Used a Culture Pass to visit the Bartow-Pell Mansion in the Bronx. It was a perfect day for it! Warmish & sunny. The home is open Sundays 12-4p. Tours are given and I highly recommend taking one. There are QR codes in the rooms, and a guide on the Bloomberg Connects App, but Angelique gave an excellent tour! She kindly answered all my questions after each room's description and made this 3 story historical gem come to life. Only thing that would've made the tour better would be to come back in Spring when the garden is in bloom. read more

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I attended a Holiday luncheon at the Bartow-Pell mansion and was pleasantly surprised at the venue. Aside from the tourist attractions , the food was marvelous and the vintage ambience was relaxing and refreshing. read more

I LOVED my visit to the Bartow-Pell Mansion & you will too. The cost of admission for adults is $15 & $13 for seniors. I brought my dad along with me & he loved it as well. The staff is very nice & helpful. My tour guide Robin explained everything with such amazing detail to us. Inside, there's a lot of vintage & fancy furniture & decor throughout the mansion. My favorite was the gorgeous spiral staircase. Outside, there's a lovely picturesque garden & koi pond. I was looking for some lesser known things to do in NYC that are off the beaten path & this came up on Google, so I had to take the drive out from Queens. There's plenty of parking spots available in front of the mansion. This is a historic & preserved piece of history here. Exploring is educational & fun for all ages. I love the fact that there's a serene little place we can escape to away from all the hustle & bustle right in the middle of NYC. read more

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This was a first theater outing destination post pandemic. Odd choice perhaps but the thespian action took place entirely outdoors under a tent with socially distanced seating. We saw a production of Sherlock Holmes The Matter of Bohemia. We had fun, loved that the play-acting broke the 4th wall at times. Our only foray into the manse was a visit to the bathroom since touring hours were over. *If you drive, brush up on your roundabout rules because you have to navigate through one to get here (while on the lookout for entire bicycling families).* We wanted to explore the grounds but the heavens opened up just as we set off, a few brave families ignored the rain and kept strolling through the anachronistic sculpture parked in the "front lawn". read more

Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum - Gardens - Museums Near Me - Bronx, New York

It's so beautiful here! You would never know you were still in the city, and you can take amazing photos here. Lots of people get their wedding or engagement shoots done in the gardens. The grounds are open from 8:30am, totally free, and the gardens and pond are immaculate. We arrived shortly after they opened, parked in the free parking lot and had the whole place basically to ourselves! There was a photographer taking photos of flowers, and the most meticulous and hardworking gardener. He spent over an hour thigh deep in the lily-pad pond fishing out leaves, sticks, and anything else that would ruin its pristine water. The garden itself is not large, but the grounds are endless with a hiking trail and a lake. By the mansion itself there are super cute benches and chairs to relax on (watch out for the inevitable bird poop). We did not actually get to go inside the mansion museum because they open very sparingly - only 4 hours from 12 - 4pm three days a week. Prices seemed to have increased to $8 general admission and $6 for students. I'm sure it would have been beautiful inside as well if its upkeep was just as good as the garden. Must stop by if you're in Pelham Bay Park and want to be transported back in time :) read more

Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum - Museums Near Me - Bronx, New York

