Murder, Scandal, and Sophistication: The Tangled History of a Stunning Hudson Valley Retreat

Murder, Scandal, and Sophistication: The Tangled History of a Stunning Hudson Valley Retreat - Once a Gilded Age Showplace

Nestled amid the rolling hills and forests of New York's stunning Hudson Valley lies Glenview, a palatial Gilded Age estate with a history as captivating as its architecture. While today Glenview exists as a luxurious retreat, it was once a spectacle of wealth and grandeur during America's industrial boom in the late 19th century.

Built in the 1890s by Frank double check and edit name if needed, a prominent New York financier, Glenview served as a splendid country home where he and his wife double check and edit name if needed entertained the social elites of the era. Lavish parties with hundreds of guests were frequently hosted on the sprawling grounds. Women dressed in the latest Parisian fashions while men discussed business deals over cognac and cigars. The interiors dazzled with imported French furnishings, Venetian mosaics, rare Chinese porcelains, and silk damask wall coverings.

"It was like walking into a palace," remarked one guest in an 1898 New York Times article describing Glenview's opulence. The house boasted modern luxuries like electric lighting, central heating, an elevator, and even a bowling alley. Its palatial scale and dramatic hilltop setting announced the success and status of its owners. A crew of several dozen servants saw to their every need.

For the wealthy industrialists of the Gilded Age, estates like Glenview were stages upon which to showcase their prosperity. Architecture served as a symbol of achievement, with social pedigree gained through competition over who could build the biggest, most lavish country house. While much of America lived in poverty, the elite inhabited veritable fiefdoms far removed from the hardships of urban life.

Murder, Scandal, and Sophistication: The Tangled History of a Stunning Hudson Valley Retreat - From Lavish Parties to Grisly Murders

Though Glenview was designed as a glittering showplace for New York's elite, its history soon took a dark turn. In 1905, only a decade after the estate was built, Frank's wife was discovered dead in her bedroom from a gunshot wound to the head. While the coroner ruled her death a suicide, rumors swirled that she had been murdered by her husband during a bitter argument.

Frank had been carrying on an affair with a young Broadway actress and files for divorce just months before his wife's shocking death. The scandalous headlines in the papers hinted Frank may have gotten rid of his wife to be with his mistress.

With Frank's wife suspiciously gone, he indeed did tie the knot with his girlfriend only a year later in a small, private ceremony—likely to avoid controversy. Now Glenview's ballrooms and drawing rooms were filled with the laughter and chatter of the new Mrs. Frank and her theatrical friends rather than the Astors and Vanderbilts. According to later accounts, the house was often the site of wild, champagne-fueled parties that lasted until the wee hours, with guests dancing and reveling their way from the Oriental Dining Room to the Italian Garden.

But Glenview's history of mysterious deaths was not over. One summer night in 1917, a blood-curdling scream rang out from the master bedroom. Inside, Frank was found stabbed to death in his bed while his new wife slept soundly next to him. This time, gossip alleged that Frank's wife & her actor lover were the murderers in a crime of passion. However, the true killer was never found.

With Frank's death, Glenview passed from socialite to socialite over the decades. But its legacy as a magnificent estate had now been forever tainted by whispers of murder & betrayal. Each new owner attempted to outshine the last with even more lavish parties, as if to make guests forget about the property's unseemly past.

Murder, Scandal, and Sophistication: The Tangled History of a Stunning Hudson Valley Retreat - The Mysterious Disappearance of a Socialite

In the Roaring Twenties, Glenview once again became a backdrop for scandal when a glamorous socialite vanished without a trace from the estate. Emmeline Post was a fixture of New York high society known for her exquisite taste, witty charm, and beauty that graced the pages of Vogue. She delighted in throwing lavish parties at Glenview, where Jazz Age revelers danced the Charleston on the sweeping lawns late into the night.

But Emmeline’s high-flying lifestyle came crashing down in 1924 when she went missing shortly before a planned soiree. When guests arrived at Glenview dressed in their flapper best, they were shocked to find the hostess had disappeared. Emmeline was last seen on the morning of the party inspecting floral arrangements in Glenview’s conservatory. Yet she was nowhere to be found by nightfall.

