The chance to reside at a Gilded Age mansion on the Hudson River is hardly an everyday opportunity.  We're thrilled to present not one, but two such chances at Beechwood, a historic estate converted to three sumptuous residences in one of America's most storied heritage regions.

One might struggle to find somewhere with a richer history—literally.  Once the dominion of magnates, moguls and other prime movers of society, Sleepy Hollow country has entranced and inspired for centuries, from the Lenape people to the Rockefellers and everyone in between.  The area was immortalized in the short stories of Washington Irving, freeze-framed by Currier & Ives and celebrated by the palatial manses that grew as reliable train service allowed New York's elite to escape rough-and-tumble Manhattan for a slower lifestyle in the surrounds of nature.  From its mystical woods to sweeping vistas across to the Palisades, the river's East Bank on the Tappan Zee, a natural widening of the Hudson which Henry Hudson famously mistook for his elusive Northwest Passage, was an innately desirable destination.

Beechwood itself played an important role in this chapter of America's upper crust.  The white Greek Revival manor was built for banker L. Frank Vanderlip, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under William McKinley and one of the seven financial elites who covertly traveled to Jekyll Island, Georgia, in 1910 via private train car to plan the Federal Reserve System.  He worked extensively under J.P. Morgan following the Panic of 1907 to stabilize an ailing system, establishing him as a profound change agent among the economic cognoscenti.  In 1910, he and William Rockefeller purchased the neighboring estate, then owned by Margaret Vanderbilt and Col. Eliot Shepard, to found Sleepy Hollow Country Club, naming in its charter 27 directors which among them counted John Jacob Astor, Cornelius Vanderbilt III, Oliver Harriman and A.O. Choate.  The club and its Stanford White-designed clubhouse retain their splendor and exclusivity today on the opposite side of Route 9.  Vanderlip planned well for his home's future residents.

These residences have been thoroughly modernized while retaining their period flair.  Both share a pool, tennis court, carriage house garage space, an on-site maintenance superintendent and membership within the neighborhood association, all sited on 34 landscaped acres originally planned by Frederick Law Olmsted—the exalted landscape starchitect whose commissions included both Central and Prospect Parks, the Biltmore Estate and Stanford University.

But Beechwood hardly needs history to define its truly remarkable nature, which offers incredible lifestyles by any standard.  The recreation and amenities are second to none for an active lifestyle, and walk-to-train convenience affords an easy (and scenic) commute from Metro North's Scarborough station in just 40-odd minutes, without the hassle of parking permits.  See it for yourself—and live like the closest to kings our country ever had.

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