day-to-day operations of business burdensome. He sought refuge from the business world and decided to build a retreat estate. He settled on a location in former Seneca territory in Western New York. The Seneca people were pushed out of the area following the American Revolutionary War, as they had been allies of the defeated British. As a tourist, Letchworth visited the Sehgahunda Valley of the Genesee River in western New York. In 1859 he purchased his first tract of land near Portage Falls. Letchworth hired noted landscape architect William Webster to design the grounds of the estate, and named it Glen Iris. He reportedly spent $500,000 improving the land. In 1906, he bequeathed his estate to New York state with the provision that the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society serve as custodian of the land and allowing himself a life tenancy. It now makes up the heart of Letchworth State Park. Personal life Letchworth died at Glen Iris on December 1, 1910. References Further reading External links Biography of William Pryor Letchworth William Pryor Letchworth The Story of Glen Iris American manufacturing businesspeople 1823 births 1910 deaths People from Brownville, New York American epileptologists 19th-century American philanthropists 19th-century American businesspeople