Abercrombie & Fitch co-founder's Westchester castle sold for $1.5M

Elda Castle in Westchester County, NY, the Scottish-style stone mansion built by David T. Abercrombie, co-founder of Abercrombie & Fitch in 1927, has been sold for $1.5 million. 

The property in the Town of New Castle went on the market a year ago for $2.9 million for the  nearly 50-acre parcel, which was later split into two plots, according to Julia B. Fee Sotheby's International Realty. The parcel that includes the castle encompasses 22.75 acres.

The buyer wished to remain private, according to the real estate firm.

Abercrombie, who opened the clothing brand’s first store in 1892 in Manhattan, had the  25-room castle built in the late 1920s as a summer retreat for his family.

The estate's design was envisioned by Abercrombie’s wife, Lucy, whose family owned the Abbott Steel company, builder of the Monitor and the Merrimack warships and the steel reinforcements for the U.S. Capitol rotunda, according to Doug Leen, whose great-uncle was David T. Abercrombie.

Locally quarried granite and fieldstone was used to construct the castle’s 24-inch-thick walls, and steel reinforcement beams were brought in from Pennsylvania.

View of the stone castle's roof shows graffiti vandalism. Photo: Planomatic

Abercrombie and his wife, Lucy, named their home Elda, an acronym using the first letter of their children’s names: Elizabeth, Lucy, David and Abbott.

The five-story, 4,337-square-foot home's surrounding property had trails for hiking and horseback riding, a swimming pool, shooting range, and a fishing pond for fishing. 

A fire in the 1940s destroyed a portion of castle and decimated the interior.

The castle, which retains original features including an open patio with fireplace and cast-iron spiral staircase leading to a tower, needs a complete renovation.

Factory tragedy

According to the Ossining Historical Society, Abercrombie owned a factory off Dale Avenue in Ossining that waterproofed canvas by melting paraffin using gasoline

His daughter, Lucy, died at age 30 in an accident at the factory in 1929 when this volatile formula ignited.  Abercrombie’s son, David,  died at age 35 after being kicked in the abdomen by a horse on his Wyoming ranch in 1937.

David T. Abercrombie, whose family once owned hundreds of acres in the vicinity, died in 1931, and his widow later sold the property.

 Elda stood vacant following World War II until the 1960s when the Harrick family, owners of Harrick Scientific Corp. of Pleasantville, purchased the property.

It was later owned by Beth Lamont, wife of Corliss Lamont, a socialist author, teacher and humanist philosopher who died at the estate in 1993. She later sold the property to an investor.

Robert Brum is a freelance journalist who writes about the Hudson Valley. Contact him and read his work at robertbrum.com.