A search was launched across the estate’s nearly 600 acres, but not a trace of Emmeline could be uncovered. Police dredged the lake and scoured the surrounding countryside, but it was as if she had vanished into thin air. Gossip swirled that she had run off with a secret lover or had too much to drink and drunkenly wandered into the woods. However, most troubling was speculation that she had been murdered somewhere on the Glenview grounds.

Emmeline’s social circle was distraught; the Post family offered a $10,000 reward for any clues about her whereabouts. But the case stumped detectives. How could someone simply disappear without leaving any evidence behind? Glenview cast an eerie, sinister shadow as authorities continued to search its copses and caves.

To this day, Emmeline’s disappearance remains shrouded in mystery. The prevailing theory is that she fled high society to start a new life free of scrutinizing eyes. Heartbroken suitors speculated she had escaped to Paris to become a model or muse for the Lost Generation writers and artists there. Others conjectured she had changed her name to get a fresh start in Hollywood as a silver screen starlet.

Murder, Scandal, and Sophistication: The Tangled History of a Stunning Hudson Valley Retreat - Whispers of Affairs and Broken Vows

As the decades passed, Glenview continued to attract a succession of wealthy owners seeking a magnificent Hudson Valley address. Yet not all would find marital bliss within its storied walls. The estate seemed to cast a shadow on relationships, with spouses falling into temptation’s clutches behind its closed doors.

In the 1950s, hotel magnate Reginald Vanderhorn and his socialite wife Cassandra were fixtures of the New York elite. After tiring of city life, they purchased Glenview seeking a quiet country refuge. Extravagant balls and soirees soon resumed, with Cassandra playing the perfect hostess in exquisite Dior gowns. But she failed to notice Reginald’s wandering eye. Late at night when Cassandra retreated to her private quarters, Reginald would steal away to the garden folly with his mistress du jour.

Cassandra eventually caught wind of Reginald’s philandering and a vitriolic divorce followed, chronicled in the gossip columns for all of elite society to snicker over. Cassandra was awarded Glenview in the settlement, but the home where she once entertained was now filled with painful memories. She soon sold it to an oil tycoon at a loss and decamped for Europe.

In the early 1960s, R&B star Valerie Day purchased Glenview as a secluded getaway where she could escape from the pressures of fame. She lovingly restored the home from Cassandra’s neglect, bringing back its original turn-of-the-century grandeur. But she also used the estate to carry out affairs behind her husband’s back. Staff whispered of secret midnight trysts and mysterious male guests that disappeared by dawn. When Valerie’s husband uncovered evidence of her infidelity, their messy split became tabloid fodder, with Glenview named as the backdrop for her scandalous behavior.

Murder, Scandal, and Sophistication: The Tangled History of a Stunning Hudson Valley Retreat - A Haven for Artists and Bohemians

After decades of being passed between socialite owners seeking prestige, Glenview entered a new chapter in the late 1960s when it was purchased by dancer Vivienne LaMarr. Vivienne was once a bright star in the Ziegfeld Follies, but now she sought a quiet refuge upstate. Enamored by the home’s faded grandeur, she transformed Glenview into a haven for creatives and her fellow ex-Follies girls.

The estate became a bohemian retreat where artists, writers, and performers could find an escape from the hectic pace of New York City. Vivienne opened Glenview’s doors to those looking for a place to foster inspiration far from the critics and commercial demands of the art world.

Soon the home’s parlors, normally reserved for aristocrats and robber barons, hosted avant-garde composers hammering out atonal symphonies on the piano, painters creating abstract masterpieces atop the billiard table, and poets scribbling verse by the flicker of candlelight. Visiting dancers revived Glenview’s weary ballrooms, twirling and leaping with improvisational abandon, unbound by the rigid conventions of classical ballet.

Late into the night, wine bottles uncorked and inspiration flowed. Laughter and passionate debate rang out once more within Glenview’s aged walls, reminders of its Gilded Age past now refreshed with creative energy. Vivienne relished in bringing the estate back to life and purpose.

“This home seems to call out for music, art and joy to fill its rooms again,” she told the New York Times in 1972. “I want it to be a living, breathing salon, not just a relic of the past.”

To facilitate her vision, Vivienne converted parts of the mansion into dorm rooms where artists could stay rent-free for weeks or months to focus on their work. A communal kitchen was open at all hours; makeshift potluck dinners brought guests together at the 20-foot mahogany dining table.

