The Bartow–Pell Mansion is located in the northern section of Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx in New York City. Although its official address is 895 Shore Road, the house is within a wooded portion of the park and is accessible only via a driveway extending 200 yards (180 m) off Shore Road. There is a parking lot in front of the mansion, at the end of the driveway. Rhododendrons and lilacs were planted along the driveway during the mid-20th century. The Bartow-Pell Woods and Pelham Bay Park's lagoon are to the east, while the Pelham Golf Course is to the northwest. Orchard Beach is across the lagoon. A hiking path called the Siwanoy Trail loops around the estate. The nearest New York City Subway station is the Pelham Bay Park station, located across the Hutchinson River. Bee-Line Bus's 45 route also stops outside the estate.

The mansion and its garden take up 9 acres (36,000 m2) of Pelham Bay Park. Northeast of the mansion itself is the estate's carriage house. To the east of the mansion is a formal terraced garden, which slopes down gently toward the lagoon and Long Island Sound. As built, the garden is composed of several levels, with a sunken square fountain in the center and a set of steps on either side. During the spring through fall, the fountain was surrounded by rose and tulip beds. The other terraces were planted with petunias and yew trees, as well as dahlias, zinnias, asters, and chrysanthemums. The garden is surrounded by a 7-foot-tall (2.1 m) wall, which is made of locally sourced stone and was covered with wisteria. There are iron gates in the wall, as well as a wrought-iron fence above the wall on the eastern end of the garden. East of the fence was a lawn that overlooked the water, although Long Island Sound was no longer visible from the mansion by the 20th century. The Mary Ludington Herb Garden adjoins the terraced garden.

Just south of the Bartow–Pell Mansion was a tree named Treaty Oak. The Siwanoy Native American chief Wampage and English colonist Thomas Pell signed a treaty under the tree in 1654, in which Pell purchased all land east of the Bronx River in what was then Westchester County, New York. The oak tree, which was surrounded by a fence, was destroyed in 1906 and replanted in 1915. Approximately 100 yards (91 m) south of the house is a burial plot belonging to the Pell family, who had once occupied the site. This plot contains headstones dating from between 1748 and 1790. Surrounding the plot are four granite posts with pelican motifs, symbolizing the Pell family's coat of arms. There formerly may have been additional gravestones, but they were scattered throughout the grounds by the time the International Garden Club (IGC) took over in the early 20th century. A path lined with chestnut trees connects the house to the burial plot and Long Island Sound's shoreline.

In 1654, Thomas Pell purchased 50,000 acres (20,000 ha) from the Siwanoy, comprising the land of the current Pelham Bay Park as well as the nearby town of Pelham, New York, and made his estate on 9,188 acres (3,718 ha) of that land. Pell's land became known as Pelham Manor in 1666. In the 17th and 18th centuries, during the colonial era of the United States, various prominent families built houses within Pelham Manor, including the Bartow, Bayard, Burr, Fish, Leroy, Lorillard, and Pell families. By the 18th century, several members of the Pell family had married members of the Bartow family.

Thomas's nephew John built a residence close to Long Island Sound around 1675, about a decade after Pelham Manor was created. The house was located either east of Shore Road or at the extreme end of Pelham Neck (which is located between Eastchester Bay and the Long Island South). This house was designed in an English style, with a facade of Holland brick. The first residence was occupied by three of Pelham Manor's lords of the manor before it burned in the American Revolutionary War. The second house, occupied by John Bartow and his wife and cousin Ann Pell Bartow, was erected circa 1790. The second house may have reused the foundation of John Pell's first house; at the time, it was common for buildings to reuse the foundations of demolished structures on the same site. The Bartows sold the estate in 1813 to the merchant Herman Leroy. The second house was likely demolished when the Leroys owned the estate.

