Untermyer Park

“In the early 20th century, North Broadway was one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in Yonkers, lined with great estates. Two of these, Greystone and Alder Manor, sat side by side overlooking the Hudson.”1 The area now known as Untermyer Park was originally part of the 150 acres estate, Greystone. It was purchased by Samuel Untermyer in 1899 when the original owner of Greystone, John T. Waring, faced financial reverses.

Untermyer was a “highly successful trial lawyer, famed for his skills at cross-examination. He became rich representing corporate clients and investing in their enterprises. . . . He was also an important defender against anti-Semitism and, from the early 1930s, an eloquent opponent of Hitler and Nazi Germany.”2 Untermyer was also deeply fascinated by plants and gardens, so upon purchasing the estate, he decided to build a luxurious garden. “It has been said that Mr. Untermyer knew more about plants than most of his gardeners. The gardens were in almost every respect Untermyer’s creation.”3

“The grounds of the Untermyer Estate lie ‘on hilly rock-strewn land’ at what in 1928 could be described as ‘the edge of the city of Yonkers, with the Hudson below and the Palisades lifted up sharply on the New Jersey shore opposite’.”4 While some may seem hilly land as an issue, Untermyer saw the potential for beauty with his newly acquired estate. The park/garden features the rock garden, a Grecian garden, a Grecian amphitheater, a classical pavilion, a pergola, and a statuary. Located within the Grecian garden as well is a “circular pavilion, called the Temple, with its grand outlook over the Hudson River and the Palisades.”5 At the other end of the Grecian garden lies two column structures, with two sphinx’s resting on top, created by the famous Paul Manship (creator of the gilded statue of Prometheus at Rockefeller Center). While the sphinx’s were created by Manship, the gardens themselves were designed by the famous architect William Welles Bosworth, known for designing the gardens at the Rockefeller Estate, Kykuit. His most prized garden work in Untermyer Park is the large formal garden (Grecian Garden), designed in “the same neoclassical style as the gardens at Kykuit and Beechwood.”6 

The gardens originally contained a large variety of plants “including $25,000 worth of English boxwood, and an extravaganza of 30,000 rhododendrons-- twenty feet or more in height. . . .In addition the estate produced a variety of vegetables, Untermyer and his staff conducted horticultural experiments often creating new varieties of plants, and several of the sixty greenhouses contained ‘the finest private collection of tropical plants in America, including some two thousand rare orchids’.”7 The theater area is still being used today. 

Open to the public, Untermyer Park is a fun location for all to visit and enjoy its beauty and nature. The location was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

1. Williams, Gray. Picturing Our Past: National Register Sites in Westchester County . Elmsford , NY. Westchester County Historical Society , 2003.
2. Williams, Gray. Picturing Our Past: National Register Sites in Westchester County . Elmsford , NY. Westchester County Historical Society , 2003.
3. Weaver, Lynn Beebe. Untermyer Park. National Register of Historic Places Inventory. Published December 1st 1973.
4. Weaver, Lynn Beebe. Untermyer Park. National Register of Historic Places Inventory. Published December 1st 1973.
5. Williams, Gray. Picturing Our Past: National Register Sites in Westchester County . Elmsford , NY. Westchester County Historical Society , 2003.
6. Williams, Gray. Picturing Our Past: National Register Sites in Westchester County . Elmsford , NY. Westchester County Historical Society , 2003.
7. Weaver, Lynn Beebe. Untermyer Park. National Register of Historic Places Inventory. Published December 1st 1973.