Old Ridgefield Jack Sanders
The Age of the
Great Estates A
Chauffeur-driven buggies line up to meet the evening train from New York City arriving at the village station on Prospect Street around 1905. From 1870 to 1925, passenger train service made Ridgefield easily and comfortably accessible from Manhattan.
The vast view from John Lynch’s West Mountain Farm extended to beyond the Hudson River and included a couple of estates in Lewisboro.
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May/June 2022
19th Century locomotive was a noisy, smelly, dirty machine, but it provided an escape from a noisy, smelly, dirty place: New York City. The construction of the railroad in 1870 dramatically changed the Ridgefield village. The comfortable, two-hour trip from Manhattan drew scores of wealthy New Yorkers who built “cottages” to escape the steamy, stinky city summers. Grand estates began replacing farmland in the 1880s. Ridgefield was being promoted for its offering of fresh air and—at 800 to 900 feet above sea level—views that could astound. From many spots one could see Long Island to the south or beyond the Hudson River to the west. Good press helped. By 1890 The New York Times ran regular reports of Ridgefield’s social scene and touted the town’s benefits. Under an 1893 headline, DOCTORS RECOMMEND RIDGEFIELD, The Times reported: “The success of Ridgefield as a summer resort” is partly due to “the influence of many of the prominent physicians of New York, who have induced their patients to pass the summer here,” and listed doctors who’d built homes in town. Advertising even boasted that Ridgefield was typhoid-free. The Place to Be Among the physicians was Dr. Bache McEvers Emmet, whose 43-acre estate on West Mountain, Greywacke, provided spectacular views to the west. It was later named Innisfree, home of Dr. Patrick Neligan who modernized Ridgefield’s Health Department. Farther up the mountain, John Hampton Lynch, who headed the Terminal Warehouse in Manhattan, established his 50-acre “West Mountain Farm,” nearly 900 feet above sea level, with panoramic views. His mansion survives as the
core of Ridgefield Academy. Nearby, heroic Civil War surgeon Dr. John Perry turned a farm into a summer estate. His modest home was replaced with stately Sunset Hall, owned by the family of magician Harry Houdini, and later actor Robert Vaughn, followed by TV interviewer Dick Cavett. From the roof, one could see the Manhattan skyline. In the village, High Ridge was being promoted as ideal for summer places. E.P. Dutton’s 1890 mansion, still standing, once included a bedroom toilet positioned near a window so the book publisher could enjoy views of the Hudson Valley. Dutton was one of many civic minded “summer people,” and helped purchase the library site as well as land later housing Ridgefield High School for a half century. High Ridge mansions came and went. Altnacraig, which burned in 1994, was the country home of Alonzo Barton and Emily Hepburn. Barton headed the huge Chase Bank in New York. After he was killed by a Fifth Avenue bus, Emily pursued a new life, building a 26-story Manhattan residence for working women that became the landmark Beekman Tower hotel. Hotels were the realm of William Hawk, who built and operated The Manhattan, once the world’s tallest hotel. His 40-room “Hawks Nest” off Branchville Road, a turn-of-the-century showplace, burned in 1921. The threat of fire worried express company executive Frederic Lewis, so his 40-room fortress was fashioned of fireproof masonry. Lewis’s 140acre Upagenstit estate along West Lane was staffed by nearly 100 people, including his personal physician and private chef (with houses provided for each). His wife, Mary oversaw vast gardens and immense greenhouses, growing prize-winning orchids.
