An elegy for an 1850s mansion with no place in the rapidly urbanizing Upper West Side
The article ran in the New York Times on February 19, 1911. “Another Landmark Passing” read the wistful headline on the lower left side of the front page.
“The rapid passing away of New York’s famous landmarks was illustrated recently by the sale of the old Rudd mansion on the northeast corner of Riverside Drive and 114th Street.”
For context, the Times and other city newspapers had been running fairly frequent articles on the fast-paced development transforming what had been a country-like, sparsely populated part of the city known as Bloomingdale into the urbanizing Upper West Side.
Farmhouses, country estates, and roadside taverns that served as reminders of the rural character of 18th and 19th century Bloomingdale were going down in the early 1900s, replaced by the stately prewar apartment houses that line West End Avenue and Riverside Drive today.
The Rudd mansion (above, in an 1880s drawing), which the Times reported was built in 1854, was one of those nostalgia-inducing landmarks that seemed to have wider significance than just another old house.
The Corinthian-columned mansion with its entrance fronting stylish Riverside Drive was built by Andrew Carrigan, an Irish-born grocer and provisions dealer who made his fortune after arriving in America in the 1820s, according to Village Preservation’s Off the Grid blog.
After retiring in his 50s, Carrigan (at left) devoted the rest of his life to philanthropy, specifically in helping immigrants get a foothold in New York.
He founded Emigrant Savings Bank in 1850, and he worked to provide better safeguards at Castle Clinton so newcomers didn’t fall prey to swindlers.
Now his mansion, last occupied by members of the Rudd family, had a date with the wrecking ball.
“In a few months this fine old type of a comfortable colonial dwelling, with its artistic columns forming a semi-circular entrance, will give way to extensive building operations for another $1,000,000 apartment house similar in character to the large number that have been erected throughout the Upper West Side,” bemoaned the Times.
The Rudd mansion was erected, “in the days when Bloomingdale Road was the only thoroughfare on the West Side from the lower part of the city,” wrote the Times.
“It was lined by many handsome country homes of wealthy New Yorkers, but the rapid improvements of late years have placed them in the category of old-time reminiscences.”
As the Times predicted, the Rudd mansion met its fate later that year. In its place stands the Hamilton, at 420 Riverside Drive—a lovely building for sure, but with none of the uniqueness of that old family mansion with Corinthian columns!
Discover the stories behind Riverside Drive’s unique mansions and the Drive’s development into one of New York’s most beautiful streets! Join Ephemeral New York on a Gilded Age-themed walking tour of the Drive from 83rd to 107th Streets on Sunday, July 20 or Sunday, July 27. Click the dates to sign up.
[Top image: New York Historical; second image: Village Preservation/Off the Grid; third image: MCNY 39.371.16; fourth image: Harlem World]
