Hanging on the wall of the lobby at Tarrytown House Estate and Conference Center is a photo from June 1964 of State Farm Insurance salesmen from New Jersey dressed in jackets and ties at the conclusion of a meeting at the facility.
What makes this generic group photo so historic is additional context ”“ Tarrytown House was the first corporate conference center in the U.S. and the State Farm salesmen were among the first to visit for a conference.
Purchased by Destination Hotels & Resorts of Englewood, Colo., in 2005, Tarrytown House is celebrating its 50th anniversary this summer and continues to do a brisk business in corporate retreats, weddings, catering and weekend getaways.
“We have an average of 75,000 to 80,000 visits a year and that”™s with the overnight guests, our wedding guests and companies that come for a day,” said Joe Santore, Tarrytown House general manager. He said the average size of a conference group is 20 to 30 people. “About 65 percent is conference- and business-related, 20 percent is catering, weddings and events and the remainder would be your weekend escapees.”
Wall Street firms once were Tarrytown House”™s biggest clients, but that has changed in recent years.
“It had some of the busiest years ever in its history in ”™06, ”™07 and the first half of ”™08,” Santore said. Business for the conference center fell off during the financial crisis but has since turned around. “We play host to a large array of different clients ”“ not just Wall Street and banking related. They”™re certainly still important, but so are retail, management consulting, accounting, education and universities, pharmaceutical and medical groups. It”™s a much more diversified clientele coming in from different aspects of industry, whereas 50 percent of our business used to be Wall Street-related.”
The 26-acre complex was constructed on the former estate of Mary Duke Biddle, an heiress to the American Tobacco fortune who purchased the property in 1921, incorporating the two original mansions and other structures to create a unique venue for corporate meetings.
Shortly after Biddle passed away in 1960, the estate was purchased by the African nation of Mali, which quickly sold the estate to former Time magazine editor Robert L. Schwartz in 1963. A May 1964 article in The New York Times noted Schwartz”™s idea was “to supply everything a business group needs ”“ shelter, food, conference rooms and materials, and recreational facilities ”“ to hold a training program or seminar.”
When it opened as a conference center in 1964, Tarrytown House had seven meeting rooms and 42 guest rooms. The complex has since hosted countless meetings, retreats and conferences, as well as weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, and weekend getaways.
Destination Hotels & Resorts performed $12 million in restorations after purchasing the property and the result is a historic, yet thoroughly modern, technologically updated facility.
“Our biggest attraction and draw is that we have a historic and classic feel,” Santore said. “But certainly the customer expects seamless tech, seamless Internet connectivity and access to power because everyone needs to charge their laptops, phones and iPads.”
Biddle”™s legacy remains visible across the property ”“ her portrait graces the wall of the drawing room in the Biddle Mansion, which was her home and is the centerpiece of the complex. An avid outdoor recreation enthusiast, her original outdoor pool is still in use and the property also features outdoor horseshoe pits and tennis and bocce courts. Original statuary still stands in the circular garden outside the lobby and the grounds command a sweeping view of the Hudson River just south of the Tappan Zee Bridge. The staff aims to maintain the gardens as Biddle intended.
“It has a personality, a lot of outdoor space, so that the learning and the sharing with a group is not just occurring in the meeting room,” Santore said. “On a nice day, you”™ll see our groups using the recreation facilities and the lawns as a supplement. That”™s part of the meeting experience and a lot of times it isn”™t planned that way, but it kind of morphed that way because of the environment.”
While technology and business have changed, the foundation for Tarrytown House”™s success was laid 50 years ago ”“ and still remains strong.
“Bob Schwartz said it best when he created this concept back in ”™64. He”™d typically make an opening address to the groups and he”™d say, ”˜Our only wish is that you leave with a better and fuller sense of yourself and your organization than when you came here,”™” Santore said. “Remaining disciplined and focused on that original mantra is what has enabled us to succeed decade after decade.”
