In the summer of 2021 the stone staircase at the ruins of Madame Sherri’s “Castle” on the east side of Mount Wantastiquet partially collapsed. Antoinette Sherri, a Paris-born music hall singer, came to America in 1911. With her husband she opened a theatrical costume shop in New York City. For a time they were quite successful. Their clients included the Ziegfeld Follies and Ringling Circus.
Charles LeMaire was a young man who worked in the “Andre-Sherri”costume shop. LeMaire’s first costuming job was with the Sherri’s and he would later become quite famous. In 1943 he was appointed the head of wardrobe and costuming for the 20th Century Fox film studio. LeMaire would win three Academy Awards and oversee the costuming of more than 250 Hollywood films.
In the 1920’s Antoinette’s husband, Andre, was reportedly an alcoholic who became very ill from drinking badly made Prohibition gin. Andre was unable to work and Charles LeMaire became president of the “Andre Sherri” costume shop. It is believed LeMaire would eventually finance much of Antoinette Sherri’s life in the Brattleboro/Chesterfield area.
In 1924, when Antoinette was 46 years old, her husband died. A few years later Antoinette traveled to Chesterfield, NH to visit Broadway and silent film actor Jack Henderson. He owned a farm in Chesterfield. Mrs. Sherri found the area quite agreeable and became a regular visitor of Mr. Henderson’s.
In 1928 Mrs. Sherri purchased her first parcel of land on the Gulf Road in West Chesterfield. The next year she purchased a farmhouse and more land. According to research done by local history buff Dick Mitchell, Antoinette Sherri planned to build a summer retreat for New York City theater people and artists. As part of the plan, in 1931 she began construction of her “Castle” and, by 1933, she had purchased nine parcels of land, totaling 437 acres.
Mrs. Sherri spent her summers in Chesterfield and the rest of her time in New York City. In 1988 Allen Norcross conducted an interview with Mrs. Warn, who lived on the Gulf Road property with Mrs. Sherri for eleven years, (1929 to 1940). According to Mrs. Warn, the “Castle” was designed to be the cornerstone of a vacation resort for New Yorkers. Mrs. Sherri’s goal was to build studio cottages around the nearby pond for visitors. The “Castle” was built for the guest’s social functions. Stonework around the pond was done to stabilize the pond and make it more attractive.
During the summer months Antoinette Sherri lived in the old farmhouse across the road from the “Castle”. The farmhouse had no electricity, central heating, running water or indoor plumbing. Mrs. Sherri spent approximately 30 summers in the farmhouse.
There are plenty of stories of wild parties and risqué behavior at the Madame Sherri property but, at the time, local newspapers didn’t report any lawbreaking behavior occurring at Madame Sherri’s. The only reported incident occurred in the mid-1930’s when a 19 year old driver of Antoinette Sherri’s 1927 custom built Packard Touring car was arrested for driving without a license. Mrs. Sherri could not drive so she always had someone drive her around town.
When Mrs. Warn was asked about wild parties, beautiful starlets, and a fast lifestyle at the “Castle”, she said she had only seen Mrs. Sherri enter the “Castle” once after it was completed. According to Mrs. Warn, she didn’t want to get the inside dirty. She said the “Castle” wasn’t built for Mrs. Sherri, it was built for her expected summer guests.
Mrs. Warn shared that Mrs. Sherri was big hearted but a poor manager of money. “She may have been fluent in seven languages, but English certainly wasn’t one of them. She couldn’t read or write a word of it.” Mrs. Sherri “always paid her debts, but never on time. When Madame needed money she would have someone write to Charles LeMaire. She always got what she asked for from him.”
However, by 1937 the Antoinette Sherri property was mortgaged to Charles LeMaire. He may have been giving her money but he gained control of the property in return. Mrs. Warn said that eventually LeMaire stopped sending checks and remembered hearing that LeMaire’s wife “put a stop to it”. Mrs. Warn moved away from the Gulf Road property in 1940 but continued to visit with Mrs. Sherri when she returned to the farmhouse in the summer months.
Antoinette Sherri’s vision of a summer resort on her property faded away. Financially she struggled for many years and in 1961 she became a ward of Brattleboro. The “Castle” was burned by vandals in 1962 and the next year Charles LeMaire’s wife took complete ownership of the Madame Sherri property.
In 1965 Ann Stokes bought the property from LeMaire. Ms. Stokes lived on nearby Welcome Hill Road. In the 1990’s she donated “Madame Sherri’s Forest” to the “Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests’. A trail system now leads to Indian Pond and provides wonderful opportunities to experience spectacular views of the surrounding area. The crumbling ruins of Madame Sherri’s “Castle” are still there as well.
In the 1970’s Ann Stokes and her friends built a series of studio cabins on her Welcome Hill Road property. The idea was to create studios for visiting women artists so they could live and work in the beauty and serenity of forests and pastureland. This artist’s retreat continues today as Welcome Hill Studios.
According to Antoinette Sherri’s neighbor, about 90 years ago Mrs. Sherri had a similar idea. She hoped to create a performer and artist’s retreat on her property as well. This version of Madame Sherri’s life told by Mrs. Warn certainly flies in the face of many stories told by others.
According to Mrs. Warn, Antoinette Sherri had only a handful of New York City visitors during her years in the area. These were people she convinced to come up and see the retreat she was building in hopes of having them invest in the project. They would stay for a short time, visit Brattleboro and Ware’s Grove, and then go back to the city.
Mrs. Warn said that in the 1940’s Madame Sherri did have two or three people stay with her for most of a summer. She thinks the myth of a “wild” Madame Sherri was born when a few New York City “artistic types” came to visit her in the 1930’s. Mrs. Warn said once they saw how Mrs. Sherri was living in the farmhouse, with few modern conveniences, they would stay for a short while and then head back to New York.
Antoinette Sherri often had a young person driving her around town in her fancy Packard Touring car. Her fur coat and gaudy makeup made her stand out on the streets of Brattleboro and Chesterfield. She liked to visit the Billings Hotel for meals and was always a flamboyant patron. Was this mixture of ingredients enough to begin imagined stories of decadent behavior at Madame Sherri’s “Castle”?
The research for this story was collected by BAMS students. Much of it was found in the Madame Sherri research binders donated to the historical society by Richard Mitchell. Was Mrs. Warn accurate when she said Madame Sherri was not the sort of person who would throw extravagant parties? According to Mrs. Warn’s interviewer, Allen Norcross, if what Mrs. Warn said was true, it would be “the end of the Madame Sherri fairy tale”. What do you think?