Barons of Broadway #17
In this seventeenth installment of Barons of Broadway, we explore the final chapter of the Moorings estate at 511 North Broadway during the time Pierre Bernard and the Clarkstown Country Club were in power. In 1924, Anne Vanderbilt acquired the estate for her daughter and later transferred it to Bernard. The Moorings became home to various club members, including the club yacht, the Queen of Spades. After Bernard’s death, his wife, Blanche DeVries (Bernard), a pioneering American yoga instructor, inherited the property and divided it into lots.
The Early Days of the Clarkstown Country Club
To understand the Moorings’ significance in the 20th century, we must first examine the remarkable rise of Pierre Bernard and the Clarkstown Country Club (C.C.C.). Bernard, along with his followers, who were devoted to yoga and health, sought refuge from the bustling life of New York City. In 1918, Blanche DeVries, then secretly married to Bernard, arrived in Nyack for a teaching position at the River Hook School for Women, now the site of the Nyack Field Club
Faced with financial difficulties, DeVries informed Bernard that the 70-acre property was for sale. Enticed by the idea of a secluded estate close to the city, Bernard purchased the property using funds from wealthy donors. This estate included the Nyack Country Club’s clubhouse and tennis courts, the current location of Upper Nyack Elementary School, as well as additional land stretching to Midland Avenue. The club was initially named the Braeburn Country Club.
The sight of women practicing yoga in tights, visible from North Broadway, shocked Nyack residents. A police raid on the “Brick House,” as the clubhouse was called, revealed no illicit activities, gradually easing the community’s concerns about the unconventional yogi school. In 1920, Bernard expanded his holdings by purchasing the Stephen R. Bradley property in South Nyack. The club’s epicenter soon moved to this new location, which became known as the Clarkstown Country Club. The “Brick House” remained a hub for gymnastics, while nearby buildings were converted into artist studios and living quarters for members.
Anne Harriman Vanderbilt (1861-1940)
In 1924, Ida Hilton, a southerner at heart, decided to sell the Moorings and return to Savannah after her husband’s death. Anne Vanderbilt, a significant donor to Bernard and the mother of two of his followers, purchased the Moorings. Born into the wealthy Harriman family, Anne Vanderbilt had a remarkable Gilded Age history.
Anne married three times. Her first husband, sportsman Samuel Stevens Sands, died in a hunting accident, leaving her with two sons. She then married Lewis Morris Rutherford, Jr., with whom she had two daughters, Barbara and Margaret. In 1903, she married William K. Vanderbilt, a grandson of Commodore Vanderbilt. The Vanderbilt family was among the wealthiest in America at the time. Known for her philanthropy, Anne donated $1 million to construct 400 open-air apartments for tuberculosis patients. She also founded the Colony Club, the first women’s social club in New York, and was among the first to live in Sutton Place in Manhattan.
Vanderbilts & Yoga
Concerned about the mental health of her daughters, Anne encouraged them to explore yoga. Her eldest, Margaret Rutherford, a follower of Bernard’s Tantric Order, introduced the family to yoga. Soon, William K. Vanderbilt, his son Harold, Anne, and her younger daughter Barbara all joined the yoga practice. Yoga quickly became a family pastime alongside yachting. Anne also persuaded her socialite friends, including Mrs. Charles Goodrich of the Goodrich tire family, to try yoga, inspired by the positive changes she observed in Margaret, who was secretly in love with Bernard.
By early 1919, Anne Vanderbilt began funding Bernard’s ventures, including an ornate multi-story yoga studio managed by Blanche DeVries. Each room had a unique color scheme, and women’s workout attire transitioned to a form-fitting, one-piece leotard. In 1920, William K. Vanderbilt passed away, leaving Anne an inheritance worth nearly a billion dollars.
The Vanderbilt Daughters in Nyack
Both Margaret and Barbara faced challenges in their first marriages. Margaret married Ogden Mills, who later served as Secretary of the Treasury under Herbert Hoover, while Barbara wed Cyril Hatch, a society dilettante. Both daughters battled depression until Margaret embraced yoga and its teachings. Hoping Barbara would experience similar benefits, Anne encouraged her to join the C.C.C. in Nyack.
Margaret relocated to Nyack, and Barbara soon followed. After their divorces, they both remarried club members: Margaret wed Sir Paul Dukes, a yoga enthusiast and former British spy known as the “man of a hundred faces,” while Barbara, who was pregnant at the time with twins, married Winfield Jesse Nicholls, one of Bernard’s first acolytes going back to 1900.
Anne Vanderbilt Buys the Moorings
In 1924, pleased with Barbara’s improved health, Anne purchased the Moorings for $200,000 as a wedding gift. Paul Dukes supervised renovations, but the newlyweds never lived in the Moorings or together. After giving birth to twins, Barbara suffered a severe mental breakdown.
