Leffingwell-Batcheller House

The Leffingwell-Batcheller House, constructed between 1887 and 1889, is an architecturally and historically significant private residence located in Yonkers, New York. Built to provide sweeping vistas of the nearby Hudson River and cliffs of the Palisades, the home originally belonged to Charles and Mary Leffingwell. Their son, Russell Leffingwell (1878-1960), was a lawyer and banker who held many notable posts in American government and business, and their daughters, Julia Leffingwell (d.1965), and Helen Leffingwell Batcheller, also resided in the home with their families. Designed by prominent New York City architect Robert Henderson Robertson (1849-1919), whose designs included the Park Row, Ivins Syndicate Building in Manhattan, New York’s tallest building at the turn of the twentieth century, and St. John’s Riverside Hospital in Yonkers. The masonry and frame Queen Anne-style Leffingwell-Batcheller House exhibits distinctive elements of late-Victorian era architecture, including a two-story, three-side projecting bay and a broad veranda that incorporates both brick and sandstone elements in its construction. Surrounded now by a densely populated urban area, where many single-family homes have long since been replaced by multi-family units, the Leffingwell-Batcheller House remains a symbol of Yonkers’ elegant residences of 130 years ago. The Leffingwell-Batcheller House was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.

John Cornell Black was a successful New York millionaire, who made his fortune in the iron manufacturing industry. He owned a number of properties, including in the city of Yonkers, just north of New York City. In 1886, Black gifted to his daughter, Mary, a parcel of land at the corner of Flagg Street and Palisade Avenue in Yonkers, overlooking the Hudson River and cliffs of the Palisades. Mary, and her husband Charles Leffingwell, who was an executive in his father-in-law’s iron manufacturing business, engaged prominent New York City-based architect Robert Henderson Robertson to design a home for their young family, which was completed in 1889. Within the next decade, additional historic homes would be built nearby, in the Delavan Terrace Historic District, which is located to the north beyond High Street and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

Mary and Charles Leffingwell had three children: Russell, Helen, and Julia, all of whom lived in the Leffingwell-Batcheller House at various points. Julia Leffingwell, who never married, resided here for her entire life. Helen Leffingwell married Franklin Alden Batcheller, a stockbroker, here at the family’s home in 1905 where together they raised two children: Franklin and Helen, the latter of whom was a kidnapping target and whose marriage in 1933 prompted a threat to bomb the house. 

Russell Leffingwell was the most notable resident of the Leffingwell-Batcheller House. He held a number of important positions within the United States Government, including Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President Woodrow Wilson and chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1946 to 1953. He also served on President Harry Truman’s Commission on Internal Security and Individual Rights. In addition, Russell Leffingwell was a banker and prominent businessman. He was a chairman and director of J.P. Morgan & Company, as well as a trustee of the Carnegie Corporation from 1923 to 1959, where he assumed the role of chairman for a time.

The Leffingwell-Batcheller House remained in the Leffingwell-Batcheller family until 1966, a year after Julia Leffingwell passed away. In subsequent decades, it experienced some deterioration and alteration. The interior was partitioned in order to serve as an unregistered rooming house, and windows and gates were removed. Nevertheless, much of the home’s original and design elements remain intact, including in the interior, which to this day maintains the eight original fireplaces with mantels and tile surrounds, and wooden built-in bookcases and classic dining room features. As of 2023, the home is undergoing renovation to restore its original historic characteristics.

The Queen Anne-style Leffingwell-Batcheller House is built of masonry and frame construction, and is two and one-half stories in height with a fully excavated basement. The front portion of the house is covered by a hipped roof which is engaged by a large intersecting gable and smaller gable-roofed dormer on the façade. The dwelling, which was built over an asymmetrical footprint, exhibits lively massing and features projecting multi-story bays—one rounded and one three-sided—on its two principal, or street-side, elevations. The exterior of the home exhibits classic late-nineteenth century characteristics with an engaging mix of materials, textures and colors. 

The Leffingwell-Batcheller House was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.

1. Garcia, Ernie. “Yonkers Mansion Nominated for National Landmark Registry.” The Journal News. Nov. 9, 2014. https://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/westchester/2014/11/09/yonkers-historic-mansion/18658323/
2. “Leffingwell-Batcheller House #15000036.” National Register of Historic Places. United States Department of the Interior/National Park Service. 2014.
3. “Two Seized in Plot to Kidnap Niece, 22, of Morgan Partner.” The New York Times. Sept. 24, 1933. https://www.nytimes.com/1933/09/24/archives/two-seized-in-plot-to-kidnap-niece-22-of-morgan-partner-threats-to.html