Snippet #2060232

August 11 1980

Dr. Barry Hopkins had been asked by the administration of Baltimore college to give a lecture on the history of Bannerman castle, as part of Mr. Miller's class on local folklore of Baltimore. It was a bright and sunny morning in the middle of August when Dr. Hopkins arrived at the college, he had hoped to talk to Mr. Miller to get some idea of how much he had already explained the history of the Bannerman castle to his students. It turned out that he had in face taught them very little about the castle, which Dr. Hopkins was very happy to hear. Getting paid the hour, he had hoped to drag the lecture on for at least two days, and this little piece of information certainly would assist in that endeavor. When he arrived at the class the students were already seated, waiting for him to arrive with their excitement building, as the Doctor was known to be very informative in such matters, and the Bannerman castle legends had been a particularly interesting. The classroom itself was quite impressive, having changed very little in the past 60 years or more, it had a very cheerful and old fashioned look about it, with particularly good acoustics for lecturing. The teachers desk sat in front of the immense blackboard, with the semi-circle a pew-like seats looming over it, which always made Dr. Hopkins feel like some learned auditor in ancient Rome each time he gave his lecture. This particular classroom was always one of his favorites to deliver lectures in, in fact it helped him greatly, "Good morning scholars, my name is Dr. Barry Hopkins and I am a professor of folklore at Arkham University. Please feel free to break in at anytime and ask me a question, anything that might be burning a hole in your brain. Don't be nervous, ask me anything" With that Dr. Hopkins continued with his lecture. Taking a sip from the glass of water that had been laid out on the desk for him prior to his actual arrival, he continued with some basic facts concerning the castles rather strange history.

"Bannerman Arsenal, more commonly known as Bannerman castle was constructed in stages from 1901-1918 by Francis Bannerman VI. Bannerman purchased military equipment surplus from the U.S. Government at scrap prices, as simply a warehouse, the construction was particularly unusual, even odd. The buildings were designed by Bannerman himself and without the advice of professional architects. Although the island is officially named Pollepel, Bannerman privately referred to the island as Crag Inch, Scottish for 'rocky island' Bannerman's used the island until the late 1950s, when the military surplus was removed and the live munitions were deactivated. The powder house explosion of 1920 nearly shut the business down completely, it was not until a fire of undetermined origin in 1969 that the buildings fell into their present state of ruin."

"The island had several rather outlandish legends surrounding it, the most famous of which was that of Heer of the Dunderberg from Bracebridge hall
by Washington Irving, as he writes, 'The captains of the river craft heard the talk of the little bulbous-bottomed Dutch goblin in trunk hose and sugar-loaf hat, with a speaking trumpet in his hand which they say keeps about the Dunderberg. They declare that they heard him, in stormy weather, in the midst of turmoil, giving orders in low Dutch for the piping up of a fresh gust of wind, or the rattling off of another thunder-clap.'

Taking a sip of his water he continued, "Heer and his goblins are thought to defend the island from intruders, the American Indians were also afraid of the island, at least in the night time. Bannerman was a patriot, his reason for storing his collection of war artifacts was in the hope that it would one day be known as a “museum of lost arts”. Still, rumors of treason filled the air, some people claimed that he had provided aid to the enemy in WWI, this lead to the government stationing troops on the island until 1918. With a broken heart Bannerman would die short thereafter."