It is not every day that a property boasting both a notable pedigree and filming history comes to market, but one of the three residences carved out of the former Vanderlip Mansion in New York is currently up for grabs. Located alongside the eastern shoreline of the Hudson River at 3 Beechwood Way in Briarcliff Manor, about 40 miles north of Manhattan, the estate dates back to the 1700s and not only counts a slew of distinguished former residents as a selling point but a starring role in the 1970 cult classic “House of Dark Shadows,” to boot! (Please remember this is a private home. Do not trespass or bother the inhabitants or the property in any way.)
The dwelling’s storied lineage originates in 1780 when wealthy businessman Benjamin Folger and his wife, Ann, erected a modest farmhouse they dubbed “Heartt Place” on a sprawling 29-acre plot of land overlooking the Hudson. While the homestead was by all accounts bucolic, the couple’s reverie was interrupted by Robert Matthews, aka the self-professed “Prophet Matthias,” whom they believed was “the incarnation of God the Father and in exchange for ‘promised abundance in the kingdom of heaven,’ funded his mission and signed over the deed” to their house, as detailed by Wikipedia. Renaming it “Mount Zion,” Matthias remodeled and expanded the Folger pad into a more opulent Neoclassical Federal Style residence to live in with his many followers and eventually took Ann as his own wife. His tenure, during which famed abolitionist Sojourner Truth worked on the premises as a housekeeper, proved chaotic, to say the least, with the prophet eventually landing in prison for beating his daughter and his reign on Mount Zion ending in disgrace.
The years that followed were far more tranquil. In the 1890s, the home wound up in the hands of railway tycoon Henry Walter Webb, who, along with broadening the surrounding acreage, also set about altering Matthias’ former residence, refashioning it with a Colonial Revival façade and expanding it to include two additional wings. To complete the task, Webb hired R.H. Robertson, the prolific Philadelphia-born architect best known for his designs of New York’s Park Row Building and American Tract Society Building, as well as Hammersmith Farm, the Newport, R.I. home of John W. Auchincloss, the great-great-step-grandfather of Jacqueline Bouvier, where the socialite summered as a child and later married then-U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy in 1953.
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Photographer Anthony Moreno In 1906, National City Bank of New York vice president Frank Vanderlip and his wife, Narcissa, purchased the vast estate, rehabbing it yet again, this time with École des Beaux-Arts-trained architect William W. Bosworth, who crafted “the most distinguished parts of the mansion,” according to listing information. Bosworth’s additions include a “library with an octagonal rotunda, a custom-carved oak-paneled living room and a solarium,” the latter enveloped in French doors and featuring a “marble nymph fountain” at its center. Vanderlip also employed Frederick Law Olmsted, of Central Park fame, to design the landscaping of the surrounding grounds.
The Vanderlips welcomed numerous prominent visitors during their residency. As the listing info details, the couple “were well known in New York and hosted guests such as Woodrow Wilson, Sarah Bernhardt, Henry Ford, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, the last king of Poland, and John D. Rockefeller. According to Vanderslip’s son, also named Frank, the Wright Brothers landed a plane on the lawn, Annie Oakley used to come up and ‘shoot up the place” (his own words), and the Ringling Brothers Circus set up and performed their entire show on the property.”
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Photographer Anthony Moreno Incredibly, following Frank Sr.’s passing in 1937, the fabled estate sat vacant for over four decades. Finally, in 1979, it was snatched up by a developer who divided the massive manse into three adjacent private residences, thoroughly restoring the interior and grounds in the process.
It is unit number three (pictured above) that is currently available. Boasting six bedrooms and six baths in 7,200 square feet, the property is being offered by Briarcliff Manor native Alexandra Shaw of Corcoran Legends Realty for $2.4 million.
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Photographer Anthony Moreno Exquisitely outfitted with fine paneling, broad moldings and handsome woodwork, the home is classically traditional in all the right ways, as is apparent with one step into the formal entry, a grand space headlined by a stairwell that appears suspended in midair, its wooden base twisting mellifluously upward to blend with the coffered ceiling above.
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Photographer Anthony Moreno Plush amenities awaiting lucky buyers include a formal dining room capped with 16-foot ceilings, a great room paneled in lavishly carved red oak, an upper-level lounge complete with a wet bar and a finished basement repurposed as the ultimate hang-out space with a billiards room, a wine cellar and a home theater.
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Photographer Anthony Moreno The oversized eat-in kitchen features attractive white glass-fronted custom cabinetry, Carrara marble counters, muted tile accents, a Wolf range and a large overlay refrigerator.
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Photographer Anthony Moreno Upstairs, the spacious owners’ suite includes a fireplace, an office, a walk-in closet and a bath with a soaking tub, dual sinks and a steam shower.
With original detailing like hardwood flooring, French doors and multiple marble fireplaces fashioned throughout, the property is a stunning blend of the modern and historic.
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Photographer Anthony Moreno Nestled securely inside the upscale guard-gated Beechwood Community, residents have access to an array of formal gardens, multiple rolling lawns, a pond, tennis courts, a pool, an onsite manager and a private pathway leading to the Scarborough train station.
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Image Credit: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer -
Image Credit: Courtesy of Photographer Anthony Moreno Adding to the estate’s long and illustrious history is its filming resume, with two production teams descending upon it during its vacancy in the early 1970s. Most notably, the property portrayed the Old House, purported to be situated on the grounds of the Collingwood Mansion, where 175-year-old vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) takes up residence upon being released from a century-long imprisonment in “House of Dark Shadows.”
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Photographer Anthony Moreno It is in front of a roaring fire in the estate’s gorgeous wood-paneled great room that Barnabas romances Maggie Evans (Kathryn Leigh Scott), a sweetly naive young woman reminiscent of the vampire’s former fiance who killed herself shortly before their wedding nearly 200 years prior.
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Image Credit: Angelika Films, Inc. -
Image Credit: Courtesy of Photographer Anthony Moreno The mansion is also at the heart of the 1972 James Ivory-directed allegory film “Savages,” in which a group of “mud people” take over the property and subsequently transform into upper-crust members of society for a brief time before reverting back to their barbarous selves. Starring a very young Sam Waterston of “Law & Order” fame as “James, the Limping Man,” the film’s NSFW trailer details, “Tormented by lust, degraded by deceit, caught up in a tidal wave of passion destined to strand them on the beaches of despair – savages! Their name was written in blood across the annals of a millennium. If you never see another motion picture as long as you live, you must see ‘Savages.’”
Audiences didn’t exactly agree. But while the movie wound up fading into cinematic obscurity, its gorgeous backdrop stands strong as a renowned piece of New York history.