The Bartow–Pell Mansion is a historic house museum at 895 Shore Road in the northern section of Pelham Bay Park, within the New York City borough of the Bronx.

The two-story building, designed in the mid-19th century by an unknown architect, has a Greek Revival facade and federal interiors and is the last surviving manor house in the Pelham Bay Park area.

The grounds surrounding the mansion take up 9 acres (3.6 ha) and include a three-story carriage house; terraced gardens overlooking Long Island Sound to the east; and a small burial plot for the Pell family, which once occupied the land.

The carriage house, which contained a stable hand's home, vehicular storage, and the hayloft, has served as an exhibition and educational space since 1993.

[16][17] 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.

[39] Thomas's nephew John built a residence close to Long Island Sound around 1675, about a decade after Pelham Manor was created.

[63][64] The IGC was responsible for maintaining the house's interior and garden, while the city government oversaw the facade and the rest of the grounds.

[73] The same year, Hoffman hired the landscape design firm Olmsted Brothers to discuss the possibility of adding a wide variety of gardens and a greenhouse.

[63][64] The IGC had additional plans for the property, including a rock and rose garden and a painting collection, though these were delayed by World War I.

[83] Although staffers and newspaper reporters alike complained because of the mansion's remoteness,[84] La Guardia liked the house so much that he decided to stay for a week longer than he originally anticipated.

[86] La Guardia used the Bartow Mansion as a summer City Hall only in 1936; during the next several years, he moved his summertime offices to Queens.

[90] Following World War II, the IGC was no longer allowed to export or import plants, so it turned its efforts to renovating the house.

[8][94] The museum saw few visitors because of its remoteness (a Los Angeles Times article from 1975 wrote that "the building is largely deserted"[97]), but its proximity to population centers made the estate vulnerable to trespassers.

[109] Students from Brooklyn College conducted excavations around the house's site between 1990 and 1992,[110] and several hundred trees were planted just north of the mansion in 1992.

By 2002, the museum's new director Robert Engel planned to renovate the entrance, demolish the parking lot, and clear a site between the carriage house and garden.

[23] Concurrently, the museum created a master plan for the garden, which included restoring a sightline from the house to Long Island Sound.

[116][117] After a social-media campaign that attracted participants from as far as Australia and Sweden,[117] Partners in Preservation gave the Bartow–Pell Mansion Museum $155,000 for a restoration of the terraced garden and chestnut-tree walkway.

[120] In addition, the roof was repaired in 2012 following Hurricane Sandy, and the Historic House Trust hired Fifty-Three Renovations in 2013 to restore the mansion's interior.

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.

[136] It is not known how hay was hoisted into the attic, but there may have been an exterior loading platform and a stair to ground level near the carriage house's northwest corner.

[10] 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.

[96] 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.

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.

[101] As of 2023[update], the museum operates several educational programs for school classes, including courses on gardening, the habitat of the nearby woodlands, Lenape history, and the lives of the Bartow family and servants.

[158] In the Bartow–Pell Mansion Museum's early years, the Garden Club hosted a variety of events to raise money, including tours,[159] autumn festivals,[160] and fashion shows with tea.

[168] The mansion has also hosted recurring events such as the Friends of Pelham Bay Park's autumn galas,[169] Historic House Festivals,[170] and movie nights.

[171] In the 1880s, the New-York Tribune wrote that the mansion "has the solid and substantial appearance of an English country-house", declaring it to be one of the best country estates in Pelham Bay Park.

[51] Another critic wrote for The Sun that the house "is full of interest and charm to all who delight in perfectly proportioned rooms, genuine wood carving over doors, beautiful mantels, and the best kind of elegant simplicity".

[50] In 1947, a year after the house was converted into a museum, a writer for The Christian Science Monitor said that both the Garden Club and Mrs. Eliot Tuckerman should be credited "for vision and persistence in restoring the beautiful old Bartow Mansion in Pelham Bay Park, not only to usefulness, but to be open to the public".

[19] A critic for The New York Times said in 1970 that the house's decorative elements, such as the windows, roof, and interiors, contributed to its Greek Revival "grandeur".