Blairsden, Châteauesque mansion in Peapack-Gladstone, United States.
Blairsden is a châteauesque-style mansion set on a hillside in Peapack-Gladstone, New Jersey, overlooking Ravine Lake. The building features dozens of rooms, marble columns, ornate moldings, multiple fireplaces, and a long reflecting pool in front of the main facade.
Investment banker Clinton Ledyard Blair hired architects Carrère and Hastings, who completed the construction between 1897 and 1903. From 1950 to 2002, the Sisters of St. John the Baptist used the property as a retreat center before it eventually passed to new ownership.
The name Blairsden comes directly from the Blair family who built and lived here, and locals still use it to refer to the whole hilltop property. Visitors who walk the grounds today can still read the layout of the terraced gardens as a space designed for slow, deliberate movement rather than passage.
The property sits on a slope, so sturdy footwear is a good idea since some paths between terrace levels can be steep and uneven. It is worth allowing extra time to move between the different levels rather than trying to cover the grounds quickly.
Part of a hillside was cut away to create a flat base for the estate, a major earthmoving effort for the time. A funicular railway was then built on the slope, first to carry building materials and later to bring guests up and down through the terraced gardens.
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