7. Whitlock’s Folly, Hunt’s Point
One of the most elaborate lost mansions of the Bronx once stood on the Hunts Point peninsula, then known as Oak Point. The formerly rural area once dotted with grand estates on the rural land of Westchester County is now part of the Bronx and characterized by food distribution sites like the city’s produce market and Fulton Fish Market. Before industry took over, places like the mansion of Benjamin Morris Whitlock were the norm.
Whitlock’s nearly one-hundred-room mansion stood on fifty acres of land. The extravagance of the home earned it the title of Whitlock’s Folly. To approach the mansion, guests had to pass through a large iron gate and travel over a drawbridge. Inside, the mansion boasted “decorations imported from France, gold knobs..and…woodwork carved of cherry and mahogany.” There were wine cellars and wells that supplied running water as well as ammunition vaults underground. After Whitlock, the home was owned by Cuban sugar importer Inocencio Casanova. Then dubbed Casanova’s Mansion, it served as a site for the importer to host advocates for Cuba’s independence. By 1902, the mansion had been abandoned for over a decade and was acquired by a developer. At the site today you’ll find the Oak Point CSX freight rail yard.
Next, check out This 19th Century Sunnyslope Mansion Still Stands as a Church
