Waldheim and the Speyers of Scarborough-on-Hudson - Notebook Vol. 2018-6
Waldheim and the Speyers of Scarborough-on-Hudson
By Alexander Vastola former BMSHS Trustee
Figure 1: Photo B Fetonti
Driving down Scarborough Road, one might notice a long brick wall running from Philips Laboratories to one of its distant entrances on Holbrook Road. I often wondered why this wall was there. I eventually discovered that this wall once served as the border of the “Waldheim” estate of James and Ellin Speyer. James Speyer, unlike most of the millionaires of Briarcliff Manor’s Gilded Age, was not a self-made man. He came from a very wealthy European “Old Money” family. Records of the Speyers, a prominent Jewish banking family, appear in the Frankfort-on Main record books as early as the mid-14th century.[i] James was groomed by his family to run Speyer and Co., one of the top investment banks in the world. Ellin was a society woman of the WASP elite descended from an “Old Money” family.[ii]
James Spyer was also known for his philanthropic work. He was one of the originators of the Provident Loan Society in New York City which was modeled on the Mont-de-Piété in Paris and the other “municipal pawnshops” in Europe at the time.[iii] Mr. Speyer established this organization with other prominent New Yorkers, such as J. P. Morgan, Jacob Schiff, and Seth Low, as “a pawn shop on humanitarian principles.”[iv] He also helped found the University Settlement Society, the first settlement house of its type in America. In 1902 James and Ellin created the Speyer School, where the teachers of the Columbia Teachers College could get practical interaction with schoolchildren and therefore unite teaching and settlement work.[v] James Speyer’s biggest achievement was to help create the Museum of the City of New York, which records the history of New York City.
Ellin Speyer was also well known for her philanthropic efforts. In 1884, she founded, along with Miss Grace H. Dodge and Mrs. Richard Irvin, the first Working Girls’ Club in the United States. She was a leader in the cause for animal rights and a “moving spirit” in the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (S. P. C. A.). Mrs. Speyer also founded the New York Women’s League for Animals, Inc., in 1910, which became the Animal Medical Center, and today is the world’s largest hospital for the care of small animals.[vi]
Their estate, “Waldheim” in Briarcliff Manor, was a wedding gift from James to Ellin.[vii] The 40-room Tudor style mansion contained everything necessary for self-sufficient country living. This grand house, built of wood and stucco, had gables and high windows which looked out over the grounds and a broad veranda porch on three sides facing west toward the Hudson River. The inside of the house was furnished with luxurious furniture and décor.[viii] Waldheim, which means “Forest Home” in German, occupied approximately130-acres of land between Scarborough Road and the Albany Post Road. The grounds, designed by the Olmstead Brothers, contained orchards, meadows, a small lake, gardens with vegetables and flowers, and bits of woodlands that were left undisturbed and natural. There was even a nine-hole golf course and a windmill to pump water for the estate. One unique feature of the estate was Mrs. Speyer’s aristocratic pet cemetery. She felt that a disregard for the welfare of the bodies of beloved pets “tends to lower the standard of regard toward dumb animals.”[ix] Some of the pets buried in this cemetery were of great renown. One celebrity pet buried there was “Tammany,” the cat mascot of New York City Hall under mayors James J. Walker and Fiorello LaGuardia whose job was to get rid of rats in City Hall.[x] Another of the stones marks the grave of the infamous “Wu-Ting-Fang,” Mrs. Speyer’s $1,000.00 Chinese Chow. Fang, as he was known at Waldheim, had his own maid: Fang slept on a fancy blanket at the foot of her bed, awoke every morning and was fed a breakfast of fresh vegetables. Fang also took daily rides around the estate in a chauffeured limousine.
