Visitors have always found the North Quabbin a peaceful place of refuge. In the 1940s, with World War II raging in Europe, among those who came to the North Quabbin was the Empress Zita of Austria and Queen of Hungary, and her family who had been deposed after World War I.
The empress’s journey to Royalston began with Hitler’s annexation of Austria. “Hitler’s appetite for conquest continued with the attack on Poland in September, starting World War II. By March 1940, the third Reich began spilling bombs on Zita’s castle in Belgium,” according to Alan Bowers, a Royalston resident who remembers Empress Zita’s visits and has given talks on the topic. Zita and her family escaped to Portugal with her family, according to Bowers. From there, her sons Otto and Felix continued to America to make arrangements for a stay for their mother, according to Bowers.
On July 20, Empress Zita and her youngest daughter Archduchess Elizabeth arrived in the United States at LaGuardia field from Lisbon aboard the Dixie Clipper. From there they, “motored” to Royalston, where their host, Calvin Bullock, provided refuge in his white colonial home known as the Bastille, Bowers said.
The July 25, 1940 Orange Enterprise and Journal described the first meeting with Empress Zita in Royalston this way: “The Empress arrives with soft smiling, velvety brown eyes contrasting to the austerity of her long black high neck long sleeved dress. The former Empress Zita of Austria was ushered into a reception room in the guest house on the Calvin Bullock estate in Royalston Monday afternoon and we stood in the presence of Royalty.” The Empress dressed in black since the death of her husband Karl in April 1, 1922, Bowers said.
Bullock had entertained the Archduke Otto, eldest son of Empress Zita, at his New York home. He offered his Royalston guest house as the perfect refuge for the exiled family when they arrived, the article continued.
“The black clad empress became a familiar figure to the 800 inhabitants of Royalston and to the parishioners of Our Lady Immaculate Catholic Church in Athol,” which the family attended, Bowers continued.
The Orange Enterprise and Journal covered the arrival of the empress’s other children as well: Archduchesses Adelaide, age 26, and Charlotte, 19, and their brothers the Archdukes Charles Louis, 22, and Rudolph, 21. The paper stated “they are so enthusiastic about their new surroundings that smilingly, they all speak at once in their assurances that “it is delightful, so comfortable, the hills and the fields, the views quite beautiful!”
On Oct. 3, 1940, Zita left her refuge in Royalston to meet her mother, Duchess of Parma, and shortly thereafter moved to Quebec, Bowers stated. Even with the move, the family often returned to Royalston for summer visits, he continued.
Bowers, who was a young teen at the time of the empress’s visits, has personal memories. “My grandfather’s brother was the caretaker of the Bullock properties. He paid me to pull out the leaf debris from the fence around the Bastille. Her manservant (chauffeur) told me I had to throw away my gum because it was impolite to chew gum in front of the queen. When I refused, he gave me a quarter. I could get a package of five sticks of gum for a nickel at my grandfather’s store next door. Should have kept the quarter.”