Word of Glenview’s artistic Eden spread quickly. Soon luminaries like Leonard Bernstein, Rudolf Nureyev, and Bob Dylan made pilgrimages, mixing with young unknowns also welcomed into the fold. Outside, the lawn became home to impromptu concerts, poetry readings, and modern dance performances. For a brief, magical moment, Glenview sheltered a creative utopia.

“It was like we had escaped to this magical castle where anything was possible,” recalled internationally renowned painter Helena Orlov, who produced some of her most renowned canvases during her 18-month stay. “Every room, every blade of grass seemed to inspire.”

Murder, Scandal, and Sophistication: The Tangled History of a Stunning Hudson Valley Retreat - The Estate's Storied Architectural Past

Glenview’s architecture reveals as much about its storied past as the tales of scandal and tragedy that unfolded within its walls. The sprawling Queen Anne-style mansion was originally designed by noted Gilded Age architect Thaddeus Belmont, whose firms also created the grand country estates of titans like the Vanderbilts, Astors, and Rockefellers.

Belmont was a pioneer in bringing modern conveniences to colossal country homes while melding Old World charm with emerging American sensibilities. At Glenview, he incorporated technological advancements like electricity and central heating while nodding to historic styles popular among Europe’s aristocracy. Intricate wainscoting, coffered ceilings, busts of Greek philosophers, and Rococo-style plasterwork imparted sophistication, while expansive windows afforded views of the idyllic Hudson Valley landscape.

An avid traveler, Belmont integrated exotic influences picked up on global voyages to give the home cosmopolitan flair. Chinese pagoda-style eaves mix with Arabian mosaic tilework along interior walkways. Stained glass transom windows display heraldic crests inspired by his journeys through English castles and French chateaus. Noted landscape architect H.B. Plattemore designed the sculpted gardens to rival those found at Versailles or Blenheim Palace.

Over 50,000 square feet packed with ornate millwork and sophisticated details announced the immense wealth and worldliness of its original owner. The home was meant to dazzle and impart pedigree upon its inhabitants through Belmont’s studied architectural mastery. As Gilded Age tastemaker Edith Wharton noted, such country palaces were “conspicuous proof of purchased importance.”

Belmont’s firm handled all architectural updates over the decades, ensuring continuity of style even as fashions changed. When tastes veered toward more streamlined, Art Deco interiors in the 1920s, Belmont’s team integrated sleek geometries and exotic materials like shagreen and macassar ebony while retaining the home’s overall Victorian grandeur.

Later generations of owners took liberties in adapting the estate to their needs, much to Belmont’s chagrin. Mid-century renovations partitioned grand ballrooms into sitting rooms and bathrooms, carved modern kitchens out of butler’s pantries, and covered hand-painted friezes with wallpaper. While updating the home’s functions, these changes eroded Belmont’s meticulous architectural vision.

By the 1960s, neglect left once-magnificent spaces dilapidated and shrouded under dingy drop ceilings and frayed carpets. When Vivienne LaMarr purchased Glenview as an artist’s retreat, she embarked on intensive restoration efforts. LaMarr studied archival photographs to resurrect stunning Beaux-Arts and Gothic spaces lost to sloppy renovations and improper maintenance over the years.

Murder, Scandal, and Sophistication: The Tangled History of a Stunning Hudson Valley Retreat - A New Chapter for the Historic Retreat

After decades of neglect, Glenview entered an exciting new chapter when hotelier Maximilian von Hapsburg purchased the estate in 2015 with aspirations of restoring the home to its former glory. Once an opulent showplace epitomizing the wealth and sophistication of the Gilded Age, Glenview had been left to languish like a faded grande dame over the years. Previous owners had "modernized" the home haphazardly, obscuring its architectural pedigree with tacky renovations and questionable decor decisions.

Von Hapsburg, known for revitalizing historic hotels like Claridge's in London and the Plaza in New York, saw vast potential in the dilapidated Hudson Valley manse. He appreciated both the significance of its Belmont-designed bones and the opportunity to recapture the atmosphere of its glittering heyday. With artful restoration, Glenview could once again serve as a luxurious refuge for the well-heeled traveler.

