A Greek Revival Temple to Learning for Working Women, Yours for $995K

If a house has survived almost 200 years, chances are its walls have a few stories to tell. Even by old house standards, this early 19th century Greek Revival manse in West Park, N.Y., probably has more than its fair share of tales. With as many name changes as uses, it’s served as a fashionable estate, a school for female workers and a massage therapy school, just to name a few.

The house at 1689 Route 9W is currently on the market, waiting to see what it will become in its next incarnation. Chances are if you have spent any time around the Hudson River you may have caught a glimpse of the white house perched directly across the water from the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park.

The Greek Revival house predates the Gilded Age splendor of the Vanderbilt Mansion by more than a few decades. Survey information at the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation estimates the construction date as between 1802 and 1825, with the later date seeming most likely.

It most likely was a family home throughout the 19th century, and was known as Frothingham by mid century. Around the 1890s, the Alexander Gordon family named it Aberdeen, which seems to have stuck.

As to be expected with a house of this vintage, a fair bit of unsubstantiated folklore surrounds it, from Cornelius Vanderbilt dropping by to play cards to Henry Ford being thwarted in his attempts to purchase the property.

In the late 1920s, Aberdeen was purchased by educator Hilda Worthington Smith. Smith spent her youth at her family’s summer home, built immediately north of Aberdeen in 1891. A graduate of Bryn Mawr, Smith became a warden of the college and in 1921 the first director of the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry. The program offered short residential courses for young working women. The school was part of broader movement toward worker education and labor rights in the 1920s and 1930s.

The students in the program came from a variety of occupations, religions, and ethnic and educational backgrounds. In the words of one participant quoted by Smith in a 1920s report, “When I had to stop school at 13 to go into the factory I felt as though a door had been slammed in my face. Now I see that the door is a crack open, and I can see through to a beautiful country beyond.”

Smith brought the Bryn Mawr labor school with her to West Park with the intention of setting up a year-round program. She established the Vineyard Shore Labor School at both Aberdeen and her family home around 1929. The school suffered from funding difficulties and folded around 1934 in the depths of the Depression, but Smith retained ownership of Aberdeen.

When the house was not in use for the school, Smith rented it out. Rental ads from 1931 refer to the property as both Aberdeen and the Vineyard Shore School and describe it as fully furnished with eight bedrooms and “suitable for family or group vacations.”

In 1939, Smith relaunched her summer school in West Park, naming it the Hudson Shore Labor School. Bryn Mawr announced that the school was leaving campus and West Park was the new year-round home of the school with classes in labor and economics, science and English as well as workshops and discussion groups on topics such as labor issues, organizing and poster making.

While the family home was the center of activity for the school, Aberdeen continued to be used as part of the sprawling campus, with classes, dramatic productions and study taking place in the houses, outbuildings and the great outdoors. Guest lecturers included Eleanor Roosevelt.

Smith didn’t limit her activity to the school. In the 1930s, she served as director of the Workers Service Program for the WPA and was involved with other Depression-era education initiatives. The Hudson Shore Labor School closed at West Park around 1950, and the program was transferred to Rutgers University.

After the school closed, Aberdeen became a family home again for several decades. Education of a different kind returned in 2009 when the Hudson Valley School of Advanced Aesthetics and Massage Therapy purchased the property. Most recently, the house was used as an event venue called Aberdeen on the Hudson.

In 2016, developer Seth Tapper planned to transform Aberdeen into a boutique hotel. The hotel would include a bar and restaurant, and plans called for expanding the original house and building four guest cottages on the property, according to town and county records. The project required variances as well as environmental review, but despite going through the process and receiving a positive environmental review, the project never moved forward.

Now on the market, the house offers the intriguing possibility to add another layer to its history. Set on almost four acres of land with sweeping river views, there’s a protected shoreline, guaranteeing no new construction will impede the view.

Despite its many owners and uses, the house seems to have retained a fair amount of original material. Step off the grand Ionic-columned front porch through a stained-glass ornamented door and you’re in a house with generous proportions and historic character. There’s a graceful staircase in the entrance foyer.

There are double parlors with some intricate plasterwork and at least a few doors that still have original Greek Revival ear moldings.

There are several marble mantels on the first floor, including this circa 1860s one with an elaborate mirror.

The images of the kitchen leave something to be desired so it’s tough to get a sense of what you would be working with, although the listing refers to it as a “newly renovated cook’s kitchen.” One thing it definitely has going for it is that killer view.

In addition to the grand public spaces, the roughly 4,400 square foot house includes four bedrooms and 3.5 baths. The bedrooms are more modest in proportion and detail, with original and simpler mantels and moldings.

The baths have been updated, although at least one still has a claw foot tub.

Outside, the listing mentions that there is an outbuilding that “has been used commercially before.” There’s a glimpse of the building in one of the listing photos, but few other details.

The property is located in West Park, a hamlet within the larger town of Esopus. Just a few miles up the road from Aberdeen is the Klyne Esopus Museum, with exhibits and information on the history of the area. Significant past residents of the area include Sojourner Truth, who was born into slavery in Esopus circa 1797, and naturalist John Burroughs.

The house is listed for $995,000 by Lawrence O’Toole of Lawrence O’Toole Realty.

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