GIBRALTAR ISLAND, Ohio — To thousands of tourists who visit western Lake Erie’s South Bass Island each summer, the sight of a four-story Gothic tower that rises above treetops on nearby Gibraltar Island is as inviting of an architectural gem as the Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial in downtown Put-in-Bay or the former Lonz Winery on Middle Bass Island.
What is it?
Cooke Castle, the summer home of former President Abraham Lincoln’s Civil War financier, Jay Cooke, who at one time was one of America’s wealthiest people.
Mr. Cooke paid the grand sum of $3,001 to buy Gibraltar in 1864, an island so small that — at 6.5 acres — is almost hard not to canvass on foot in five minutes without stopping or walking unusually slow.
The public has a chance to visit Cooke Castle and the rest of Gibraltar Island, including Ohio State University’s Stone Laboratory, at no charge from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday when the Friends of Stone Laboratory hosts its 18th annual open house.
Free transportation to Gibraltar will be provided from the Aquatic Visitors Center jointly operated by Ohio Sea Grant and Ohio State University on South Bass Island. Private water taxis also can be hired for a fee.
Ohio is one of 33 states with a college sea grant program operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Gibraltar is a mix of world-class research in limnology — the study of lakes — as well as history that goes beyond Cooke’s Castle. There’s a spot on Gibraltar with one of the most stunning views of Lake Erie, called Perry’s Lookout, which aided Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry in his victory over Great Britain and Canada during the War of 1812.
Few things, though, are as eye-grabbing as Cooke Castle, which was made from local limestone and, in recent years, has become more shrouded by foliage.
Chris Winslow, interim Ohio Sea Grant and OSU Stone Laboratory director, said plans are being made for some selective pruning to make Cooke Castle more visible from Put-in-Bay and, hopefully, generate more interest in private donations to restore it.
Mr. Winslow said it is important to note that — while OSU embraces the mansion’s place in history — Friend of Stone Laboratory and other groups will be expected to take the lead on remaining work, which is expected to cost about $4.6 million and focus on rejuvenating the interior.
More will be known once the university completes its feasibility study, he said.
“We’re absolutely excited about having the castle renovated,” Mr. Winslow said. “The cost of it is something that would require grassroots interest, though.”
The project has inched along since 1998, when OSU put on a new roof and repaired windows with authentic period glass from France. By 2000, it had fortified mortar, replaced porches, and tested the castle’s bones to make sure they were still sturdy.
Mr. Cooke, who was from Sandusky, had the 15-room stone mansion built in 1864 and 1865.
He died in 1905.
Step inside Cooke Castle and it’s hard not to be awestruck by its library, which is made from beautiful woodwork and offers a 180-degree view of the water.
For most of the next six decades, he and his extended family went there at least twice each summer.
At various times, they had former President Rutherford B. Hayes, Gen. William T. Sherman, sixth chief justice of the Supreme Court Salmon P. Chase, and other dignitaries join them on the island.
The Cookes sold the island in 1925 to Julius Stone, a member of OSU’s board of trustees, who then donated it and its structures to the university for use as a marine biological station in honor of his father, Franz Theodore Stone.
Cooke Castle was subsequently used as a men’s dormitory, but that stopped about the time modern dorms were constructed in the 1970s.
The hope now — pending the outcome of the feasibility study — is to bring electrical and plumbing up to code and convert the castle into a 13-suite conference and meeting facility capable of hosting some overnight guests.
“We’re pushing for it to be used as a conference center,” Mr. Winslow said.
Jim Harding, Mr. Cooke’s great-great grandson, said he became more curious about Gibraltar Island and Cooke Castle upon discovering trunks full of old photographs and memorabilia in a New Jersey barn after his mother’s death.
He said his aunt used the barn to store artifacts the family kept, many of which he said have been donated to the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums in Fremont.
Renovating Cooke Castle “would mean a lot because it starts with the man,” Mr. Harding, 84, a retired aeronautical engineer who lives on Long Island, N.Y., said.
“Jay Cooke was an extraordinary man,” Mr. Harding said.
A devout Christian, Mr. Cooke donated 10 percent of his annual earnings to charity and helped build churches in Put-in-Bay and Philadelphia. He declined to see guests on Sundays, and gave members of the clergy occasional use of the mansion as a retreat. Philadelphia is the city where he lived much of his adult life, and rose to prominence as a banker.
“He was a big developer and supporter of churches,” Mr. Harding said.
Mr. Cooke lost his fortune in the Panic of 1873, but regained much of what he lost with investments in silver mines.
Mr. Harding said he is less concerned about how Cooke Castle is used in the future than he is about the prospect of doing nothing.
“My worry is it could fall into disrepair again,” he said. “It has to have some useful function.”
Cooke’s Castle has been a National Historic Landmark on the National Register of Historic Places since 1966.
Contact Tom Henry at: thenry@theblade.com, 419-724-6079, or via Twitter @ecowriterohio.
First Published September 6, 2016, 4:00 a.m.