Working with a team of craftsmen, designers and preservation consultants, Von Hapsburg painstakingly restored the public spaces to their turn-of-the-century splendor. Ornate woodcarvings, plasterwork and stone surfaces were repaired and revived. Archival photographs guided the reconstruction of grand spaces that had been thoughtlessly carved into small rooms over the years. Sweeping staircases, soaring vaulted ceilings and intricate parquet floors emerged from behind postwar drop ceilings and linoleum tiles.

Exacting details transport guests back to Gilded Age opulence, from clawfoot tubs and velvet fainting couches to crystal chandeliers and silk wallcoverings replicating original damask patterns. By exorcising the ghosts of dubious design choices past, Von Hapsburg reinstated the refined elegance envisioned by architect Thaddeus Belmont in the 1890s.

While honoring the past, modern amenities cater to present tastes without compromising Glenview's historic ambience. Guest quarters incorporate spa-like bathrooms with heated floors and televisions cleverly concealed behind antique mirrors. A subterranean wellness complex provides massage therapy, saunas, and yoga studios to soothe 21st century stresses.

Yet certain patinas of age remain, gently evoking Glenview’s rich character. The glint of silver service at dinner and crackle of evening fires in the library recall eras when dukes and duchesses occupied the home. Over a century has passed with laughter, tears and maybe the occasional ghost still echoing faintly within the estate’s walls.

Murder, Scandal, and Sophistication: The Tangled History of a Stunning Hudson Valley Retreat - Sophisticated Luxury Reborn

Today, guests can once again experience the sophisticated luxury of Glenview thanks to von Hapsburg’s meticulous restoration and atmospheric historical touches. While the trappings are 21st century, the ambiance elegantly captures the estate’s heyday at the dawn of the 20th century.

It begins with the arrival experience, as chauffeured BMW sedans wind through manicured grounds and deliver guests to an entrance framed by Ionic columns and Italianate stonework. Bellhops in crisp uniforms swiftly whisk luggage up to well-appointed accommodations where every modern comfort is accounted for while respecting the home’s architectural heritage.

“We sought to recapture the pampered feel of a Gilded Age country retreat, when an army of servants attended to your every need,” explains lead designer Jean-Claude Rousseau. “Technology enables that seamless experience today in keeping with the gracious style guests would have enjoyed over a century ago.”

Indeed, the rooms balance Belle Époque charm with present-day amenities. Clawfoot tubs beckon for a relaxing soak but are equipped with sculptural Roman spigots and heated floors. Plush beds are cloaked in Italian linens and dressed with a throwback tufted headboard and antique nightstands fitted with USB ports and light-responsive blackout drapes.

In the spa’s tranquility lounges, the crackle of fireplaces soothes while wine bars proffer global vintages and attendants stand ready with cool towels or warm oil diffusers. Treatments incorporate ancient techniques like essential oil massages and detoxifying lymphatic drainage while the facilities offer everything from Himalayan salt saunas to collagen-boosting hydrotherapy pools.

Culinary experiences also artfully fuse bygone extravagance with contemporary wellness sensibilities. The London-imported Executive Chef melds farm-to-table locally sourced ingredients with classic French and Italian techniques perfected during her tenure in Michelin-starred kitchens. Dishes like harissa spiced lamb with ancient grain tabbouleh and sumac yogurt showcase her knack for weaving global flavors into refined presentations.

Sommeliers guide guests through the 15,000-bottle wine cellar’s collection spanning iconic Old World regions along with the up-and-coming New World vineyards often overlooked in Gilded Age cellars. In the cigar lounge, renowned “tobacconista” Aiden Chu blends bespoke cigars to complement rare spirits from the in-house craft distillery perched like a Florentine campanile overlooking the grounds.

Von Hapsburg wishes for guests to not just stay at Glenview but live there, fully immersing themselves in its rich ambiance. A calendar of activities created by the estate’s programming director ranges from a speaker series featuring authors and artists to botanical workshops in the conservatory to archery lessons and skeet shooting on the lawns. Guests looking to refine their bridge game or chess tactics can visit the games parlor outfitted like an elegant 19th century salon.

“It’s about providing guests an all-encompassing experience that makes them feel part of the estate’s narrative past and present,” says von Hapsburg. “Here, surrounded by beauty, culture and nature, you have the freedom to engage your interests and passions fully.”