New Orleans, in 1844. The Chittenden family owned the land until 1871. Part of the estate was sold in 1855 to August C. Richards, who built a Gothic-style stone castle called "Woodcliff", designed by Alexander Jackson Davis. Woodcliff was subsequently used as a summer home by General Daniel Butterfield, Boss Tweed, Alexander Turney Stewart, and William Libbey, whereupon it became known as "Libby Castle". Another portion of the Chittenden site was developed by William C. Muschenheim, later an operator of the Hotel Astor, who built an estate called "Fort Tryon Terrace". In contrast with the elaborate estates at the top of Fort Tryon, the plateau to the east was known as "Poverty Hollow" by 1851. Between 1901 and 1905, C. K. G. Billings combined Chittenden's, Muschenheim's, and Libbey's properties into a single estate. On the site, he built "Tryon Hall", a Châteauesque-style mansion with a swimming pool, horse stables, a formal garden, pergolas, and a winding driveway leading from Riverside Drive. The mansion also contained boat docks on the Hudson River and a garage to house his collection of 13 automobiles. Billings lived at Tryon Hall until 1915. Immediately to the north were Abbey Inn, a summer residence built on land that Willam Henry Hays had purchased in 1842, and another estate that Walter S. Sheafer, the state geologist of Pennsylvania, had bought in 1891. Acquisition and planning The philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. had held an interest in Fort Tryon since childhood, when he and his father had taken walks in Fort Tryon. In January 1917, Rockefeller anonymously purchased the that collectively comprised the Hays and Sheafer tracts, Shortly afterward, a New York Times article publicized the sale, and Rockefeller acquired the Billings estate for $35,000 an acre. In June 1917, Rockefeller announced that Fort Tryon Park would be given to the city on the conditions that it be joined to the existing Fort Washington and Riverside Parks, and that the city maintain the park. To preserve the views from Fort Tryon Park, Rockefeller had purchased land on the opposite side of the Hudson to keep it from being developed; this was donated to the Palisades Interstate Park. Under Rockefeller's proposal, the park would be deeded to the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, which operated the Palisades Interstate Park in New Jersey. Rockefeller also planned to run a ferry service across the Hudson River between Fort Tryon and the Palisades