This is Arden Estate: The Rich History of the First Conference Center in America
In Orange County, one of the southernmost counties in New York State, there sits a small town of just over 2,500 people called Harriman. The town is named after an enterprising industrialist who resided there and whose palatial estate still stands today. That man is railroad magnate E.H. Harriman, and the estate is known as Arden.
E.H. Harriman and the History of Arden Estate
To get a true appreciation for the estate, one must first come to know its creator. Edward Henry “Ned” Harriman was born on February 20th, 1848, in Hempstead, New York. He grew up with a brother, and his parents were part of the clergy in the Episcopal Church.
At the age of 14, Harriman dropped out of school and took a job as an errand boy on Wall Street, eventually making his way to managing clerk. By the time he was 22, he was a stockbroker and member of the New York Stock Exchange.
At the age of 33, the now-married Harriman took an interest in the broken-down railways in upstate New York, purchasing the completely defunct Lake Ontario Southern Railroad. After the purchase, he reorganized and revitalized the flagging structure and sold it at a significant profit.
This was the beginning his career as the savior of bankrupt railroads, a vocation that he continued to his death. By the end of his life, he controlled the Union Pacific, the Southern Pacific, the Saint Joseph and Grand Island, Illinois Central, the Central of Georgia, the Wells Fargo Express Company, and the Pacific Mail Steamship Company.
However, it was in the beginning of his railroad career that Harriman purchased the Arden estate in an auction in 1886 for $52,500 (around $1.4 million in today’s dollars). The “estate” at that time was a parcel of land consisting of 7,863 acres with little else. In the coming years, Harriman would continue to buy surrounding parcels of land, totaling over an additional 20,000 acres, creating over 40 miles of bridle paths. In 1905, Harriman hired the architecture firm Carrere and Hastings to design and build a home on the estate that had been years in the making.
The Layout of Arden Estate
The home would take just over four years to build, with construction ending in 1909 when Harriman and his wife moved into the home — just months before he would pass away. The home itself is currently over 100,000 square feet in size, with the main house along with five outbuildings that were all a part of the original construction.
All three floors of the palatial home’s main house were constructed entirely of American-sourced stone and granite. Harriman and his wife hired many American artists and craftsmen to create custom work within the home. These artists included Malvina Hoffman, Barry Faulkner, James Earle Fraser, and Thomas Hastings, with the latter eventually going on to marry Harriman’s daughter.
Within the main house there was a grand ballroom, a library, two courtyards, more than 10 bedrooms, numerous bathrooms, a large formal dining room, a bar, and an elaborate music room that is styled in the Gothic architectural fashion that remains untouched today.
Finding a Purpose for Arden Estate
After Harriman’s death in 1910, the family donated 10,000 acres to the state of New York, and in 1915, Harriman’s widow gifted the home to their son, W. Averell Harriman, for his wedding. However she would remain living in the main home’s west wing until her death in 1932.
In 1923, Harriman’s son added the East Wing, which would serve as his family’s main residence until America entered World War II. At this point the Harriman family allowed the U.S. Navy use the home as a convalescent hospital, much like those used by the Russian and English armies.
In 1950, after the war had ended, Averell Harriman and his brother, Roland, deeded the home to Columbia University to be used as the “home of the American Assembly,” effectively making it America’s first conference center and establishing it as a landmark on the National Register of Historic Places. Columbia University added the North Wing for classrooms and attached an auditorium to the west wing of the main house.
Arden Estate Today
In 2007, Columbia University sold Arden Estate to the Open Space Institute. The Institute used the extensive grounds (which consisted of nearly 450 acres by this point in time) as open space for the public use until 2010, when the property was once again put on the market. It was then sold to the Research Center on Natural Conservation in 2011.
The organization currently uses the property as a conference center, as Columbia University and the Harriman family had intended. With its 97 guestrooms and numerous halls and conference rooms, Arden Estate is one of the largest conference facilities in the United States today.
