Drake House Ruins

When Cheryl and Mike Wertman went camping at Golden Hill State Park and participated in ‘I Love My Park Day’ on May 2, 2015, they had no idea what they were about to discover—or rather, uncover. The Wertmans, along with other volunteers and park workers, partially unearthed the remains of a 1920’s luxury estate on the grounds of the popular state park in Barker, NY in Niagara County. 

Although the house no longer exists, the assembled crew began to excavate the estate’s “stone and stucco walls” that had been “obscured by brambles, brush and long grass.” The property was so overgrown that even Golden Hill State Park workers were unaware of the existence and significance of the mysterious ruins—until now.

In the 1850s, a farmer named Aaron Drake built the house on the banks of scenic Lake Ontario. He and his wife, Lodeema, lived there until at least 1875. From around 1915 to 1936, Robert and Anna Newell owned the estate. It boasted “a large two-story white frame house with an enclosed sun porch,” lavish flower gardens, a “tall art deco sundial,” and “a unique fish pond surrounded by stone frog fountains.”

Robert Newell owned a shirt factory in neighboring Medina, NY. The factory manufactured custom-tailored shirts for men, including famous clientele like President Warren G. Harding, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and actor Bob Hope. Anna Newell “often hosted events for the Daughters of the American Revolution and other social groups in her home.” 

In the 1920s, the estate was known for its large banquets, annual company outings, and Fourth of July fireworks displays. During the Great Depression, the Newells rented out the house under the name Twin Locust Lodge. It changed hands a few times after Anna Newell’s death in 1936. 

In 1962, New York State “acquired the land as part of the development of […] Golden Hill State Park.” In the intervening years, the house had fallen into some disrepair, and much of the land was “worn away by erosion [….] cause[d] by high water and storms on” Lake Ontario. Bulldozers arrived and demolished the estate, leaving crumbling walls behind.

It was these “historic and intricately decorated estate” walls that were unearthed in 2015. Intrigued by their discovery, Cheryl and Mike Wertman returned to the site, almost daily, for the next year. They “cleared the briars, brush, saplings and trash from much of the five-acre plot, exposing the walls and […] other structures.” They even found “a 20-pound concrete frog, buried upside down in the silt that filled the still-intact fishpond, as if it had fallen off the concrete lily pad one day.” In a true labor of love, the Wertmans did all of the work by hand.

Efforts are currently underway to preserve the Drake House Ruins and to fully incorporate them into Golden Hill State Park so visitors can learn more about their former splendor.

Hope L. Russell, Ph.D.