It’s a bizarre sight: At Broadway and 215th Street, amid an unremarkable stretch of neighborhood shops, sits a marble arch straight out of Gilded Age New York City.
The arch (New-York Historical Society photo, right) is marred by graffiti and litter, closed off behind a chain-link fence. So what’s it doing there?
Known as the Seaman-Drake Arch, it’s the last remnant of the Seaman Mansion, a magnificent 19th century hilltop home built by the Seaman family, when Inwood was dotted by country estates.
The arch marked the entrance to the mansion, which was later sold to a family named Drake. As Inwood lost its rural character, the mansion was razed; on the site now is the Park Terrace apartment complexes.
Myinwood has more in-depth history and photos. And Gothamist found an incredible shot of the original mansion and gate.
Tags: country estates of Inwood, Inwood history, mysteries of New York City, New York in the 19th Century, NYC urban relics, Rich New Yorkers, Seaman Mansion, Seaman-Drake Arch, upper Manhattan history
Ephemeral New York 
October 6, 2010 at 12:22 pm |
How sad!
October 6, 2010 at 2:25 pm |
I had always wondered what that was!! Thank you!
October 6, 2010 at 2:28 pm |
how apropos for nyc
either a mansion or a ghetto
October 6, 2010 at 10:15 pm |
Very sad … so many beautiful things which have been laid to waste.
October 7, 2010 at 1:23 pm |
We tend to think that wealth preserves great buildings and institutions. The Seaman-Drake arch suggests that there is no such guarantee…
October 8, 2010 at 6:25 pm |
Thanks for writing about this. It’s one of the great surprises and treasures of Inwood. It’s true that sites associated with the wealthy are often preserved over sites associated with the working classes. On the flip side, however (and to Bookpod’s point), wealthy Americans have tended to grow tired of their possessions quickly. The mansion on the old Billings estate (now Ft. Tryon Park), which housed dozens of servants, racehorses and cars, was sold by its owner after little more than 10 years, I believe. It finally burned down around 1917.
October 9, 2010 at 4:46 am |
Thanks David. I’m glad you mentioned the Billings estate; here’s some great photos of this magnificent, short-lived mansion from myinwood:
http://myinwood.net/ckg-billings-estate/
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