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By: Serach Nissim
A home on a small upstate Island named St. Mary’s Island, in part of the Thousand Islands region in northern New York, has listed for the first time ever.
Some forty years ago, Alexander Nicolas’s parents had spotted a quaint little fishing cabin on a tiny island by the St. Lawrence River in Alexandria Bay and located near the Canadian border. The .3-acre islet only had a dock and a few trees, and not even a road bridge. “Our family lived upstate and we would always go to the Thousand Islands and stay in motels and hotels,” said Nicolas, 46, who now resides in St. Petersburg, Fla, and who now works as an architect. “One day, they found an island for sale, so they bought it. Even 40 years ago, you couldn’t be too selective — you were lucky to find anything for sale. It was an absolutely magical place to go every summer as a kid.”
As reported by the NY Post, over the next five years, that modest fishing cabin was transformed into a geometric-shaped two-story, three-bedroom, two-bathroom custom home, offering 2,964 square feet of space. Today that island also has a small foot bridge connects it to Manhattan Island — along with a community of five other homes. The mainland marina is a 10-minute boat ride away. “Instead of biking to your friend’s house, you hop on a jet ski and just jet ski over,” Nicolas said. “It’s kind of magical.”
Per the Post, the home and visionary retreat has been listed on the market for the very first time with an asking price of $1.5 million. The listing has been entrusted by Nicolas to Mike Fabbri and Joshua Garner of the Agency. The home boasts oversized loft spaces, extra tall ceilings, a wraparound porch, and tons of light cedar planks inside, outside and on the ceilings. “My mom is an abstract artist. She loves to paint and design. My dad is a surgeon. I watched them design my childhood home as a kid. Then this. They always wanted to do things the way that they wanted to do them,” said Nicolas. “And of course, they love natural wood.” But, the most amazing thing about the home is how it’s been built daringly right on the water’s edge. There was no fear of flooding and so the home is right on the river with a small garden. The home offers serene water views. “They had to get a military-style helicopter to bring the power line across the river,” he says. “Back then, it was unheard of to have grid power on an island.”
The home is now up for grabs for someone looking for a woodsy retreat in one of the state’s most scenic regions. The posh region boasts some 1,864 islands, with estates built on them for the Vanderbilt, Kellogg, Wrigley, Gould, Browning and Trudeau families.
Most notable is: Boldt Castle, the 120-room, six-story castle completed in 1904 by legendary hotelier of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, George Boldt.
“It’s a reminder of the simplicity and beauty of the natural world,” Garner said of the newly listed two-story home. “It enriched the seller’s childhood and that is sure to transfer to the new owners.”