The Speyers often held parties at Waldheim which included many well-known and influential people of the “Gilded Age”. One of the first important guests to visit Waldheim was Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany (the future Kaiser Wilhelm II). Their guests were not always of the wealthier set. In fact, many of the early parties were held for the bank workers of the Speyer & Co. bank. According to the New York Times, this annual country get-together provided a way to increase the friendly atmosphere of the bank and to show the employees that money was not the only important thing at Speyer & Co.[xi] Mrs. Speyer also held her own house parties for the working girls who were members of the Irene Club which she helped to found. During World War I, the Speyers along with other millionaires of the Hudson Valley organized a benevolent organization to look after the soldiers assigned to guard the Croton Aqueduct from German saboteurs. James and Ellin also offered their home as a convalescent home for service men who served in the war.
Ellin Speyer died in 1921 and with the death of James in 1941, the contents of the house were auctioned off and the estate was sold to a developer. The manor house was fully demolished by 1955.[xii] In 1960, Phillips Labs was built on the remaining 10 acre plot. With the recent sale of Phillips Labs in 2017, the village is exploring zoning options for the future use of this land.
Some traces of the estate still remain even sixty years after the property was developed. Besides the wall surrounding the estate, the Tudor carriage house on Holbrook Road still survives. In addition, concrete slabs, not far from 100 Holbrook Road, may mark the location of the Speyers’ famous pet cemetery. In their own way, the Speyers of Waldheim wove an unforgettable history for their house, and it is a shame that the house and estate were not preserved. The rich history of Waldheim and the other neighboring estates of “Scarborough-on-Hudson” make the heritage of this area truly unique.
Alex Vastola, a former trustee of BMSHS, will be giving a presentation on “Waldheim and the Speyers of Scarborough-on-Hudson” in the Community Center of the Briarcliff Library at 2:00 pm on Sunday, September 23. More information on the family and the estate can also be found in the archives of the Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society and on Wikipedia using the search terms “James Speyer”, “Ellin Speyer” and “Waldheim”.
Works Cited:
American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society. “Eighteenth Annual Report.” 1912.
“Auction Sale: Estate of Mr. James Joseph Speyer, Deceased: “Waldheim” Scarborough, N.Y.” Daily Argus, Mount Vernon, N. Y., 19 April, 1946.
Birmingham, Stephen. “Our Crowd”: The Great Jewish Families of New York. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1967.
Cheever, Mary. The Changing Landscape: a history of Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough. West Kennebunk, Maine: Phoenix Publishing, 1990.
“Employees Guests of Speyer.” New York Times, 20 June, 1909, 3. 6 January, 2015 http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1909/06/20/106720003.html?pageNumber=3
“Famous Neighbors of Westchester.” Daily Argus, Mount Vernon, N. Y., 23 February, 1933.
“Fine Old.” Citizen Register, 22 January, 1965.
Gavan, Peggy. “1930: Tammany, the Democratic Boss Cat of New York’s City Hall.” The Hatching Cat: True and Unusual Animal Tales of Old New York 5 August, 2014 http://frenchhatchingcat.com/tag/speyer-hospital-for-animals/
“Germans View Our Rhine.” New York Tribune, 13 June, 1912, 16. 6 January, 2015 http://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%206/New%20York%20NY%20Tribune/New%20York%20NY%20Tribune%201912%20Jun%20Grayscale/New%20York%20NY%20Tribune%2019
“Harbor Hill; The End of the Line of Gilded Age Hauteur and Hurt: Part VII.” Mr. Michael Henry Adams’ Style & Taste, 19 August, 2014 http://mrmhadams.typepad.com/blog/2014/04/harbor-hill-the-end-of-the-line-of-gilded-age
Hendrick, Burton J. The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page. Edited by Irwin Laughlin. Vol. 1. New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1922. Project Gutenberg, 21 December, 2014 http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17017/17017-h/17017-h.htm
“History.” Animal Medical Center 13 January, 2015 http://www.amcny.org/about-amc/history
Hutton, Capt. Thomas Radcliffe, ed. H-A-L-TT!—WHA-ZAA? Being a History of The First Provisional Regiment and The Answer Of A State Militant to The Threat Of Berlin. New York: The Publication Committee of The Aqueduct Guard Citizens’ Committee, 1919. 13 December, 2015
https://archive.org/stream/cu31924027819998#page/n9/mode/2up
James, Edward T., Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer. Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary, Volume 1. Edited by Edward T. James. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971. 13 December, 2015
“James Speyer, 80, Banker, Dies Here.” New York Times, 1 November, 1941.
