Untermeyer Gardens was once one of the most famous and most visited gardens in the country. Samuel Untermyer purchased Greystone, the former estate of Samuel Tilden, and hired Beaux Arts architect Welles Bosworth to design gardens around 1915.
From the website: “These gardens sprawled over 150 acres overlooking the Hudson River and were maintained by 60 gardeners and supplied by 60 greenhouses. It was open to the public on a weekly basis during the 1920’s and ’30’s and for special events, including displays of his famous chrysanthemums and tulips. Thirty-thousand people visited it on one day in 1939.”
It’s also known for more infamous history: there was a Satanic cult that performed rituals there. In the park, remains of dogs were found, thought to be murdered by Son of Sam serial killer David Berkowitz (scary!).
Today it is a gem: a work in progress that has the potential to be a great destination again.
We spent an hour or two wandering among five of the six areas of the garden, the Walled Garden (seen in these photos); the Vista (a long staircase down to a beautiful view of the Hudson, modeled after a similar one on Lago di Como); the Color Gardens (mostly lost to weeds); the Temple of Love (it looks like a Greek ruin, and we found evidence that it still being used for love-making today) and the Rock Garden. We didn’t visit the Sundial Garden.
Here, the Walled Garden, inspired by ancient Persian and Moorish gardens.
The water is meant to symbolize four rivers of Eden; trees are meant to be the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Read more about the other features, like this open-air ampitheater, on the Untermeyer website here.
Here is the walk down the Vista:
Hudson River stunnery:
Climbing back up the path to the Temple of Love:
This whole thing used to be a water feature, too:
Well worth a visit, and we’ll be making another one soon.
