Bob Cudmore writes a wonderful book on the area, including an article on the Amsterdam Armory.

Nestled in Upstate New York along the banks of the Mohawk River are the many communities of the Mohawk Valley. These villages, towns and cities have unique histories but are inextricably tied together by the waterways that run through them. The mills, railroads and the Erie Canal sustained early growth; the Painted Rocks beautified the landscape; and tales from the local Mohawk Nation still enrich the folklore. Many remarkable individuals have called the Mohawk Valley home, including psychedelic philosopher Benjamin Paul Blood, Queen Libby, the Daiquiris and actor Kirk Douglas. For over a decade, local native Bob Cudmore has documented the interesting, important and unusual stories from the region’s past, and he has compiled the best of them here

http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Mohawk-Valley-Benedict-Chronicles/dp/1609490584

http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2011/09/02/the-amsterdam-castle#more

Why is it I always forget about the magic of the Saratoga Pools? Last year we went to the gorgeous Victoria Pool – in an old-fashioned pavilion that made me feel like we should be in 20′s bathing costumes. This year we returned to the Peerless Pool in Saratoga State Park. One Olympic sized pool, a huge waterslide, a fun kiddie pool, and 8 lifeguards supervising me and 4 children. Magic. Then we stopped at Fariello’s Ice Cream in Amsterdam afterwards. I had the caramel sundae with sea salt. Talk about a step back in time to the 20′s. There is nothing like historic places renovated for current enjoyment for a magic Saturday.

Our favorite filmakers Rob Rombout & Rogier Van Eck returned to the castle recently as they continue their film about Amsterdam Stories USA. We could not ask for more delightful guests as they traverse the US on the quest of stories about Amsterdam in whatever form. Check out the lovely photos of Rebecca & Ann in Amsterdam, NY and learn just how many other Amsterdams there are in the US. http://amsterdamstoriesusa.wordpress.com/page/2/

So we opened the Sunday (Albany) Times Union today and found a delightful article on Amsterdam Castle! http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/For-a-night-home-was-a-castle-1469360.php

May 30, 2011 at 7:02 pm by TU Magazines

Castle photo by Chris Sawicki.
Behind the Castle Door

By Dayelin Roman/Life@Home

Susan Phemister wanted a church. The family of five was bursting from the seams of their Brooklyn home and was looking for an old sanctuary outside of New York City to rehab into a weekend place.

But as she browsed eBay one day, she found something different, and asked her husband what he thought of moving into a castle she found in Amsterdam. Next thing she knew, the family was on the move and the home in Brooklyn was sold.

Susan and Manfred Phemister have lived in what was once a National Guard armory since 2005, when their three children were ages 2, 4 and 5. In one year, they rehabbed one wing of the building into their home, and another two wings into guest rooms to run a bed and breakfast. A fourth area was rehabbed for events. A 10,000 square foot gym like those in high schools lies off the family’s wing.

The 36,000-square-foot castle was built in 1894 and was decommissioned as an armory in 1995. It has a rifle range, a fallout shelter and a billiard room, and is one of 100 armories built in the state of New York, 50 of which are still used by the National Guard. Other decommissioned sites have been turned into art galleries, museums and concert venues, but the Phemisters’ is the only one to have been converted into a home.

Three days a week, Susan works in Manhattan, and takes a train home on Wednesday evenings to work from home on Thursdays and Fridays. Manfred sells CDs and DVDs on the internet from a huge collection that overruns the entire castle basement.

They’ve renamed the armory Amsterdam Castle, made a website and have a Facebook page. In the guest rooms, couples have come from as far as Europe to propose on the balcony and film crews routinely ask to use the historic spaces.

The family’s private wing is a three-bedroom home where the master bedroom is in a turret, the windows decorated with table runners from Target. ”My kids are a little bit blasé about it,” Susan say of the children, now 10, 9 and 7. “Sometimes they say, ‘Why can’t we live in a normal house?’”

The Phemisters tried to reuse what they could in their renovation. Wooden lockers from one room in the castle, for instance, now have a second life as a kitchen pantry. In the hallway, more of the same lockers serve as closets. In the eat-in kitchen, the table is made from wood remnants that remained from rehab. The same is true of the cabinets. A spice rack was made out of the original doorway to the gym. Framed dishtowels from eBay decorate the walls.

The industrial looking stove seems like something the National Guard could have used to feed soldiers in the 1950s, but Susan says the odd-looking appliance is the result of her obsession with an English method of food prep.

