The interior designer Sara Story once thought it would take two years to renovate her country house in Snedens Landing, a hamlet in Palisades, N.Y., some 12 miles north of the George Washington Bridge to Manhattan. As work progressed on the historic home, she came to realize she’d committed to a four-year slog.
“You know that movie The Money Pit?” asks Story. “That’s what I say to my contractor every time I see him.”
To be fair, it was an ambitious project from the outset. The house, an 8,000-square-foot mansion named Niederhurst that overlooks the Hudson River, had been built in 1874 and appeared to have slowly declined ever since, she says. Some landscaping and mature trees were still in place, as was the original polychrome brickwork. Inside, Story says, was a different matter. “Long story short, no one actually did anything bad to it. They just sort of neglected it over the years.”
The restoration of Niederhurst was completed by early 2016, in time for it to be featured in Architectural Digest. Since then, Story and her family have used the property as a weekend house, driving 35 minutes (50 minutes when traffic is slow) to spend time on the property, now 13 acres.
The problem, Story says, is that she’s lately been spending more time at her ranch in Texas. Concluding that it’s time to sell, she has listed it with Ellis Sotheby’s International Realty for $28.5 million. “My husband is more torn about it,” Story says. “I’m always ready for a new adventure.”
Restoring the house
Niederhurst, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was built by Winthrop S. Gilman Jr., a banker and philanthropist. “I have the original drawings of the house, framed,” Story says. Gilman’s family held onto the property for years; Story recalls just two additional owners until she purchased it in 2011 for a reported $4.35 million.
Story had been looking for a country house for about eight years: “The Hamptons, Connecticut — and we rented houses, but could never find something that was quite what we were looking for,” she says.
Then she visited the tiny community of Snedens Landing, just north of the New Jersey border and renowned for famous residents, to tour a house that Mikhail Baryshnikov had put on the market. “It wasn’t right for us,” Story says.
On a whim, her real estate agent mentioned a semi-abandoned mansion on six nearby acres. “The front door was nailed shut. There was a big dumpster in front of it, and we kind of had to get in through the back, where there were mushrooms growing.”
Squeezing inside, they found a hand-crank elevator in the center of the building—and a future home in serious need of care. “We got back in the car and were, like: That’s it,” Story recalls. “Let’s just bring it back to life.”
She hired the architect Dirk Denison to take on the heavy lifting. The basement floor was lowered with the help of jackhammers; structural elements were restored; modern comforts such as air conditioning were installed; and the house became a gracious place for entertaining.
What’s inside
“I had been spending a lot of time in Copenhagen, so I was really inspired by the architecture and the old mansions there,” Story says. “There, the interiors are really light.”
In an effort to replicate that effect, she imported wide-plank, light-oak floors from Copenhagen and applied white plaster to the walls. “The plaster has a little bit of a sheen, so it reflects the natural sunlight,” she says. Much of the millwork is also light oak, and the illumination was sourced from Northern Europe. “Everything is very light—pure and not ornate,” says Story.
The house totals eight bedrooms, seven full baths and two half-baths. The layout, Story says, remains essentially unchanged from when she found it.
“The first floor is all public: living room, family room, dining room, kitchen gallery and powder room,” she explains. After seeing unusual decor inside the restaurant Skopik & Lohn in Vienna, Story hired the same artist, Otto Zitko, to create a work for the dining room. “That mural is so amazing, because when you’re having a dinner party the whole room comes alive. It’s like there’s a whole other personality in the room,” she says.
The second floor has a primary bedroom and bathroom, along with two studies and two large closets. The third floor, she continues, is for her children, with three bedrooms, three bathrooms and a playroom. The lowest level has an additional two bedrooms, a lounge, sauna, mechanical room and a separate kitchen.
Story’s family used Niederhurst, which has six fireplaces, as a four-season vacation house. In the winter, she says, “it’s so nice to go up there, light a fire and be out in nature.”
The home’s proximity to the city allowed for a nice mixture of daytrippers and weekend guests. “People could just Uber home,” Story says. “I had a bunch of bedrooms, but it was kind of nice that people could just come and go.”
The property
Soon after buying Niederhurst, Story bought a neighboring property that she says was originally the caretaker’s home but was sold off at some point. That house, dubbed Fern Lodge, came with converted stables and a barn, for a total of 5,700 square feet of additional residential space. It added eight bedrooms and four bathrooms to the estate’s tally. She also bought a contiguous 4.5-acre vacant lot, bringing the property’s size to 13 acres.
Story moved the pool to the south side of the house and elevated it slightly so she could see the Hudson River while swimming. She planted formal flower gardens, added hardscaping in the form of patios and terraces, and installed a gravel driveway with ample space for parking. The rolling lawns are perfect for soccer.
“We put so much work into the house,” Story says. “It’s ready to go.”
Local news and linguine may have more in common than you think.
During her long career in New York, Rosanna Scotto, co-anchor of Fox’s Good Day New York, has shared stories about subway crime, asylum seekers and snowstorms. For about the same amount of time, she’s also helped operate her family's restaurant, Fresco by Scotto, a Midtown hotspot known for its clubby atmosphere and Italian plates.
