What Do We Know About the Edge Hill Inn?

This is a 1906 view of the Edgehill Inn located at Edgehill Avenue north of West 227th Street in Spuyten Duyvil.  The former Sage Mansion was constructed before the Civil War and became a well-known inn and wedding banquet hall. In 1912, suites with a private bath were available for $12 per week.  The inn closed in December 1952.

Edgehill Inn Ad 1910

Edgehill Inn former owner, Mary E. Huntington obituary  Jun 1943.

A 19th century mansion was built upon the ruins of Fort. No. 3.4  In 1887, Thomas Henry Edsall wrote that “Number Three stood where Warren Bishop Sage’s house now stands, on the easterly brow of Spuyten Duyvil Hill.”5  The Sage mansion would become the Edgehill Inn.   (  Georeferencing Spuyten Duyvil’s Hilltop Forts  KHS )

Thanks for sharing interesting info. Her great-great granddaughter Coline Jenkins attends events at Woodlawn Cemetery, where Cady Stanton is buried and is commemorated annually. I will ask Coline about this family history next time we chat.

I love that her honeymoon was spent at the Anti-Slavery Cinvention in London.  This is fascinating!!

This is interesting stuff that everyone has been finding about the Edgehill Inn.  Here’s a little ad placed in the Riverdale News in 1928:

Just to clarify, The Edgehill Inn was formerly the Warren Bishop Sage mansion (or was built where the Sage mansion stood) and that was the site of Fort No. 3–not Fort No. 2.  Fort No. 3 was built on the eastern crest of Spuyten Duyvil Hill by the British in 1777 and overlooked the Kingsbridge valley.

I could never figure out how Warren B. Sage came to first own property in that area.  His house apparently stood before 1856 because it is visible in this print which was published in Valentine’s Manual:

That is a view taken from modern W. 230th Street a little to the east of Kingsbridge Avenue.  That’s the Kingsbridge in the foreground with Manhattan on the left and the mainland on the right.  The large building in the center is Macomb’s Mill.  Rising in the background you can see Spuyten Duyvil Hill.  The large building on the hill appears to be the Sage mansion.  Here’s that same view today:

I reached out to Coline Jenkins on Sunday to ask about the history of Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s descendants in Riverdale. Keep in mind that Cady Stanton had two daughters: Margaret and Harriot. I sent Coline the newspaper article and photo of Edgehill Inn. She replied immediately, said she enjoyed browsing the KHS website, and is open to a collaboration between KHS and the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Trust, Inc., which she serves as President. I will share her contact information with you, Nick and Stephanie. Here is her reply:

“Lots of family photos and books shed light. That said, a quick answer about family ties to Riverdale follow. I remember my mother Rhoda Barney Jenkins telling me that her grandmother Harriot Eaton Stanton Blatch lived in Spuyten Duyvil.  In fact, I also recall seeing a photo of Harriot bundled up in a blanket on a high porch where she lived. Further, Nora Stanton Blatch deforest Barney, the mother of Rhoda, my grandmother, the niece of Margaret, plus the daughter of Harriot also has ties to Riverdale.  During a brief marriage to Lee deForest, Nora was encourage to travel by boat to the deForest home on the cliff that abuts Wave Hill.  Such a commute and the marriage did not work.  My grandmother was the first female civil engineer to graduate from Cornell and subsequently worked for the NYC Water Supply Board, etc.  I have her CV from that time. The Riverdale house still stands today and is land accessible by a steep driveway.  A few years ago, on an impulse while in the area, the generous owner invited us in for a tour.  She is also a collector of the house’s history.  So each thread is backed by a fascinating story.