New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-08-31
Old Home of ClafIins i'm
Bronx To Be Auctioned
Has Been Owned Since 1866 and Is Last of Many
North Side Country Places Remaining; Is Sur
rounded by Apartments and Private Homes

Joseph P. Day announced yesterday
that he will hold on September 23rd the
most interesting and important auction
sale since he sold the James Gordon
Bennett estate properties at Washing-
ton Heights last June. The property
consists Of the large vacant tract
known as the Clafin estate, lying just
to the south of the Jerome Park
Reservoir.
To investors, builders and operators
the sale will be particularly interest
ing because it will be the first Offering
of the property since 1866. when the
property was assembled by the late
Horace B. Clahin, founder of the H. B.
ClaAin Company, who died in 1884, For
many years the tract has been the resi-
dence place of the heads of the Clafin
family, and to-day it stands almost
surrounded by apartment homes which
have followed the extension of rapid
transit into that part Of The Bronx.
This holding is the oldest of the
former north side estates. 1t is beau
tifully wooded with large maple, beech,
elm and pine trees. On the north it
overooks the Jerome Park Reservoir
and a surrounding strip Of city land
dedicated to park purposes. on the west
and southwest it-touches wide and long
avenues. The site Of an old Revolu-
tionary blockhouse held in turn by the
Hessians and General Washington's
troops, and now marked by a bronze
tablet placed there by the Daughters
OF the Revolution, stands in an angle
on the northern border and testities to
the historic associations of the spot.
The old gate house of the Claflin
period with the stone entrance pillars,
one Of them surmounted by a stone
deer, still remains IN token of former
glory.
The original Clahin estate consisted
Of about one hundred acres. The larger
part of it, however, was acquired by
the city for the building of the Jerome
be sold consists Of all the high land
south of the reservoir. which in its
present surroundings has almost the
characteristics and charm of a lake.
Three mansions were built on the
estate. The original was erected and
occupied by H. b. Clahin and the others
by members of his firm. The Clatlin
house burned down several years ago,
but the other two remain.
The immediate availability of this
property for modern apartment and
home construction win be better APP
preciated by study of the transit map
Of Is borough and The Bronx.
s~ Day says the property is to be
Sod to the highest bidder for what
1t Will bring irrespective of present
day values.
The property, which consists Of about
Al full city building lots, fronts on
klngsbridge Road West. Sedgwick Ave-
nue. and Reservoir Avenue. 1t is
bounded on the north by the Jerome
Park Reservoir and its surrounding
parkway; on the east by the property
taken over by the city for the Eighth
Coast Artillery Armory and parade
ground, which formerly was the site of
the old Jerome Park racetrack; on the
south by Kingsbridge Road West, and
on the west by Sedgwick Avenue, which
here runs along the ridge overlooking
the Harlep River valley and the Dyck
man, West Kingsbridge, Van Cortlandt
Park and Riverdae sections of Man
haitian.
From the south the prominent thor
oughfares leading direct to the prop