New York City Structures, Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum

Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum
895 Shore Road, Pelham Bay Park, Bronx
Year built: 1836–1842

NEW YORK—In 1654 Thomas Pell, an English physician living in Connecticut, made a deal with the Siwanoy Indians and ended up with 9,166 acres that included what is now known as Pelham, New Rochelle, portions of Bronx County, and much of the land east of the Hutchinson River northward to Mamaroneck. Pell called the estate Pelham Manor, naming it after a favorite teacher. Several generations later his descendants built a summer home in what is now Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx.

Between 1836 and 1842 Robert Bartow, related to Thomas Pell through his mother, built a new home on the same site that the Pell family had previously had a manor home, until it burned down during the American Revolution.

The Federal style mansion that Bartow built was constructed of stone that may have been brought over from Ossining. The three-story home was initially built as a summer place, as were the more than two dozen other estates built by prominent New York families that once existed on Pelham Bay. The Bartow-Pell home is the sole remaining mansion. After the 1835 fire in Lower Manhattan, Bartow, having lost his home to the fire, moved his wife, tobacco heiress Maria Lorillard, and their seven children to the home year round.

The mansion is now the Bartow-Pell Mansion and Museum and has been a part of the New York City park system since 1888. It was restored, and is managed and operated by the International Garden Society, and has served as its headquarters since 1914. It is a New york City Landmark and has been open as a museum since 1946.

The museum is a showcase for elegant 19th century style. The Greek Revival interior features a spiraling wooden staircase in the main entry that ascends to the second floor bedrooms and third floor attic. The first floor features double parlors with hand carved Italian marble fireplaces and are decorated in a his-and-hers style. In one of the parlors cherubic children smile down from above door frames, possibly in remembrance of the two children the Bartow’s lost while still in infancy. In the adjoining parlor, separated by massive mahogany sliding doors, patriotic eagles perch above the door frames.

The furnishings on display throughout the mansion are all period pieces but none are original from the Bartow family. All are on loan from the Met, The Museum of the City of New York, and private collections.

In the record setting heat of the summer of 1936, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia moved his staff and operations to the mansion for a summer while nearby Orchard Beach was being made.

The museum is open Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults and the guided tours offered at quarter past the hour are a fun and informative glimpse into the history of New York City and the mansion.