Milton Gilbert House

Most of the houses built in Alpine these days are tacky, boring, and oversized. It wasn't always that way though. The residences built in the '60s and '70s often blended into their wooded surroundings, using natural materials often found on site. The plastic homes built today utilize the maximum square footage allowed while clear cutting and leveling the property, making an eyesore of a once lovely boro. A few older homes skirt the line of opulence and passivity. 11 Autumn Terrace was the best of the best. 

The Milton Gilbert House was a 12,600 sq. ft. mansion built in 1976 on 4 acres of land at the highest point in Alpine. 

Chicago born architect Norman Jaffe designed the home in a style uniquely his own. Jaffe was renowned for his innovative designs, most of which were out in the Hamptons on Long Island. 

The home had all the flourishes one would hope to see in a Jaffe design. Large windows stretched from the floor to the ceiling, which was also pierced by skylights. The natural light perfectly complimented the earthy finishes of the interior. 

Exposed natural stone walls rose from the white oak foors to support a ceiling made of clear tongue-and-groove cedar boards. Clear cedar is far more expensive than the knotty stuff, but no expense was spared for this home.

A large indoor pool took up a chunk of the north wing of the house. It was surrounded by a deck made of California Redwood and capped with the same clear cedar that ran throughout most of the home. Of course, a skylight allowed natural light to envelop the space. 

Although the Gilbert House was the first project to being Jaffe to Alpine he was commissioned to design four other projects in the small town over the next decade. Only one of these commissions was ever confirmed to have been built, the Karram House at 15 Marie Major Drive. 

The Gilberts left the home around 2003. It was then sold to a company called Canfield Enterprises. It was occupied for another decade before ultimately ending up vacant. 

A particularly annoying and amoral sub-sect of urban explorers, derisively known as "clout-bexers" developed a real fondness for extravagant vacant mansions around the time the covid pandemic was raging. These clowns unfortunately found and began trading the house around to each other so they could get attention on Tik Tok and YouTube. This caused a wave of vandals sweeping the building. The home was systematically destroyed over the course of just a few years as people smashed windows and left the doors to the house wide open. 

The mansion was sold again in 2022 to 11 Autumn LLC, this time for twelve million dollars. The new buyers decided the home was a total loss and needed to be demolished. Fortunately the property changed hands again in 2025 before anything happened to the home. The new owner added solar powered cameras to the property to put an end to the trespassing and vandalism.

Unfortunately the new security features were just prolonging the inevitable. The home got caught up in a wave of demolition that took out the Frick Mansion, 6 Charney, even 14 Autumn across the street. The Gilbert home was the last of this spate to come down in June of 2026. 

There will never be another home like the Gilbert House, especially not in Alpine. I would contend the loss of the home is the most significant unnecessary architectural loss the state has seen in 2026. I dread finding out what the next big loss will be.

Henry Clay Frick II Mansion

The Frick's are one of the most consequential families in American Industrial history. Henry Clay Frick and his partner Andrew Carnagie founded Carnagie Steel.While Andrew Carnagie built libraries for the underprivileged, his partner Henry did the opposite and invested tons of his money into art. He had more money than a person could spend in a lifetime, setting up a lavish family fortune. This wealth financed the construction of the home on Closter Dock Road that I'm discussing today. 

The home was built in the 1930's in an "English Manor" style on land that was owned by the Frick family since the 1800s. Behind house was a beautiful Victorian carriage house which almost certainly predated the home itself. 

In the early 1940s Frick attended Princeton University before graduating to the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. He ended up going back to Columbia for work after some time working for the US Army medical corps. 

Frick got married to his first wife, Jane Allison Coates in 1945. Coates was also in the medical field, working as a nurses assistant at North Country Community Hospital on Long Island. 

In the 1960s Dr. Frick went to Vietnam where he volunteered in a field hospital during the war.

Coates and Frick got divorced in 1978. He ended up getting remarried in 1997 to Emily Troth Dupont. They continued to live in the mansion as the real estate market in Alpine continued to balloon. 

As Dr. Frick aged into his 80's he was diagnosed with Alzheimers. His property was so valuable developers were chomping at the bit to get their hands on it, knowing they could subdivide the huge parcel into several hefty pieces. A deal was made in 2006 to let the property go for $58 million which was the most valuable home sale in the entire country that year. 

There were two contingencies to the deal. Four fireplace mantels imported from Europe and valued at $400,000 were removed prior to the keys changing hands.

The other was that Dr. Frick would be able to continue to live out his life on the property in peace as his condition deteriorated. He passed away in February of 2007.

