Philipse Manor Railroad Station

Architecturally, the Philipsburg Manor station is an example of Tudor Revival architecture, which was popular in the United States from about 1890-1940 and was loosely based on late Medieval English houses.[1] Stylistic characteristics include stone masonry mixed with half-timber and plastered exterior, decorative woodwork, and uneven roofs heights. The construction of the station was to serve a large residential development in Sleepy Hollow and reflects the increasing suburbanization of lower Westchester County.[2]

During the nineteenth century, Westchester, increasing numbers of people were moving out of the city establishing communities along the Hudson River. The advent of the railroads accelerated this transition towards suburbanization by providing easy daily commuting into Manhattan. The Hudson River Railroad extended the already established New York and Harlem Railroad from White Plains to Peekskill and then eventually all the way up to Albany in 1869. These two lines were consolidated by Cornelius Vanderbilt and the New York Central system began to promote more commuter trains along the tracks. 

The main feature of the interior of the building is the octagonal waiting room with a large fireplace made of granite on the eastern wall.[3] The old ticket window is on the southern wall adjacent to a small passageway that leads to the station manager’s office and a baggage room. The interior wall panels and ceiling beams are stained oak. The oak paneling is laid in an alternating pattern moving upwards first diagonal from the floor, then vertical up to where the doors and window heads, then diagonal in the first frieze and in the second vertical to from tutor arches. Across the tracks from the station, a bronze-painted cast -iron eagle that had decorated the old Grand Central Station was mounted in the spirit of cooperation between the railroad and the Philipse Manor Company.[4]

Detailed site drawings of the station were created in 1910 and the construction of the Station and was reported by the New York Herald to have begun before January of 1911.[5] On January 31, 1913, The New York Central Railroad put the new Philipse Manor Station into service.[6] With the exception of the original bridge, the platforms and their accompanying canopies, and the roof—which have all been replaced and updated - no other changes have been made to the building.[7] The railroad station is still open, however, the interior is no longer used as a waiting room but as the home for the Hudson Valley Writers’ Center.[8]

[1] Constance Greiff, “Philipse Manor Railroad Station”, Nation Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Heritage Studies, New Jersey, January 18, 1991. 

[2] Ibid. 

[3] Gray Williams, “Picturing Our Past: National Register Sites in Westchester County” (Elmsford, New York: Westchester County Historical Society, 2003), 382. 

[4] Mascia, 6. 

[5] Sara Mascia, “Historical Society Landmark Recognition in Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow”, The Chronicle, April, 2002, 6. 

[6] “Philipse Manor”, New York Times, February 5, 1911, accessed October 22, 2020. https://www.newspapers.com. 

[7] Greiff, Section number 7. 

[8] Mascia, 6.