1910 Article Describes Mansions that Still Stood in What Once Was Pelham Overlooking Long Island Sound

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.

Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.

Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."

During the nineteenth century, the beauty of the Town of Pelham situated on Long Island Sound attracted wealthy New Yorkers who built stupendous mansions and elegant summer homes on Pelham Neck and along Shore Road overlooking the Sound.  I have written on the histories of many such mansions and their owners.  I have included an extensive list of such postings at the end of today's article.

 

1868 Map Detail Showing Many Pelham Mansions and Summer Homes. 

Source:  Beers, F.W., Atlas of New York and Vicinity,

p. 35 (NY, NY: F.W. Beers, et al., 1868) (plate entitled

"City Island, Pelham Township, Westchester Co., N.Y.

(with) Town of Pelham, Westchester Co., N.Y.").



Today's Historic Pelham Blog posting transcribes a lengthy exerpt from an article published in 1910 that describes many of the mansions that continued to stand at the time in Pelham Bay Park. 

"BRONX PARKS.
-----
Colonial and Revolutionary Landmarks.
-----
Homes of Romance, Tradition and Tragedy.
-----

*   *   *

PELHAM BAY PARK.

Bartow Mansion -- This beautiful and exclusive mansion, displaying such a striking Grecian front of native cut masonry, is a short distance northeast of the Bartow station of the New Haven road, and perhaps a mile south of Hunter's Island.  Standing on what was the Pell estate, it is but a stone's throw east of the fabled site of the ancient Pell manor house, where the manor courts were held and the tenants of Lord Pell would assemble in the early days.  The grizzled veteran of the forest, which up to a year ago stood on the immense grassy lawn in front of the Bartow mansion, was pointed out as the great tree under whose branches Lord Pell signed the celebrate treaty [sic] with the Indian sachems, on Nov. 14, 1654 [sic], the noted Pell treaty oak.  Closer to the water's edge a tiny cemetery proclaims from the quaint inscriptions on its well-worn tombstones that it is the last resting place of several members of the Pell family.  For a number of summers the courtesy of the Bronx park commissioner has enabled the Crippled Children's Asscoiation to have its little members bask in the warm sun and enjoy the cooling and refreshing breezes that circle around the old Bartow mansion.

De Lancey Mansion -- Almost opposite the twin gate posts of Hunter's Island is 'Greystones,' the former splendid residence of William H. DeLancey.  On the walls used to hang the original portrait of the Hon. Caleb Heathcote, lord of the Manor of Scarsdale.  This native stone building has been known as Hunter's Island Inn, and is situated at a sharp curve in the road that has proved such a thorn in the flesh to scorching automobilists.

Hunter Mansion. -- This elaborate stone residence lately used as an inn stands adjoining the athletic field, not far from the picturesque summer house by the shore, commanding a fine view of City Island across Pelham Bay.  Built in the fifties of the last century, it was styled
Annie's Wood' by the late owner E. Des Brosses Hunter, son of John Hunter of Hunter's Island.  It stands on part of the extensive estate of the Bayards, those well-known early settlers who came from France to escape the Huguenots persecution.  One of the three brothers who came as immigrants was Blathazar Bayard, a Huguenot clergyman, who accounts tell us, was shipped from Rochelle, France, in a hogshead.