Disillusioned with the C.C.C., the Vanderbilts began to withdraw. In 1925, Anne gifted the Moorings to Bernard. Barbara moved back in with Anne, while Margaret and Sir Paul left to pursue careers in dance and music, eventually donating their home to Bernard. Margaret and Sir Paul separated in 1927, and Winfield Nichols annulled his marriage to Barbara, returning to the C.C.C. The Vanderbilt-Bernard connection was ultimately severed.
Mooring Residents in the Clarkstown Country Club Years
After 1925, the Moorings became a guest house for prominent C.C.C. members. The club’s 49-foot cruiser, the Queen of Spades, was moored there. Notable residents included Cyril Scott, a British composer, poet, and mystic, and Hamis McLaurin, who wrote The Eastern Philosophy for Western Minds while living there in 1933.
Emma Wertheim, the wife of a wealthy New York City brewer, also lived at the Moorings briefly while constructing Sky Island, a large estate above the C.C.C. in South Nyack. Like Anne Vanderbilt, she was concerned about the health of her two daughters residing at the commune.
Stephen R. Bradley, who sold his Eagle’s Nest home to Bernard in 1920, also stayed at the Moorings for a time. The Bradleys later purchased 16 acres of the old Williamson manor west of the Moorings to build a new estate. Bernard demolished the original Eagle’s Nest to build a new one.
In 1947, a peculiar fire broke out at the North Cottage. Tenants, who maintained a small bird sanctuary, accidentally ignited a fire while burning leaves. The flames spread to a large, two-story octagonal birdhouse perched atop a ten-foot stone column. The Empire Hook and Ladder Company responded but struggled to locate the fire.
Blanche DeVries – Yoga Pioneer
Blanche DeVries, born Dace Shannon, was initially a stage singer who married Alphonse Charlot at age 17. Charlot, a smelting executive in Mexico, was extremely abusive. In 1908, at 21, Dace divorced Charlot, and the accusations she leveled against him made national headlines. Aspiring to a career in singing and dancing, she changed her name to Blanche DeVries.
Around the time of her divorce, she met Pierre Bernard, and they secretly married in 1918, though they only lived together briefly in the 1920s. Together, they opened yoga studios in New York City in 1914—one on Riverside Drive for women and another on Park Avenue for men. Blanche also practiced interior design, decorating the studios and offering yoga teacher training, eventually becoming the matriarch of hatha yoga teachers in America.
DeVries performs yoga poses on the grounds of the Clarkstown Country Club circa early 1930s. Courtesy of the Nyack Library.
Bernard and DeVries eventually grew apart, and she resigned from the C.C.C. in 1941.
DeVries’ Tenure at the Moorings
Bernard passed away in 1955, leaving his estate, valued at $300,000 and additional property worth $700,000, to DeVries. In 1956, the large property in South Nyack was sold to Nyack College and the Nyack School District for a middle school. DeVries moved to the Moorings and spent a year restoring the estate. She continued to teach yoga in Nyack and New York. In 1958, she hosted a C.C.C. reunion at the Moorings. Finally, in 1962, she subdivided the estate, creating separate driveways for the North and South Cottages, and put the houses on the market. DeVries continued to teach yoga in Nyack and New York City until she died at the age of 92.
“She was an absolutely beautiful woman who was the best example of what she taught.”
Viola Wertheim Bernard
The Story Continues
Our story of the Moorings ends here, but the estate’s beautifully situated buildings, lawns, ponds, trees, and waterfront remain a lasting testament to the people who created, expanded, and nurtured it from 1810 to the present day.
Barons of Broadway Series
#1 The Magnificent Saga Of Larchdell
#2 Revisiting Underclyffe–A Lost, Gilded Age Mansion
#3 The Adriance Era At Underclyffe Manor
#4 The Flying Dutchman Lands at Underclyffe Manor
#5 The Saga of Rivercliff”s Storied Residents
#6 The Winding Saga of River Hook
#8 The Legacy of Belle Crest: From Clockmakers to Tennis Champions
#11 The Dynamite Baron- Wilson P. Foss Legacy at Under Elms
#12 Atlas Acres – The Botanist in Under Elms’ Garage
#13 The Baroness of Shadowcliff
#14 The Peace Room at Shadowcliff – The Story of the Fellowship of Reconciliation
#15 The Troubled Legacy of Williamson Manor
#16 The Moorings: A Confederate General & the Cottages
Mike Hays lived in the Nyacks for 38-years. He worked for McGraw-Hill Education in New York City for many years. Hays serves as President of the Historical Society of the Nyacks, and Vice-President of the Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center. Married to Bernie Richey, he enjoys cycling and winters in Florida. You can follow him on Instagram as UpperNyackMike.
Editor’s note: This article is sponsored by Sun River Health. Sun River Health is a network of 43 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) providing primary, dental, pediatric, OB-GYN, and behavioral health care to over 245,000 patients annually.