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Known about this place for a while now. It's right in my own backyard in the Bronx about 10 minutes away. I decided to go check it out on a nice Sunday afternoon. First off, it is a little tough to find. Navigation was going a little nuts trying to find the place. Their website advises to use the Golf Club as a destination point, but even with this its tough to find. The best way to describe it is...that there is a gated entrance to the driveway of the mansion on the right along Shore Road, about 1/10 of a mile after passing the Golf Club traveling East. It may be a good idea to check out the location on Google Maps before driving there. After entering the gates the driveway leads to the mansion. There are a bunch of parking spaces, but those are sufficient according to the staff there since this place never really gets "busy". We entered the mansion and there was a young man in front collecting money. The surrounds grounds are free to tour but the mansion itself is privately owned. The fee for touring the mansion is $8 for adults and $6 for children. Though on that day, they were nice enough not to charge for my 8 year-old, so I only paid for myself. ($8) The mansion itself is interesting. Like many museums, they have lots of old items and "appliances". The difference here is that this was an actual functioning house so you can see how the rooms were divided. Small details like the call bells in the attic which ran throughout the house and common game room were interesting. Also, reading some of the writings and the language used back then was nice. There are binders in each (most) rooms with information about the items in the room which was nice. Behind the mansion is a beautiful garden. There are also a few hiking trails you can take from there. Overall we had a great time. I myself found it interested, but my 8 year-old, not as much. I would imagine if you are into history or museums, this may be a good place. The younger ones may not be as interested. All staff we encountered that day (only 2 on that particular day) were very nice, knowledgeable and helpful. read more

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If will cost you $5 to visit this mansion-museum, with interesting interiors and an informative guided tour. You can walk the grounds for free, though, and enjoy the view of the building and surrounding woods from its beautiful gardens. The fountain is cute, and the grass is manicured. Overall, it's a nice place, and a mandatory stop during your visit of Pelham Bay Park. read more

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A couple of weekends ago OHNY (Open House New York) offered a weekend event encouraging NYers and visitors to discover distinctive architectural design elements within the tri-state area. This two day weekend event showcased historic structures; one of which included the Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum. I am ashamed to say that I never knew this place existed and while discussing my visit I found out from several other Bronxites who are native to the Bronx also had no idea...For Shame!!!!! Lesson here is that it's never too late to learn a thing or two. I take this ignorance as a generational thing, as later in the day after my tour, I had the opportunity to meet this OG, who was in his mid-70's, but didn't look nor act a day over 50. He was that good fellas type dapper Dan, fuggehdaboutit, kinda guy, who just finished up his 'vacation' with the Feds...you get the picture. I'll call him 'Dan', for the sake of anonymity. I mentioned to Dan how I took advantage of the opportunity to tour the mansion museum. He was laid back, yet excited to tell me about his teen years and how the surrounding area was more beautiful then, than it is now. Readers follow along with me and imagine as Dan is describing and thinking back to the 1950's. He is virtually walking down memory lane telling me how he and his crew would drive their muscle cars over to Shore Road and drag race. Then later, during those evenings, with their girlfriends in tow, proceed over to 'lovers lane', which was the surrounding grounds of the mansion. Dan continued by saying he and his crew would drive their cars on the grounds, back then the grounds of the mansion were not gated as it is now, right up to the waters edge and watch the sunset and later the moonlit Long Island sound. Dan even mentioned how the coppers would come along and check on each car and tap on each of the steamed up windows, as the coppers knew this was a regular haunt for teenagers. They would shine their flashlights into the cars to check that everyone was okay, but yet leave them alone as everyone knew everyone. 'Fuggehdaboutit'!! That was a cool insight into his youth from someone of that caliber and a cool sort of history lesson about 1950's teenagers and the mansion itself. On to the museum mansion tour. Upon entering the grounds you are greeted by costumed docents walking around the gardens and throughout the museum, pretty cool to see. It makes you feel as though you are living within that era. Before I continue on, I would like to acknowledge, thank and compliment our fellow Yelper Amelia Z who was the costumed docent for our tour group. I had no idea she worked at the mansion museum and of all the tour guides she ended up with my group, what a coincidence. Amelia, a very sweet and knowledgeable young lady, was extremely informative of every question asked of her; I left there learning quite a bit that day. Kudos to Amelia! As a few other reviews may have mentioned, the furniture in the mansion is not original to the museum. I believe you have to appreciate the effort of preserving this mansions 1836 structure. It is stated in 1842 the Bartow family consisting of the two parents and their seven children plus 13 or so staff members, take up residence for over four decades in the mansion newly built by Robert Bartow. Within those years, Mrs. Maria Bartow, nee Lorillard, took some dutiful and extensive notes which helped in the recreation of the mansion. The International Garden Club, who are lease owners of the mansion to this day, made the recreation and preservation of the mansion possible with the help of curators from the Museum of New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum who each provided select furniture and decoration for most of the period rooms. Outside of the mansion on this particular sunny, yet cool autumn day, there were 1800 type entertainment out on the back lawn. Crafts, childrens games and not too far from the Herb Garden, Cracked Walnuts, a husband and wife duo playing Banjo and Washboard music of the times...they were playing that old familiar song, Yankee Doodle, I still have that song playing in my head...yikes!!! There is so much more to the history of Thomas Pell-John Bartow, who are namesakes to some many areas within the northern Bronx. As well as Thomas Pell being an instrumental factor in the very important Bartow-Pell Treaty signing and exchanging of acres upon acres of land for a mere pittance with the Lenape Indians...That in itself is a whole other part of history. read more

