Leland Castle

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name = Leland Castle
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location = New Rochelle, NY
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built = 1855
architect = William Thomas Beers
architecture = English Gothic
added = 1979
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refnum = 76001291
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Leland Castle (also known as Castle View) is a 19th century Gothic revival castle located on the campus of the College of New Rochelle in New Rochelle, New York.

The castle was originally the residence of Simeon Leland, a wealthy New York City hotel proprietor. Mr. Leland began to assemble am estate as early as 1848, and in 1855, began the erection of a palatial mansion of sixty rooms. [ [http://www.newrochelleny.com/193.asp New Rochelle History-Nineteenth Century] ] It was completed in four years, taking fifty thousand days' labor. The home was designed by New York architect William Thomas Beers. A north and south wing were added to the castle in 1899 and 1902 respectively. ["Leland Castle, College of New Rochelle" National Register of Historic Places designation report. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior/National Park Service, 1976] The eclectic English Gothic structure situated on 40 wooded acres was widely admired and frequently visited. It was used by the Leland family initially as a summer, and later, as a year round residence until 1880. ["The Westchester Historian: Simeon Leland, Merchant Prince, and His Splendid Castle"; author=Martha Counihan; Published=Winter 2008]

n 1872, having had just over a decade in his “palace,” Simeon Leland died deep in debt. Although the mortgage on Castle View was foreclosed, the new owner, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, allowed Mrs. Leland and her children to live there until 1880. The Castle was then leased as a clubhouse for the Westchester Hunt Club which used the surrounding estate for hunting, coaching and polo sporting activity. For a while it was used as a hotel named the 'Castle Inn'. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=lesTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA45&dq=leland+castle Appleton's Dictionary of New York and Its Vicinity] , By D. Appleton and Company, pg.45] When the Hunt Club did not renew their lease, the Castle briefly housed the Trinity School, which needed a temporary home due to a fire that had burned its old school building to the ground. Then, in 1884, Adrian Iselin, Jr., a member of one of the Hunt Club families from Davenport Neck, purchased the Castle and its surrounding acreage for the purpose of developing the land into a residential park. He paved surrounding streets, including Castle Place, put in gas lines and planted many trees, and soon the 40-acre original estate was diminished to just two and a half acres, as Iselin’s Residence Park came to occupy much of the former grounds of Leland’s estate.

The New Rochelle Collegiate Institute, a school for boys, occupied the castle from 1889 to 1892. The principal was H.F Fuller, M.A., a brother of Chief Justice Melville F. Fuller of the United States Supreme Court. The building was damaged by fire in 1897 during the tenancy of Miss Morse's school, and, uninsured, Miss Morse was forced to leave. With the promise by Iselin of repairs to the fire damage, the castle was quickly purchased by the Ursuline Sisters who transferred their academy for young women to the building. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C02E2DA113BE631A2575AC2A9659C946497D6CF ADRIAN ISELIN DEAD AT HIS CITY HOME] , The New York Times, 1905] [ [http://puka.cs.waikato.ac.nz/cgi-bin/cic/library?a=d&d=p396 Leland Castle] , Council of Independent Colleges Historic Campus Architecture Project]

The building was enlarged by the Sisters to about twice its original size, retaining the same architectural scheme. On the foundations of their Seminary, the Ursuline Sisters established Saint Angela's College in 1904. This institution changed its name in 1910 to the College of New Rochelle. It is the largest Catholic women's college in the United States. The castle currently houses the administrative offices of the College of New Rochelle and the college's Castle Art Gallery. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D05EEDA123EF932A15756C0A9609C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all MUSEUMS;Art Studies Without the Homework] , The New York Times, 2006]

The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and the New York State Register in 1980. [ [http://www.westchestergov.com/planning/Design/StateNatlRegisters.htm Inventory of Historic Places] ] [ [http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/NY/Westchester/state2.html National Register of Historic Places] ]

Image Gallery

References

External links

* [http://www.cr.nps.gov/NR/ National Register of Historic Places]
* [http://www.archiplanet.org/wiki/First_Presbyterian_Church_and_Pintard%2C_Lewis%2C_House Archiplanet]
* [http://tourism.westchestergov.com/attractionsK/TourismDetailRecord2New.asp?lngOrgID=1190&strC Westchester County Tourism website]