Ruins Of The Cornish Estate Mansion

At least once a year our family takes a trip outside our usual sphere of travel, far enough away that an overnight stay is required. It's fun to break away from our everyday lives for a weekend of exploring someplace new, and as teenagers our kids are still good enough sports not to complain about spending a night in the same hotel room as their parents. This year's getaway brought us to the state of New York, for a ferry ride up the Hudson River and a tour of the Bannerman Castle ruins on Pollepel Island.

That tour was everything we'd hoped it would be, and when it ended that Saturday afternoon our kids would have been perfectly happy returning to our hotel room for a night of Snapchat selfies and Minecraft. But they aren't the ones who paid for this trip, my wife and I are, and in my bag of tricks I had several nearby interesting places I'd scouted just for such an opportunity of having some free time. So we did what any mean parents would do in this situation, we dragged the kids on a short hike into the woods to explore the ruins of a burned down mansion.

Sometime around 1910 a wealthy merchant named Sigmund Stern and his wife built the Northgate mansion on a 650 acre plot of land in the Hudson Valley. Unfortunately, they only got a couple years use of the place before Stern's wife passed away, prompting him to sell the estate to Edward and Selina Cornish. The Cornishes lived at the property until they both died in 1938, and the mansion remained in the family until burning down in 1958. Today, what remains of this property is commonly referred to as the Cornish Estate ruins.

The popular directions to the ruins involves a four mile hike through the Hudson Highlands, but what most websites don't mention is that you can park along the side of Route 9D, and by climbing uphill through the woods reach the site within fifteen minutes. Maybe they don't mention this because it takes away from the spirit of finding the place, but come at me with that argument when you're accompanied by two teenagers who that day you've already put through a five-hour car ride, an hour of boat riding, and a two hour walking tour under some unseasonably warm June sun. Even the prospect of this fifteen minute hike led to a spirited conversation in the car, one that only ended when my wife threw up her hands and told the kids "well, you know your dad!"

Once we found the ruins everyone agreed the short hike was worthwhile though, as these were some of the grandest remains we've come across. Much of the mansion was constructed of stone, which after the fire left many walls and arches still standing for us to wander among and pose with.

Another thing this mansion had no shortage of were fireplaces. Several chimneys still stand at their full height with fireplaces jutting out at crazy angles, and I've played enough games of Jenga to know better than fool around with any of them.

Other sections were much sturdier and made for some good climbing, prompting Logan to turn the entire complex into his own personal jungle gym.

The Cornish family were also well known cattle farmers, and if you walk a little ways further up the hillside you'll come across what remains of their barn. If you're up for a bonus challenge, go into the basement of the barn and look for a crevice behind a wooden post, I hid one of my foreign coins in that wall.

We also found a few random structures we couldn't identify, such as this small platform that Barry is making himself comfortable on. On a side note, whenever we talk about going places with our family, Barry is more often than not a part of that group.

Although the Cornish Estate Ruins aren't comfortably within the range of a single day's drive, I introduce them to you not only in the hopes that a few of you find your way out to them someday, but also as a reminder. Never pass up an opportunity to see something new and unusual in life, and always be on the lookout for ways to create these opportunities for yourself.

Links:
Historic Photographs of the Cornish Estate (aka Northgate Mansion)
Location of Cornish Estate Ruins