Bucket List Lyndhurst Mansion

Bucket List Lyndhurst Mansion

Here’s four reasons why Lyndhurst is on our Bucket List. For architects, Lyndhurst Mansion, the 19-room house, designed by Alexander Jackson Davis in 1838, and set on a 67-acre estate in Tarrytown overlooking the Hudson River, is considered one of America’s finest Gothic Revival mansions.

Historians recognize its significance as the one-time home of railroad magnate and financial speculator Jay Gould. To them it is a symbol of the excesses of what Mark Twain called The Gilded Age. A period of laissez faire capitalism when villainous Robber Barons made outsized fortunes while serious social problems went unaddressed.

For film buffs, Lyndhurst Mansion is the set for the 1970 horror movie House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows in 1971. It was also used by Director Barbet Schroeder as a location for his 1990 film Reversal of Fortune, about Sunny and Klaus von Bulow, starring Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close. A major motion picture that received three Academy Award nominations. (Irons won for Best Actor.) More recently Lyndhurst also served as a location in Gloria, The Cradle Will Rock (1999), and Winter’s Tale in 2013.

For What To Do, Lyndhurst Mansion is a Bucket List item for all our readers. Best of all, Lyndhurst Mansion is one of the most accessible area landmarks, offering a wide range of opportunities to experience the aesthetic and historic importance of this American landmark. Some that bring the house to life in contextually brilliant ways.

Here’s a sampling of what to do’s at Lyndhurst.

House tours

From April through the winter holidays, Lyndhurst Mansion is open for tours from Thursday through Monday from 10am to 4pm. They offer a Classic Mansion Tour for first timers and two specialty tours for returning visitors interested in a closer look at the site’s unseen spaces. Plus, in 2023 they are offering a new spring-time Ramble Tour that focus on the flowering trees and the historic rose garden! Take a spring ramble during our Flower Show weekend, April 15th and 16th. Whichever tour you choose, you will experience the architectural brilliance of this house and grounds shaped by its three owners over more than a century.

Lyndhurst was originally designed in 1838 as a country cottage for New York City Mayor William Paulding. In 1864, New York merchant George Merritt doubled its size and added its imposing signature four-story tower. And most famously, Jay Gould purchased Lyndhurst in 1880. He later passed it to his daughter Anna, the Duchess of Talleyrand, whose contributions to the house’s history are, at times, highlighted in special exhibitions. Anna donated Lyndhurst to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1961.

Crtically panned – Lyndhurst is now seen as a master work of Gothic Design

As you enter its curving entrance drive, you will pass sweeping lawns and specimen trees on Lyndhurst’s park-like grounds. Lyndhurst’s fanciful turrets and asymmetrical outline, novel for the post-colonial era in which it was built, rise above. Critically panned at the time, Lyndhurst is now seen as a master work of Gothic design. The estate also features the nation’s first steel-framed conservatory, a rose garden and a fernery.

Inside it boasts fantastically vaulted ornamented ceilings and a double height art gallery. And a vast collection of art, antiques, and furniture, most original to the house. On special tours you can explore Lyndhurst’s recently restored bowling alley, kitchens, laundry room, and observation tower.

Holiday Tours & Mr. Dickens Tells A Christmas Carol

For the holidays, Lyndhurst fills the mansion with elaborate glittering holiday tableaus, including items from the Gould family’s extensive holiday collections. Dozens of Christmas trees are decorated to complement the elegant period furnishings in the house. In 2018 Lyndhurst’s Holiday Tours made USA Today’s list of  the “Ten Best Historic Holiday Tours”.   There it is joined by Elvis Presley’s Graceland and Chicago’s Glessner House –  a work that inspired Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Another way to see Lyndhurst in all it’s holiday splendor is to take in a performance of Mr. Dickens Tells a Christmas Carol. An annual highlight of Lyndhurst’s holiday season, actor Mikel Von Brodbeck takes the audience on a dramatic journey through the mansion as he recreates Dickens’ famous 1867 performance of A Christmas Carol. Using Dickens’ original script, Brodbeck moves from room to room as the story unfold. Each room is a new scene, with new characters and all the spirits of Christmas that Scrooge meets in this timeless holiday tale.

Jay Ghoul’s House of Curiosities

What better backdrop for a family friendly Halloween boo-fest than Jay Gould’s Lyndhurst, the set-piece Gothic mansion for The House of Dark Shadows? Lyndhurst’s signature Halloween event, Jay Ghoul’s House of Curiosities, takes on new themes each year. Each offers visitors a dramatized, themed journey through the mansion where they meet mysterious and just a little spooky characters along the way. In past year’s their Halloween tours have had a fun Adams Family inspired theme. King Tut was its inspiration in 2018 as the mansion was decorated with elements from The Mystery of the Pharaohs’ Curse. In this interactive exhibition, visitors’s met characters and searched for clues in each room to help them solve the murder mystery.

Summer Sunset Jazz, and Theatre @ Lyndhurst 

Kick back on Thursday evenings in July and August on Lyndhurst’s bowling alley hill for sunset jazz. These picnic friendly concerts feature an eclectic array of jazz from Latin jazz and Samba to tributes to Dhango Rheinhardt and other jazz greats. Whether you are a fan of piano, trumpet, saxophone or vocal jazz, you will find an evening to suit your tastes. It’s the best jazz series in Westchester County, outside of Jazz Forum Arts in Tarrytown, and it’s at the county’s greatest venue for summer music.

In the spring and fall, Lyndhurst also presents theatrical productions of Sherlock Holmes murder mysteries and other performances from M&M Performing Arts. (This spring you can see A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Shakespeare Abridged.) Check their calendar throughout the year (or ours) for chamber music performances, magic and other special events. We cover them all.

Spring Blossoms Flower & Antiques Show, Spring & Fall Crafts at Lyndhurst

Yet another seasonal variation on a Lyndhurst house tour occurs in the spring. At Lyndhurst’s Spring Blossoms show, the mansion’s rooms are decorated with lavish floral arrangements. In 2019, Spring Blossoms also featured an Antiques Show with 22 vendors. There were High Teas in the Garden. Plus, family workshops and an Antiques Road Show Walk Through with Bob Richter.

Finally, Lyndhurst is home to NY’s largest outdoor crafts shows, held in May and October. Both are produced by ArtRider, the metropolitan area’s premiere purveyor of crafts shows. Fall Crafts At Lyndhurst features 300 artists and crafts exhibits showcasing one-of-a-kind jewelry, fashion and accessories, furniture and home décor. Plus functional and sculptural work in ceramics, glass, metal, painting, photography, wood and mixed media. Lyndhurst Spring Crafts is just a bit smaller at 275 exhibits. Put Lyndhurst Mansion on your Bucket List – there’s something cool going on there year-round.

(635 South Broadway, Tarrytown, NY 10591 • 914-631-4481; www.lyndhurst.org)