This brick wall runs from what was once the entrance to Philips Laboratories, along Scarborough Road where it continues along Holbrook Road to a second entrance. Most Briarcliff Residents are familiar with the wall, but few know why it’s there.

Inside the wall there used to be a mansion owned by wealthy financier, James Speyer. The mansion stood in a 130 acres estate called Waldheim, which featured sprawling farmlands, a nine-hole golf course, gardens, and a lake. It was landscaped by the Olmstead Brothers, founded by John Charles Olmsted and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. the nephew (and adopted son) and son of Frederick Law Olmstead the famous architect of New York’s Central Park.

On the nearest pillar in the first picture above (view looking East) you can make out the word “Wald” and on the nearest pillar in the second picture, below (view looking West) you can make out the word “Heim”.

After Speyer’s death in 1941 the estate was sold in 1946 to be subdivided into residential lots. Although the mansion is long gone, the wall and a few other ruins still remain to remind us that it once existed.

Taken with a Sony RX100 III