Hunter's Island Mansion. -- Standing like a massive stone sentinel on the central crest of Hunter's Island in the very northeastern corner of Pelham Bay Park, this splendid old-time structure occupies the grandest location for a private residence along the whole length of Long Island Sound.  Any one who has seen its striking Ionic colonnade, or the magnificent panorama of sea and land, to be obtained from the upper windows, cannot but be lost in admiration of Mr. Hunter's good taste in the selection of a home.  History tells us that the Hunter family were related to that of Gen. Philip Schuyler, of Revolutionary fame.  Certain it is that the Schuyler mansion stood not so very far removed from that of Mr. Hunter, its site being about a mile to the southwest, back of the present Bartow station, and close to the banks of the Hutchinson River, named after that noted early settler, Anne Hutchinson, who braved the dangers of the primeval forest for a home in Pelham Bay Park, where she could enjoy religious freedom.  At one time the Hunter mansion was the residence of Mr. Henderson, a southern gentleman, once a surgeon in the British army, having seen service in distant Asia.  Under his ownership the mansion was a sumptuous bachelor's hall, and the 'Lonely Lord' is found to have made his homestead the palatial home of th finest prvate art gallery of its time in the whole United States, it having been filled to overflowing with the choicest treasures of the Italian masters.  For a number of years past the Hunter mansion has been the summer home of the Little Mothers' Association, and a more beautiful charity cannt be imagined than allowing these hard-worked children of the poor to have the enjoyments that this island affords.

Lorillard Mansion. -- Now known as the Tallapoosa Club House, this once splendid mansion was erected by Pierre Lorillard, Jr., and is a typical example of the grand array of country residences that once were the pride of lower Westchester County.  Its location, just this side of Pelham Bridge, commanding a glorious view of the waters of the sound, whose waves break almost at its very doors, cannot be excelled for romantic beauty.

Marshall Mansion -- Opposite the upper end of City Island and surrounded by a forest of its own the white Marshall mansion rears its stately walls, and presents in its handsome Grecian columns a most striking and picturesque appearance.  The name 'Hawkswood' still clings to the place, and it will not be long before the snaillike horse car of a bygone age will give place to the modern monorail system now under construction, whose dazzling cars are expected to fly past the Marshall mansion at 135 miles an hour.

Morris Mansion -- A few steps west of the Marshall mansion described above, 'Longwood,' A. Newbold M. Morris' late home, occupies one of the finest locations on Pelham neck with a beautiful view to the south.  Not far from this is the old shingle-sided Bowne homestead, near which, according to one account, was the old Pell residence, so located from the fishhawks' nests, which Mr. Pell felt sure would bring good luck to him and his family.

Ogden Mansion. -- In this remote yet romantic nook, on the easterly of the tiny Twin Islands, only reached by a winding roadway over the hills of Hunter's Island, is the magnificent stone Ogden mansion, for a while the home of one of Jacob A. Riis's settlements.  One cannot be but in rapture over the glorious landscape here, yet how few are allowed to enjoy it.

*    *    * "

Source:  BRONX PARKS -- Colonial and Revolutionary Landmarks -- Homes of Romance, Tradition and Tragedy, The Daily Standard Union [Brooklyn, NY], Oct. 17, 1910, p. 9, cols. 3-6. 
 
*          *          *          *          *
 
Below is a list of prior postings that address the histories of some Pelham mansions and their owners.
 
Mon., May 26, 2014:  James D. Fish and the Mansion He Built that Once Stood on the Most Easterly of the Twin Islands in Pelham. 

Thu., May 15, 2014:  Edgewood, a Grand 19th Century Estate Owned by Frederick Prime Overlooking Long Island Sound. 

Mon., Apr. 28, 2014:  More on The Estate Known as "West Neck" that Once Belonged to Philip B. Schuyler. 

Wed., Apr. 23, 2014:  Philip B. Schuyler and the Burning of the Schuyler Homestead in What Once was Part of Pelham in 1895.

Mon., Mar. 03, 2014:  The Suydam Estate known as “Oakshade” on Shore Road in the Town of Pelham, built by James Augustus Suydam. 
 
Wed., Feb. 26, 2014:  Research Regarding "Greystones," The Elegant DeLancey Estate that Became Hunter Island Inn and Once Stood in Pelham on Today's Shore Road.
 
Fri., Feb. 14, 2014:  Martin Euclid Thompson, the Architect of the Pelham Mansion Known as Hawkswood and the Marshall Mansion.
 
Thu., Feb. 13, 2014:  More Information About Elisha W. King, the Builder and Original Owner of Hawkswood.
 
