Strawberry Hill: 38 rooms, a haunting and a history

Well-dressed visitors to banker John Earle Williams’ “Strawberry Hill” estate carry what appear to be croquet mallets while strolling the grounds in this illustration in the 1879 book “The Homes of America” by Martha Lamb.

Strawberry Hill Manor, at 76 North Broadway in Irvington today, was the home in 1857 of Irvington’s first Board of Trustees president John Earle Williams, who was a key figure in the national financial crisis known as the Panic of 1857.

His office of village president is known as mayor today.

Strawberry Hill was built in about 1850 by John Thomas, who was struck by lightning and killed, reportedly while admiring his house from one of its extensive lawns in 1855. For fans of the paranormal, Thomas is said by some to haunt the mansion’s five story tower to this day.

Strawberry Hill Manor is shown in a screen grab of a real estate listing photo.

The mansion originally consisted of a 200-acre working estate and a 38-room, 13,000-square-foot manor house that included 12-foot ceilings, 10 rooms reserved as servant quarters, a drawing room, main and children’s dining rooms, parlor, studio, library, billiard room and card room.

The house still exists, but now on about 2 acres.

Strawberry Hill was named after the eponymous Twickenham-on-Thames, London estate of 18th century writer Horace Walpole. Many interior design elements were copied from Walpole’s mansion.

During the ownership of Metropolitan Bank of New York president Williams, the manor is rumored to have been a stop on the Hastings-to-Tarrytown leg of the Underground Railroad moving escaped slaves to Canada, because of a tunnel discovered behind a hidden door in the mansion’s wine cellar.

The estate was later owned by English immigrant Charles Eddison, who retired because of ill health at age 30, the same time he emigrated to the U.S. He was heavily involved in local charities, politics -- he was a village trustee -- and banking and was a stalwart leader of historic St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Irvington. His son, inventor and engineer William Barton Eddison, was born at Strawberry Hill in 1889.

The elder Eddison retired from business at around age 30 because of ill health but became renowned in Irvington, surrounding villages and Westchester County for his philanthropy and public service which included volunteer stints on many boards and committees until his death in 1922.

The Strawberry Hill mansion is pictured as it appeared in the 1880s as drawn by artist J. Thomas Scharf. (Illustration via “History of Westchester County,” 1886)

Seventy four of the remaining 79 acres of the estate were subdivided and developed beginning in 1923 by real estate developer and major New York Republican Party operative, Manhattan judge and politician John A. Bolles after Charles Eddison's death. Bolles lived in the mansion and its surviving five acres until his death in 1951. His daughter Frances A., the widow of Howard Leslie Harmon, lived there with their children and second husband Russell H. Hughes into the late 1960s after her father's death.

What remained of the land of the estate was given over by Bolles during wartime to Irvington residents to use as Victory Gardens, the produce from which was used to help feed the public during World War II.

A charming story which might shed some light on the character of Strawberry Hill -- and the village in general at the time -- appeared in The Irvington Gazette newspaper on Aug. 10, 1917: 

“While crossing the fields of the Charles Eddison estate on North Broadway a few days ago, Clifford Smith of South A (Astor) Street stopped for a moment to pet one of the browsing cows which had crossed his path. Whether the cow was in bad humor caused by the weather or Cliff had a red shirt on, somehow that cow took a sudden dislike to being petted and with head bent gave Cliff several tosses while he was making for a nearby fence. We learn since that the cow is still eating grass and the young man’s trousers are at the tailors.”

The “Strawberry Hill” estate in Irvington is shown east of North Broadway in this 1881 map of Irvington. The estate was bordered on its north by the George D. Morgan estate, to the south by the Augustus C. Richards estate and to the west (towards the Hudson River) by North Broadway. (George Washington Brumley, Westchester County Atlas, 1881)

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