Wave Hill

For other uses, see Wave Hill (disambiguation).

Wave Hill
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
"Glyndor", one of the two houses at Wave Hill, contains the Glyndor Gallery
Location	675 W. 252nd St., Bronx, New York
Coordinates
Area	20.9 acres (8.5 ha)
Built	1843
Architect	Multiple
Architectural style	Colonial Revival, Greek Revival
NRHP Reference #	83001646
Added to NRHP	September 9, 1983

Wave Hill is a 28 acres (11 ha) estate in the Hudson Hill section of Riverdale, Bronx, in New York City. Wave Hill currently consists of public horticultural gardens and a cultural center, all situated on the slopes overlooking the Hudson River, with expansive views across the river to the New Jersey Palisades. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the estate includes three houses and a botanical garden. The oldest part of the main house, Wave Hill House, dates back to 1843; Glyndor House dates from 1927, and contains a multi-room art gallery; Perkins Visitor Center, which was originally a garage, contains a gift shop and an information desk.

During the late 19th century and early 20th century, numerous highly notable people resided in Wave Hill, either because they owned it, leased it, or because they stayed there as guests. In 1960, the estate was given to the City of New York, and Wave Hill is now a garden as well as a cultural center. As well as the free, constantly changing, contemporary visual arts exhibits that are on display in the Glyndor Gallery within Glyndor House, paid-ticket concert series take place on some Sunday afternoons in Armor Hall, featuring music that includes such styles as chamber music and jazz.

History

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 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 itself 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.

In 2005, Wave Hill was among 406 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Gardens

The special features of Wave Hill's gardens include:

• Alpine House and Dry Garden
• Aquatic & Monocot Garden
• Bee hives in the woodland area
• The Herbert & Hyonja Abrons Woodland, 10 acres (40,000 m²) of native second-growth forest, with a woodland path that stretches around the perimeter of the property
• The Marco Polo Stufano Conservatory, including a cactus room and a tropical room
• The Perennial Flower Garden
• Pergola and vistas of the Hudson River and the New Jersey Palisades
• Special Collections, including the Shade Border, Elliptical Garden and Conifer Slope
• Wild Garden

Shop

The Shop contains gifts from local artists that reflects Wave Hill's mission of connecting people with nature—fun and educational toys, hand-crafted soaps, naturally inspired ceramics, glass and jewelry, seasonal plants, garden products, and local honey—even honey from Wave Hill's own hives.

Gallery

• 

  Wave Hill House

• 

  The cactus and succulent collection

• 

  Part of the Abrons Woodland path

See also

• List of botanical gardens in the United States

References

Notes

Further reading

• Dwyer, Michael Middleton (ed.) Great Houses of the Hudson River. Boston: Little, Brown and Company in association with Historic Hudson Valley, 2001. ISBN 0-8212-2767-X.

External links

• Official website