Robert Bartow, a relative of the Pell family and one of John Bartow's grandsons, bought 30 acres (12 ha) of his ancestor's old estate in 1836. Robert Bartow and his wife Maria Lorillard Bartow built a mansion on the site, the third house to occupy the estate. Construction was complete on the Bartow Mansion and an adjacent carriage building by 1842, though the exact date of the house's construction is unknown, Robert Bolton's Guide to New Rochelle, published in 1842, stated that Robert Bartow "lately" constructed the mansion but did not specify further. The house had cost $60,000 (equivalent to $1,894,000 in 2023). When it was completed, the house was part of Westchester County, specifically in the town of Pelham, New York. The new mansion was sited to the southwest of the first manor house built in 1675.

The Bartow and Pell families alternately owned the building for the next four decades. Initially, Robert, Maria, and their seven children lived in the house. Robert Bartow died in 1868, and the mansion first went to his widow, then to his sons. The Bartow family occupied the mansion until at least 1883. In June 1884, Governor Grover Cleveland signed the New Parks Act into law, authorizing the creation of a system of parks in the Bronx, including Pelham Bay Park. The Bartows wanted the city to give them $467,953 for their property, although the city government had concluded that the estate was worth only $131,000.

Despite Pelham residents' opposition to the park, the New York City government acquired the land for Pelham Bay Park in 1887, and it officially became a park in 1888. The same year, the New York City government obtained the house from descendants of the Bartow family. The city paid $63,000 for the ground immediately surrounding the mansion, $33,000 for the mansion itself, and $94,625 for fourteen adjacent land lots, for a total of $190,625. The mansion was vacant for over two decades; during this time, the house fell into a severe state of neglect, and the grounds became overgrown. Although the house was owned by the New York City government, it was still part of Westchester County until 1894 or 1895, when the boundary between Westchester and the Bronx was moved northward. The Home for Crippled Children occupied the mansion for a short period in the early 20th century. The carriage house on the property was used for various purposes after being sold and was ultimately turned into storage.

Mansion

It is not known who designed the Bartow–Pell Mansion, although the engineer and historian Reginald Pelham Bolton claimed in 1930 that John Bolton, one of his uncles, built the mansion. The exterior is designed in the Greek Revival style, with decorations inspired by the work of architect Minard Lafever. There are unproven claims that Lafever designed the mansion, in part because he designed a church that Robert Bartow's brother attended. A. J. Davis and Martin E. Thompson were also cited as the possible architects of the structure. The interiors are designed in the Federal style. Along with the Van Cortlandt House, the Bartow–Pell Mansion is one of two remaining manor houses in the Bronx.

Exterior

The house is oriented on a north-south axis, with wings on either side. The facade is made of plain cut stone, which was sourced from the surrounding area. The exterior walls are at least 2 feet (0.61 m) thick, allowing the mansion to remain cool even during the summer. There is a painted cornice at the top of the facade, as well as beveled quoins at each corner. The western facade, facing Shore Road, was decorated with iron balconies, shutters, and window trimmings. The main entrance, on the western facade, is through a set of double doors flanked by a protruding iron balustrade. There is an empty niche above the double doors. The eastern facade, facing Long Island Sound, has iron balconies on the first and second stories, with windows that open onto the balconies. All of the balconies are made of elaborately decorated iron and are painted black. The large windows and the design of the stonework were typical of structures built in the area during the late 1830s and early 1840s.

Interior

The interior of the first floor is arranged symmetrically around the west-east axis. The entrance leads to a square central hall. Within this hall is a curving elliptical stairway that ascends to the attic and descends to the basement. The stairway has a balustrade with turned wood balusters and a newel post with a volute; it is illuminated by a clerestory window at the attic. The hallway itself has a plasterwork cornice and a rosette on the ceiling. On either wall are window openings and doorways, each of which is flanked by paneled pilasters and topped by a wooden pediment. Decorations such as eagles and depictions of Cupid are placed within the pilasters, while the tops of each pilaster depict honeysuckles and acanthus leaves. When the house was renovated in 1915, the halls had white woodwork and mahogany doors.

