The Rosen House at Caramoor
A Love Story Caramoor was born of great love — the love shared by founders Walter and Lucie Rosen, both for one another and for music and the arts. Walter Rosen was a New York banker and amateur pianist, and Lucie Bigelow Dodge an accomplished musician from a prominent New York family. They met and fell in love at first sight in 1914, and were married six weeks later. In 1928 they bought the Katonah estate, but it was not until 1945, following the death of their only son, Walter, in the Royal Canadian Air Force, that they bequeathed it in his memory, to serve as a center for music and the arts. In 1946 they hosted the first public concert in the Music Room. Today more than 200 performances, events and tours take place on the estate each year.
Photos by Gabe Palacio
A Home for Music and Art At the center of the Caramoor campus is the couple’s former home, the Rosen House. A Mediterranean-style villa that was completed in 1939, it includes entire rooms originally from Italy, France and England, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Rosens traveled widely and collected Eastern and Western fine and decorative art that bridges many centuries from antiquity to the 1900s. The Music Room, the true heart of the House and center for indoor music, holds most of the Renaissance objects in the collection, such as Urbino maiolica earthenware, the intricate Franco-Flemish tapestry “The Holy Family,” works by Andrea Della Robbia, and a painting by Lucas Cranach. Other rare and distinctive art objects, including expertly crafted works from E.F. Caldwell & Co., a Chinese eight-fold carved jade screen, and an impressive Asian collection, fill the 25,000-square foot House. Included among the House’s treasures are complete rooms transported from private
villas and chateaux in Europe. The Burgundian Library is a French 17th-century paneled room with a brilliant blue groin-vaulted ceiling. An exquisite 16th-century painted Spanish ceiling resides in an alcove off the Music Room. The Formal Dining Room features doors thought to have been designed by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1695–1770), made for a Venetian palace, along with turquoise Chinese export wallpaper featuring birds perched in flowering trees. Lucie Rosen’s bedroom contains a carved and gilded bed that belonged to Pope Urban VIII.
The House’s Spanish Courtyard contains gardens and cloisters, as well as differently styled chimneys that give the building its unique silhouette. This distinctive space is “Spanish under the influence of the Italian Renaissance” given the architectural styles reminiscent of 15th-century Italian architect Filippo Brunelleschi.
Today, nearly 15,000 annual visitors come to the Rosen House, including more than 5,000 school-aged children who learn about the House, arts, and culture through Caramoor’s Schools & Kids programs. Portions of the House are also used for private parties, events, concerts, lectures, afternoon teas & tours, and film shoots.
Caramoor Members can enjoy special Members-only events in the House. Contact Membership@caramoor.org or 914.232.5035 x261. To arrange a group tour of the House, please contact us at rosenhouse@caramoor.org or 914.232.5035 x221. Box Office: 914.232.1252 | 149 Girdle Ridge Road, Katonah, NY 10536 Caramoor.org