I’ve posted pictures of these brick columns before. While I don’t know exactly what their purpose was, they look as if they were once an entrance to the Speyer estate. The brick wall that once surrounded the Speyer property is a well-known sight in Briarcliff Manor, but most residents do know why it’s there. I do, though – for two reasons. First, I’m the Vice President of the Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society, and second because my house is inside the wall i.e. on the site of the old mansion. I even have some pieces on Speyer buildings on my property. For more on the Speyers see here and here.

However, this time as I approached these columns, I noticed that they looked different. Where once there were once five of them, now there were only four. From the second picture it was clear that one of them had fallen. It was also clear that some trees had been cut down. I have no idea if one of the trees fell on the column and knocked it down or whether the column fell of its own accord – It was, after all, at least 125 years old.

Taken with a Sony RX100 IV