Following their marriage in 1896, the Seton’s first home was a large rambling house called Sloat Hall near Tappan, New York, made possible by Grace’s mother Clemenzie Gallatin.
The Setons did not find this home suitable and moved to an apartment in New York City. They rented out Sloat Hall for about a year before selling it. Not long after it was sold, the house was destroyed by fire.
Although they began to acquire homes in the Cos Cob and Greenwich area beginning around 1900, they maintained apartments in New York City as well.
Their first apartment was at 144 Fifth Avenue. This apartment was on an upper floor above a well-known interior design and art gallery, Cottier & Co. As Seton had become well-known, the apartment was featured in several articles. Like Seton’s subsequent homes, it was piled high with books and specimens Seton had collected during his travels.
A very nice studio apartment at the Bryant Park Studios, newly constructed by A.A. Anderson, a Seton friend, European-trained artist, and fellow member of the Camp-Fire Club of America.
Anderson had married an heiress and indulged his interest in art, becoming a noted portrait artist. His portrait of Thomas A. Edison hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.
Anderson’s western home was his Palette Ranch, in the Yellowstone Forest Reserve adjoining Yellowstone National Park. The Palette Ranch would figure in some of Seton’s writing. A real-life bear named Wahb which roamed the Palette Ranch inspired Seton’s book, The Biography of a Grizzly.
The Bryant Park Studios are at 80 West 40th, directly across the street from Bryant Park, which is adjacent to the mammoth New York Public Library.
The building was designed specifically for artists’ studios, and it has attracted many prominent artists over the years, including Fernand Leger, Hubert Vos, Edward Suydam, Haskell Coffin, J.C. Leyendecker, Norman Rockwell, Montagu Marks, and Stella Marks.
Seton was an original tenant in the Bryant Park Studios, maintaining his city home there, even after building his first estate Wyndygoul in Cos Cob, Connecticut. Seton’s daughter, the historical novelist Anya Seton, was born in this building.
Later, the Setons maintained an apartment at 562 Fifth Avenue. Sadly, that building was demolished in 2016.
(from Recreation Magazine 1897)
