This idealized image of former U.S. Congressman John H. Starin of Fultonville is one of many ornate items sculpted onto an urn located just outside the main house at Starin Place. (Bill Buell/Gazette Reporter)
For almost 30 years, Karen Chaplin has been getting to know John H. Starin and the home and property he loved high above the Mohawk River a few hundred yards east of the village of Fultonville.
“He was an incredible man who built this incredible estate for himself and his family,” said Chaplin, who bought Starin Place in 1983 and has been slowly restoring the Victorian mansion along with the other buildings on the grounds.
“I fell in love with it, and I knew it had to be saved. But over the years, it’s been misused. It needs kind of a gentle approach.”