Lyndhurst Mansion in Tarrytown, NY

Lyndhurst
635 South Broadway
Tarrytown, NY 10591

Every movement, trend, style and ideology inevitably brings on the next phase. Excesses are made, causing the pendulum to swing back in the other direction. The eighteenth century brought on what is known as the Age of Enlightenment, in which reason was advocated as the primary source and legitimacy for authority. At the core of this trend was a questioning of medieval institutions, customs, and morals. In the arts, this movement came to expression in the form of Classicism, which turned to the Ancient Greeks and Romans for ideas and inspiration. Classicism in architecture sought to replace the complex proportional systems and irregular profiles of medieval buildings. The new style emphasized symmetry, proportion, geometry and the regularity of parts; all characteristic of architectural styles that were popular in Classical antiquity.

As a reaction to Enlightenment rationalism, Romanticism emerged in the second half of the 18th century as a movement that stressed strong emotion, especially that which is experienced in confronting the sublimity of untamed nature and its picturesque qualities. Romanticism sought to elevate elements of art perceived to be authentically medieval, in an attempt to escape the confines of population growth, urban sprawl, and industrialism.

An offshoot of this trend was the Gothic Revival architectural movement, whose popularity grew rapidly in the early nineteenth century. The movement sought to revive medieval forms in contrast to the classical styles prevalent at the time.

During the pre-Civil War era, the Hudson River Valley became the focus of attention for New York City artists, writers and architects. They were considered Romantics because they desired to return from the excesses of urban lifestyle to a more natural state, and attempted to do so in painting, literature, poetry and architecture. The term “Picturesque” characterized this vision, as buildings were designed and settings were composed as if to be viewed through a frame and appreciated as a work of art.

In 1838, former New York City mayor William Paulding, Jr. wanted to build a country villa on the banks of the Hudson River. He hired Alexander Jackson Davis, one of the most successful and influential American architects of his generation. Davis came up with an extremely unusual Gothic Revival design featuring fanciful turrets and an asymmetrical outline, and this turned out to be Davis’ single most famous house. Paulding called it “Knoll”, but critics immediately dubbed it “Paulding’s Folly”. In 1864-65 Davis doubled the size of the mansion for the second owner, a New York merchant called George Merritt, who renamed it “Lyndenhurst” after the Linden trees planted throughout the estate. In 1880 the famous/infamous railroad magnate and “robber baron” Jay Gould purchased the home for use as a country house.

By 1884 Jay Gould was at the height of his power, having gained control of Western Union Telegraph, the New York Elevated Railway and the Union Pacific Railroad. Lyndhurst was Gould’s escape from the pressures of business life, and it served as a country retreat from the time that his health was impaired by tuberculosis until his death in 1892. It was Gould who shortened the name to today’s Lyndhurst, although the name Jay Gould Estate is also commonly used.

And now, it’s finally time to see what the place looks like.

This is the upper part of the south side of the mansion. Natural and picturesque, eh? I think that you’re supposed to use your imagination a bit and see how this structure fits into the surrounding hilly, wooded environment. The irregularly-arranged pointed Gothic ornamented gables do resemble hills somewhat, and in that context all of those turrets do suggest trees, I suppose. No one said to me that this is the concept, but that is my best guess.

The main entrance faces eastward, i.e. inland. In 1864-65 a new north wing was added by the second owner, Merritt, in conjunction with the original designer, A.J. Davis. This addition, which starts with the imposing four-story tower and continues to your right, doubled the size of the mansion. Included in the expansion were a new porte-cochere (the coach gate at the main entrance), a new dining room, two bedrooms, and servants quarters. I was told by the tour guide that in the Gould era as many as twenty servants either lived on the estate or were employed there as day-laborers.

Of course, the reason for visiting the place is mainly to see what it looks like inside, and guided tours are given throughout the day, but photographs are not allowed. Apparently this restriction is required by insurers. If you’re curious to see what the place looks like inside, you can follow the link given at the top of the article and then take look at their “virtual tour” page.

In addition to expanding the mansion, the second owner drained the surrounding swamps, created lawns, planted specimen trees, and built a conservatory. The original conservatory was replaced by Jay Gould in 1881 after it was destroyed by a fire. The new greenhouse occupied the same site but was enlarged and detailed in the Gothic style to harmonize with the mansion. Upon completion, the Gould greenhouse was acknowledged to be the largest and finest privately owned conservatory in the United States. A metal frame provided the strength needed for loftier and larger areas to be enclosed in glass.

Helen Gould Shepard was responsible for creating a rose garden to the west of the conservatory in the early 1900s. This ornamental garden replaced earlier vegetable beds. The Rose Garden was designed as a series of beds linked by trellises and arranged in concentric circles around a central gazebo.