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Arden (E.H. Harriman Estate)
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Wing of the house in 2003
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| Location: | Harriman, New York |
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| Nearest city: | Newburgh |
| Area: | 450 acres (180 ha) |
| Built: | 1886 or 1909 |
| Architect: | Carrère and Hastings |
| Governing body: | Open Space Institute |
| NRHP Reference#: | 66000561 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP: | November 13, 1966 [1] |
| Designated NHL: | November 13, 1966 [2] |
Arden was the estate owned by railroad magnate Edward Henry Harriman and Mary Averell Harriman outside Harriman, New York. By the early nineteen hundreds the family owned 40,000 acres (16,000 ha) in the area, half of it comprising the Arden Estate. The main house is located at the top of a mountain east of the village, reachable by Arden House Road from NY 17.
On September 17, 1886 Harriman bought at auction the 7,863-acre (3,182 ha) Peter Parrott family estate for $52,500, which was named Arden by the Parrott family after Mrs. Parrott's maiden name. Over the next several years he purchased an additional 20,000 acres (8,100 ha), almost forty different parcels of land, and built forty miles of bridle paths. Harriman hired Carrère and Hastings to design a home, which was begun in 1905. Harriman had planned it for many years, but lived in it for only a few months before his death.
It was from this estate that his widow would donate 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) and one million dollars to New York State to start Harriman State Park in 1910. In 1950, his son W. Averell Harriman deeded the property to Columbia University, as "home of The American Assembly," a public policy institution founded by Dwight D. Eisenhower the same year. It became primarily used as a center for executive management programs. The house was identified as America's first conference center, and became a National Historic Landmark in 1966 [2][3] but is not open to the public.
In 2007, the Open Space Institute bought Arden House and its surrounding 450 acres (180 ha). The house commands extensive views of the Ramapo River Valley. The property brings the total of preserved lands that were once owned by the Harriman family in New York State to nearly 70,000 acres (28,000 ha), including Bear Mountain, Harriman and Sterling Forest State Parks.[4]