History of Reid Castle

The History of Reid Castle Manhattanville College The istoryH of Reid Castle Page 1 Page 2 The istoryH of Reid Castle Manhattanville College Map courtesy of The History of the Several Towns, Manors, and Patents of the County of Westchester from its First Settlement to the Present Time by Robert Bolton, 1881. The History of Reid Castle he history of our campus can be dated back to 1661, when Chief Shanarocke of the Siwanoy Indians (a branch of the Mohegans) sold the land to John Budd of Southold, Long Island. Though TBudd built a gristmill on the east end of his land over Blind brook, no official claim was ever filed with the Provincial Governor for the land. Budd is considered one of the founders of Southhold, Long Island, New Haven, Connecticut, and Rye, New York. In 1695, another Indian, Pathungo, Mine in Virginia City, Nevada, which he reclaimed the land and sold it to John partially owned. Harrison of Flushing, Queens, for 40 The mansion Holladay built was pounds. The only restriction Pathungo admired throughout the state as one of set was that he be able to continue to use the finest homes of its type. In an effort the whitewood (or tulip) trees for canoes. to recreate the atmosphere of the West, Harrison filed a claim with the Provincial Holladay shipped in bison from Wyoming Governor and an official patent was and elk from Colorado. The streams granted for the land, which became known were stocked with speckled trout while as “Harrison’s Purchase.” The land was landscape gardeners planted trees, ferns eventually sold and settled in 1724 by a and wild flowers brought from the West. group of Quakers. Early maps mark the estate as “Buffalo Park.” Holladay built his wife Ann a small 1864 Norman Gothic chapel on the property Ben Holladay for her family. Located beneath the Chapel In 1864, Ben Holladay bought 1,000 was the family burial vault (the crypt was acres in the area and began to build his relocated decades later to White Plains. mansion. Nicknamed the “Stagecoach About a half-mile away from the mansion, King,” Holladay was a colorful pioneer towards Westchester Avenue, a natural and business tycoon, who created an boulder was set up midway along the extensive financial empire, first around carriage drive. On it was carved a cross investments in the Pony Express and with a heart at the center, denoting that later by securing the U.S. Mail contracts Catholics lived on the property.) for the Overland Express coaches. Using Today, the Chapel remains in teams of horses, he carried passengers and place near Purchase Street in the Ohnell mail from Kansas and Nebraska through Environmental Park on campus. The the dangerous western territories to Utah boulder is located outside the campus and California. He called his estate Ophir cemetery. It is the oldest of three stone Farm, named after the Ophir Silver chapels remaining in Westchester County. Manhattanville College The istoryH of Reid Castle Page 3 Ann Calvert Holladay’s “Lady Chapel” The Holladays’ time at Ophir Farm was short lived. Tragically, Ann died on September 18, 1873, the same day as the 1888 Panic of 1873. Shortly thereafter, Holladay Ophir Farm, in 1888, became the lost much of his fortune. He put the country estate of Whitelaw Reid, owner mansion up for public sale to alleviate the of The New York Tribune. He and his financial burden. wife, Elisabeth, filled their home with the finest decorations and the most modern 1883 Victorian appliances. It would become the first home in the Westchester area to be Ten years later, John Roach, the equipped with both telephone and electric shipbuilder who constructed the Monitor wiring. Frederick Law Olmsted, noted for the Union, bought the property. landscape architect who achieved success Unfortunately, he never lived on the estate, in designing New York’s Central Park, was for he was waiting for the completion of chosen to plan the landscaping. an important business deal before starting On July 14, 1888, only a month the restoration of Ophir Farm. before the Reids were scheduled to Roach lost his empire in 1885 when move in, a fire caused by a short circuit he was forced to put his company into swept through the house. Within a few receivership. He died in 1887, leaving hours, the mansion was in ruins. Gutted his debts and his estate to his son, who granite walls were the only reminders of immediately put the estate up for public its pioneer glory. (Coincidentally, that auction. same summer, the main building of the Page 4 The istoryH of Reid Castle Manhattanville College Whitelaw Reid Manhattanville College The istoryH of Reid Castle Page 5 Reid Estate Fire, July 14, 1888 Ophir Hall, c. 1892 Manhattanville campus, then located on their experiences