Thank you all who recently played and enjoyed Sleepy Hollow -
here is a bit of background information about the incredible "clubhouse"
"Early in the 20th century, a group of men of great wealth and stature, led by William Rockefeller (brother to John D. of Standard Oil fame), Cornelius Vanderbilt and John Jacob Astor envisioned a world class country club on high land overlooking the scenic Hudson River. Rockefeller and International Banker Franklin A. Vanderlip purchased the 338-acre estate of pronounced grandeur belonging to Margaret Louisa Shepard (Cornelius Vanderbilt’s granddaughter - daughter of Wm. H. Vanderbilt) widow of Col. Elliott Fitch Shepard.
The property, originally called Woodlea, was the once the country estate of Butler Wright, the family home was located not far from today’s exit gate of the property. The original Butler home was at one time used as the clubhouse for the early course.
The Butler-owned Woodlea was purchased by Colonel Elliot F. Shepard, founder of the New York Bar Association, and in 1893 Shepard and Louisa hired famed architect Stanford White (of McKim, Meade, and White) to design a palatial home situated high in the hill overlooking the Hudson River. It seems the Colonel never saw the home completed. Louisa Vanderbilt Shepard had a trust fund of some $12,000,000 left to her by her father. Money was never an issue. The huge Italian Renaissance manor home not only overlooked the Hudson with the Palisades beyond, but the marvelous gardens design and built by Frederick Law Olmsted. Stanny White’s building, also called Woodlea, featured high, intricate cornice work ceilings, hand carved mahogany panels patterned, a ballroom, a library the size of a house, and a dining room capable of seating 200. The graceful, winding stairway flows down to the main entrance appropriate for the Debutante Balls held the club since 1948.
In 1910 the Woodlea estate was purchased by William Rockefeller and Frank Vanderlip, who in May of 1911, sold the estate to the organizers of what was to be The Sleepy Hollow Country Club.
A partial list of the first 27 Directors included; J. J Astor, Vanderlip, James Colgate, Percy and William Rockefeller, E. J. Berwind, Cornelius Vanderbilt, A. O. Choate, Oliver Harriman, James Stillman, V. E. Macy.
“Woodlea” was to be their clubhouse! - the cost when built: between one and one-and-a-half million dollars!”