1921 to 1924. It is not a historic dwelling reassembled after being shipped from Spain or other foreign locales, as rumors would have it.

Falling into Charlotte’s web

Jacobson described Charlotte as the kind of high-maintenance and high-profile person who becomes that way from living a life outside of the ordinary.

In New York City, she purchased a block of brownstones called Turtle Bay Gardens and sold them at cost to those in the arts so she would be surrounded by interesting people. There is a photo of Katharine Hepburn raking leaves in her garden. E.B. White wrote “Charlotte’s Web” while living there.

“Coincidence?” Jacobson said of the book’s title and the link to Charlotte Martin. “I, too, fell into Charlotte’s web.”

Well into the 1950s, Charlotte traveled, always in formal dress, to Cornwall in her 1929 Lincoln Town Car limousine. Some residents still remember that odd sight, and Dr. Martin, who often rode through Coltsfoot Valley on a white steed, with his long white hair and red-lined white cape trailing behind him.

The Martins are buried in a Cornwall cemetery under a simple headstone.

Five people attended her funeral: her daughter, three granddaughters and Haller Sr.

“She remained her own woman to the end. On the couple’s headstone, she is listed as ‘his wife, Charlotte Bronson Hunnewell.’”

The summer exhibit at the historical society will go in a much different direction, celebrating Cornwall’s agricultural heritage with Moo! Dairy Farming Then & Now, running June 26 through Oct. 25. An opening reception is set for June 26, 5 to 7 p.m.

Related talks will be held throughout the summer and fall on the rich subjects of milk, cheese and barns. More information is available at www.cornwallhistoricalsociety.org.

They will conclude with Cow Tales on Oct. 18. CHS board member and CBS correspondent Richard Schlesinger will moderate an afternoon of shared memories of Cornwall’s dairy farms, whatever one’s perspective. 

To purchase The Castle, go to www.lulu.com.