Idlewild

Built in 1846, for Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806-1867) and so-called as the land on which it stood was dismissed by its previous owner as, "an idle wild of which nothing could ever be made". Sitting on the edge of a 200-foot precipice that dropped into a gorge below and with breathtaking views over Newburgh Bay, the river and mountains, Willis co-designed his 14-room Gothic cottage with his friend Calvert Vaux. Idlewild became well-known to New Yorkers through his magazine writings and his book, Out-Doors at Idlewild (1855). After Willis died in 1867, the estate continued to attract literary figures when it was acquired by the novelist Edward Payson Roe (1838-1888); and, from 1900, it was the summer home of Edward R. Johnes and his wife (ex-wife of Ingersoll Lockwood, author of the Baron Trump childrens novels), Winifred Tinker....