Inside Glenview, Mansion Built for Wall Street Banker in Gilded Age

The museum offers guided tours of Glenview from Wednesday through Sunday. Tickets cost $20 per adult and can be purchased on the Hudson River Museum’s website.

Trevor purchased the 23-acre estate in 1876 and hired architect Charles W. Clinton to design the home.

After his first wife died, leaving him with three children, Trevor moved into Glenview shortly after marrying his second wife, Emily Norwood Trevor.

The Trevors’ primary residence was in New York City, but they lived at Glenview from April to December each year. When in residence at Glenview, Trevor commuted into his office on Wall Street in New York City about 23 miles away.

Trevor died in 1890. Norwood remained in the home until her death in 1922, when it was then sold for $400,000, or around $7.6 million in 2025 when adjusted for inflation.

The hall featured woodwork by Daniel Pabst, a Victorian furniture designer based in Philadelphia, and an encaustic tile floor designed by the English company Maw and Co.

A portrait of John Bond Trevor, seen right, is also on display in the hall.

During the Gilded Age, members of high society used calling cards to announce their visits and maintain their social standing. When visiting another home, guests would present cards with identifying information to a servant, who would bring them to the mistress of the house to determine if they would be allowed inside. If the mistress wasn’t available, guests would leave their cards on a tray.

The lights were powered by gas because wealthy Gilded Age socialites believed that gas lighting was the most flattering to a woman’s complexion, our tour guide said. When Norwood Trevor descended the staircase to greet guests, she wanted to look her best for her grand entrance.

Guests would have been greeted with live music. The couch and chairs in the parlor are original to the home. Other furnishings included Italian marble sculptures and a stuffed peacock in front of the fireplace.

The wallpaper closely resembles the original design the Trevors chose as part of the Aesthetic Movement, which favored simpler, colorful geometric patterns over more ornate Victorian styles.

The Hudson River Museum has costumes from “The Gilded Age” worn by Donna Murphy, who portrays Mrs. Astor, on display at Glenview through October 6.

Trevor used the library as his study. The wooden cabinetry and fireplace were not made of actual ebony wood, but ebonized cherry wood made to look darker.

Fans of “The Gilded Age” may recognize the fireplace from a scene in season one where Mrs. Astor tosses a party invitation from Mrs. Russell into the fire.

Chrysanthemums appear throughout Glenview, carved into the bricks of the home’s exterior and in the pillars on the Grand Staircase.

The room’s curved floor-to-ceiling windows were a status symbol of wealth in the Gilded Age due to the high price of glass.

The original home featured a wraparound balcony that could be accessed through the Sitting Room, but it was later removed in order to lower maintenance costs.

Our tour guide said that Norwood Trevor was “obsessed with little gestures of hospitality,” and chose the pattern to ensure that women who entered the room felt as comfortable and at home as possible.

In 1892, the Trevors hosted the wedding reception of their oldest daughter, Mary Trevor. She married Grenville Winthrop, a Harvard Law graduate and attorney, in the Parlor of Glenview.

An original chair in the sitting room featured a button on the arm that allowed it to recline. It was considered unseemly for women to lounge during the Gilded Age, so it would have only been used by Trevor.

The dining room could seat anywhere from 11 to 18 people for dinner.

The dining room features the only remaining original ceiling paintings at Glenview.

In the fable of the fox and the crane, the fox invites the crane for dinner and serves food in a shallow bowl, which the crane can’t eat because of its beak. The crane then invites the fox for dinner and presents food in a tall glass, which the fox can’t reach with its short snout. The moral of the story is to be hospitable and accommodating to guests.

A row of tiles above the fireplace depicted fairytales such as Beauty and the Beast and Rumpelstiltskin, which children could point to and indicate which story they’d like to hear. The bottom of the fireplace showed Guinevere, the wife of the legendary King Arthur.

Even if you haven’t seen “The Gilded Age,” visiting Glenview provides a look into the lives of Gilded Age millionaires outside of New York City, where seasonal estates provided an escape during the warmer months and small gestures of hospitality helped visitors feel at home.