Mon., Feb. 10, 2014:  Hawkswood, Also Known as the Marshall Mansion, Colonial Hotel and Colonial Inn, Once Stood in Pelham Near City Island.
 
Fri., May 07, 2010:  Image of Hawkswood Published in 1831.
 
Mon., Apr. 26, 2010:  Public Service Commission Couldn't Find Marshall's Corners in 1909.
 
Thu., Jun. 28, 2007:  19th Century Notice of Executor's Sale of "Hawkswood" After Death of Elisha W. King.

Fri., Mar. 2, 2007:  A Brief Account by American Author Margaret Deland of Her Education at Pelham Priory in the 19th Century. 

Thu., Dec. 14, 2006:  Items from Bolton Priory in the Collections of The Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture, The New-York Historical Society.
 
Tue., Oct. 03, 2006:  Two Interesting Photographs of Bolton Priory in Pelham Manor. 
 
Fri., Jul. 28, 2006:  Image of Bolton Priory in the Town of Pelham Published in an 1859 Treatise on Landscape Gardening. 
 
Wed., Jul. 26, 2006:  A Brief Account of Visits to Bolton Priory in the Early 1880s. 

Jul. 5, 2006:  Bricks Laid by Washington Irving and Ivy from Kenilworth Castle at the Bolton Priory in Pelham Manor.
 
Wed., Apr. 5, 2006:  "Hawkswood", Later Known as the Marshall Mansion on Rodman's Neck in Pelham. 

Wed., Mar. 15, 2006:  A Biography of Cornelius W. Bolton Published in 1899.

Wed., Mar. 1, 2006:  1909 Real Estate Advertisement Showing Bolton Priory.

Wed., Dec. 7, 2005:  The Sale and Subdivision of the Bolton Priory Estate in the 1950s. 
 
Fri., Dec. 02, 2005:  John Hunter of Hunter's Island in Pelham, New York. 

Tue., Nov. 29, 2005:  An Early, Interesting Photograph of Bolton Priory in the Village of Pelham Manor. 
 
Thu., Nov. 3, 2005:  President Martin Van Buren's Visit to Pelham in July 1839.

Tue., Aug. 23, 2005:  Society Scandal: The "Strange" Story of Mrs. Adele Livingston Stevens Who Acquired the Bolton Priory in Pelham Manor. 
 
Fri., Jun. 10, 2005:  Pelham's Most Magnificent Wedding Gift: The Bolton Priory.   

Tue., May 3, 2005:  Colonel Frederick Hobbes Allen, An Owner of Bolton Priory in Pelham Manor. 

Bell, Blake A., A Brief History of Bolton Priory in Pelham Manor, The Pelham Weekly, Vol. XIII, No., 16, Apr. 16, 2004, p. 8, col. 2. 

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.

Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.

Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."

James D. Fish and the Mansion He Built that Once Stood on the Most Easterly of the Twin Islands in Pelham

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.

Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.

Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."

The Twin Islands are adjacent to Hunter's Island in today's Pelham Bay Park.  A magnificent mansion once stood on the most easterly of the Twin Islands with splendid views overlooking Long Island Sound and the shores of Long Island.  (Hunter's Island and West Twins Island were joined to Orchard Beach by landfill in 1947.)

The mansion was known at different times as the "Fish Mansion," the "Ogden Mansion," and the "Hoyt House" based on the names of various owners.  It was built of sandstone as a summer retreat in the 1880s by New York banker James D. Fish. 

"Ogden Mansion" circa 1910.

Source:  Gelatin Silver Print, 

Museum of the City of New York, X2010.11.6992

James D. Fish was the oldest son of Asa Fish and Prudence Dean Fish.  He was born in Mystic, Connecticut August 7, 1819, and died in Brooklyn, New York, on March 31, 1912.  He lived much of his life in Brooklyn and was a banker, merchant and shipping agent.  

