Ross-Hand Mansion

About this property

The Ross–Hand Mansion is an historic home located at South Nyack in Rockland County, New York. The land was acquired from Garrett J Tallman (1784-1862) for $5,000 in 1856 by Azariah Ross (1787-1878). The Tallman family had occupied the land since 1675-76 when Harmen Douwenszen Taelman (1655–1691) came to camp on his father's land after an Indian deed had been signed and royal patent issued. Azariah Ross was a veteran of the War of 1812 and a successful New York City property developer. In 1826, Ross developed Dominick Street in Manhattan with brick-faced Federal-style houses, two-and-a-half stories tall; he moved his family into one of the first, the 20-foot-wide 45 Dominick Street, and used it as his Manhattan office. He sold his properties on Dominick Street by auction in December 1839. Ross had had a second home in Rockland County from about 1820. Azariah Ross based his summer mansion in Nyack on the design for 'A Country House in the Pointed Style' from the Architecture of Country Houses: including designs for cottages, farm-houses, and villas, with remarks on interiors, furniture, and the best modes of warming and ventilating by the great landscape designer and architect Andrew Jackson Downing. The three-story brick mansion with Gothic Revival style features was completed by April 1859. It features ornamental bargeboards and a steeply pitched gable roof. Azariah Ross was instrumental in extending the Northern Railroad to Nyack. On May 28, 1870, he hosted in the grounds of the Ross Hand Mansion a celebration of the arrival of the rail line. A banner was strung over the entrance reading 'Welcome to Nyack, the Gem of the Hudson' surrounded by fluttering flags. The chairman of the reception committee, Seth B Cole, gave a fulsome welcome to the crowds on the Mansion's lawn: “Nyack embosomed in the semi-circling hills that adorn the west bank of the noble Hudson at Tappan Zee - in possession of beauty and wealth of attractions rarely equaled, has cherished the unfolding hope ... when appreciative, intelligent, worthy and wealthy votaries shall seek and find a resting place in her bowers. Nyack in slumbering loveliness, has dreamed of this joyful hour”. By 1871, trying to stave off financial uncertainty, Ross converted his house into a hotel, the Ross Mansion. Note that in the application packet to have the house considered for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, one source incorrectly attributes another name to the house during its years as a hotel. On May 8, 1883, after Ross' death, the home was purchased at a public auction hosted by A J Bleeker in New York City by Mary Elizabeth Haddock Hand (1836-1917). Mary's husband, William Henry Hand (1837-1898), specialized in decorative woodwork and, with their sons William, Roger and Walter, he completed extensive renovations on the property and installed elements, including a marble fireplace, from the Alexander Turney Stewart Mansion on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan that had recently been demolished. They converted the rear part of the property into a working farm with help from a lodger named Robert Latimer who had previously managed a family farm in West Nyack.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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