In the late 1800s, to escape summers in New York City, Helen Francis (Fanny) Garrison Villard and German-born financier and railroad tycoon Henry Villard bought their summer home high on a hill in Dobbs Ferry. The area, with some of the most majestic views of the Hudson River, is still known as Villard Hill.
Villard residence (WCHS)
Read articles from current and all previous issues of The Neighborhood Buzz: Rivertowns, plus receive a printed copy of the magazine every 3 months.
Architects McKim, Mead, and White helped to create what became the three-story structure on land 465 feet above sea level, making it the highest point in the village. The mansion, Thorwood, had sweeping verandas overlooking the Hudson. During the Villard family’s almost 50 years in Dobbs Ferry, Fanny Villard shared the beauty of Thorwood with many guests, organizing concerts, recitals, and festive meals on the weekends. The 100-acre property, which the Villards pieced together from several purchases, was split into 275 parcels when the family sold the property in 1928 upon Fanny’s death.
Henry Villard with his wife, Fanny, and daughter, Helen, at their Dobbs Ferry estate, ca. 1898. (Alexandra Villard de Borchgrave Private Collection)
Fanny Villard, a suffragist, abolitionist, and pacifist, left her mark on the town and surrounding areas. According to The Ferryman, the newsletter of the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, the Dobbs Ferry Register stated, “It will always be a source of pride to Dobbs Ferry that Fanny Garrison Villard lived here. It will always be a joy to recall that we have stood close to a light that has cast its illumination into many a darkened corner of the world.”
Read articles from current and all previous issues of The Neighborhood Buzz: Rivertowns, plus receive a printed copy of the magazine every 3 months.
Fanny with her father, William Lloyd Garrison. (National Women's History Museum)
Fanny, who grew up in Boston, was the daughter of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. She followed in her father’s footsteps by becoming a voice for many causes over the years. As a young woman, . . .
Garrison Family on Thanksgiving Day, 1886 or 1887, at the home of Francis J. Garrison, Roxbury, MA (left to right): George Garrison, Mrs. Frank J. Garrison, Wendell P. Garrison, Fanny Garrison Villard, Ellen Wright Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, Jr., Mrs. J. Miller McKim, Francis J. Garrison.
(Smith College Special Collections)
Read articles from current and all previous issues of The Neighborhood Buzz: Rivertowns, plus receive a printed copy of the magazine every 3 months.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), now the nation’s largest and most widely recognized civil rights organization, began with headquarters in New York City and counted Fanny Garrison Villard and her son, Oswald Garrison Villard, among its founders.
Created in the early 1900s, the organization was established after a race riot rocked the city of Springfield, Illinois, and “was the final tipping point that led to the creation of the NAACP. Appalled at this rampant violence, a group of white liberals that included Mary White Ovington and Oswald Garrison Villard (both the descendants of famous abolitionists), William English Walling and Dr. Henry Moscowitz issued a call for a meeting to discuss racial justice. Some 60 people, seven of whom were African American (including W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and Mary Church Terrell), signed the call, which was released on the centennial of Lincoln's birth” (NAACP website).
Oswald Garrison Villard, who owned the New York Evening Post, provided important resources for the fledgling organization by sharing the newspaper’s office space for free and providing funding for the NAACP’s budget. In 1914, Villard resigned as chairman following irreconcilable differences with Du Bois about the focus of the organization. He remained on the board until his death in 1949. Du Bois, who was the editor of the NAACP’s magazine, The Crisis, gave the group its platform. By 1920, readership was over 100,000 and local chapters had sprouted up around the country. With a 112-year history, the organization now has more than 2 million members.