Lyndhurst Mansion and Gardens

 Last week I went to Irvington, New York, and toured Lyndhurst.  

Lyndhurst was built in 1838 by General William Paulding, a former New York City mayor who had grown up in Tarrytown and wanted to go home.  He bought 180 acres of farmland for $20,000 and turned it into land for a manor.  Lyndhurst was designed by Alexander Jackson Davis, a prominent architect at that time.

Paulding's furnishings are relatively spare.

The second owner was George Merritt, a merchant and inventor, who re-engaged Davis.  Merritt and Davis doubled the size of the manor and turned it into the Romantic Gothic Revival showpiece it is today.  Busts of George Washington (above) and Lafayette line the formal entrance.

In 1880 Jay Gould bought the property.  Gould was a railroad magnate and one of the wealthiest people in the country.  He did not modify the structure, but he added opulent art and furnishings.  

Gould's art gallery is impressive.  One end is a huge glass window by Gould's friend, Louis Comfort Tiffany.  Regrettably my photograph of the wall didn't do it justice, so I don't show it here.

Lyndhurst has a broad view of the Hudson River.

Gould died in 1892, but his daughters owned and seasonally occupied the property until 1961.  In that year Gould's daughter, Anna Gould, donated the estate to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which owns it today and opens it for tours.