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I was messing around online this afternoon and I found an article from the “Omaha Sunday Bee” in 1921, about Elizabeth Cady Stanton (one of the founders of the Women’s Suffrage Movement), written by Margaret Stanton Lawrence from her home at the Edge Hill Inn, in Spuyten Duyvil.I know that Alexander Calder’s parents lived there. Knowing that, and now knowing that Mrs. Lawrence lived there also got me thinking: what do we know about the Edge Hill Inn? Who built it? Was this a place where famous persons of intellect, creative talent or society lived and worked? Why did it disappear from our landscape? Might there have been history that occurred there, or at least did it at least house history makers from the beginning of the twentieth century?
I realize that some of this information might be contained in various Forum posts. I thought starting or reviving the conversation might be interesting, and I can share this happy accident find on Margaret Stanton Lawrence.
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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.
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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 )
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I believe that the Huntingtons (as in Mary E. Huntington) are related to the McKelvey family. If my memory is correct there are some Huntingtons still living in our area. I have to go back and look at my emails but I think a Huntington may have attended my presentation for the Villa Rosa Bonheur Presentation to CB8.
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Valentine’s Manual of Old New York
No. 7, New Series
1923
Edited By
Henry Collins BrownThe Sage Mansion
The Warren B. Sage Mansion rises directly in the site of old Fort Number Two, just as substantial and
square as the day it was built. The view to the east comprises a glorious vista of the Valley of Kingsbridge.A well-known doctor, an ardent antiquarian, and possessor of many Revolutionary muskets with flash pans,
ancient carbines and fowling-pieces of early date, was hurriedly summoned, one wet night, to this old Sage
home. Rushing in, he found the patient in great pain and distress.Refusing to say a word, he sought to retreat from the old fort faster than the British did. Yielding to the
family’s entreaties, he at last said :
“You may do so and so for him if you will. I will not prescribe for a dog! -
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:
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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.
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