Glenmere Mansion

In 1911 the Glenmere mansion, overlooking Glenmere Lake, just fifty miles northwest of New York City in Orange County, New York, was built by New York City real estate developer Robert Wilson Goelet , on the grounds of his sprawling estate in Sugar Loaf, a hamlet of the town of Chester, New York.

Goelet commissioned the architects Carrère and Hastings to design a country villa in a Tuscan style. Goelet’s wife, the former Miss Elsie Whelen of Philadelphia, had always wanted to live in an Italian villa. The house features a central courtyard with an Italian marble fountain, and ochre-colored stucco walls. Beatrix Jones Farrand was hired to landscape the grounds, and Samuel Yellin did the ironwork for the house. The estate and its storied hunting grounds became a regular haunt of Babe Ruth, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
Goelet hosted numerous sporting-set events at the estate, including equine ice-racing. Goelet’s son, Peter, began radio station WGNY on the grounds of the mansion in 1930.
Abraham Prusoff purchased Glenmere mansion during World War II. Prusoff turned the private mansion into a resort hotel with amenities including a golf course, ski run, and tennis courts. In the 1970’s the mansion and estate were seized by Orange County as a tax lien due to Prusoff’s inability to keep the estate’s finances in order. In 1985 the mansion and estate were purchased at a tax auction by real estate magnate Rickey Mandel.
In 2007, under new ownership the mansion became a luxury 19-room hotel, restaurant, and spa, after undergoing an extensive restoration. The home still has many of its early 20th century features. Another great home filled with history, I encourage all to visit the property and enjoy the architectural masterpiece that it is.

Best,

Sarah A. Blank

Sarah Blank Design Studio is a high-end architectural design firm that specializes in high-end kitchens, butler’s pantries, libraries, and master bedrooms, bath suites.  The firm works predominantly in Fairfield County and Westchester County. Our award winning firm, with 33 years of experience, often works beyond the kitchens and baths of a client’s home, and designs the architectural interiors for many of the projects that have been commissioned.