into its design and décor. Convent Avenue in New York City, was When they returned in 1892 for the grand completely destroyed by fire.) opening, the mansion - now renamed The Reids decided to rebuild on a Ophir Hall - was already acclaimed as a greater and grander scale than before. work of art. Using stone quarried on the estate for the The formal gardens designed by construction, the firm of McKim, Mead & Olmsted were decorated with trees White was commissioned to assist in the and shrubs imported from France and plans. Appointed Ambassador to France, England. Paths led out past the farmland Reid spent most of the construction period to the borders of the land. Designed to be abroad, overseeing the building of his the home’s crowning glory, the reception home through correspondence. He and hall was composed of two varieties of his wife managed to translate many of marble, yellow Numidian African marble Page 6 The istoryH of Reid Castle Manhattanville College and pink marble from Georgia. he was named Ambassador to England Above the front staircase, an original and forced to direct the work on his estate stained glass work filtered light over the from abroad. In 1905, he sailed with his entire room. The two rooms to the right family to London where they became very of the entrance were imported from popular in diplomatic circles. the reception rooms for the Chateau de Just as the original portion of the Billennes, the country estate of a member mansion captured the Reid family’s time of the House of Napoleon III, in Poissy, in France, the Jacobean Corridor reflected France, which was being demolished. the unique architecture and design that formed the transition between the Elizabethan and the pure Renaissance 1892 style. Lined with paintings by Thomas Gainsborough and J.M.W. Turner, the Reid had been home only a few Corridor introduced an English style months when President Benjamin to the home and reflected the Reids’ Harrison asked him to be his running- affiliation with the Court of St. James. mate for the presidential election of The Great Library in the West Wing was 1892. The President traveled to Ophir decorated in the Tudor style with pargeted Hall to deliver a speech to the people of ceiling. Paneling and bookcases were Westchester from the mansion’s south imported from England, and in the great porch followed by a reception in the West window lancet-shaped panels and marble hallway. The election was lost by a a roundel originally from the clerestory Entrance to Ophir Hall, c. 1892 slim four percent. windows of Salisbury Church were Shortly after the election, Reid installed. decided to expand his home. However, Gardens, c. 1892 Manhattanville College The istoryH of Reid Castle Page 7 Spanish-American War. Under her guidance and that of 1912 her son, Ogden, the family’s newspaper flourished, merging with the New York By 1912, the wing was finished and Herald to become The New York Herald ready to receive diplomatic visitors. But it Tribune. was never used nor even seen by Whitelaw Through all these years, Ophir Hall Reid. Due to increasingly tense relations in was the scene of much activity, including pre-war Europe, the 75-year-old diplomat’s visits by prominent individuals, young and health had become very strained. On old, from business, government, the arts, December 15, 1912, he died from a and the world of sports. Across Purchase respiratory infection. Street, her son and his wife, Helen Rogers, Mrs. Reid however, remained active lived in Ophir Cottage, where they had in the affairs of her community and her taken up residence after their marriage nation, and Ophir Hall reflected her in 1911. There, they also entertained energetic pace. She helped establish a renowned guests from many walks of sanitarium and nurses’ training school life - among them Presidents Calvin at Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks, a Coolidge and Herbert Hoover, adventurer hospital in San Francisco and another at heroes, such as aviator Amelia Earhart and San Mateo in honor of her parents, Mr. Admiral Richard Byrd, as well as author and Mrs. Darius Ogden Mills. Henry James and boxer Gene Tunney. One of Mrs. Reid’s most ardent causes was the Red Cross. As a young bride, she had helped organize the New 1931 York Chapter and later, through her Red Cross work, was credited with instituting In 1931, the State Department the U.S. Army Nursing Corps during the turned to the Ambassador’s widow for Page 8 The istoryH of Reid Castle Manhattanville College Manhattanville College The istoryH of Reid Castle Page 9 help finding a residence for the King of brief time, the grounds were also explored Siam, who planned a visit to the U.S.

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