John "Lord" Clendening was a wealthy New Yorker who made his fortune importing Irish textiles after the Revolution, at the end of the 18th century. He built this lovely mansion, complete with widow's walk and waving American flag, around 1811.* It stood at what is now the southwest corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 103rd Street, in the area known as Morningside Heights, in northern Manhattan.His estate stretched from the north side of 99th Street to the south side of 105th Street and from 8th Avenue (now Central Park West) to the Bloomingdale Road. The picture at left says that it stands at 90th Street but the sources listed at the end of this post (dating from 1911 and 2009) agree that it was about 10 blocks north of that; perhaps the streets were renumbered at some point after the engraving was made in 1863. Clendening's Lane was "a country road" (according to J. Ernest Brierly, writing in 1953) which began around 6th Avenue and 105th Street and ran south to what is now Broadway and 103rd Street.
The area around the mansion was known as Clendening Valley well into the 19th century. Clendening lived on his rural estate for many years, but in 1836 he lost most of his money when President Andrew Jackson refused to renew the charter of the United States Bank, in which Clendening was a major stockholder. The estate was sold in 1845 as forty lots for a total of $4500. The mansion was torn down and the Clendening Hotel rose in its place. The Hotel survived until 1965, when the Frederick Douglas Homes Addition was built in its place; it is a red brick high rise, and is still there today.
SOURCES
Brierly, J. Ernest. The Streets of Old New York (1953), link here. See more on Clendening's Lane here at Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island 1498-1909 (1915-28) volume 3, p. 996 [see also citation below].
"Latest Dealings in the Real Estate Field," New York Times, December 3, 1911, p. xxi.
Stokes, I.N. Phelps. The Iconography of Manhattan Island 1498-1909, volume 6 (1915-28) p. 85; at Columbia University Libraries. (This is a wonderful book which I am looking forward to browsing in extensively!)
Susi, Michael V. The Upper West Side (2009), p. 93.
*Clendening purchased the Benson Farm in a deed dated May 2, 1814, according to Stokes; he already owned 10 acres of what was the LeRoy farm, however, which may have been where he built his mansion (Susi states that Clendening was living there by 1811).
Color picture of the mansion from 1863, from NYPL Digital Gallery.
9 comments:
How beautiful. Thanks for blogging about this.
Mirella - Thanks! I bookmarked the picture months ago and had no idea how interesting it would be to write about.
That mean old Andrew Jackson, causing the banks to collapse and the nation to plunge into economic depression! He sure had a luxuriant head of hair, though.
The Clendening Estate sounds like something out of a Nancy Drew mystery, doesn't it?
Nancy, Bess & George discover Old Man Clendening making counterfeit bank notes in his basement when Nancy's roadster conks out at the gates to the Clendening Estate.
What a beautiful estate :)
Thanks for sharing such great information..I love history.
Bill - It does sound like a Nancy Drew! Maybe I could feature it in a mystery some time (if I ever finish the present one, better not start thinking about Other Plots right now)
Dori - It is lovely, and you'd never know it had been there...
Waterrose - It was a lot of fun to research this :)
Thanks. I enjoy these excursions into history and architecture!
What a lovely gem :)
Great story. I was wondering when the Hotel Clendening was torn down as I was posting about it on my site. The NY Times never covered the closure & razing of this upper west side apartment/hotel.
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