Alder Mansion

Located between Untermeyer Park on the south and Lenoir Preserve on the north, Yonkers, Westchester County, New York

History:

1912 – the Alder Manor was owned by William Boyce Thompson, to the north of Untermeyer Park. It was a 22 acre hilltop estate. It was designed in Renaissance Revival Style by Carrerer and Hastings.

1924 – across from Alder Manor was the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research.

1930 – William Boyce Thompson dies.

1950 – his wife Gertrude Thompson dies.

1978 – the Boyce Thompson Institute moved to Cornell. The property came to belong to the Yonkers Board of Education.

The property was sold to the Archdiocese of New York and name changed to the Elizabeth Seton High School and later Elizabeth Seton College.

1989 – the college merged with Iona College, but later was forced to close.

1995 – Yonkers bought 14 acres of the property, including the house and gardens.

An Irish culture institute, the Tara Circle, now uses the property.

On the grounds is a garden pavilion (with a small columned Romanesque temple beside a small tiled pool).

(Pp. 361-362. Williams, Gray. 2003. Picturing Our Past: National Register Sites in Westchester County. Westchester County, NY: Westchester County Historical Society.)