One of the last remnants of Inwood’s bucolic past is hiding in plain sight at an car-repair shop on 216th Street and Broadway.
At that busy intersection at the farthest reaches of Manhattan, a marble triumphal arch stands partially covered by the low-slung brick buildings that now crowd what was once a gracious entryway to the Seaman-Drake Mansion.
In the mid-19th century, the neighborhood now known as Inwood was still quite rural, with farms dotting the landscape. The dense city we know was much, much further downtown. It was here, on a ridge overlooking the Harlem River, that James T. and John Ferris Seaman bought a 25-acre parcel in 1851 to build an impressive country house away from their grand townhouses in midtown, about an hour’s carriage ride away.
The Seamans were a family with 17th-century roots on Long Island. But they didn’t have to search far to find more immediate relevance or prominence: James and John’s father, Dr. Valentine Seaman, gained success for introducing, among other things, the smallpox vaccine.
By 1856, the brothers completed the 25-room Italianate mansion made from white marble quarried nearby. The house enjoyed commanding views from its hilltop location that included a swimming pool, observatory, and solarium, likely earning the estate’s nickname of “Mount Olympus.” A long driveway snaked up from broadway, and a handsome triumphal arch, rendered in the same marble quarried nearby, guarded the entrance.
At 35 feet high and 40 feet wide, the arch is a relatively diminutive version of the familiar classical form. Inside the barrel-vaulted passage are two doors that lead to what were likely private quarters for a gatekeeper. The arch has two niches, vacant, presumably for statues, and blind inset panels face the street. Iron pivots for a massive gate are still in place. Some claim the folly is a scale replica of the Arc de Triomphe. While there is a vague resemblance—if you’ve seen one triumphal arch, you’ve arguably seen them all—there’s no clear evidence to support the idea.
Upon the passing of John Seaman, his wife, Ann Drake Seaman inherited the estate, a connection that gave the house its “Seaman-Drake” moniker. She held onto it until 1894 when she sold Mount Olympus to the Suburban Riding and Driving Club, which used the mansion for about 10 years before trading to Thomas Dwyer, a contractor best known as having built the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in Riverside Park on the Upper West Side.
He used the house year round, and retrofitted the marble gatehouse for use as office space for his business. The name of the company? The Marble Arch Co.