This was unexpected! I turned a corner, walked a little down the street and came across this magnificent edifice.

It’s the Estherwood Mansion:

“…a late 19th-century mansion located on the campus of The Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, New York, United States. It was the home of industrial tycoon James Jennings McComb, who supported Masters financially in its early years when his daughters attended. The house’s octagonal library was the first section built. It had been attached to McComb’s previous home, but he had felt it deserved a house more in keeping with its style and so had architect Albert Buchman design Estherwood built around it.

The interior features lavish decoration and detail, with generous use of marble and gold leaf. As the only significant châteauesque building in Westchester County,it was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1979 as Estherwood and Carriage House.

…

Ohio native James Jennings McComb’s wealth came from his invention of the ties that secured cotton as it emerged from balers. In the 1860s he came to Dobbs Ferry, where he sent his three daughters to the Misses’ Masters School, named for its founding sisters in 1877. He bought the current property and eventually moved his family to the small Park Cottage (still standing) near the school’s Clinton Avenue location to shorten his daughters’ walk to school.

The octagonal library was first built as an addition to Park Cottage, to complement an octagonal library desk McComb had bought in Europe. He was soon dissatisfied with how poorly the new room integrated with the rest of the house, and hired the New York firm of Buchman & Deisler to design a new house connected to the library that would better match it.

McComb and his family lived in Estherwood from its completion in 1895 to his death in 1901. He had continued to acquire nearby property and rent it to the school, and in 1910 the school bought it all, including Estherwood and the carriage house, from his heirs. It has made few changes to the building, primarily adding an elevator in 1949. Estherwood was used as a dormitory for many years; today its upper floors serve as faculty apartments and the main floor is used for special events and school functions.” (Wikipedia)

Taken with a Fuji X-E3 and Fuji XC 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 OSS II