Hudson Valley Ruins: Hudson Valley Demolition Alert

June 15, 2019

Rose Hill

Mount Kisco, NY

~Demolished April-June, 2019~

Rose Hill, the early 20th century Mount Kisco home of Broadway impresario Billy Rose, was demolished this spring. The Congregation of Our Lady of the Cenacle acquired the 130-acre estate in 1954 and built a convent and dormitories around the Georgian-style mansion. Faced with declining enrollment, the Congregation put the property up for sale in 1974. In the 1970s the buildings briefly served as recording studio for rock and roll albums before the property again became a place of retreat, first by the Unification Church in 1979 and then later by the Legionaries of Christ. From 1995 to the late 2000s the Legionaries of Christ put forth several plans to redevelop the property into a seminary for as many as 450 seminarians, faculty and staff, but neighbors protested these plans and suggested residential redevelopment instead. The Legionaries placed the property for sale following a sexual abuse scandal involving their founder. Several real estate plans from the early 2010s promoted plans for the site that would have preserved the mansion while the chapel and dormitories would have been demolished and rebuilt. As of early June, the mansion, chapel and dormitories have all been demolished.

Source articles:
"Rosehill Project In New Castle Resurfaces With New Iteration." By Tom Auchterlonie, Chappaqua Patch, February 25, 2016.

Link to this entry: http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/alert/2019.html#rosehill

Collier Motor Car Company

Ellenville, NY

~Destroyed by Fire May 8, 2019~

The former Collier Motor Car Company in Ellenville burned early in the morning of May 8. From 1965 to 2009 this fantastic mid-century building housed a General Motors franchise dealership owned by the Collier family. GM declined to renew the Collier company's franchise, and the franchises of small dealerships across the country, in May 2009, one month before GM declared bankruptcy. The Collier dealership thrived in previous decades when local businesses such as the Nevele Grande Resort and the Imperial Schrade factory prospered, but the fates of local businesses are often intertwined. More recently the Collier building was home to 613 Automotive Group.

Source articles:
"Fire at Ellenville car dealership deemed electrical, accidental." By Danielle Pineior-Zucker, The Daily Freeman, May 14, 2019.

Link to this entry: http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/alert/2019.html#collier