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A small village nestled in the Mohawk Valley lost more than an old house when the Alfred Dolge Mansion went up in flames on Saturday, said locals. It lost a treasure.

"It was synonymous with Dolgeville," said Bob Maxwell, president of the Dolgeville-Manheim Historical Society.

The home, located on the Fulton County side of the East Canada Creek, was built by the village's namesake, he said, adding: "It's like losing part of your history."

The 12,000-square-foot monolith of the Victorian era at 9 Dolge Ave. was razed by a fire that started around 11:30 a.m. and continued into Sunday afternoon.

Its cause is under investigation.

The owner, Charles Soukup, was not home at the time, and no one was injured, said Dolgeville Fire Lt. Brandon Yule.

Fire crews from Dolgeville, Oppenheim, Salisbury, Hilltop and St. Johnsville battled the fire at the 44-room home for hours before an excavator was brought in to help knock it down, Yule said.

Aaron O'Connor, who lives a few houses down from the mansion, said he was saddened by its loss.

"It is a piece of time," O'Connor said. "It will never be duplicated. The person that started the town, it was his house; that's why we have Dolgeville."

Dolgeville, which many pass daily on the Thruway driving between Utica and Albany, originally was called Brockett's Bridge.

Alfred Dolge, who had come from Germany with only 25 cents in his pocket, moved in 1874 from New York City to the village, where he could harvest wood to manufacture piano sounding boards, Maxwell said.

His method of making felt for the piano parts became world-renowned.

Eventually, after being convinced by traveling salesman Daniel Green, Dolge's mill began producing felt slippers and shoes. They still are produced by Daniel Green & Co. today in St. Louis.

But Dolge was much more than an industrialist.

"He had a vision, almost like a Utopian society," said Sue Perkins, Herkimer County Historical Society director and Manheim Town historian. "He got people to come and work in his factories, built a community, and set up the village water and sewer systems."

Dolge even started a form of what we today call Social Security in the village and profit-sharing for his mill employees, Perkins said.

"He was way ahead of his time," she said.

Dolge also brought Thomas Edison's first electric dynamo run by water to power the factory complex. He had it installed by Edison himself, Maxwell said.

His legacy also included started a school and creating the state's first kindergarten, he said.

In 1881, the village was renamed for Dolge.

Construction for his home on Dolge Avenue began in 1893. Wood carvers were brought in from Germany, as were plaster molders from Italy, Perkins said.

When completed in 1895, the house included 22 bedrooms, four bathrooms, two living rooms, a dining room, library, several fireplaces and a porte cochere, a covered area for arriving guests.

"It was just a beautiful building," said Perkins, who toured the house in the 1990s.

The third floor was built like a hotel, where Dolge could host the company's guests from Europe, Maxwell said.

The wood paneling alone was worth over $1 million, he said.

Dolge fell into hard times, taking poor advice on investments and overextending himself to build a railroad connecting Dolgeville to Little Falls before eventually filing for bankruptcy, Maxwell said.

A controversy at the time, Dolge left the village and moved to California. He had only lived in the mansion for a few years.

The home changed hands many times, connected in ownership with the mill, and even hosted small businesses.

Its third floor hasn't been used in a century, and fell into disrepair, Maxwell said.

The home's current owner, Soukup, put money into the home and planned to make the mill into condominium apartments.

He could not be reached for comment Sunday.

After the recent recession, Soukup put the mansion up for sale, but it was taken off the market after the listing expired, said Pete Martino, real estate company New York Land Quest's northern division manager.

According to county records, the home had a market value of $304,373.

On Sunday, the mansion's grand tale came to an end.

Big even by today's standards, few would have use for a house of its size, so it probably won't be rebuilt, Maxwell said.

The house had become a sort of tourist attraction, even among locals.

"It was a rich piece of history," Perkins said. "It's just a landmark and a tragic loss."

kclukey@timesunion.com • 518-454-5467 • @KClukey_TU