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Edward Harden Mansion | |
 West elevation, 2009 | |
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 Interactive map showing the location of Edward Harden Mansion | |
| Location | Sleepy Hollow,NY |
|---|---|
| Nearest city | White Plains |
| Coordinates | 41°4′58″N73°51′26″W / 41.08278°N 73.85722°W /41.08278; -73.85722 |
| Architect | Hunt & Hunt |
| Architectural style | Georgian Revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 03001401[1] |
| Added to NRHP | January 16, 2004 |
TheEdward Harden Mansion, also known asBroad Oaks, is a historic home located on North Broadway (U.S. Route 9) inSleepy Hollow, New York, United States, on the boundary between it and neighboringTarrytown. It is a brick building in theGeorgian Revivalstyle designed byHunt & Hunt in the early 20th century, one of the few mansions left of many that lined Broadway in the era it was built. Also on the property is awood framecarriage house that predates it slightly.[2] Both buildings were listed on theNational Register of Historic Places in 2003.[1]
Edward Harden had earned fame and fortune as theChicago Tribune reporter who broke the story of AdmiralGeorge Dewey's victory in theBattle of Manila Bay. He later left journalism for finance, and after earning a seat on theNew York Stock Exchange commissioned the house. Shortly after it was built, he allowed part of the home to be used for a newkindergarten that was the firstMontessori school in the U.S. The Harden family later moved to nearbyScarborough. It was used as a home for retired seamstresses and, in the middle of the century, sold to the local school district, which continues to use it as its main offices today.
The mansion is located atop a small hill on the east side of Broadway, adjacent toPatriot's Park, listed on the Register as the site whereJohn André was captured during theRevolutionary War, exposingBenedict Arnold's espionage for the British. On the east property line is theOld Croton Aqueduct, aNational Historic Landmark. The house straddles the municipal boundary between Sleepy Hollow and neighboring Tarrytown. It and the park are the transitional area between the densely developed downtown sections of the two communities, to the west, and residential areas to the east, marked by tall mature trees sheltering houses on large lots.Sleepy Hollow High School and the district's middle school are to the north and the elementary John Paulding School is to the south.[2] A drive leads up from Broadway, curving south to a parking lot to the southwest. Another large parking lot is in the rear.[2]
The main house itself is a brick-faced nine-by-five-bay structure, two and a half stories tall withdormer windows and brick chimneys piercing itship roof. On the north and south end are two-story, three-bay flat-roofed wings faced in decorative woodwork. A one-story service wing is on the rear, and an open porch on a stonework foundation with an iron railing runs along the ground floor of the west (front)facade, wrapping around both porches.[2]
All windows on the seven bays of the main block's west facade are double-hungsash, 20-over-1 on the first floor (except for modern, narrower one-over-one on the northwest corner) and 15-over-15 upstairs. Some have projecting window air conditioner units. They have marble sills and splayed brick lintels with marblekeystones. Recessed panels are worked into the brick between the two stories; the corners arequoined. At the roofline is a modillioned, dentilledcornice. The small six-over-six double-hung sash in the five dormers are topped withpedimentedgables.[2]
From the center of the south facade the porch projects. It is a three-by-three-bay two-story wooden extension with a flat roof. Cornerpilasters support afrieze withmolded dentils. On the first story all windows are small six-over-six double-hung sash, replacing the originalFrench windows. They are within semicircular arches supported by paneled pilasters. On the second floor the 12-over-12 double-hung sash formbalconettes. Above it three more gabled dormers pierce the roof. The north porch is similar but smaller, recessed slightly into the corner. Both porches are flanked on the main block by windows with the same treatment as the corresponding windows on the west facade. On the northeast corner, the service wing has a flat roof, windows in a variety of configurations, and an entrance porch.[2]
The east facade runs the full nine bays since it includes the rear of the north porch. Its windows are the same as the others on the house. In its center is a recessed three-bay two-story entrance porch, the house's original front entrance, creating three-bay flankingpavilions with two smooth columns on either side supported bysandstoneCompositecapitals. In the center bay the entrance has its originalstained wooden single-panel door with narrow pilasters andleaded glass sidelights andtransom.[2]
Similar columns flank the west entrance, which is topped by a single-bay pedimented segmental-arched porch. The door itself has been replaced with a modern one; its overhead transom has been filled in as well. It opens into a large entrance hall with a staircase reported to have been brought from a genuine Colonial house inBoston. The walls that once separated the dining room on the north anddrawing room on the south have been removed. Many original finishes remain, such as the plaster walls and ceilings; wood, plaster and marblefireplace mantels and blackwalnut woodwork in other places. The bathrooms upstairs retain their white tile floors.[2]
The carriage house is a one-and-a-half-story wood-frame building at the northeast corner of the property. It has a clipped gable roof,bracketedeaves and a smallcupola. Its windows are double-hung sash in a variety of configurations.[2]
In 1898, then 29-year-oldChicago Tribune business editorEdward Harden was riding along on theUSSHugh McCulloch, arevenue cutter, when it was summoned to join theAsiatic Squadron under the command of CommodoreGeorge Dewey, as theSpanish–American War broke out. He was one of three reporters who witnessed Dewey's victory in theBattle of Manila Bay, the first by the U.S. Navy over a foreign fleet since theWar of 1812. From Hong Kong he was able toscoop the other two by paying the telegraph operator with a bag of gold to expedite the dispatch to his paper. It reached the United States ahead of Dewey's official report, which had been sent first, and even PresidentWilliam McKinley found out when theTribune's editor awoke him with the news.[2]
Seven years later, after service as a special commissioner in the Philippines and editor of theChicago Journal, he left journalism for finance and business. He was successful enough as a stock trader to earn a seat on theNew York Stock Exchange, and married Ruth Vanderlip, sister ofFrank Vanderlip, Assistant Treasury Secretary during the Spanish–American War and later president ofNational City Bank. The couple and their children were drawn to the Tarrytowns, where many other prominent wealthy families of the time lived.[2]
They commissionedHunt & Hunt, a firm run by the sons ofRichard Morris Hunt, to design the house in what was then known as North Tarrytown, in 1909. Harden bought four acres (1.6 ha), which included the carriage house, likely built for a predecessor house. The architects chose the newGeorgian Revival style for the building, which was widely covered by New York and Chicago newspapers. Harden was aware of the Revolutionary-era history of the nearby land, and may have chosen an 18th-century revival style to reflect this. He collected memorabilia related toJohn André, a collection held today by the Tarrytown Historical Society, and later bought the land for use as a public park.[2]
After two years at the mansion, the school was moved to the Vanderlips' property in nearbyBriarcliff Manor, where it became theScarborough School. Among its later students were some ofFranklin Delano Roosevelt's grandchildren. The Hardens, too, moved to Scarborough in 1926, supposedly finding Broadway had become "too noisy". It was sold to the estate of Margaret Howard, anIrish immigrant who had become a millionaire dressmaker in New York. She had directed in herwill that a large amount of money be used to purchase and maintain a home for retiredseamstresses like those who had worked for her, an unusual idea at the time. Two years after the sale, in 1928, theSisters of Mercy managed the home as the first residents moved in.[2]
The seamstresses kept busy, sewing uniforms for American troops duringWorld War II. Ten years after the war, in 1955, the house was sold to the Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns, whichconverted it slightly. The mansion to the north had already been used as the basis for a private boys' school, the building that is now Sleepy Hollow High School. Later the southern mansion became John Paulding School, named for one of the localmilitiamen who had apprehended André nearby. The district has continued to use it as its administration building.[2]
