"The Manor"
1953
East Creek, New York

Route 5, Between Little Falls and St. Johnsville

The Manor House

From a booklet put out in 1953 by Mr. and Mrs. Anton Christensen, the first owners of Beardslee Castle as a restaurant.



Fountain...

The Fountain


Many years ago I saw a place,
A Mansion, a Castle, just for two,
An Eden's garden, a paradise, just for two,
With trees and flowers, vines and roses,
With fountains and water in endless streams,
A Castle of stone made by hand,
A wonder place just for two.
I wished then I could open up the doors, the
    windows, the gate and garden too, and say
"Come one, come all, this place is not anymore
    just for two."
Today, my friends, my dream came true
The gates are open, the doors are too,
Come and enjoy your share too.

June 5, 1944      A.M. "Pop" Christensen


Host and Hostess

THE HOST AND HOSTESS

For the past nine years we have been happy to welcome guests from all over the country. We have tried to make everyone feel at home and make your visit at the Manor as pleasant and enjoyable as possible. It has been a great satisfaction to see the same customers come back time and again and also bring with them their friends. We extend a heartfelt thanks to all of you.

November 1, 1953            POP AND MOM


The Girls...

The Girls

Anne is telling Kaya and Emmie a military secret. All three of them have been at THE MANOR for our nine years of business - Kaya as the manager, Anne and Emmie as her faithful helpers. Together they have tried to please and serve our numerous guests. Kaya's dinners and her unexcelled smorgaasbord have pleased customers from all parts of our country.


The Bar Room...

The Bar Room

We did add our bar room which is friendly and cozy and set aside from the dining area. Here we serve all kinds of drinks, domestic as well as imported. Our mixed drinks and cocktails are aimed to please the individual customer.


Smorgaasbord...

Smorgaasbord

THE MANOR is famous for its excellent smorgaasbord. It is served to many people every Saturday evening from 6 p.m. until 10 o'clock.

Many wedding banquets also prefer smorgaasbord. The picture above is a sample of the smorgaasbord for a wedding banquet.


A Dining Room...

Dining Room

One of our numerous dining rooms. These dining rooms are in the original building and are separated by archways. Our blue room can be shut off completely for small private or family parties. The walls are so built that one can hardly hear what is going on in another dining area.


Cocktail Lounge...

The Lounge

Coming out of the bar room you enter the cocktail lounge and television room. Guests may relax here and enjoy our television of which we are justly proud due to an exceptionally clear picture. It is an enjoyable place to sit before or after dining.


Banquet Room...

Banquet Room

Our latest addition we added by popular demand. This is a large knotty pine banquet room. It can be completely shut off form the rest of the rooms, thus being ideal for private parties or banquets. A speaker may clearly be heard throughout the room. We also have a piano for group singing, etc. It is ideal for wedding banquets and other parties. The seating capacity of this one room alone is 100 people. A remarkable thing about this room is of all the hundreds of wedding banquets celebrated here, they all have lived together happily ever after.


History of the Manor...

According to history, about 1750 there was a small fort here where the French fought the Indians. Later on the French and Indians joined forces against the English. The Mohawk Valley at this time was a wilderness of trees and undergrowth. It has been impossible to get much information from that period of history, however, you can still trace marks that show an underground tunnel or runway from the basement of the Manor up to what is no known as Indian Hill. Under this hill there was a room where the French or English kept their gunpowder and other ammunition. The story goes on to say that a band of Indians fought their way into this room and the Indians accidentally were blown to bits.

More and more Palatines settled the Mohawk Valley. About 1800 a big tract of land was deeded to the Beardslee family. In 1838 a John Beardslee was deeded what we now call the Beardslee farm. This property was kept within the same family for over a century. In 1860 Lavina Beardslee decided the place of the old fort would make an ideal spot for the Manor. It was copied after an old Irish castle. She went to Europe and to Italy where she hired professional stone cutters. All these stones were cut by hand and no two were to be alike. Lavina's grandson (later Capt. Guy Beardslee) graduated from West Point in 1878. He was sent west to quell Indian uprisings. Finally he received his discharge and came back to East Creek. He finished his grandmother's castle and put up the big stone barn west of the Manor. Here he installed a saw mill. East of the Manor he put up a beautiful dairy barn that would house 200 cattle. Later on he was instrumental in developing electrical power, building the power house at East Creek. He installed electric power and light on his own farm and home. He even heated his home with electricity and we still have the original heating coils and wires at the Manor. We do not use this, however, for today it would be too expensive. Much to the skepticism of many people, he soon was furnishing electricity not only to many farms in the area but also to St. Johnsville, Fort Plain and Canajoharie.

In 1905 the deed shows that Guy Beardslee was the sole owner of The Manor. Around 1918 a fire destroyed the second and third floors which consisted of bedrooms with baths, music and study rooms. It also destroyed a large collection of rare paintings. Mr. Beardslee never restored this, just covering the first floor with a flat roof as you see it today. On January 15, 1939, Capt. Guy Beardslee died. Down on the bank of East Canada Creek is a mausoleum where most of the Beardslee family rest in their vaults.

After Beardslee's death, his wife sold the farm and reserved the house with a 30 acre lot. A few years later in 1941 she decided to sell The Manor. Quite by accident the writer of this history bought it. My wife thought it too large and somewhat spooky to make a home of it. We then decided to share its beauty with the public. We therefore made it into an eating place and are glad to welcome people from many parts of the country.

This history was gathered from various sources, deeds, older people, etc.


FURTHER READING:

Beardslee Castle - on our Town of Manheim page

Biography of Guy Roosevelt Beardslee - link off-site to Darci's Place of Origins

Beardslee Castle Restaurant Homepage - link off-site; be sure to check out "Castle Info" for details about history and hauntings


Back to Town of Manheim Section

Back to Herkimer/Montgomery Counties NYGenWeb

Back to New York State GenWeb




Created 4/15/05
Copyright © 1953 A.M. Christensen
Copyright © 2005 Martha S. Magill
All Rights Reserved.
This site is a county site of the USGenWeb Project!