Images of America - Briarcliff Lodge
Published August 2004; Reprinted April 2008; March 2010.

by Rob Yasinsac   Published by Arcadia An Imprint of Tempus Publishing, Inc.

When opened in 1902, Briarcliff Lodge was America's premier resort hotel. Located some thirty miles north of New York City, this magnificent Tudor-style building was surrounded by dairy barns and greenhouses, all built by Walter Law, "the Laird of Briarcliff Manor." Here, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt were hosted, as were Tallulah Bankhead, Johnny Weissmuller, Babe Ruth, and other luminaries. The hotel business declined in the 1930s, here and at other nearby resorts, but Briarcliff Lodge continued in use as the home of the Edgewood Park School from 1936 to 1954 and as The King's College from 1955 to 1994.  Rob Yasinsac is a lifelong Westchester County resident who documents neglected historic sites throughout the Hudson Valley in an attempt to save them. He works for Historic Hudson Valley, serves as a trustee on the boards of the Westchester County and Irvington Historical Societies, and is a member of numerous other historical organizations. With photographs from the Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society, the Westchester County Historical Society, and private collections including his own, Briarcliff Lodge is a record of a New York landmark that disappeared from the landscape in a spectacular fire in September 2003. The Images of America series celebrates the history of neighborhoods, towns, and cities across the country. Using archival photographs, each title presents the distinctive stories from the past that shape the character of the community today. Arcadia is proud to play a part in the preservation of local heritage, making history available to all.

UPDATE - MARCH 17, 2010: Arcadia Publishing recently reprinted the Briarcliff Lodge book. Please follow this link to purchase copies of the book.   E-mail Rob Yasinsac

Click here to visit the website of Arcadia Publishing:

NOTES ON THE BOOK
Briarcliff Lodge contains 8 chapters, consisting of 128 pages featuring 195 black-and-white photographs, postcards, maps, and advertisements: 
1. Walter Law, "the Laird of Briarcliff Manor:" 1890-1901
2. The Hotel Beautiful: 1902-1922
3. Chauncey Depew Steele 1923-1933
4. Edgewood Park School: 1936-1954
5. The King's College: 1955-1994
6. Abandoned: 1995-2003
7. Fire: September 20, 2003
8. Walter Law's Briarcliff Manor: 2004

Historic photographs, some of which have not been seen in decades, were provided by the Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society, The King's College, the Little Nine Partners Historical Society, the Ossining Historical Society, the Westchester County Historical Society. Historic images also came from private collections including the author's and those of Bill Burton, Laura Lee Keating, Ed and Ginger Kuhlman, Sandra (Sandi) Steele Schneider (granddaughter of former hotel manager Chauncey Depew Steele). TKC alumnus Tim Rice provided several images from his years at Briarcliff. Karl Xydexx Jorgensen took some photographs of the abandoned Lodge. Approximately 32 "new" images from chapter six, taken by Rob Yasinsac, previously unpublished at www.hudsonvalleyruins.org. Volunteer firefighter Jack Bakker was on the scene to record the fire that destroyed the original 1902 section of Briarcliff Lodge, and volunteer firefighter Michael Molinelli contributed the introduction to chapter seven. New photographs by Rob Yasinsac of some of the buildings built by, or associated with, Walter Law and the Briarcliff Lodge, and still standing in the village of Briarcliff Manor today, round out the book.  


PAST PRESENTATIONS & BOOK SIGNINGS
March 17, 2005  - Friends of History, Croton-on-Hudson, New York.
December 10, 2004 - Annual Meeting of the Irvington Historical Society. 
November 30, 2004  - Taconic Postcard Club meeting, Yorktown Community and Cultural Center.
November 2, 2004  - Mount Pleasant Rotary.
October 16, 2004  - The King's College Alumni Reunion. Tuscarora Inn & Conference Center, Pennsylvania. 
October 6, 2004 - Rockland-Bergen Postcard Club meeting. Pearl River Public Library.
September 18, 2004  - Book signing, Philipsburg Manor / Kykuit Visitor Center, Sleepy Hollow, NY.
September 11, 2004 - Briarcliff Manor Community Day, Law Park, Briarcliff Manor.  

For upcoming Hudson Valley Ruins presentations & book-signings, click here.

PUBLICITY
Briarcliff Lodge History Preserved in Photos - The Journal News, August 21, 2004. By Rob Marchant.
Remembering Briarcliff Lodge - Half Moon Press, October 2004.

CORRECTIONS / CLARIFICATIONS - CLICK HERE - Updated January 2, 2005.