Lambert Tower at Garret Mountain set to reopen
By: David M. Zimmer
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... Another piece of the Lambert estate is reopening at Garret Mountain.
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Four months after Lambert Castle reopened to the public, Passaic County officials are preparing to open Lambert Tower, the 70-foot observation tower built above the former hilltop estate of Paterson silk magnate Catholina Lambert. The county will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 29 [2026] at the tower in Garret Mountain Reservation, marking the return of public access after years of restoration work. Once open, the tower will be accessible by guide Wednesday through Sunday from 10 AM to 5 PM. General admission will be free, county officials said.
..... The opening adds another public stop to the restored Lambert property, where the castle reopened at the end of February [2026] after weather delayed its planned January opening.
..... Lambert Castle, the former home of the Paterson silk manufacturer, had been closed since 2020 for a major restoration that addressed the building's sandstone exterior, roof, windows, interior finishes and climate-control system. the larger project cost more than $13 million and returned the castle to public use as a museum.
..... The tower sits higher on the ridge above the castle, standing on a natural stone outcropping more than 500 feet above sea level. From the top, visitors can look across Paterson and North Jersey from one of the park system's most visible landmarks. Lambert built the tower in 1896 as part if his Garret Mountain estate, originally called Belle Vista. Born in Yorkshire, England, he made his fortune in Paterson's silk mills before building a hilltop perpetuity that reflected his wealth, his art collection and his memory of the British castles he knew from childhood.
..... The tower was designed to echo those castle forms. Built with local stone and topped by a copper dome, it gave Lambert's estate a lasting mark on the Garret Mountain ridge.
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It also took on practical uses long after Lambert's private estate began to disappear.
..... In 1909, investor George Giger, who had worked under Thomas Edison, sued the tower as a test station for wireless telegraphy and reported a 150-mile range. During World War II, the U.S. military used the structure as a lookout post, with troops stationed there to watch for enemy aircraft.
..... But the tower was eventually closed to the public. county officials have said it first closed in the early 1950s, Its windows were removed, and by the mid-1980s, trees were growing through the empty openings.
..... A stabilization project completed in 2013 installed new stairs and windows, rebuilt the observatory level and added a new copper dome with LED lighting. but the tower remained largely dormant until the county moved forward with the latest restoration phase.
..... The recent $2.5 million tower restoration sued a mix of county capital funds, a grant from the New Jersey Historic Trust, support from Friends of Passaic County Parks and funding from the state Department of Environmental Protection's Green Acres program.
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Lambert's estate once included the castle, the tower, a carriage house and a large art collection that helped make the property one of the most unusual private homes in North Jersey. the broader restoration has brought the estate back in stages, with work extending beyond the castle to the carriage house complex, tower and surrounding grounds.
..... President William McKinley reportedly called the estate the "Louvre of America" after visiting in1898.
..... But Lambert's fortune declined with the silk industry. His art collection was sold off in 1916, and after his death in 1923, the property eventually passed into public hands.