Edgewater is an architecturally significant, early 19th-century house located near the hamlet of Barrytown in Dutchess County, New York, United States. Built about 1824,The house was built about 1820, according to William Nathaniel Banks, writing in "Edgewater on the Hudson River," The Magazine Antiques, June 1982. the house is a contributing property to the Hudson River Historic District. Edgewater's principal architectural feature is a monumental colonnade of six Doric columns, looking out across a lawn to the Hudson River. Writing in 1942, the historians Eberlein and Hubbard described Edgewater as an exemplar of "the combined dignity and subtle grace that marked the houses of the Federal Era."Harold Donaldson Eberlein and Cortlandt Van Dyke Hubbard, Historic Houses of the Hudson Valley (1942), page 93.
History 1820–1853 (Livingston Family) The history of Edgewater dates back to December 23, 1819, when "Lowndes Brown, esq. of Charleston S.C. and Miss Margaretta Livingston, daughter of John R. Livingston, esq," were married by Bishop Hobart of New York City.The Evening Post (New York), December 24, 1819, page 2. The groom, Rawlins Lowndes Brown (1792–1852), was a graduate of Yale College, class of 1806, and had been (as recently as September 1819 when he resigned his commission) Captain Lowndes Brown in charge of Company G stationed on Governors Island.The Evening Post (New York), September 1, 1819, page 1.
In 1824, possibly as a belated wedding gift, John R. Livingston (1755–1851) gave the 250-acre Edgewater property to his daughter and son-in-law; the house may have been built about that time.Deed recorded November 29, 1824, John R. Livingston to Margaretta Brown and Captain Lowndes Brown (gift).
After the death of her father in 1851 and her husband in 1852, Margaret Livingston sold Edgewater to Robert Donaldson. She then moved to London to live with her daughter.
1853–1902 (Donaldson Family)
The New York financier and aesthete Robert Donaldson Jr. (1800–1872) bought Edgewater in 1853.Deed recorded February 3, 1853, Margaret L. Brown to Robert Donaldson, for $22,500. Donaldson engaged the architect Alexander Jackson Davis (1803–1892) to add an octagonal library wing, and to clad the brick house with stucco textured to resemble brownstone.William Nathaniel Banks, "Edgewater on the Hudson," The Magazine Antiques, June 1982. Davis also designed two gatehouses.Historic American Buildings Survey, Report No. NY-5621, Data Pages, 1981.
Robert Donaldson died in 1872, and as of 1880, his son, William (1842–1906), and his daughters Elizabeth (1842–1897) and Isabel (1846–1931) were living in the house with Isabella's husband (and cousin), Robert D. Bronson (1845–1912), and five servants.
In his 1894 guide to the Hudson River, Wallace Bruce wrote that Edgewater, "formerly the Donaldson home," was now owned by Edward Clark Goodwin,Wallace Bruce, The Hudson (New York, NY: Bryant Literary Union, 1894). but Goodwin must have been renting the house, for in 1902, the executor of the Donaldson estate sold the house and south gatehouse to Elizabeth Chapman (1866–1937).Deed recorded September 17, 1902, Robert Bronson, executor, to Elizabeth Chapman, for $20,000.Social Register Association, New York 1897 Summer Social Register, page 110.
1902–1917 (Elizabeth Chanler Chapman)
Elizabeth Chapman was the second wife of the essayist John Jay Chapman. Born Elizabeth Astor Winthrop Chanler, the daughter of John Winthrop Chanler and Margaret Astor Ward, she grew up at Rokeby, a nearby house. Although Elizabeth Chapman never occupied Edgewater, her husband used it as a retreat during the winters of 1903–04 and 1904–05. In 1905, they moved into a new house designed by the architect Charles A. Platt, built on the hill above Edgewater and known as Sylvania.For the date of completion of the house, see: They used Edgewater as a guest house for family. In July 1906, her brother, the artist Robert Winthrop Chanler, was living there when lightning struck a nearby elm tree, causing a fire within the house that was quickly extinguished.The Evening Enterprise (Poughkeepsie, NY), July 11, 1906, page 4. Chapman's mother-in-law, Eleanor Jay Chapman (1839–1921), a great-granddaughter of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay, lived at Edgewater from 1910 until at least 1914.Social Register Association, New York 1911 Social Register, November 1910, page 105.Social Register Association, New York 1915 Social Register, 1914, page 115.
1917–1946 (Conrad Chapman) On March 3, 1917, Elizabeth Chapman recorded the deed by which she sold Edgewater (not including either gate house) to her stepson Conrad Chapman (1896–1989) for a price uncertain but stated on the deed as $1.00, which is only standard boiler-plate language.Deed recorded March 3, 1917, Liber 397, page 77. It is unlikely, however, that he spent much time there during the next twenty years: The day before the sale, Chapman left Harvard College in order to join the Navy, in which he served until at least April 1920."United States, Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPZM-ZHKW : 3 September 2021), Conrad Chapman, 2 Feb 1920; citing Military Service, NARA microfilm publication 76193916 (St. Louis: National Archives and Records Administration, 1985), various roll numbers.Chapman was recorded in the 1920 US Census at Hong Kong, aboard the SS Helena. His rank was lieutenant. According to Chapman's son, Geoffrey W. Chapman: My father...had served in the Navy in World War I, had returned to Harvard afterwards to get his degree, and had then gone on to Oxford for a couple of years, where his roommate at Oxford was Lester Pearson, who was later Prime Minister of Canada. He went on to get a doctorate at the Sorbonne in Paris in Byzantine history, and then became a headmaster of a school in France at a school for the sons of American diplomats and businessmen living in Europe. The school folded after a couple of years so he founded another school of his own, which didn’t last very long either. He came back to this country in the late ‘30s and had a series of jobs, although no real profession, apart from that of a scholar generally, because there was a lot of family money on both sides.The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, Geoffrey W. Chapman interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy, initial interview date: March 18, 2005.Conrad Chapman's address in his 1921 NY Social Register entry was Oxford, England, and in the 1931 and 1936 editions, Paris.
