Alder Manor is a Renaissance Revival mansion in Yonkers, New York, completed in 1912 for a mining financier from Montana and designed by Carrère & Hastings, the architects of the New York Public Library. How it got its name, what happened to it over a century, and how to see it today.
Alder Manor is a limestone mansion on North Broadway in Yonkers, New York, built in 1912 as the weekend home of a mining financier from Montana. Carrère & Hastings, the firm behind the New York Public Library, designed it in the Renaissance Revival style, and it has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1982. Today the historic mansion hosts weddings, company events and film and photo productions, about 30 minutes by car from Columbus Circle, depending on traffic.
Why is it called Alder Manor?
Its builder was born in 1869 in Virginia City, in what was then the Montana Territory, the gold-rush town that grew up in Alder Gulch. He made his fortune in copper mining, came to New York in 1895, and in 1916 founded Newmont, the mining company that still carries the name.
When he built his house on the bluffs above the Hudson, the cliffs of the Palisades across the river reminded him of the country he grew up in. So he named the house after Alder Gulch, and the house still carries that name.
A palazzo by the architects of the New York Public Library
Carrère & Hastings were among the most admired architects of their time. Their New York work includes the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue, and in Yonkers they designed an Italian palazzo: a two-and-a-half-story limestone house with stone columns, formal terraces and rooms of true proportion. Their Beaux-Arts discipline meets the ease of a country house.
Inside, each room has its own character: carved wood paneling, ornamental plaster ceilings, marble fireplaces and tall windows. The house's Wikipedia entry describes a walnut-paneled drawing room with a painted trompe-l'oeil ceiling, a music room with an Italian coffered ceiling and a fifteenth-century fireplace brought from Europe, and, at the top of the grand staircase, the pipes of a Welte Philharmonic organ arranged to frame a window.
Neighbors on North Broadway
The house was not alone on this stretch of the river. Next door stood Greystone, a neighboring estate whose owner set out, from 1916, to build what he called the finest garden in America. Today it is Untermyer Gardens, a public park beside Alder Manor. The Greystone name lives on in the neighborhood and in its Metro-North station.
The estate's interests reached beyond mining. In 1924 a plant research institute opened its laboratories across the street, and it worked in Yonkers until 1978, when it moved to Ithaca beside Cornell University.
A century of change
Its builder died in 1930. His widow lived in the house for another twenty years, and after her death in 1950 the estate was left to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. It became a Catholic high school and then, from 1960, a junior college. The college merged with Iona College in 1989, and Iona closed the campus in 1995.
In 1982, while the college still used the house, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places (reference number 82001277).
A living restoration
Every historic house asks for patience. Restoration at Alder Manor moves room by room, guided by the original character of the house. Some interiors are restored; others keep the patina of a century, which photographers and designers often prefer. Overnight guest rooms are planned for the estate but are not available yet.
The house on screen
The same rooms have appeared in feature films and television: A Beautiful Mind, Mona Lisa Smile, Boardwalk Empire, Mr. Robot and Inventing Anna. In 2025 the house was the setting for a Vogue photoshoot for the April issue. The full story of the house on camera is in Filmed at Alder Manor.
Can you visit Alder Manor today?
Alder Manor is at 1097 North Broadway in Yonkers, beside Untermyer Gardens. It is about 30 minutes by car from Columbus Circle, depending on traffic, and Metro-North's Hudson Line stops at Greystone, the neighborhood the house stands in. The house is private: it opens for weddings, private celebrations, company events and productions, and tours are by appointment. Directions, trains and parking are on getting here, and photos of the rooms are in our Alder Manor photo gallery.
For a walk through the rooms and how an evening moves between them, see the estate. Planning a wedding? Read 12 questions to ask a mansion wedding venue near NYC. Planning a company celebration? Read hosting a holiday party or gala in a Westchester mansion. For dates, credits and the National Register listing at a glance, see our press fact sheet.
Sources: National Register of Historic Places, reference 82001277; Wikipedia: the house; Wikipedia: the plant research institute; Untapped New York, 2022; New York Social Diary, 2020.
If you are planning a wedding, an event or a shoot, send us an inquiry with your date, and we will arrange a private visit.
