There are still plenty of horses in the New Vernon section of Morris County’s Harding Township, but in an earlier era, the area really could be called horse country without any exaggeration.
It was the original home of the Spring Valley Hounds, founded in 1915 and now based in the wider-open spaces of northwest New Jersey’s Sussex and Warren counties.
The Spring Valley Hounds meeting at Tyvan Hill.
But anyone who has ridden in New Vernon over the years or still enjoys the bridle paths will appreciate a visit to Tyvan Hill, which for many years hosted Spring Valley’s Thanksgiving Day hunt. The stone building is open to the public until October 4 as the designer show house and gardens of Mansion in May, cleverly rechristened Splendor in September after it was postponed due to the pandemic.
A fundraiser presented by the Women’s Association for Morristown Medical Center, it features rooms re-created with the imagination of a variety of designers. There are some horsey notes–a wide-ranging mural by Cindy Gelormini, known as the “Paint Diva of New Jersey” offers her interpretation of the hunt meeting at Tyvan Hill in decades past. It starts on the second floor and winds down along the stairs to the first floor, where she depicted a horse sticking out his head over the Dutch door of his stall.
This horse sculpture welcomes guests to Tyvan Hill.
Greeting you in the courtyard is a life-size horse sculpture (you can buy it for $8,000 after the showcase ends, if someone hasn’t already spoken for it). The entire ballroom, designated as the history room, is devoted to information on the property and its owners.
There are photos of the hunt and that classic Morris County Bridle Path Association map featuring a poem around the outside exhorting readers to “go forth and ride and ride.”
Unique wallpaper from the 1940s in the sales office features jockeys and racehorses.
Mansion in May, a fundraiser held every two or three years to benefit the medical center, was derailed by Covid restrictions. Many events all over the country were cancelled in the wake of the virus, but those behind this one weren’t giving up.
“We were so committed for two reasons,” said co-chair Kathleen Ross (whose mother-in-law, Margaret Ross, rode with Spring Valley).
“One, it was because it was for the hospital. (Funds raised go toward the facility’s Gagnon Cardiovascular Institute).
“We had the blessing of the hospital,” she continued, noting the medical center sent staff, including the heads of risk management and nursing, to walk through as organizers explained their Covid safety protocol. The hospital personnel gave the seal of approval for the plans of how to stay safe with social distancing and masks.
And reason number two?
“We had to do it because every one of those designers stuck with us,” explained Kathleen.
“When we closed in March, they were between 40 and 50 percent done with their rooms. When we got the blessing from the hospital and things were okay in New Jersey, we said, `That’s it, we’re doing it.’ On July 21, we sent an email to all of them and said `Come back.’ On Aug. 21, they were finished.” The show house opened Sept. 8.
Tyvan Hill
Pat O’Connor, co-chair, said a corporation is the current owner of the property, noting it is now for sale with eight acres and glorious views for $2.975 million.
Designed in the late 1920s by the architectural firm of Peabody, Wilson & Brown, known for their work on “large country residences,” Tyvan Hill is reminiscent of a little Downton Abbey. There’s even a section of the building once used for servants. The call buttons for each room are still on the wall in the servants’ quarters.
The 10,000-square-foot house was built for decorated World War I and II veteran John Castles Jr. and his wife, Dorothea, a daughter and granddaughter of Vermont governors. Other owners included Douglas Bowman Weed and Donald Cushing McGraw Jr. of the McGraw-Hill publishing company. The last family to live in the house was headed by Revlon President Sol Levine.
There is much more to learn from a visit to the ballroom/history room, and one can easily spend half of a delightful day touring Tyvan Hill and its gardens.
For information and tickets, go to www.mansioninmay.org.
