Glenview Mansion facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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John Bond Trevor House
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East (front) elevation, 2010
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 Location in New York
Location in the United States
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| Location | 511 Warburton Avenue Yonkers, New York |
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| Area | 23 acres (9.3 ha) |
| Built | 1876-1877 |
| Architect | Charles W. Clinton |
| Architectural style | Late Victorian, Eclectic |
| NRHP reference No. | 72000921 |
| Added to NRHP | June 19, 1972 |
Glenview Mansion, also known as the John Bond Trevor House, is a beautiful old stone house in Yonkers, New York. It was built in the 1870s and has a unique mix of Victorian architecture styles. The house was designed by Charles W. Clinton and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
Glenview is special because it's one of the few buildings in Yonkers made from local gray stone. Inside, you can see amazing wooden cabinets and decorations. These were made by a famous craftsman named Daniel Pabst. Many people think Glenview has one of the best examples of this style inside a public building in America.
A rich banker named John Bond Trevor built Glenview as a country home. He wanted a quiet place, but still close enough to New York City for him to travel to work by train. When the Trevors first moved in, other similar large homes surrounded Glenview. But by the 1920s, the area had become a busy suburb. The house shows how people started moving from country living to modern suburban life.
In 1929, after the Trevor family left, Glenview became the home of the Hudson River Museum. It stayed that way for 45 years. The museum has grown a lot since then, but the house is still part of it. The rooms have been fixed up to look like they did when the Trevors lived there. Visitors can explore them today.
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What Does Glenview Mansion Look Like?
The house is 2½ stories tall. It has four sections on the south and east sides, five on the west, and three on the north. Its strong walls are made of rough gray stone from the local area. It also has fancy decorations made from Ohio sandstone.
The house has four parts that stick out. The biggest is a tall, rectangular tower on the front (south) side. It is about 84 feet (26 m) high and has a steep, pointed roof. There's a smaller tower with a cone-shaped roof on the west side. The house also has a small front porch and a back stoop. You can find bay windows on the south and west sides.
The roof is a hipped roof covered with shingles. It has ten dormer windows sticking out, some with small gables. There are also a few brick chimneys on the flat part of the roof, but they don't work anymore.
The outside walls have sandstone lines that run along the top and bottom of the windows. The first-floor windows have fancy tops. Small flower designs are carved into the stone above the second-floor windows. At the roofline, there's a wide, overhanging edge with decorative blocks and curved brackets. Above the front bay window, there's a balcony with a wooden railing. The front porch has a hipped roof supported by two carved wooden columns.
Inside, the main hall has carved ebony columns. The floor is made of colorful majolica and encaustic tiles. The ceilings have stenciled patterns, and the doorways are beautifully decorated with wood. There are also paintings and sculptures. In the sitting room, the woodwork has sunflower details and birdseye maple cabinets. The parlors (living rooms) have Meissen porcelain figures and a marble statue.
Glenview's Story
Glenview's history can be split into three main parts. First, the time before it was built. Second, the years the Trevor family lived there. And third, its time as a museum.
How Glenview Was Built (1861–1876)
John Bond Trevor was a banker from Philadelphia. He started working on Wall Street in the 1850s. He did so well that he moved to Yonkers when he got married in 1861. At that time, Yonkers was becoming a popular place for rich bankers. They wanted to live on large estates in the Hudson Valley but still be able to travel to their jobs in Manhattan by train. This was the start of suburbanization.
When the Trevors first moved to Yonkers, they lived in a house near the Glenwood train station. There weren't many other houses around. Most of the land was open and undeveloped. This made it very appealing to Trevor and other businessmen like him.
In 1867, Trevor's first wife passed away. After he remarried, he bought 23 acres (9.3 ha) of land for $150,000. He hired Charles W. Clinton, an architect, to design his new house. Clinton had worked with a famous architect named Richard Upjohn. Clinton designed a building that was described as "not strictly confined to any one style."
For the inside, Trevor hired skilled craftsmen. One was Daniel Pabst, a cabinetmaker from Philadelphia. Trevor or Clinton might have seen Pabst's work at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Local builders, who also attended the exposition, handled the construction. The carpet came from the nearby Alexander Smith Carpet Mills. The house was finished in 1877.
Before building the house, Trevor, who loved gardening, built greenhouses and stables. His choice of land was different from most estates in Yonkers. Many were built higher up the hill with land going all the way to the river. Trevor's land was closer to the river, but the railroad tracks cut off direct access. He might have wanted to stay close to his business partner and the train station. He even put the property's gates on Ravine Avenue, which was closer to the station, instead of Warburton Avenue.
Trevor was very active in the community. He was a presidential elector and led meetings for the local Republican Party. Because of this, the house got a lot of attention in the local newspapers. It was one of the first big houses built after a tough economic time in 1873. People called it a "showplace" for Yonkers, which had become a city just five years earlier. In 1886, Glenview was one of 12 Yonkers homes chosen for pictures in a history book about Westchester County.
Life at Glenview (1876–1922)
During these years, Trevor lived like a gentleman farmer. He traveled to Wall Street every day for work. The family spent winters in the city and sometimes went to the Catskills in the summer. He was good friends with neighbors like Samuel J. Tilden, a former governor, and William Allen Butler, a lawyer. Famous guests at Glenview included Civil War generals Nelson Miles and William Tecumseh Sherman.
John B. Trevor, Sr., Trevor's youngest son, remembered his childhood at Glenview as a "paradise." He and his neighbor, Sherman Colgate Hoyt, often played together. The nearby river was a big part of their games. Henry Trevor joined the Yonkers Yacht Club and raced boats. In the 1890s, John and his sisters started playing golf, a new popular sport. They also enjoyed bicycling. One sister, Emily, was a very keen bicyclist.