Developer Richard Kurtz had big plans for the Alpine property, and he got to work almost immediately building an absurdly large 30,000 square foot mega mansion southeast of the Frick home. 

By 2015 the home was back on the market, this tine on a much smaller lot. It was listed for $27.8 million, once again making headlines as the third most valuable listing in the state. 

The massive stone mansion which was built nearly a decade prior was still sitting vacant, as Kurtz was unable to find a buyer for the niche property. 

I was driving through Alpine one day in 2026 checking up on the home at 6 Charney when I drove past the old Frick mansion. I couldn't believe my eyes. 

The entire property had been torn up, the home had a big red X on the front as did the next four houses along Closter Dock Road. 

Heavy Machinery was actively chewing through the house next door, so I knew I didn't have long if I wanted to make it inside the 1930's manor. 

The demolition crew seemed focused on the home they were working on, so I carefully slipped behind the Frick mansion. 

The first thing I noticed were the incredible roses that enveloped the home. Im guessing they were planted by DuPont, as shes reported to have cultivated orchids in the greenhouse. 

I found an unlocked door out back which led me right into the foyer. I was shocked at how well kept the mansion was for such an old building. 

Unfortunately the mansion was unceremoniously demolished shortly after my visit. The three houses next door were also demolished. 

Its been pretty maddening to see firsthand the amount of money churning through the Alpine real estate market at a time when sp many people are suffering and hungry in this country. I'm sure this won't be the last multi million dollar mansion demolished this year. 

Ohav Shalom Synagague

 

Source

The original shul building of the Ohev Shalom synagague was built in 1916. The facade was made of clay orange brick with subtle limestone accents and stained glass windows. Men and women each had their own entrance to the building, which was gender segregated. 

A small school building was added to the right side of the sanctuary in 1928.

The inside of the sanctuary was much more decorated than the outside. Beautiful hand painted zodiac symbols formed a band across the turquoise field of the ceiling. A grand chandelier hung down from the center. Beautiful stained glass filled the windows on each level.

During services the girls and women of the congregation sat on the balcony while boys and men occupied the main floor. Curtains were hung to divide the genders as is customary in orthodox Judaism. 

Over the next few decades the congregation slowly dwindled until there weren't enough men to sustain a minyan. In 2003 the synagague closed for good. The building was sold to B'nai Yakkov Shlomo Mordecai, another orthodox group.

As far as I can tell the B'nai Yakkov Shlomo Mordecai congregation never ended up using the building. Instead they let it sit vacant for more than 20 years as water and animals forced their way in, laying waste to the building. 

Eventually the buildings were sold to John and Maryan LLC who promptly filed for demolition permits. Initially the community pushed back, but after the developers agreed to salvage the stained glass windows the permits were eventually approved. After a brief flash of popularity in the Urban Exploration community the buildings were demolished by 2026. 

The demoliton of Ohev Shalom had an impact on the city's historic preservation perspective. Council members discussed being more insistent that developers save the facades of historic buildings they plan to demolish. Its a step in the right direction for sure. Hopefully the conversation shifts again to full on preservation before the city loses all its historic charm. 

Thanks for reading.

6 Charney Place

6 Charney Place in Alpine was a beautiful wooded lot which had a sinlge modest house on it since the mid 1960s. 

The home dated to a time when development was first booming throughout the town. The newly opened Palisades Interstate Parkway turned Alpine from a small, out of the way town to a NYC suburb. 

Roads were being carved through the mountains for the first time, with small to medium sized contemporary homes popping up alongside them.

The real estate market in Alpine absolutely exploded over the next several decades. Celebrities and other wealthy people snapped up the cheapest homes they could to demolish them and rebuild custom mega mansions. 

By the mid 2020's it wasn't just the smaller houses getting leveled. Several multi million dollar mansions came down during this time, including homes at 19 Marie Major and 14 Autumn Terrace. 

Sure enough the home was demolished in 2025, roughly a year after being sold for $2.25 mil. The new home being built on the property is ugly as sin and the entire lot has been stripped.bare. I'm just glad I got to experience the property as it was. 

Thanks for reading.

Good Shepherd Church of Faith

 

The Good Shepherd Church of Faith was built in 1866. It was a small wooden building with few ornamental elements used primarily by an Episcopal congregation 

Services stopped being held in the church sometime around 2013. The ancient building had already fallen pretty seriously into disrepair by then. 

The most unique feature of the building was definitely the barrel vaulted pressed tin ceiling. 

It was finally sold in 2024. The new owner promptly got to work repairing the roof and fixing up the exterior. The building is currently being used as storage until the new owner finds a practical use for it. 

Thanks for reading.