Historic Hudson Valley Launches Major Restoration Project for Van Cortlandt Manor

BCW Member Historic Hudson Valley has launched a multi-million-dollar restoration project at Van Cortlandt Manor. Set to be completed in 2026, the project is designed to improve safety, accessibility, and site stabilization, as well as enhance Van Cortlandt Manor, a National Historic Landmark in Westchester.

Historic Hudson Valley, which owns and operates the site, officially announced the project on Monday at an event with remarks from New York State Assemblywoman Dana Levenberg, New York State Senator Pete Harckham, Westchester County Deputy County Executive Ken Jenkins, and other local and state officials.

The project has received important funding from the Federal Highway Administration through the New York State Department of Transportation with a $2.2 million appropriation, the Indian Point Community Fund, an Empire State Development grant of $600,000, as well as Community Resiliency, Economic Sustainability, and Technology Program support with the assistance of Senator Harckham and Assemblywoman Levenberg, who have allocated $100,000 and $125,000, respectively. The village of Croton-on-Hudson is the municipal sponsor for the project.

The focus of the restoration project will be on the historic site’s entrance and Long Walk, an 800-foot brick walkway created during the property’s 1950s restoration. Key work will improve vehicular and pedestrian safety; upgrade crucial infrastructure relating to visitor accessibility and comfort and enhance drainage and stormwater management.

The project also includes the suppression of invasive species and the replanting of trees and shrubs on the 36-acre historic landscape. The restoration is part of a broader initiative, including recent work which has already improved stormwater management and preservation at the site’s Manor House.

The project will help Historic Hudson Valley welcome schoolchildren in a more accessible way to explore life in the “New Nation” period, when the political and social aftershocks of the Revolutionary War were experienced by a community that included enslaved Black residents as well as wealthy and working-class whites. Van Cortlandt Manor is also home to The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze, a major driver of economic development through tourism in the Lower Hudson Valley.