John Bond Trevor died in 1890. His gardener, John Wiffler, retired two years later. The family continued to live at Glenview. Mary Trevor's wedding reception there in 1892 was a big event. A special train brought guests from the city to the church and back to the mansion. The flowers for the wedding came from the estate's greenhouses.
Trevor's widow lived at Glenview with her children as they grew up. Her daughter Emily kept a diary, which tells us a lot about life at Glenview around the turn of the century. She often wrote about visiting friends or family. She also wrote about trips to New York City or to the "village" of Yonkers, which was a mile away. In the early 1900s, these trips started to be made by car instead of train or carriage. This showed how cars were becoming more common.
After his wedding in 1909, John moved out. But he visited often with his own children, especially in the summer. His son, John B. Trevor, Jr., later remembered that the billiards room was mostly used as the children's dining room. The parlor and library were rarely used. Emily said that she and her mother "lived a very quiet life" at Glenview in the 1910s.
The neighborhood around Glenview changed a lot over the years. In 1875, the land north and east of the estate was divided into smaller plots. Over time, these plots were sold and developed with houses. These new houses were similar to Glenview but smaller. By the time Emily Trevor died, the area had changed from a country town to a modern suburb. Because of these changes, the family decided to sell the house.
Glenview as a Museum (1922–Present)
The city of Yonkers bought the house and land from the Trevor family. They wanted to use the land as a public park. Trevor Park was created soon after. The house was empty for six years. Then, in 1929, it opened as the Museum of Science and Art. In 1948, it became the Hudson River Museum. The museum rented the house and land from the city for just $1 a year.
Over the years, some parts of the outside of the house were changed. The covered entrance for carriages (called a porte-cochère) and verandas (open porches) were removed. Inside, the fireplaces were taken out. The glass above the front door was removed so a stuffed elephant from the Barnum & Bailey Circus could be brought in! The rooms were used for exhibits, and their original decorations were not well cared for.
In 1967, the museum needed more space. They built a large, modern addition with a planetarium. This new building was very different from the old house. It also surrounded the house, making it harder to see the first floor. The front entrance, with its barred doors, was even compared to a prison. An elevator was put in the mansion. The rooms were restored to show the house's history and how the Trevors lived.
In the early 2000s, the museum started raising money for a big expansion. The first steps were to connect Glenview and the 1969 building better. A covered walkway between the two was enclosed. A 115 feet (35 m) corridor was built to connect to a new elevator outside. The museum director explained that these changes were needed to follow federal accessibility laws and still keep the building's historic look.
Design of Glenview
John Bond Trevor and his architect, Charles Clinton, worked closely on the house's design. Trevor planned the gardens and wanted the house to fit in perfectly. Windows were placed carefully to offer the best views of the river and landscape. Clinton used many different styles in his design. One local newspaper said the house looked "old English," while another said it looked like a "French château."
The rough stone on the outside was similar to other mansions nearby. Clinton had mostly designed city houses before this. The tower on Glenview might have even inspired a tower Clinton built on another building in Manhattan a year later.
The inside of Glenview showed new ideas for house design that would become common in suburban homes. In a city house, rooms would be stretched out to the back because there wasn't much space on the sides. But in Glenview, the dining room and kitchen were on the same floor at the back. A pantry connected them so servants didn't have to go through the public areas.
In Glenview, the parlor (a formal living room) and billiards room were on the east side of the main hall. The library and other family rooms were on the west side. This allowed the family to enjoy the river view. Between the dining room and library was the sitting room. This room opened onto a large porch, called a "piazza" back then. Another wide porch, with a covered entrance for carriages, was originally on the south side.
These porches not only offered river views but also helped keep the house cool. They provided shade and created a cooler area between the house and the hot outdoors. The first floor was filled with comfortable chairs, showing that the house was built for relaxation. On the second floor, the main bedroom was in the southwest corner. This allowed for river views and lots of sunlight.
John Bond Trevor loved gardening. He worked with his gardener, John Wiffler, on the property. After Glenview was built, Wiffler and his family moved into a small cottage on the estate. They planted 200 evergreen trees and orange and lemon trees. Trevor was very passionate about his hobby. He grew prize-winning plants and developed new types. In 1883, his Black Hamburg grapes won first prize at a horticulture meeting. His grandson later remembered that the potting shed was "simply lined with awards" for the flowers. Trevor's copper-colored "Glenview mum" (a type of chrysanthemum) was even sold in Manhattan.
The Neighborhood Around Glenview
Glenview Mansion is located on the grounds of the Hudson River Museum. It sits just north of the museum's main building, which is made of concrete. The house forms the north wall of the museum's central courtyard. The entire museum complex is on the west side of Warburton Avenue. It's north of Trevor Park and south of John F. Kennedy Memorial Drive.
The ground slopes down to the west towards the Metro-North train tracks. These tracks run about 300 feet (91 m) away, along the shore of the Hudson River. The Glenwood train station is about 1,000 feet (300 m) south along the tracks. Across the river, you can see the tall stone cliffs of the Palisades in New Jersey.
Across Warburton Avenue to the east are two-story houses built in the 1900s. Behind them runs the Old Croton Aqueduct, which is a National Historic Landmark with a walking trail. A modern tall building is to the west, across Memorial Drive. There's a small parking lot for museum employees just north of the house. To the south, Trevor Park is mostly open space with baseball fields and tennis courts. South of the park are more modern apartment buildings.
See also
In Spanish: Mansión Glenview para niños
