For Sale: Alexander Calder’s Hudson River Home on Magnificent Grounds

By Liz Spikol· 5/15/2013, 2:42 p.m.

This cut-stone European-style manor in the town of Croton-on-Hudson was built in 1917 after Elizabeth Farrington Stevenson was gifted 11 riverside acres by her father. She designed this spectacular home herself and employed the same Italian stonecutters who’d worked on the Croton dam.

North Country Sotheby’s International says Farrington Stevenson’s design was conceived with seclusion in mind: “The idea was to ensure complete privacy by creating inner gardens and pools, with three sides of the home facing the land and Hudson.” The grounds are exquisite, with multiple courtyards, gardens, lush lawns, grape arbors, flowering plants and pathways bounded by tangled greenery.

The home, situated in an arts community, brought many famous people to it, but none more important to our area than sculptor and mobile inventor Alexander Calder. Now the home is on sale for just under $1.7 million, with five bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms for a total of 5,372 square feet. There are two wings with a 37-foot hallway between them. The home also has a wood-burning fireplace, a sleeping terrace and a dining patio. It’s on 2.6 acres of land.