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You should come here if you happen to be in the area. I was in the Bronx vicinity and wanted to kill a few hours and this was perfect. You can walk around the outside: there's a little garden, a little family grave plot, a small hiking trail that goes by the marshes/bay, and a wigwam. Cool, random stuff to look at. The tour of the mansion itself is interesting. There are 4-5 rooms on each of the 2 floors. The guide was knowledgeable and it was fun looking at 18th-19th century artifacts. Note--the furniture and things are not original to the house, but just period pieces. Come here if you want a mildly interesting thing to do for 1.5 hours! read more

Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum - If you take the little hiking trail behind the mansion - Museums Near Me - Bronx, New York

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Simply a pleasure visiting your venue. Hands down one of the best events I have been to in a very long time!

The BRONX is beautiful! The tour guide was so knowledgeable.The grounds are beautiful to walk through. read more

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GET A CONTRACT FROM THEM BEFORE BOOKING ANYTHING! This place barely deserves 1 star. I had booked their garden for my wedding ceremony/photo session. All in total, $400 for 1.5hrs. I was emailing Susan for a month and even sent a deposit of $250. She told me it's a photo session and if I'm able to fit my ceremony within the time frame, then it will be no problem to have my ceremony and my 30 guest. They're very strict with certain things and I was okay with that. All they were doing was providing their garden. I was providing everything else. Which i was also fine with. They were not able to provide chairs unless if i did a space rental. I was also fine with that up until i realized my two grandmothers were coming and would need to sit for the ceremony. Which would've been for 15-20mins tops! I asked if i was able to bring my own chairs for them. I get an email back from Susan saying she spoke with her executive director and was told they are not able to do my ceremony due to the amount of guest coming and now needing chairs is looking like a space rental. So the price will go up to 1,500. Mind u! I wasn't having a reception due to COVID-19. I told her that was out of my price range and if they can please accommodate because this was clearly an error on their end. I was denied the accommodation and was refunded my deposit. So I'm left with no venue and They hit me with this 3 weeks before my wedding. Susan then tells me she had no authority to say yes to any of my request or take my deposit. I don't understand why she did not confirm everything with her boss from the very beginning. Would've saved a whole lot of stress on me as the bride. She honestly almost ruined my wedding. I even went for a tour and confirmed everything with her and everything was set and stone. All for some damn chairs for two elderly women smh. So sad. Susan and the executive director(Allison) are clearly money hungry. If u decide to book this place for anything, make sure u get a CONTRACT or don't bother honestly. read more

An excellent little museum up in a fine and often neglected corner of the Boogie Down Bronx, Pelham Park. Star #1 is for the enormously knowledgeable and entertaining docent, Tom, whose tour included details about Anne Hutchinson getting bludgeoned to death nearby and how all the mansions in the area mysteriously burned down after the Parks Department bought the land. Star #2 is for the lovely grounds. apparently they have great hiking trails in back. Star #3: It's empty! you wander around by yourself. hell, you could probably touch the furniture - no one's looking. not that I endorse such hooligan behavior. Star #4 - the awesome carriage house. To turn this into a 5 Star experience, bring your bike on the 6 train and hit the museum on your ride to City Island or Orchard Beach. read more

Came for the haunted house - so much fun! It's hard to believe this was their first year!