James D. Fish came from a family whose members were "prominent in shipping in Mystic and New York City and were early settlers of Mystic, Connecticut.  According to one source:

"James had four brothers (a fifth died young) and three sisters. All but one of these siblings married and had children. He himself married three times. His first wife was Mary Ester Blodget whom he married on June 4, 1843. They had seven children. Mary Ester died on Jul 17, 1868. His second wife was Isabelle Rogers whom he married on March 18, 1872. They had one son named Paul Rogers, born in 1873. Isabelle died on Dec 20, 1879. His third wife was Sally Reber Laing whom he married on May 20, 1884. They had one daughter born February 24, 1885 named Alice Reber Fish. Sally died on March 10, 1885."

Source:   Mystic Seaport - Fish Family Papers (Coll. 211):  Biography of the Fish Family, available at <http://library.mysticseaport.org/manuscripts/coll/coll211.cfm#head46806520> (visited May 23, 2014).  

James Dean Fish in an Undated Photograph.

Source:  Ancestry.com.

The brief biography quoted above omits an important set of facts.  Not long after building the sandstone mansion on the most easterly of the Twins, James D. Fish was shipped off to jail although, eventually, he was granted clemency by President Grover Cleveland.  

Fish was imprisoned for fraud after two closely-related firms in which he was a partner (in each) collapsed, setting off the financial panic of 1884 that led to the failures of more than 10,000 smaller firms.  As one source notes, the "immediate cause" of the financial panic was the failure of Grant & Ward and also Marine National Bank of New York City. Fish was the President of the Marine National Bank at the time of its collapse and was a member of the investment firm known as "Grant & Ward" which many believed merely "traded on the name" of former U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant, a part owner of the firm.  These two firms were joined closely together precisely because James D. Fish was a partner in both.  When these two major firms collapsed, it had a ripple effect across Wall Street causing many firms to fail. 

Scene on Wall Street on the Morning of May 14, 1884

During the Financial Panic of 1884 as Depicted in the

May 24, 1884 Issue of Harper's Weekly.  Source:

Wikimedia Commons.

The obituary of James Dean Fish that appeared in the March 31, 1912 issue of The New York Times detailed the impact that the collapse of his firms and his imprisonment had on his life.  That obituary read in full as follows:

"J.D. FISH, EX-BANKER, BURIED

He Had Lived In Seclusion Since His Release from Prison.

James Dean Fish, President of the Marine Bank at the time of its crash in 1884 and a member of the ill-fated firm of Grant & Ward, which traded on the name and involved the fortunes of Gen. Grant, died at the age of 93 on last Sunday, and was buried in Mystic, Conn.  The quietness of the funeral was part of the rigid seclusion Mr. Fish maintained for many years at his home, 105 Felix Street, Brooklyn, where he lived with his daughters, and, in fact, ever since his release from Auburn Prison, to which he was sentenced for his part in the Wall Street crash.

The firm of Grant & Ward, which usually had large deposits in the Marine Bank, was first composed of Ulysses S. Grant, Jr., and Mr. Fish.  Then Gen. Grant bought a seventh interest in the business, and a subsequent purchase of a fifty-thousand-dollar share by Mrs. Grant and his son, Jess, put the ex-President on an equal footing with the other pratners.  When the crash came the despair of thousands of investors whom Gen. Grant's name had been sufficient to draw to the firm was mingled with the pity of the entire country that he should have been involved in such finance.

Ferdinand  Ward and Fish were sent to prison, the latter sentenced to a term of ten years:  but this was commuted by Gov. Cleveland [sic] and he was released before he had served four years.  His daughter, Anna Fish, never wavered in her devotion, living in the prison town until her father left.  For a while Fish lived in seclusion in the library of his house in West Thirty-fourth Street.

In the days of his prosperity Fish was an inveterate first-nighter at the theatres, and not long before the failure of his bank he took for his third wife Sally Reber, an opera singer and a daughter of Judge Reber of Sandusky, Ohio.  A daughter was born on the day Fish was sentenced to Auburn, and five weeks later his young wife died."

Source:  J. D. FISH, EX-BANKER, BURIED, N.Y. Times, Mar. 31, 1912.  

