Beechwood is a renowned Hudson River estate in the Scarborough hamlet of Briarcliff Manor, New York. The estate was created for Mr. Frank and Mrs. Narcissa Vanderlip.
The 80-acre (320,000 m2) parkland was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted for the Vanderlips and featured a grove of giant beech, expansive lawns, imported trees from around the world, and an Italianate garden with an alcove, fountain, and small pool wisteria-covered trellises.
At the center of the property sat the eponymous Greek revival mansion that featured two giant porticoed entryways, a two-story octagonal library, numerous porches, verandas, and well over 100 interior rooms. Other major structures included a hunting lodge, a second "Cape Town" style mansion built for daughter Charlotte Vanderlip, a home for Vanderlip's physician, and the Scarborough School, a progressive Montessori method school which the Vanderlips established on the perimeter of their property in 1913.
The Beechwood Estate also contained a carriage house, gate-house, squash court (no longer extant), and an artist's studio—named Beech Twig—that had once been home to author John Cheever, whose children attended the school. Descriptions of the building's interior closely match descriptions employed by Cheever in some short stories.
Novelist Richard Yates also lived in the same house as a child, as well as other artists, writers, and composers. The estate also served as a backdrop to a Merchant Ivory film made in 1972, entitled Savages as well as to the 1970 film "House of Dark Shadows".
In 1979, the remaining Vanderlip descendants sold parts of the property to real estate developers. The main mansion and several other buildings were restored and a series of cluster condominiums were built on the estate's great lawns and former orchards.
External links
- Scarborough School Alumnae Site
- Scarborough Historic District
- Narcissa Vanderlip
- A Tragic Honesty: The Life and Work of Richard Yates