Wave Hill is a remarkable site overlooking the Hudson River in the Riverdale section of The Bronx, NY City. Above: the Main House.

“The original Wave Hill House was a gray fieldstone mansion built in 1843 by lawyer William Lewis Morris. It was owned from 1866 to 1903 by publisher William Henry Appleton, who enlarged the house in between 1866 and 1869 and again in 1890, and added greenhouses and gardens to the grounds. During these years, the house was visited by Thomas Henry Huxley, who helped Charles Darwin bring evolution by natural selection to the public’s attention. Theodore Roosevelt’s family rented Wave Hill during the summers of 1870 and 1871, and Mark Twain leased it from 1901 to 1903.

The house was purchased in 1903 by George Walbridge Perkins, a partner of J. P. Morgan, along with adjacent property, including Glyndor, a house built by the Harriman family in 1888, which later burned down and was rebuilt in 1927. In 1910, Perkins added an underground building for recreation which included a bowling alley. Perkins performed extensive landscaping on the site and leased Wave Hill House to an eminent ichthyologist, Bashford Dean of the American Museum of Natural History, who built a stone addition to the building as a private museum, Armor Hall.

Other famous residents of the estate included the conductor Arturo Toscanini (1942–1945) and chief members of the British Delegation to the United Nations (1950–1956). In 1960, at the suggestion of Robert Moses, the Perkins-Freeman family deeded Wave Hill to the City of New York. In 1983, the estate was added to the roster of the National Register of Historic Places. Before 1987, the estate was known as Perkins Garden. During that year Parks Commissioner Henry Stern renamed it Wave Hill.” (Wikipedia)


The Glyndor house now houses a Gallery. Unfortunately it was closed when we visited.


An interior shot of the Main House. Unfortunately there wasn’t much else to see.


A view of a portion of the extensive gardens. The building on the right side was once a garage. Now it’s the Perkins Visitors Center, which also contains a shop selling gifts made by local artists as well as nature-themed and handmade items.

Pictures taken with a Fuji X-E3 with Fuji XC 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 OSS II and Taken with a Fuji X-E1 and Fuji XF 18mm f2 R

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