Designated February 8, 1979
The striking administration building complex of the College of Mount Saint Vincent is dramatically situated on a high hill commanding a sweeping view of the Hudson River and the unspoiled Palisades. Surrounded by a rolling seventy-five acre campus in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, the buildings present a picturesque profile in keeping with their romantic setting. The site was acquired from Edwin Forrest, one of this country’s leading 19th-century actors, by the Sisters of Charity for their New York motherhouse and academy on December 20, 1856. Construction of the first building, designed by Hery Engelbert in the Early Romanesque Revival style, began the following May and took two years to complete.