In 1977, my wife and I scraped together every penny we had (and then some) to buy this beautiful old house in Tuxedo Park, New York. It was designed in 1904 by the firm of Barney and Chapman for William Mitchell Vail Hoffman. Hoffman was a prototypical Park type. The family firm was a player in the Manhattan real estate market. As well as being very social, which was the rule in the Park back then, they were very Episcopalian as well. One brother was a bishop. We bought Paxhurst for $175,000 - a spectacular deal - despite which we were spectacularly unable to hold on to it. It was really my doing, and my then wife bears little guilt for our abbreviated 3-year stay.
Image 1 - Here's the house from the air. The driveway loops down a steep hill and exits the property through stone posts beyond the stable, which is just out of sight at the bottom of the frame.
Image 2 - When we came, the drive had lawned over, as we say. We bought the adjoining stable and reunited it to the original estate, although to call it an "estate" sounds a bit grand, seing as it was only 5 acres. On weekends I restored the drive by hand, cutting away years of turf to expose the gravel and the hand laid stone gutter - truly the definition of a "labor of love."
Image 3 - It was a very impressive stone house - original in design, magnificent in scale, sumptuous in detail.
Image 4 - We parked our car in front of these steps.
Image 5 - Here are the original owners. That's Mr. Hoffman in the middle, wearing his weekend hat. His wife, the former Irene Stoddard, is on the right. We never discovered the name of the fellow on the left.
Wow. I have heard you talk about it , but I have never seen a picture of it
ReplyDeletecool stuff!!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great site! I love old houses. Thanks for a peek inside their doors.
ReplyDeleteI discovered Tuxedo Park when I read Laura Shaine Cunningham's book "A Place in the Country" several years ago. I love this glimpse you give into some of those places. I also cry for historic homes that have been lost. How lucky for you to have owned one! That is an unfilled dream of mine. Instead, I settle for walking Hudson Valley mansions and for a few minutes pretend that I live there. Lucky for me that I am a writer with a creative imagination that lets me feel right at home!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this with everybody. This is a wonderful home. My father purchased this house in 1984 and has been in my family ever since. My sister and I are the current owners and its great to see that the house has had such a positive effect on your life as it has for us. I really do enjoy seeing some of the old photographs and my father would have really enjoyed them as well. I spent much of my childhood exploring tuxedo park and it truly was a wonderland!
ReplyDeleteI spent some time “playing” in this house. I recall the green room vividly and I can still smell the scent of furniture Polish in the room with the wood walls. I slid down the banister and would run and slide across the ballroom floor- this was in the 70s and my father was town supervisor- his father, my grandfather, was a well known butler for over 30 years for the Mortimer family. Being a Brit, his intimidating mannerisms afforded me the freedom to roam in several TP homes - my grandmother often worked in them as an occasional maid, seamstress or housekeeper and occasionally I would accompany her. My own home was the former Eloise Breese carriage house - little did I know back then I was amidst a part of the gilded age - so glad to see the photos- it triggered memories I didn’t know I had!
DeleteKim England
Do you know if this was a multiple family dwelling in the late sixties? And is it up the hill from a big white building which used to be a girls school? There wood be a Chapel overlooking the steep hill down the back leading to a an antiquated tennis court and the turret was accessible through one of the upper apartments. Could it have been know for a time as "The Villa"? I ask as it is very reminiscent of a home my family lived within (divided into 5 apartments) in 1967 & '68. My name is David E. Davis III and my father who was then Publisher/Editor of Car & Driver moved us to Tuxedo Park for a year and half after living in Oyster bay Long Island, we have no family photos of the home sadly so I am searching. You may contact me at dedavis321@yahoo.com >Congratulations on the lovely and amazing structure, I have had dreams of Tuxedo Park all my life. >Sincerely Dave Davis
ReplyDeleteThe Villa Apartments was also known originally as the Trask Estate and then the Loomis Laboratory (WWII radar development), the school you mention is the Academy of Mount Saint Vincent (private girls school). I lived at the Villa Apartments for two or three years in the mid-sixties.
DeleteHello David, The house has been in my family since the early 80's and it has never been a multi family home. I think I know the area you are talking about. It really is an amazing structure. You could always email me at Richiehartmann@aol.com.
ReplyDeleteIam sure that this is the castle that I used to vacation in about 50 years ago. One of my mothers cousins and her husband owned it. I used to roll down the front lawn with the dog and I have some older pictures of what we called the music room, main hallway and drawing room. It was a beautiful place.
ReplyDeleteMu cousin and her husband has lived in this house. It is very beautiful on the inside. I have pictures of it.
