Ruins through a window

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ruinsthroughwindow-1

Or at least through an opening that once was a window.

Northgate, once the estate of Edward J. Cornish and his wife Selina now stands in ruins in the woods just north of Cold Spring, NY.

Atlas Obscura provides the following information (in: Ruins of the Cornish Estate):

Starting at one of the country’s most beautiful train terminals, Grand Central Station, the Metro North Railroad runs alongside the Hudson River, one of the country’s most breathtaking train journeys. About an hour into the Hudson Valley is the charmingly small town of Cold Spring. As delightfully quaint now as it was in 1917, it attracted newlyweds Edward Joel Cornish and Selina Bliss Carter Cornish. The lovers decided to move out of the city and into an estate in the woods just north of town.

Cornish was the president of the National Lead Company, and furnished a grand estate consisting of a mansion, swimming pool, gardens and other outbuildings. The couple lived, loved, and entertained visitors frequently, throwing lavish parties and filling the rooms of the mansion with friends and laughter.

Sadly, in May of 1938 tragedy struck when the life-long lovers died within two weeks of each other. Once a dream home, the mansion and the grounds fell into disrepair, and in 1958, a fire destroyed most of the mansion leaving the Cornish’s grand estate in ruins.

Today those ruins are overgrown and gradually have been reclaimed by the forest. They can be found by a 4 mile hike into the woods. Standing amidst the fallen down debris, it’s easy to imagine the motorcars pulling into the driveway, the well-to-do passengers excited for a weekend away from the city, the servants carrying monogramed suitcases into the mansion, champagne glasses tinkling on the lawn and the sounds of laughter coming from the swimming pool, where now there is only silence.

I’ve posted a couple of times before about Northgate:

Former Stern/Cornish Mansion: Northgate
Northgate Revisited.

This is the way it looked in its heyday:

The Cornish mansion, from the northwest. The house was an eclectic mix of both Shingle-style and Tudor-revival architecture. Unsuspectingly, a small porch existed above the west wall, the wall punctuated by the tall round-arched window. Source: Hudson Valley Ruins: Northgate, historic photographs from the collection of Victoria A. Rasche

Untermyer gardens revisited – ruined gatehouse

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untermyergatehouse-1

According to the Untermyer Gardens website:

The Gatehouse was built where the Greystone carriage trail crossed the Old Croton Aqueduct. The Croton Aqueduct, constructed to carry fresh water to New York City, ran 41 miles from Croton on Harmon into New York City and was in use in Untermyer’s time. Now the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail runs 26.2 miles from Croton-on-Harmon to the Bronx. (Note: I think there’s an error in this description. There is no such place as “Croton on Harmon”. The town is called “Croton on Hudson” and it’s Metro North railway station is called “Croton-Harmon”. According to Wikipedia: “During the days of the New York Central Railroad, the station and shops were known as Harmon. Trains continuing north of Harmon, including the flagship 20th Century Limited would exchange their electric locomotive for a steam or diesel locomotive to continue the journey to points north and west.

This is taken from the Vista Overlook. I’d heard that there were a couple of interesting reliefs on the gate posts and I wanted to go down to see them. However, I didn’t feel that I should leave the tour and I couldn’t go afterwards as we had to go to eat. So I went back yesterday. As the description above states the gatehouse is by the Old Croton Aqueduct trail so I thought I’d take the dog for a walk and also get to see the gatehouse up close. Unfortunately I started my walk down the trail too far away (virtually in Hastings-on-Hudson) and I never did get to the gatehouse (I had to get back to meet my wife). We had a nice walk though – on a piece of the Aqueduct trail that I’ve never been to before. So it wasn’t a complete waste. I intend to go back though.

Rusting machinery at Sylvan Glen Park Preserve

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sylvanglenrustingmachinery-1

I’ve been to Sylvan Glen a few times, most recently in 2014. It’s an interesting place to visit. Rusted metal cables, abandoned pieces of equipment, huge discarded slabs of granite, and an explosive shed are a few of the remains along the trails in Sylvan Glen Park Preserve, the site of a former quarry. Although I’ve never seen them there’s also supposed to be a lime kiln and a cave used by the famous Leatherman who is buried in Sparta Cemetery, Ossining.

According to the web site of the Yorktown Historical Society:

The park is the site of the largest single industry known to the Town of Yorktown. After generous deposits of granite with unusual rich mellow tones of coloration were discovered in the area, quarries were established, probably as early as the 1850’s. It was not until after the turn of the century, however, that the site was exploited to its fullest. The period of greatest activity was from 1900 to 1940. The quarries were operated by various owners – all of whom called their product Mohegan Golden Granite. The last owner, operating the quarries throughout the period of greatest production, was Grenci and Ellis, Inc. Granite from the Mohegan Granite Quarries was used in the construction of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the main entrance to the City Bank-Farmer’s Trust Co. building at William Street and Exchange Place (NYC), the New York State Office Building – including the carved Great Seals of the State and City of New York (NYC), the Arlington Memorial Bridge (Washington, D.C.), the Westchester County National Bank (White Plains), the Memorial to (poet) Eugene Field (NYC) and many other buildings, mausoleums and memorials. Barracks and commissaries were built to accommodate the hundreds of laborers attracted to the area. In full production during the ‘20’s, it was not unusual to have two $1,000,000 jobs running at the same time with two hundred men employed for a total weekly payroll of $15,000!