Our Culture

On September 17, 1886, railroad magnate Edward Henry Harriman bought at auction the 7,863-acre Peter Parrott family estate for$52,500. By the early nineteen hundreds the Harriman family owned 40,000 acres in the area. Harriman hired Carrere and Hastings, the famous architects of New York Public Library, to design a home (Arden House),which began in 1905 and completed in 1909 solely with American products and American workship. An elegant 100,000 square foot mansion set atop the 1,300-foot-Mount Orama in Harriman, New York, Arden House is located within 40 miles of midtown Manhattan. This unique cultural, historic and environmental asset is surrounded by the 110,000-acre Palisades Interstate Park with breathtaking views, rolling forests and private lakes.

In 1915, Harriman's son, W. Averell Harriman (former New York Governor and Secretary of Commerce of the US), was given the house by his widowed mother, the richest women in the US. After the occupation of US Navy during the World War II, W. Averell Harriman donated the house to Columbia University,In 1950,former President Dwight D.Eisenhower hosted the famous American domestic and foreign policy think-tank conference here. Arden House became a National Historic Landmark in 1966.

Inheriting the rich history of Arden House Since 2011, Upsky Group, an international multifunctional organization covering technology, education,natural conservation, and business, is to extend the merits of Arden House and create another round of brightness of Arden House.

