Tower House

Tower HouseLocation: 5223 Fieldston Road. Block: 5837, Lot: 3796.

Status: Never landmarked or heard. It’s 700 feet north of the boundary of Fieldston Historic District.

Description from the Bronx Survey

The Tower House at 5223 Fieldston Road has undergone substantial changes. An 1872 map shows a frame structure of essentially the same configuation. The house was occupied by Webster Woodman, a Manhattan bookseller and owner of the land. Woodman resided in Riverdale as early as 1866 when he moved from West 13th Street in Manhattan. The house was either replaced or substantially altered in the late nineteenth century to become a two and one-half story Victorian Gothic dwelling with a disproportionately high five-story tower topped with an octagonal lantern and bellcast roof with dormers .

In 1906 Frank Hackett, founder of the Riverdale Country Day School, was wandering through the woods west of Van Cortlandt Park when he came upon Tower House. This location suited his needs because his students could still return home at night while being removed from urban influences during the school day. Hackett rented the building for $2000 per year, making it the first home of the Riverdale Country Day School which he began in 1907 with twelve boys and 4 teachers. In 1910 the Tower House was put up for auction. Hacket was unable to obtain money from the parents of his students to purchase a house that the school was fast outgrowing and the school moved down the hill to occupy the old Bicknell and Goodrich estates.

The Tower House is now the residence of the Riverdale Country Day School headmaster. It is a two and one-half story frame building with a wellproportioned three story tower which is significantly different from its earlier Victorian Gothic form. Although building department records cannot be located, a photograph circa 1925 in the collection of the Riverdale Country Day School shows the tower intact. The tower was truncated at the level of the first of its two balconies. A hipped roof with projecting eaves supported by scrolled brackets shelters it. An original simple bargeboard, matching that of the facade, still exists although the quatrefoil fence which stood above it is gone.

The house has a pitched roof with a large centrally placed gable between the tower and the northern bay. .An original attic window with angled comers has been moved to the right of the gable and another more modern window added. Exterior shutters have been removed from all the facade windows, A porch supported by narrow posts and brackets that form low pointed arches extends across the full facade. Brick piers have been added at the base of the posts and a new fence has replaced the original spindles. Although the tower has been changed substantially, the rural character and proportions of the Tower House remain pleasing and evocative of the late nineteenth century,

Share Post :

More Posts