In England, on August 25, 1937, Chapman married Judith Daphne Kemp (1906–1999),"British Newspaper Archive, Family Notices," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPCL-5N3Q : 18 April 2019), Dr Conrad Chapman, Dover, Kent, England, United Kingdom; records extracted FamilySearch and images digitized by FindMyPast; citing Dover, Kent, England, United Kingdom, 3 Sep 1937, The British Newspaper Archive, Ireland; FHL microfilm .Conrad Chapman was engaged in 1934 to another woman, Dorothy Daphne McBurney (1912–1997), who married Richard M. Farmer in 1937; for the engagement, see: who according to their son: ...was English-born and had been what the English call a governess in her early adult years. She married my father after they had known each other for just a few months in 1937, and then came to this country.
The couple traveled to America on the SS Bremen, leaving Southampton and arriving in New York on October 7."New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists, 1909, 1925-1957," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:24KJ-YJF : 2 March 2021), Conrad Chapman, 1937; citing Immigration, New York, New York, United States, NARA microfilm publication T715 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.). By 1940, Chapman and his wife were living in Boston.1940 US Census. According to Chapman's son, "We had a nice townhouse on Beacon Hill in Boston, smack in the middle of the city; one block below the famous Louisburg Square."The house was at 17 West Cedar Street, as per the 1950 US Census.
After they returned to America, the Chapmans were said to have spent time at Edgewater and to have made several improvements to the house, including the addition of an upstairs bathroom.
In 1946, Conrad Chapman sold Edgewater to Laura M. Taylor. While the deed states that the property was sold for $1.00, that is likely incorrect as that amount stated on the deed is normal boiler-plate language to indicate that some consideration was provided. He died in Boston in 1989.
1946–1950 (Laura M. Taylor) Laura Scantlin married Robert Kirby Taylor at Pittsburg in 1907,The Washington Post, July 28, 1907, page 3. and as of 1940, they were living at 444 East 58th Street in New York City, where Robert Taylor worked as a "woolen merchant."1940 U.S. Census, Manhattan, Assembly District 14. In November 1944, they were in Cold Spring, New York, when their son's house was destroyed by fire."Dog Barks Alarm, Dies in Fire," The New York Times, November 18, 1944, page 15. Sometime later, they leased Edgewater where Robert Taylor died in June 1946.The New York Times, June 11, 1946, page 20. One month later, Laura Taylor bought Edgewater, holding it until 1950 when she sold to the writer Gore Vidal.Deed recorded July 26, 1950, Laura M. Taylor to Gore Vidal, for $16,000.
1950–1969 (Gore Vidal)
Gore Vidal (1925–2012) bought Edgewater at the recommendation of his friend, Alice Astor Bouverie.Gore Vidal, "How I Survived the Fifties," The New Yorker, October 2, 1995, page 62. According to his memoir "Palimpsest"(1995), he paid $16,000, with a $6,000 down-payment and giving a $10,000 mortgage. In 1960, he ran as the Democratic candidate for Congress for the 29th Congressional District of New York State using Edgewater as his campaign headquarters. He lost to the Republican candidate J. Ernest Wharton by a margin of 57 percent to 43 percent. Among Vidal's supporters were Eleanor Roosevelt, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, all of whom spoke on his behalf.
In November 1966, Vidal, then living in Italy, rented Edgewater to William vanden Heuvel (1930–2021), a lawyer, aide to Robert F. Kennedy, and husband of the writer Jean Stein (1934–2017).The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 9, 1966, page 36. In 1969, Vidal sold Edgewater to New York financier Richard Jenrette for $125,000.
1969–2018 (Richard H. Jenrette) When Richard Jenrette (1929–2018) bought Edgewater in 1969, the house sat on only 2.69 acres.Deed recorded December 30, 1969, Gore Vidal to Richard H. Jenrette, for $125,000. During his tenure, Jenrette completed a restoration of the house, located and returned to the house much of its original furniture and art, and bought back much of the acreage (although not the two gate houses). He also built two new buildings, a classical pavilion (1997) and a pool house (1997). Jenrette wrote about these additions in his memoir, Adventures with Old Houses:
In recent years, I've begun making more of my own architectural imprint on the Edgewater property. This past year I added a small neo-classical guest house, built on a point of land across the lagoon to the north of Edgewater—far enough away not to compete with the main house. Designed by Michael Dwyer of New York, the guest house is a small Grecian temple with four columns of the Doric order framing a large porch looking downriver. Viewed from the front porch of Edgewater across the lagoon, the new structure serves as an architectural folly extending the sweep of the landscape to the north.