The historic Victoria Home, a former nursing home overlooking the Hudson River in the Village of Ossining that once hosted visiting royalty, is on the market for $3.2 million.
The North Malcolm Street property, listed by Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty, is owned by the Daughters of the British Empire, an American organization of women of British and Commonwealth birth or ancestry, who operated the Victoria Home for more than 90 years.
After purchasing the property in 1928, the non-profit DBE transformed it into a retirement home for British men and women, eventually expanding it into a 49-bed skilled nursing facility until it closed in 2020.
The 4.22-acre parcel contains two connected buildings – a mansion built of wood and a brick building added by the current owner – totaling 49 rooms and 37,143 square feet with 32 parking spaces. Annual taxes on the property, which is located in the Ossining school district, are $45,730.
The property’s zoning permits single or two-family homes, according to the village Planning Department. For it to reopen as a senior living facility, a conditional use approval would be required from the Planning Board. Any other designation (such as multi-family, etc.) would involve a zoning change, requiring approval from the village Board of Trustees.
According to the DBE, Victoria House hosted visits from British royalty over the years, including Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in 1954, Lady Sarah Churchill Audley (daughter of Sir Winston Churchill) in 1970, and Princess Alexandra in 2001.
When purchased by the DBE in 1928, The New York Times described it as featuring 27 rooms, 10 tiled baths, 16 fireplaces, stained glass windows, and a mahogany-paneled library. Many of these elements remain today.
Prior to its use as a nursing home, the property was owned by Gen. Edwin Augustus McAlpin, son of tobacco tycoon and philanthropist David H. McAlpin.
Edwin McAlpin and his wife, the former Annie Brandreth, named the home Hillside. They hosted a lavish 25th wedding anniversary celebration that The New York Times called “one of the most brilliant social functions of the season,” according to the DBE. They chartered a train from Grand Central and hired 75 carriages to transport guests.
McAlpin was an adjutant general of the New York National Guard, president of the American Boy Scouts, ran unsuccessfully for Congress and served as postmaster and trustee in the village, which was then named Sing Sing, according to the Historical Marker Database.
The McAlpins built what was then the largest hotel in the world, Hotel McAlpin at 34th Street and Broadway in Manhattan, which is now Herald Towers condominiums. Edwin McAlpin died in 1917 and is buried in the Dale Cemetery.
