Waldheim and the Speyers

“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. 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.

James Speyer 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.  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.”  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.  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.

Their estate, “Waldheim” in Briarcliff Manor, was a wedding gift from James to Ellin. 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. Waldheim, which means “Forest Home” in German, occupied approximately 130-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.” (Extract from Waldheim and the Speyers of Scarborough-on-Hudson BMSH Notebook Vol. 2018-6, by Alexander Vastola former BMSHS Trustee.

Although the mansion is long gone, a few garden walls remain in the gardens of houses built on the site of the former estate as does a group of brick pillars.