At the eastern end of the central hall is a niche flanked by doorways, which in turn lead to two elaborate, symmetrical parlors (a dining room and a drawing room) on the eastern side of the first floor. Each of these rooms measures about 30 by 20 feet. The drawing room is to the left or north, while the dining room was to the right or south. The doorways from the central hall to each room are flanked by pilasters with anthemion motifs and Corinthian-style capitals, as well as a pediment above each doorway. The pediment above the drawing room depicts an eagle, while the pediment above the dining room's doorway depicts a cherub. Both rooms contain fireplaces with marble mantelpieces; the shelves of each mantelpiece are supported by brackets with palmettes. The center of each room's ceiling contains a rosette that is more ornate than that in the central hallway. Two medallions were also placed on one wall of the drawing room. There are sliding doors between the parlors, as well as French doors leading from either parlor to the terraced garden.

To the right of the central hall, one door leads to another door that connects with a small sitting room. Both doorways have paneled pilasters and wooden pediments akin to those in the central hall, and the sitting room itself has a black marble mantelpiece. To the left of the central hall, a similar set of doorways leads to a smaller dining room, which shares design features with the sitting room. The small dining room hosted luncheons and breakfasts. There is also a kitchen that is shared by the main museum and a separate caretaker's apartment.

The second floor contains four bedrooms. Unlike the first-floor rooms, the bedrooms have plain design elements, including white-marble mantelpieces and molded trimmings. Each bedroom had a high ceiling to accommodate the large wardrobes and beds that were used in these rooms. One of the bedrooms, known as "Clarina's Room" after one of the Bartows' daughters, was used by at least one of the family's three daughters. Another bedroom, the nursery wing, is not publicly accessible. There is also a two-bedroom apartment for the house's live-in caretaker on the second floor. The third floor, also known as the attic, was used as a servants' quarters. The basement contained a wine cellar.

After the house was renovated by the IGC in 1915, the right or south wing of the house contained an "orangery" for serving tea. The orangery, also described as a conservatory, was described by Harper's Bazaar as having French windows, white walls, cement floors, and a domed ceiling. One of the smaller rooms in the northern wing was turned into a secondary reception room with a green, black, and coral color scheme, while another room became a boardroom with gray walls and black marble mantel. A stair led to the IGC's writing room and library on the northern wing's second floor.

In the mid-20th century, many of the mansion's furnishings were displayed on loan from larger museums. A news article from the 1960s described the house as having Savonnerie carpets, Aubusson tapestries, and Turkish rugs. In addition, there were furnishings in the Empire, Federal, and Regency styles, as well as an authentic Lannuier bed. By the 1970s, the furniture displayed at the mansion was made of dark fine-grained wood, ornamented with features such as white marble, carvings, or gold paint. The furniture included less ornate sofas with feet shaped like lions' paws; more elaborate neoclassical sofas and chairs with wooden borders and carved legs; and a tall bed with a covering at its top. The bedrooms included the "Pell room," decorated with a portrait of John Pell and a carpet; the "red" room, with mahogany linen-press; and the "yellow" room, with a Duncan Phyfe bed. Also on display was a piece of Treaty Oak. The dining and drawing rooms had satin curtains, lamps, gilded-bronze fireplace mantel clocks, chandeliers, landscapes of New York state, and portraits from the 1830s.

In the 1970s, the museum began acquiring items for its own collection. By the 1980s, the interiors were painted green, blue, and pink to evoke Pompeiian ruins, and they were furnished with Italianate and Greek decorations. The front hall had a marble bust depicting Julius Caesar, the parlors had urns, and the top of the main stairway had a statue of Venus. According to a New York Times article from that decade, about half of the furniture at the time came from the Garden Club. In the 2000s, the house still displayed artifacts loaned by other museums, but it also displayed Bartow family artifacts.

Some of the mansion's modern-day furnishings include the desk of Aaron Burr, who married a distant Bartow relative, Theodosia. The Lannuier bed, which has a white-and-orange canopy, also remains in the collection. Modern objects also include two 19th-century wooden tables, a mahogany library table, a Pembroke table, a fire screen with desk, two side chairs, and a rosewood barometer. The three rooms on the carriage house's main floor are outfitted with exhibits, while the carriage house's lower level contains an education gallery and an architecture and transportation gallery. There have also been temporary exhibits over the years, such as a display of gardening tools in 2012 and an exhibit of objects relating to the house's history in 2014.