Greystone History
Untermyer Gardens History
In 1865, John Waring purchased 33 acres from the Bolmer estate and that same year engaged architect John Davis Hatch to build a 99 room mansion called Greystone. Waring owned the largest hat factory in the world at the time but in the financial crisis of 1876, he suffered a reversal of fortune and had to sell his factory. He moved to Boston to start anew and offered his estate for rent.
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In 1879, Samuel J. Tilden, a former governor and failed presidential candidate, rented Greystone from John Waring and bought it soon thereafter. Tilden was the first resident at Greystone to be actively interested in horticulture and during his time there built thirteen greenhouses - both for ornamental plants and for fruit and vegetables. Tilden died in 1886 leaving most of his large estate to fund the creation of public libraries for New York City as well as Yonkers and New Lebanon.
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Samuel J. Untermyer, a prominent New York lawyer, purchased Greystone at auction from the estate of Samuel J. Tilden in 1899.
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In 1916, Samuel Untermyer hired William Welles Bosworth, an Ecole des Beaux Arts trained architect and landscape designer, to create the "finest garden in the world." In the years following, Bosworth created the formal gardens of Greystone.
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Sixteen acres were conveyed by the Untermyer family to the City of Yonkers as a public park in 1946. Due to inadequate funding, the estate declined slowly over the years, but experienced a significant restoration in the 1970's under the leadership of architect James Piccone and Larry Martin under Mayor Angelo Martinelli. Unfortunately, this revival was short-lived, and the property again deteriorated, despite the best efforts of the City. In the mid-1990's, community leaders Nortrud Spero and Joe Kozlowski, working with the Open Space Institute, were able to persuade the City under Mayor Terence Zaleski to acquire more acreage to form the approximately 43 acres which constitute the park today.
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