James Speyer Papers: Scrapbook #2: 1911-1924 (Waldheim). Manuscripts and Archives Division. The New York Public Library. Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations.
“Jubilant ‘Kommers’ For Kaiser’s Men.” New York Times, 13 June, 1912, 12. 6 January, 2015 http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1912/06/13/100371170.html?pageNumber=12
“Landmarks on the Speyer Estate.” Citizen Register, 21 June, 1946.
Ledvina, Paul D. “Olmsted Associates Records: A Finding Aid to the Collection in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, Library of Congress Washington, D.C. 2015 (Revised 2015 January).” 22 March 2015 http://rs5.loc.gov/service/mss/eadxmlmss/eadpdfmss/2001/ms001018.pdf
Liebmann, George W. The Fall of the House of Speyer: The Story of a Banking Dynasty. London: I. B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., 2015.
“Mourn Mrs. Speyer In St. John Cathedral.” New York Times, 26 February, 1921, 10. 6 January, 2015 http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1921/02/26/103551364.html?pageNumber=10
“Mrs. James Speyer and Her Dogs’ Cemetery.” Syracuse Herald, Saturday Evening, Women’s Page, 21 March, 1908.
“Mrs. James Speyer Dies At 12:45 A.M.” New York Times, 23 February, 1921.
“Mrs. J. S. Speyer, Notable For Her Philanthropy, Dies.” New York Tribune, 24 February, 1921, 9. 6 January, 2015 http://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%206/New%20York%20NY%20Tribune/New%20York%20NY%20Tribune%201921%20Feb%20Grayscale/New%20York%20NY%20Tribune%201921%20Feb%20Grayscale%20-%200689.pdf
“Notables At Rites For James Speyer.” New York Times, 4 November, 1941, 26. 6 January, 2015 http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/11/04/104305855.html?pageNumber=26
Page, Max. The Creative Destruction of Manhattan, 1900-1940. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.
“Speyer Home Opened To Working Girls.” New York Times, 5 June, 1910.
“Swope Interests Plan Residences on Speyer Lands.” New York Times, 5 May, 1946.
“Waldheim: The Country Place at Scarborough of James Speyer.” New-York Tribune Illustrated Supplement, December, 1901, 4.
Yasinsac, Rob. Images of A
merica: Briarcliff Lodge. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2004.
[i] “James Speyer, 80, Banker, Dies Here,” New York Times, 1 November, 1941, page 1.
[ii] Max Page, The Creative Destruction of Manhattan, 1900-1940 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), page 155.
[iii] “James Speyer, 80, Banker, Dies Here,” New York Times, 1 November, 1941, page 1.
[iv] Stephen Birmingham, “Our Crowd”: The Great Jewish Families of New York (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1967), page 325.
[v] Ibid, page 1.
[vi] “History,” Animal Medical Center, 13 January, 2015, pages 2-3. http://www.amcny.org/about-amc/history
[vii] “Harbor Hill; The End of the Line of Gilded Age Hauteur and Hurt: Part VII,” Mr. Michael Henry Adams’ Style & Taste, 19 August, 2014, page 28. http://mrmhadams.typepad.com/blog/2014/04/harbor-hill-the-end-of-the-line-of-gilded-age
[viii] Ibid, page 4.
[ix] “Mrs. James Speyer and Her Dogs’ Cemetery,” Syracuse Herald, Saturday Evening, Women’s Page, 21 March, 1908, page 1.
[x] Peggy Gavan, “1930: Tammany, the Democratic Boss Cat of New York’s City Hall,” The Hatching Cat: True and Unusual Animal Tales of Old New York 5 August, 2014, page 1 http://frenchhatchingcat.com/tag/speyer-hospital-for-animals/
[xi] Ibid, page 3.
[xii] “Fine Old,” Citizen Register, 22 January, 1965, page 1.