ReplyDeleteWould you be willing to share some of your old pictures? I could send you some current ones if you wish. Thank You.
ReplyDeleteRichieHartmann@aol.com
Hi John,
ReplyDeleteW.M.V. Hoffman was my grandfather. His son, my father, was Charles F. Hoffman who grew up in the house. Thanks for posting these pictures.
- gofastguypete@hotmail.com
As a student in a Philosophy course (Whitehead) given by Professor Richard M. Martin of NYU https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Milton_Martin , I was invited to a May 1971 end of term party at Paxhurst. It was an astounding home and an visit. Richard's wife was an NYU Institute of Fine Arts professor. Richard said he had purchased the home (I vaguely recall about 10 years before but am not certain of that date) from "Gussie" Hoffman. Gussie had studied at Harvard and had taken a course from Whitehead there. He had left Richard with notes from that course that Richard showed me. Other students made their way to the tower level. (The house built on a cliff has a lot of levels, maybe seven). I was intercepted by Richard who said it was not fit for visitors that day and had to retreat back to the main level with its ballroom and other large rooms. We mainly sat in a sort of Florida room with faded teal crosshatching on the ceiling that was left as original painting. Richard said that the house had 55 rooms servants' rooms that in 1971 were empty, unused and dirty and though he had lived in the house for more than 10 years, had never been interested in visiting. A kitchen level was mentioned. Richard said that at times the house was considered a white elephant and that he had gotten it a such bargain. It would be marvelous to visit Paxhurst again.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.portals-to-the-past.com/tuxedoparkresidents.html suggests that the house was called High Tor when owned by the Hoffmans. Paxhurst does indeed seem like a name that Richard Martin would have come up with. That url has more pictures and information about the Hoffmans.
DeleteAccording to this wedding announcement, it was called Paxhurst when still with the Hoffman family...
Deletehttps://www.nytimes.com/1950/09/21/archives/elizabeth-yerxa-becomes-a-bride-she-is-wed-in-tuxedo-park-to.html
From literally 69 years ago today!
TUXEDO PARK, N.Y., Sept. 20 --The marriage of Miss Elizabeth Jane Yerxa, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Sterling B. Yerxa of Nantucket, Mass., and Boston, to Charles Frederick Hoffman 3d, son of C. Gouverneur Hoffman of New York, Nantucket and Tuxedo Park, and Mrs. Lydia V. Mott of New York, took place here this afternoon in Paxhurst, the home of the bridegroom's grandmother, Mrs. William M.V. Hoffman.
Wow, funny how a home can bring back memories. My mother and I fed the cats in this house, or castle as I recall it when I was about 7 years old. There was a piano and lots of colorful things in the home. The owners at that time were a married couple who traveled quite a bit. My father was Town Supervisor at that time, 1976. I even recall the smell. Kind of dusty and a smell like sherry. I lived just down the street in an old carriage house on East Lake Stable Road. A great place (and time) to grow up. - Kim England McGuirk, Cornwall on Hudson, NY
ReplyDeletethe chap on the left could be mr Tilford, oil magnat back then, father of Mrs (David) Wagstaff - Tilford. They had an estate in Tuxudo Park too....
ReplyDeleteWow. Never knew of the existence of Paxhurst. Currently for sale for under a million. A steal of a deal for a castle!
ReplyDeleteI actually own the first photo shown above, the airplane view, bought at the Foreman estate sale at Daheim in Millbrook NY 2016. But I'll be parting with it soon.
ReplyDeleteDear Dave, this is Laura Shaine Cunningham, author of A Place in the Country and I knew your parents when we all lived in the Villa, a very famous castle at the top of Crows Nest Road. I knew John and Randy foreman also- they bought the house pictured, Paxhurst...different house. I found Tuxedo Park magical and romantic...I was only 21 when my husband and I moved there. Your father persuaded us to buy a BMW...very early in it life in the us.
ReplyDeleteIs there a book published on the entire life of Paxhurst? I would be interested in how this wonderful home came to be left in such disrepair. It would be wonderful if someone had money to burn and would use it to restore it. At first I thought it was the home of Alfred Loomis, but I now see that is another Tuxedo property with it's own wonderful history.
ReplyDeleteIt appears the same family has owned it since 1984. Prior to that the comments imply it was likely left to a spendthrift heir. Then owners who discovered it to be a money pit seeing as the lawn had taken over between the 1950s and 1970s.
DeleteToday it would be gorgeous with $3-4 million invested. The neighboring houses are absolutely magnificent.
How do you get to the 3-4 mln number? Seems reasonable based on comps in the neighborhood but curious how that collide be staged over several years. Any structural damage?
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