Ringwood Manor in Passaic County, NJ

Ringwood State Park
1304 Sloatsburg Rd.
Ringwood, NJ 07456-1799
(973) 962-7031

Colonists in the Highlands of Northern New Jersey found a region containing rich veins of magnetite iron ore, hidden in great hardwood forests where water drained through valleys in swift rivers. By the 1740s, Colonial prospectors had begun to smelt the iron ore in water-powered furnaces, using local timber to make charcoal for fuel.

By the time of the American Revolution, Ringwood had become the center of an iron-making empire which included 150,000 acres in New Jersey, New York and Nova Scotia. The ironmaster at Ringwood was an engineer and inventor by the name of Robert Erskine, who was General George Washington’s mapmaker during the Revolutionary War. At one point the colonists became concerned that British warships might use the Hudson River to separate New England from the rest of the colonies, and it was Erskine who designed a barrier that kept warships from moving upriver. Ringwood iron was used for parts of that famous Hudson River chain, and to help supply the Continental Army with camp ovens, tools and other hardware. Ringwood made shot for the war of 1812, and was to become a major supplier to the Union Army during the American Civil War.

The present Manor House (there were two previous versions) was built by Martin J. Ryerson, who purchased the historic ironworks in 1807. Ryerson ran five ironwork complexes in three counties from his headquarters at Ringwood NJ for the next half century. In 1854 Ringwood was purchased by the New York inventor and industrialist Peter Cooper, in partnership with his young son-in-law, Abram S. Hewitt.

Mr. and Mrs. Hewitt set about making Ringwood their summer estate, and Hewitt enlarged the Manor in the 1860’s and 1870’s. The completed house contains 51 rooms and features 24 fireplaces, 13 bathrooms, 28 bedrooms and more than 250 windows.

You see – the Hewitts were one of the wealthiest and most influential families of 19th-century America, and were constantly entertaining guests.

Visiting the site is like seeing a museum within a museum, meaning that the residence was a museum while it was still occupied. The Hewitts had many investments, connections and philanthropic involvements. When they sold a residence or commercial property, or when a building was renovated, a few prize possessions were brought back to Ringwood. When they traveled overseas unique items were purchased, valuable presents were received, and pieces that couldn’t be obtained were replicated after returning home. What couldn’t be installed in the manor itself was placed in the formal gardens.

The Hewitts collected paintings from the Hudson River School of Art, and works by a number of artists from this group hang on manor walls. Ringwood Manor is home to four antique grandfather clocks. Two of them have been restored, one never stopped working, and one is charred and is possibly an artifact saved from the original Erskine house. The tour through Ringwood Manor takes about an hour and many of the rooms are quite impressive, but you are not allowed to take photos! There’s plenty to see in the formal gardens, however, so please continue to scroll down.

Behind the manor is this Italian-style sunken garden. People who take their gardening seriously call this a Parterre. At the very center of the pool is a circular grindstone that was taken from manor.

These ornaments where originally located on Greenwich Street in NYC.

Columns from an old New York Life Insurance building in NYC were transferred to the estate. The formal gardens are rectangular, and there are two such sets of columns – one behind each of the far ends.

Here are the last two remaining cement Caryatid copies, which formerly lined the entire wall. “Real” caryatids serve as columns or pillars whose heads support lateral entablatures, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. At the time of this writing the unemployment rate is unusually high.

These gates are from the entrance to the old Astor House, which was on 33rd street in Manhattan. If you should ever visit Ringwood Manor and find those gates closed, please don’t be alarmed. You can just walk around either side.