After the financial troubles that sent James D. Fish to jail, the mansion he built passed through the hands of several additional owners until the Twin Islands became part of Pelham Bay Park in 1888 when New York City was acquiring lands for park development.  Beginning in the early 1900s, the mansion saw use as a children's summer retreat overseen by the Jacob Riis Foundation.

New York City reportedly demolished the mansion in 1937 citing an inability to maintain the property.

Immediately below are transcriptions of various resources that reference James D. Fish, members of his family, or the mansion he built on the easterly Twin Island.

*          *          *          *

"The Twin Island house is pictured here at the turn of the century.  Twin and Hunter Islands became part of Pelham Bay Park in 1888, when New York City began acquiring land for park development.  The house was known as the Fish Mansion, Ogden Mansion, and Hoyt House, depending on who lived there at the time.  The city demolished the structure in 1917 because it could not maintain the property."

Source:  Scott, Catherine A., Images of America:  City Island and Orchard Beach, p. 101 (Charleston, SC:  Arcadia Publishing 1999). 

"The parks department leased the Twin Island House beginning in the early 1900s to the Jacob Riis Foundation for a children's summer retreat.  Approximately 86 underprivileged youths lived here each summer and participated in recreational activities under the Riis Settlement House Program."  

Source:  Scott, Catherine A., Images of America:  City Island and Orchard Beach, p. 101 (Charleston, SC:  Arcadia Publishing 1999). 

"The women in this c. 1904 photograph were involved with the Jacob Riis Foundation at Twin Island.  Prior to 1911, people traveled to Twin Island by boat or canoe.  When the city built a concrete-reinforced pedestrian bridge connecting Twin to Hunter Island, people could walk here.  They crossed over a causeway situated along the Shore Road, entered Hunter Island, and then used the pedestrian walkway between the two islands."  

Source:  Scott, Catherine A., Images of America:  City Island and Orchard Beach, p. 102 (Charleston, SC:  Arcadia Publishing 1999). 

"A group of campers who paddled to Twin Island from the Throggs Neck area of the Bronx sit in the Twin Island house, c. 1920.  The city government issued camping permits to various organizations for sites on Twin and Hunter Islands.  In 1914 the Working Girls' Association maintained two tents on Twin Island.  Parks supplied running water to the camp after discovering that the existing well water was polluted.  Members of the DeLasalle Institute regularly surveyed the Twin Island coastline."  

Source:  Scott, Catherine A., Images of America:  City Island and Orchard Beach, p. 102 (Charleston, SC:  Arcadia Publishing 1999).  

"PARK BOARD PROCEEDINGS.
*     *     *

The Grand View Hotel, in Pelham Bay Park, is to be removed, but a hotel will be opened in the Ogden mansion, near by. . . . "

Source:  PARK BOARD PROCEEDINGS, N.Y. Times, Nov. 30, 1893.  

 "CLEMENCY FOR JAMES D. FISH.

HIS TERM OF IMPRISONMENT COMMUTED TO EXPIRE IN MAY NEXT.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28. -- The President has commuted the sentence of Banker Fish so that he will be released from confinement in May.  He has had the case long before him for consideration and has listened to many arguments in Fish's behalf.  His reasons for extending Executive clemency are given in a memorandum issued to-day, but that does not carry the names of the petitioners who recommended that Fish be pardoned.  There never was a petition stronger in names than that laid before the President in this case.  Among the signers were the following:  Ex-Gov. Alonzo B. Cornell, Charles Parsons, Oliver Bryan, George S. Coe, William R. Booth, Daniel Drake Smith, Joseph A. Parsons, Charles B. Foote, D. B. Match, R. Bayles, J.P. Paulison, A. Foster Higgins, D. Underhill, Joseph W. Dreyfus, J. D. Vermilye, W.H. Cox, A. W. Tenney, George H. Potts, H.H. Boody, W.A. Camp, John H. Mott, Richard Kelly, William A. Walker, William B. Hilton, G.D.S. Trask, Nathaniel Niles, E. F. Winslow, W. P. Shearman, Theodore L. Cuyler, J. Seligman, Ambrose Snow, C. H. Van Brunt, Isaac Phillips, C. Meyer, T. C. Platt, D. C. Robbins, Waldo Hutchinson, A. F. Jenkies, Peter Notman, Edmund D. Riggs, Henry J. Van Dyke, J. A. MacDonald, W. B. Dana, H. K. Thurber, C. H. Mallory, David M. Stone, Peter Moller, D. L. Moody, E. C. Patterson.  There were many others equally familiar.  The President's memorandum indorsed on the petition is as follows:

'This convict is 69 years of age.  Prior to his conviction he was trusted and respected by all who knew him and all his dealings and intercourse with his fellow-men both in business and social life had been such as to secure their confidence and esteem.  In the view I take of the application for his pardon there is no occasion to refer to the nature of his offense nor to comment upon the evidence upon which his conviction rests, further than to suggest that this is a case in which the actual and willful intent to defraud depend upon influences somewhat uncertain.  I have rarely, if ever, seen a petition for Executive clemency signed so numerously as the one presented in this case by citizens of great respectability and business standing.

'The prisoner since his conviction has aided the administration of the criminal law by giving vainable testimony upon the trial of another offender.  He has endured his imprisonment thus far with all the fortitude and resignation possible, and has bee scrupulously obedient to all prison rules and regulations.  Medical proof produced before me fully establishes the fact that with advanced age and serious disabilities, and by reason of his confinement, he is physically and mentally fast failing, and I am satisfied that he will not survive his imprisonment if much longer extended.  Every object sought to be obtained by the punishment of crime will be accomplished, in my opinion, by a commutation of the convict's sentence to imprisonment for a term of five years and six months, with allowance of deductions for good conduct.  Such commutation is therefore granted.'

AUBURN, N. Y., Jan. 28.--When James D. Fish was called into Waren Durston's private office this afternoon and informed that President Cleveland had commuted his sentence the old man was not surprised in the least.  To reporters who tried to question him, he said:  'I have nothing to say.'  His daughter, Miss Anna Fish, has resided here ever since her father came to the prison and has been devoted in her attention to him.

-----

A petition asking for a full pardon for James D. Fish was sent to the President from this city about a year ago.  It was gotten up and circulated chiefly by Mr. Fish's sons, who secured a large number of weighty signatures.  They made special efforts to get the signatures of bank Presidents and were very successful in that direction.  A lawyer who saw the paper before it went to Washington said yesterday that he had never before seen so many names of conservative and influential business men attached to a petition for clemency in a criminal case.

The term of five years and six months to which the imprisonment of James D. Fish is limited by the President's action will be reduced by the allowance for good behaior one year seven months and fifteen days.  That will liberate Mr. Fish about the 12th of May, 1889.  He will then have been in prison just three years ten months and fifteen days.  

The news of the President's action was an agreeable surprise to the sons of the aged prisoner.  John D., Irving, and Dean Fish are in business together at 15 State-Street, this city.  They have waited so long for a response to the petition that they had begun to fear that the weary red tape of the official departments at Washington would not enable it to reach the present Executive.  They were greatly pleased with the wording of President Cleveland's indorsement on the petition.  It is expected that James D. Fish will retire to a quite home somewhere in the interior of this State soon after his release."

Source:  CLEMENCY FOR JAMES D. FISH - HIS TERM OF IMPRISONMENT COMMUTED TO EXPIRE IN MAY NEXT, N.Y. Times, Jan. 29, 1889.  

"Ex-Banker FISH Released.

Auburn, N. Y., May 11

James D. FISH, ex-president of the Marine Bank, was released from prison this morning, and in company with his two daughters started for New York.  He is in the best of health and refuses to be interviewed."

Source:  Ex-Banker FISH Released, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 11, 1889. 

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.

Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.

Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."