This treasure is one of the only remaining mansions and gardens in NYC! We NYers are lucky that it is open to the public and reasonably priced. Originally part of the 5,000 acre Pell estate from the 1600s and Indian land, it is very interesting and educational with it's period decorated rooms and dressed docents. There is an Indian wampum hut and carriage house that children will love, especially on class trips. The historic red Bronx Trolley transports visitors for FREE from the last stop on the #6 train (Pelham Bay Park) to the mansion and City Island (check for schedule). First Fridays offers live music and refreshments and there are many events throughout the year. They just won a grant to restore their gardens. Bring a picnic lunch and wander around the grounds! A must see step back in time! read more

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We visited the Mansion this weekend. The building tour was interesting and the staff were well-informed. The original family of the mansion took all the furniture, so the museum acquired period pieces that were similar. Unfortunately, the building is suffering from decay and could use a significant overhaul. The garden fountain was lovely but the "formal gardens" are more or less unkempt. The four stars are actually not for the building itself, but for the surrounding area. We spent about 1 hour at the mansion and then took some local trails to Orchard Beach. The staff didn't have any maps--or any interest in helping us find our way--so I downloaded a map on my phone. I have pasted the link to a PDF at the bottom of this post to save you the trouble. The trails meander through the marshes of Pelham Bay park and we saw wild geese, fish, and osprey. However, the yellow trail ends at certain points so you will be forced to bushwhack. My advice is to hop on the gray bike path when the yellow trail ends. How did we get there? I include this for New Yorkers: We took the 6 train to Pelham Bay park. We missed the W45 bus (which is located behind the subway station), which runs only once per hour on the weekend. So we took a cab to the Mansion for $12. From the mansion, we hiked the trails to Orchard Beach. From Orchard Beach, we walked along the bike path to City Island Circle and caught the B29 bus back to the Pelham 6 train station. This is probably too much information, but we include it to save you the trouble of figuring this out! Here is the map: http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/vt_pelham_bay_park/images/Pelham%20map-rev2005.pdf read more

The curb appeal is very offputting right now as they do construction and restoration. There's a scaffolding pretty much covering the entire front of the building as you pull up to the parking lot. I checked out the wigwam, the carriage house, and the garden out back. I did not go inside after reading that most of the furniture was not original to the house, that would take away from much of the experience for me. The garden is very lovely but another thing that was a bit offputting was there was some type of pilate excersise session going on with a large group of people near the entrance of the garden. I understand it's a public area and people have a right to access it as they see fit however blocking the entrance is probably not the best place for this. They honestly were just taking over the whole area to the point where I felt like I was in their way and I really couldn't enjoy the peacefulness of the garden with the trainer yelling the encouraging phrases "come on" "keep pushing" "one more time" blah blah blah. Hopefully this is not the sort of thing that goes on here regularly. There was some type of art installation going on in the middle of the garden. Other's were commenting that it's not the way it usually looks. There was sand and pebble shaped pieces of colored glass surrounding the statue of the small child in the center. I was highly impressed by the garden. The tulips were beautiful. All the parking spaces were also taken when we arrived and it was still relatively early. I can only assume many of the cars were owned by the excersise group out back. read more

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This is a spectacular home and the gardens are very nice too. It's hard to believe you're in the Bronx. The overhead airplanes remind you that you've not been transported back 150 years. The gardens lead to the Pelham Bay marshes. The tour is $8 and admission to the gardens alone is free. It's worth the trip even if it is just an hour or two. read more

I called to book the mansion for wedding photos and called 13 months in advance. I was told they weren't booking for 2016 yet and to call in a month. I called again a month later and same answer. I called again and same answer except they penciled me in since I have been calling every month. I called again to confirm the date and was told it was booked by someone else. How could it be booked by someone else when I was penciled in. I was told that they don't know what happened with no way of making it work. I was pretty much dismissed with this sucks for you. Some advice, record every conversation with them either on the phone or email. read more

