Beechwood (Vanderlip mansion)

The first portion of the main residence dates to 1780, and includes the original kitchen's fireplace. Henry Ford, Sarah Bernhardt, Annie Oakley, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John D. Rockefeller, and Isadora Duncan. Actress-model Mary Louise Weller rented the estate in June 1973. In 1979, Vanderlip descendants sold the Beechwood property. Three condominiums were built during a transformation of the mansion in the 1980s. A later expansion resulted in a total of 37 condominiums on the property's . ==Description==

Near the center of the property, at the southwest corner of Route 9 and Scarborough Station Road, sits the eponymous mansion that features two large porticoed entryways, a two-story octagonal library, numerous porches, verandas, and over 100 interior rooms. Other major structures included a hunting lodge, a second mansion built for the Vanderlips' daughter Charlotte, a home for the Vanderlips' physician, and the Scarborough School, a progressive school which the Vanderlips established just south of the mansion in 1916. The private parkland was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted for the Vanderlips and has expansive lawns, a grove of large beech trees, imported trees, and an Italianate garden with an alcove, fountain, and small pool with Wisteria-covered trellises. The lawns, formal gardens, and stone gazebo, erected by the Vanderlips, have been preserved and feature in wedding ceremonies that occasionally occur on the property. The Beechwood estate also contained a carriage house, gatehouse, squash court (no longer extant), and a white-stucco artist's studio named Beech Twig, which was home to author John Cheever, whose children attended the school on the property. The family rented the house until they moved to Ossining. Descriptions of the building's interior closely match descriptions employed by Cheever in some short stories. In his youth, novelist Richard Yates also lived there, as well as other artists, writers, and composers. The estate's garage is located northeast of the mansion, and is a flat-roof, two-story concrete building dating to the early 1900s. File:Guest House at Beechwood (South).JPG|alt=A small white house|Beechtwig, one of two guest houses File:Garage at Beechwood.jpg|alt=A large Art Deco garage building|Beechwood's two-story seven-bay Art Deco garage File:Entranceway to Beechwood.jpg|alt=Gates to an unused driveway|The former entranceway, designed by William Welles Bosworth File:Entranceway Column at Beechwood.jpg|alt=A large grey stone Ionic column and fence|An Ionic column from 55 Wall Street == See also ==