The Only Grand Country Estate Left In Pelham Bay - Bartow-Pell Mansion

House Museum

Mar 21

The Bartow-Pell Mansion is one of those places that can make you forget, for a moment, that you are still in New York City. Behind its formal gardens and sweeping lawns stands an elegant Greek Revival mansion with a history that reaches back to the earliest days of colonial New York.

The story begins in 1654, when Thomas Pell, an English physician from Connecticut, purchased approximately 50,000 acres from the local Lenape. The enormous tract stretched across what is now the Bronx and lower Westchester County, establishing the foundation for generations of the Pell family's presence in the region.

The original Pell residence stood on the estate until the Revolutionary War, when the house was destroyed by fire. Ownership of the property briefly passed to the LeRoy family before a descendant of the Pell family, Robert Bartow, returned to the estate more than a century later.

In 1836, Robert Bartow and his wife, Maria Lorillard, purchased part of the original Pell property. Maria was a member of the prominent Lorillard family, whose fortune was built through the tobacco business. Six years later, in 1842, the couple built the mansion that visitors can see today.

The house they created was a striking example of the Greek Revival style, fashionable in 19th-century America. With its imposing columns, symmetrical façade, and elegant proportions, the mansion has a formality that contrasts beautifully with the surrounding landscape.

The Bartow family remained on the estate until 1888, when the City of New York acquired the property and surrounding acreage for what would become Pelham Bay Park. The mansion's story might have ended there, but a remarkable chapter was still to come.

In 1914, the city leased the property to the International Garden Club, an organization dedicated to promoting the appreciation and preservation of gardens. Under the leadership of Mrs. Charles Frederick Hoffman, the club brought in the architectural firm Delano & Aldrich to restore the mansion and create a formal garden around it.

Eventually, the Bartow-Pell Mansion opened to the public as a museum in 1946 and today sits within a landscaped setting where formal gardens, mature trees, and open lawns create an atmosphere that feels worlds away from the city streets.

The mansion is elegant without being overwhelming, and its setting gives it the feeling of a secluded country retreat. Yet beneath that beauty is a complicated history stretching across centuries—from the Lenape people and the colonial Pell estate to the Bartow and Lorillard families, the expansion of New York City, and the preservation efforts that saved the house for future generations.

Along with Van Cortlandt House, Bartow-Pell is one of only two surviving manor houses in the Bronx.

In a city famous for skyscrapers, crowded avenues, and constant movement, these two historic houses offer a very different way of experiencing New York. They invite you to slow down, wander through the gardens, and imagine a time when much of the Bronx was countryside—and when these grand estates stood at the center of it.

This is what caught my eye; I hope you enjoy!

The front facade of the mansion.

This Secretary desk in the second floor living area once belonged to Aaron Burr.

This portrait of Mrs. Charles Frederick Hoffman hangs in the former office, now the gift shop. Mrs. Hoffman was prominent in New York, Newport, and English society and was instrumental in the preservation of the Bartow-Pell Mansion.

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The formal gardens looking from the house. In the 1800s, the Bronx was mostly forest and farmland and became the place for the New York City rich to build their summer homes.

The entrance hall sets the stage with elegance and symmetry, with its formal balance and graceful free standing spiral staircase.

The free standing staircase sweeps in elliptical curves up to the attic and is lit by small clerestory windows at the peak of the roof.

The elegance continues in the double parlors with French doors opening to the garden.

Two of the fireplaces in the double parlor and can be closed off with huge pocket doors.

The door and window pediments in the double parlor contain carved spread eagles and winged cupids.

The table is set in the dining room.

This mahogany sideboard has carved and turned legs that enclose a pair of column supports which open to provide plate storage.

In 1936, the mansion even served as Mayor LaGuardia’s summer office.

In the primary bedroom

The second floor living area.

In the second floor Lannuier bedroom is a tester bed by Charles-Honoré Lannuier, a French-born American cabinetmaker. The bright tangerine-hued hangings by Pierre de la Messangere. This piece is on loan from the MET.