The range is called an Aga, a British cast-iron system that runs on a pilot light and is constantly emitting warmth. The system does not have knobs or controls, only burners and small ovens that are always kept at different cooking temperatures.

Susan says the system is fuel efficient, and that she uses it not only to cook food, but to dry anything that’s wet. “It’s this brand that is associated with old English homes,” she says. “Once you go Aga, it’s like this magic secret.”

An eclectic mix of antique and modern pieces dots the spaces throughout the castle. Susan proudly points out a new bison head on a recent Friday morning as a pair of men ask her where she wants it hung. As they climb a ladder to measure a wall for the large bovine near a moose on loan from the nearby Walter Elwood Museum, Susan remarks on its antiquity. “He’s old, so no new bison was harmed,” she says of the head she found at Silver Fox Salvage in Albany.
The couple often browse antique stores, looking for deals on large items. “Show us the biggest antique you haven’t sold in five years,” Manfred says they often ask dealers. “Those huge pieces fit here,” Susan adds.

When the Elwood Museum was moving across town, she says, they called her to say their stuffed pheasants were for sale. The couple bought 20 of them, now spread throughout the building.

When they searched for back-to-back fireplaces to put in their kitchen and living room, they turned again to eBay, where they found a man in Broadalbin who bought remnants of old houses and churches. They purchased a set of shortened pews from the same man, now kept in the gym.

Antiques are also prominent in the bed-and-breakfast wings, one of which holds a desk that was once a piano. “The bed and breakfast is helping to pay for the ongoing building renovations,” Susan says. “This building is not about money. A hundred percent of what we receive is reinvested.”

As Susan steps into a pale blue room off the gym with chipping paint and old wooden floors, she look at what she calls their next project. “This,” she says, “is going to be the man cave.”

Photos by Nancy Bruno/Life@Home

http://blog.timesunion.com/lifeathome/home-with-life-on-the-other-side-of-a-bb/4510/

-We’ve added uplighting on the front so you can see the castle from afar now.  I mean, not from Toronto, but from across the bridge in Amsterdam.  If you drive up at night it looks wonderful.

-We’ve swapped out our antique queen size bed in the Officers Wing for a king-size canopy bed.  That means that every wing has a king now.  Lush!

By Bill Sheehan
Recorder News Staff

More than a year and a half after a day-long visit from a production crew, Amsterdam Castle will finally have its moment in the spotlight next week as one of the homes featured in a program on the Home and Garden Television Network.
It was a warm, sunny day in June of 2006 when the crew from HighNoon Entertainment set up production at the former National Guard Armory on Florida Avenue to show how owners Manfred and Susan Phemister were taking the massive stone structure and making it their home.
The network’s rezoned, a series about interesting and unusual spaces that have been converted into living quarters, had sent a crew from Denver to shoot after network producers originally contacted the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce looking for historic locations.
But after having heard about the facility, the producers changed gears and decided to feature the Phemister’s home in the rezoned series.
The Castle was the last home being shot for the five-season series, the second 13-episode season of which was under way at the time.
Supervising producer John Burshtan said at the time is was one of the most interesting locations the series had visited.
“We were trying to think if we’d seen anything more dramatic than this and I don’t think we have,” said Burshtan, as the crew nodded in agreement.
“I was surprised it took so long for it to air…the producers were so excited at the time and I’m excited it’s on now,” said Susan Phemister.
Phemister said she is always being asked about when the show would air, but doesn’t know if there will be a viewing party.
“I don’t have anything planned but I feel like we should have something,” she said, adding that she has not had any preview of what to expect either.
Network officials said it’s not unusual for a significant time to pass between shooting and airing.
“It’s not always that long. Turnaround depends on our schedule and whether or not a show is in primetime,” said HGTV public relations manager Emily Yarborough on Friday.
“They probably stretched out the episodes over a period of time,” said Yarborough, adding that rezoned is one of the network’s popular shows.
“The show has always fascinated me that people can look at some places and then make a house out of it,” she said.
The show, according to the HGTV website, invites you to “meet gutsy visionaries who found beauty in dilapidated commercial spaces, rezoning them into imaginative, amazing, one-of-a-kind homes.”
The Castle will be featured in the show airing Wednesday, Jan. 30 at 6 p.m. – ones of four segments in an episode which also features a former train depot in Vermont, an old motorcycle shop in Denver, and an old beer warehouse in Pennsylvania.