In the manic, monied heart of the Industrial Revolution, an iron-mining titan in Au Sable Forks by the name of Henry Graves threw an architectural haymaker, a chest-thumping Gibraltar of a home honoring his rise to prominence and the lavish world in which he lived.
Course after course of exquisite brickwork soared toward the heavens (it would exceed today’s Adirondack Park Agency height regulations by 20 feet), blowing all its frilly, wooden Victorian neighbors out of the water. Its gardens spoke of European palaces. A US president would speak from its second-story veranda.
Completed in 1880, it was the greatest building between Port Henry and Malone—and not even those Gilded Age industrial outposts could boast anything as whimsical or ornate, said Christine Bush, preservation services director for Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH). “In