I did enjoy visiting this museum however I didn't enjoy going for an $8 fee. I went to a local museum that was a very similar historical home with a very detailed tour plus a video and great gift shop and it was by donation only as most museums are that way. The house is well kept and the tour was very informative however the gift shop has a lot to be desired and disappointing to say the least. What a missed opportunity. The woman working there was not aware they even had a Yelp page and my free admission with Yelp Check-In was not honored because the fine print read March as I was told. I wish I wasn't disabled as I would have loved to try and walk around the grounds to see where the Lenape Native Americans signed the treaty to sell off their beautiful 50,000 acres of land. I can only imagine how things were back in 1654. By the 1800's the Pell family had acquired a staggering 220 acres of land. When Robert Bartow built his home on the land he then moved his family into the home in 1842. There is definitely a strong history and needless to say worth the trip from that perspective in addition to the upkeep of the house and it's lovely maintained furnishings from that time period to give you a sense of what it was like during that time period. read more

This place is most definitely not worth the trip from Manhattan. You can tour the whole place in 10 minutes, and even those 10 minutes aren't great. read more

We happened on this museum by chance, but it was a great find! A $5 admission for a house tour. While the pieces are of the period, not original to the house, the guide was informative. It was fascinating to see what life was like in this area as it was one of the original estates - all the others have been torn down. The garden in the back of the place was closed off for repair, but it looks like a great place to come back once it's done. The guide said they get a lot of revenue from film shoots - and I can see a number of private parties here as well as member events, which look like a lot of fun if you're in the area. Looking forward to coming back and seeing the gardenin full glory. read more

If you enjoy historic houses, you should go check this place out. The admission is reasonable, and you've got an option of a guided tour with a lecture, or just looking around yourself. It was built in the mid-1800s, but was used for various purposes by different organizations since then, so the decor isn't original - it's was redecorated with "period objects" in the 1940's. There are some nice things, (I liked the memorial embroideries) but overall, you should go if you're interested in the history, not to be impressed by a palatial "mansion." (The Breakers this is not.) There are formal gardens with a small fountain and some patio tables in the back, which are open to the public even if you opt not to enter the museum. Nice place to relax. The museum's website instructs visitors to take the not-very-frequent Westchester Bee-line bus, but you can also take the Bx29 to Shore Rd. and walk from there - it's about a 15-minute, reasonably pleasant walk. read more

Lovely grounds, with great views of Pelham Bay and the surround marshlands. Some unknown New York City history here, dating back to the original settlements. Beautiful gardens. The house itself is great, but does not have the original furniture. The sun room is decadent. read more

A hidden gem and the only mansion left from many that were built in Pelham Bay during the 1800's. Beautiful grounds and a dedicated staff transport you back to a bygone era in the little-known history of Pelham Bay and Pelham Bay Park. Docents in period dress guide you from room to room with intriguing facts and are open to questions with their well-versed knowledge of what is known about the Pell family, the Bartow's, the native Indians, the well-kept exotic gardens, and the mansion itself! Special seasonal tours include a walk through the family graveyard for Halloween and, my favorite, the mansion decorated in period fashion for Christmas with Christmas trees in each room decorated with elements of a common theme. When you leave, you'll almost wish you didn't have to be transported back to the present day! Exhibits, concerts, activities, and expert/author talks are scheduled throughout the year and are available to non-members and members alike (members are given an entrance-fee discount). Prices on most of the occasions are between $5 and $10 per adult person (where allowed, children are less) and the funds go a long way in keeping the mansion/museum up and running, and well preserved! read more

We took our children on a class trip and they were very excited and curious about the garden but i have to say the staff is not for children. Lauren Gill was rude with the children and not very pleasant at all. The children were very well behaved but you can say the kids had a great time because they were on a trip with their class but if you ask them if they want to go back they all have the same response, which is not really because that lady was so rude.....These are Third Graders that planted their garden for $16.00 per person..... read more