The lodge hosted presidents, royalty, and celebrities, and was the scene of numerous memorable occasions for visitors and local residents who attended weddings, receptions, and dances in the ballroom and dining room.

In 1933, the lodge ended year-round service and housed a "health-diet sanitarium" until the Edgewood Park School for Girls began operation there from 1937 to 1954.

Walter Law gave Dow a 35-acre (14 ha) property on Elm Road (later the site of Briarcliff College and then a Pace University campus).

In Germany, it was advertised in January 1909 that the management of the Briarcliff Lodge and its architect Guy King planned to construct the platform to launch and dock airships, to cost $100,000.

The lodge also ran an annual American Beauty carnival, with events including a golf tournament, water sports, moonlight bathing and night diving, a dinner dance, cinema program, and a concert.

[7] The Briarcliff Lodge was noted for its cuisine (including Briarcliff dairy and table water), a golf course, fifteen tennis courts, a music room, theater, indoor swimming pool (measuring 30 by 70 feet, with a depth of 4 to 10 feet[3]: 33 ), casino, library, stable, repair shops and a fleet of Fiat automobiles.

[3] In May 1925, The New York Times reported that the Briarcliff Lodge installed the first artificial spa; using radioactive mineral torbernite to affect the water, believed to counter ailments associated with old age.

United States Senators Chauncey Depew, James Wolcott Wadsworth, Jr., and Royal S. Copeland were to each place a bag containing the minerals into the lodge's swimming pool.

[10] In June of that year, the newspaper mentioned in its report of an upcoming Briarcliff Lodge performance that the swimming pool was popular in the summer heat and that "the cool spring radioactive water gave considerable relief to several hundred guests".

[17][7] During that time, in 1985, the Lodge and the Briarcliff library were among 60 sites given historical markers by Westchester County Tricentennial Commission.

[18] The New York State Board of Regents closed the school in 1994 due to financial difficulties and a deficiency of qualified faculty.

[19] After it closed, the nonprofit Tara Circle planned to build an Irish-American cultural, education, and athletic center, which was approved by the village in November 1994.

The owner, Barrington Venture, had planned to raze the building and construct the Garlands,[20] a 385-unit senior living center, which was opposed by local historians and architects.

The Briarcliff Manor Fire Department was the first to arrive, at 6:40 am, later followed by Ossining, Sleepy Hollow, Millwood, Pleasantville, Chappaqua, Croton, and Pocantico Hills, totaling about 150 firefighters.

The fire also spread to the lodge's 9-story west wing, through its wooden attic even though a concrete block firewall stood between both sections.

[25] In addition, the Club oversaw the former King's College football and soccer field replacement at a cost of $1.2 million, and transferred it to the village government around 2013.

The original wing was designed by Pennsylvania architect Guy King, on the highest point of Walter Law's estate, which was about 600 feet above sea level[2]: 376 [27] and 29 miles (47 km) north of New York City.

The main facade of the building was two stories high, while the third and fourth floor had many gables and dormer windows present on the roof.

Each room had Colonial mahogany furniture, a long-distance telephone, concealed fire escape, electric lights, and suction ventilators.

Art and decorations throughout the building were largely sourced from markets in Europe and Asia, and included expensive paintings, bronzes, marble sculptures, rare books, and carved antique furniture.

The kitchen's trash was frozen to prevent odors before its eventual removal; the lodge also had an ice-producing plant that used sterilized well water.

[28] Nearby the lodge was the amusement building, with a dance hall, swimming pool, bowling alley, squash court, and billiard room.

[33] Other notable guests have included Thomas Edison, Tallulah Bankhead, Sarah Bernhardt, Boris Bakhmeteff, Johnny Weissmuller, Jimmy Walker, Babe Ruth, Edward S. Curtis,[34] George B. Cortelyou, Mary Pickford, F. W. Woolworth, J. P. Morgan,[35][36][37] Warner Baxter, Vincent Richards, and Ernestine Schumann-Heink.

[38]: 32  Elihu Root, Al Smith, and a king of Siam were guests at the lodge in the 1920s, and John Campbell frequently hosted parties there.

[3] Ella Holmes White and her partner Marie Grice Young lived in the Briarcliff Lodge; an extension known as the Oak Room was constructed on the building's east side for them.