Her kind of outer-borough New York-ness—direct but warm, and peppered with long-sounding vowels—seems to have served both enterprises well.
“They liked my Brooklyn accent, and they liked my Brooklyn chutzpah,” Scotto said of the TV executives who gave her her big break in the 1980s, a sentiment that the patrons of Fresco, where fashion mavens, politicos and some Yankees rub elbows, might also express.
And in an industry known for flameouts, Fresco has endured, marking its 30th anniversary on East 52nd Street last year.
Owned and operated today by three generations of Scottos—Rosanna’s mother, Marion, in the front of the house as a greeter; daughter Jenna as the chief marketing officer; and Rosanna serving as the “president of schmoozing,” according to its website—the restaurant is known for pairing its Tuscan-style steaks and scallops with a family vibe.
“You can always find a Scotto in that place,” said Scotto, who is there three days a week. “So many people are repeat customers because they love the family angle.”
Appearing on air in New York on WABC in 1982 and joining the Fox affiliate WNYW as a reporter in 1986 before assuming the anchor’s chair for the station’s 10 p.m. newscast in 1994, Scotto, who has co-anchored Good Day since 2008, may be living proof that local news is not, as is often described, dead. Showing up, asking questions and challenging assumptions will never go out of style, she said. “I think people will always want to know what’s going on in their community. That will never change,” she explained. “And you’re not going to find the types of stories we cover by just going online.”
Some snippets from the highlight reel of Scotto’s four-Emmy-win career include her scoop-fueled coverage of the Woody Allen-Mia Farrow custody trial in the 1990s; Madison Square Garden CEO James Dolan escalating his feud with the state’s liquor authority last year on live television; and ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo doing an about-face on congestion pricing this past December (he is now against it).
“The Brooklyn accent kind of figures into how I make people comfortable to speak with me,” Scotto said. “It’s kind of unassuming. And I want them to feel like they can get their point across. But I will also challenge them.”
Scotto grew up in Dyker Heights, a tight-knit Italian-American enclave known for its love of Christmas lights. Initially, Scotto dreamed of being an actor. In fact, she earned a degree in theater at Catholic University, but the idea of auditions proved unappealing. “I didn’t have the inner fortitude to be rejected on a regular basis,” she said.
But she also had a knack for news. “My mother used to call me Nosy Rosie,” she said of Marion, who worked in the Brooklyn borough president’s office as a fundraiser, while her father, Anthony, was an influential union leader and political kingmaker who attracted his own press scrutiny. The reporters who often hounded Anthony imparted an indirect lesson: The media should be respectful. “It was always in the back of my mind, I think, that if I was ever in a position to ask questions, then I would try to be fair,” she said.
New York City has changed a lot since her Brooklyn days, she admits. “Some of my friends have moved to Florida. They really feel a difference in the city,” she said. But some differences may be worth celebrating, like the fact that Kings County, after many years of playing second fiddle, has finally become cool.
“We used to laugh, in my family, about how we lived on the wrong side of the river. And then we moved to Manhattan,” she said. “But now? Everybody wants to live in Brooklyn.”
Local news and linguine may have more in common than you think.
During her long career in New York, Rosanna Scotto, co-anchor of Fox’s Good Day New York, has shared stories about subway crime, asylum seekers and snowstorms. For about the same amount of time, she’s also helped operate her family's restaurant, Fresco by Scotto, a Midtown hotspot known for its clubby atmosphere and Italian plates.
Her kind of outer-borough New York-ness—direct but warm, and peppered with long-sounding vowels—seems to have served both enterprises well.
“They liked my Brooklyn accent, and they liked my Brooklyn chutzpah,” Scotto said of the TV executives who gave her her big break in the 1980s, a sentiment that the patrons of Fresco, where fashion mavens, politicos and some Yankees rub elbows, might also express.
And in an industry known for flameouts, Fresco has endured, marking its 30th anniversary on East 52nd Street last year.
Owned and operated today by three generations of Scottos—Rosanna’s mother, Marion, in the front of the house as a greeter; daughter Jenna as the chief marketing officer; and Rosanna serving as the “president of schmoozing,” according to its website—the restaurant is known for pairing its Tuscan-style steaks and scallops with a family vibe.
“You can always find a Scotto in that place,” said Scotto, who is there three days a week. “So many people are repeat customers because they love the family angle.”
Appearing on air in New York on WABC in 1982 and joining the Fox affiliate WNYW as a reporter in 1986 before assuming the anchor’s chair for the station’s 10 p.m. newscast in 1994, Scotto, who has co-anchored Good Day since 2008, may be living proof that local news is not, as is often described, dead. Showing up, asking questions and challenging assumptions will never go out of style, she said. “I think people will always want to know what’s going on in their community. That will never change,” she explained. “And you’re not going to find the types of stories we cover by just going online.”
Some snippets from the highlight reel of Scotto’s four-Emmy-win career include her scoop-fueled coverage of the Woody Allen-Mia Farrow custody trial in the 1990s; Madison Square Garden CEO James Dolan escalating his feud with the state’s liquor authority last year on live television; and ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo doing an about-face on congestion pricing this past December (he is now against it).
