88 Glen Alpin Road

The lot at 88 Glen Alpin Road at one point held a lovely little residential compound with a home that dated back to 1885 as its centerpiece.

In addition to the house there was also a chicken coop and a shed building on the two and a half acre lot.

The home had sat vacant for ages before being purchased in 2021 by a new owner who intended to demolish and rebuild the main home. The historic preservation commission stepped with some concerns, even after touring the home and seeing the poor condition it was in. 

The new owner was eventually granted their permit and the main home was demolished in early 2026. The new home was rebuilt mostly on the same foundation and to a similar scale. 

While I'm always disappointed losing an old building, the home was definitely beyond any sort of reasonable salvage. Having the outbuildings saved and the proportions of the lot maintained is a very reasonable compromise. 

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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. 

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. 

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711 Broadway

The incredible Victorian mansion at 711 Broadway dated back to the very late 1800s. It was a three story building with a mansard roof and an 800sf wraparound porch. 

A beautiful elliptical staircase wrapped its way up through the center of the house, connecting all seven bedrooms. 

Each of the bedrooms on the first two stories had floor to ceiling windows and gorgeous pine floors. Most also had large, functional fireplaces. 

Several of the rooms even had large walk in closets between them.

The home was occupied into the 2020s, but had been falling into disrepair for years. 

It was sold in 2025 to an LLC who was granted permission from the town to subdivide the lot into three smaller parcels. 

The plan was contingent on the existing home being demolished.

Demolition began in spring of 2026.  The home wasn't even on my radar, but a random tip on Reddit one Friday morning let me know destruction was imminent. 

I ran up to Norwood after work the same day. Unfortunately the demo crews had already begun stripping the historic fixtures out. 

Thankfully there were still a few rooms in decent enough shape for me to want to take out my camera and give it a proper shoot. 

Im really glad that at least some of the trim and fixtures were stripped before the demoliton. It always kills me to see such a gorgeous house be demolished for some contemporary nonsense though, especially one that hasn't been heavily renovated.

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