“The Brooklyn accent kind of figures into how I make people comfortable to speak with me,” Scotto said. “It’s kind of unassuming. And I want them to feel like they can get their point across. But I will also challenge them.”
Scotto grew up in Dyker Heights, a tight-knit Italian-American enclave known for its love of Christmas lights. Initially, Scotto dreamed of being an actor. In fact, she earned a degree in theater at Catholic University, but the idea of auditions proved unappealing. “I didn’t have the inner fortitude to be rejected on a regular basis,” she said.
But she also had a knack for news. “My mother used to call me Nosy Rosie,” she said of Marion, who worked in the Brooklyn borough president’s office as a fundraiser, while her father, Anthony, was an influential union leader and political kingmaker who attracted his own press scrutiny. The reporters who often hounded Anthony imparted an indirect lesson: The media should be respectful. “It was always in the back of my mind, I think, that if I was ever in a position to ask questions, then I would try to be fair,” she said.
New York City has changed a lot since her Brooklyn days, she admits. “Some of my friends have moved to Florida. They really feel a difference in the city,” she said. But some differences may be worth celebrating, like the fact that Kings County, after many years of playing second fiddle, has finally become cool.
“We used to laugh, in my family, about how we lived on the wrong side of the river. And then we moved to Manhattan,” she said. “But now? Everybody wants to live in Brooklyn.”
City Councilmembers proposed a new law Thursday to require the city to staff every police precinct with a licensed social worker, part of an effort to expand the city’s non-police response to mental health emergencies and crime.
Council members Erik Bottcher, who represents parts of Midtown, and Yusef Salaam, who represents East Harlem, introduced the bill to address underlying reasons why people commit crimes, such as mental health or substance use issues. There are no police precincts that currently have a social worker located onsite, Bottcher said.
Bottcher said that he has seen individuals cycle through the precinct in his district for petty crimes, with little investigation into why those individuals continue to offend. The lawmakers’ goal is to staff precincts with behavioral health clinicians who can connect people with social services or health care, something that police officers don’t often do, Bottcher said.
“Police aren’t trained to do that,” Bottcher told Crain’s. “It’s not their job, nor should it be.”
If passed, the law would mandate that the city health department staff all 77 police precincts with a licensed social worker. The clinicians would be required to report to precincts 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but they would be employed by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Bottcher said employing clinicians from the health department would ensure a non-police response to people with mental health challenges.
The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment on the proposal from Crain's on Thursday.
The lawmakers announced the bill around a month after the high-profile fatal police shooting of Win Rozario, a 19-year-old from Ozone Park who was shot after he called 911 in mental distress. The police officers who responded to the call shot Rozario less than three minutes after they arrived at his home, officer-worn body camera footage shows, sparking renewed outcry over how law enforcement responds to mental health-related emergencies.
Salaam, who chairs the Council’s committee on public safety, said that the circumstances could have been different if a social worker, not officers, led the response to Rozario’s 911 call. “Win Rozario would have been alive today.”
The new bill does not include language to require social workers to respond to mental health-related 911 calls, but it is something that the lawmakers are open to discussing, Bottcher said. The city currently has co-response teams that are staffed with police officers and clinicians employed by the health department, but those teams respond before or after crises, not during a 911 emergency.
New York does not have teams of social workers and police officers that currently respond to 911 calls.
A Queens substance use treatment provider won a $500 million contract with the city on Tuesday to provide homeless shelter services at its new housing project in Highbridge, city filings show.
Samaritan Daytop Village, based in Briarwood, secured a 30-year contract with the Department of Homeless Services that will cover shelter services and debt financing for a new homeless shelter it’s developing in the Bronx. The nonprofit is planning to build the 106-bed family shelter at 1389 University Ave., next door to a permanent housing residence and community center that are also in the works. The entire development will encompass 400,000 square feet, city plans show.
The recent contract will fund supportive services at the homeless shelter, such as job training, health care navigation and individual and group counseling. Shelter staff will also connect residents in need of behavioral health care with Samaritan Daytop Village’s mental health and substance use treatment programs, as well as local medical facilities like the Damien Family Care Clinic.
The contract will also fund debt financing for the construction of the new facility, said Jerry Mascuch, vice president of real estate at the nonprofit. The development is being constructed under a new city model that allows nonprofits to own the buildings where they operate services as opposed to leasing from a private developer – a model that Mascuch says saves the city and the provider money.
Samaritan Daytop Village has owned the Highbridge property since the 1980s, and it has since functioned as a residential treatment center for people with substance use disorders, Mascuch said.
Over the next three years, the nonprofit plans to construct a 315-unit permanent and affordable housing development at the property adjacent to the homeless shelter. Of those units, 190 will be affordable to people with incomes under 50% of the affordable median income level and the remaining apartments will be affordable with incomes under 80% of the area median income.
Samaritan Daytop Village is also planning to build a 5,000 square-foot community center onsite, which will house either health care services or a child care facility, Mascuch said.
Mascuch said that construction of the new development is set to begin this summer. The organization hopes to complete the project by 2027.