Location: 174 Filors Lane, Stony Point

Owner: Salesian National Shrine of Mary Help of Christians

 

This site is a religious retreat center.

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The first thing you may notice about the Filor House is its street address: while the Historic Homes & Landmarks Tour is celebrating four hundred years of Town of Haverstraw history, this landmark’s address is Stony Point. Interestingly, the house actually lies within the boundaries of West Haverstraw, even though it is served by the Stony Point Post Office.

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Before the Filor House became part of the Marian Shrine in 1945, it was owned by the family of the wealthy stockbroker Walter Herbert Filor. Born on October 14, 1875, in Manhattan to James Filor of France and Fannie Rieck of New York City, Walter married Mabel Thompson in Manhattan on June 28, 1904. Mabel, who was born in Montana, was eight years younger than her husband. Her brothers William Boyce Thompson and Joseph Edward Thompson were also prominent financiers and businessmen at the turn of the twentieth century. (William Boyce Thompson’s Hudson River estate Alder Manor, in Yonkers, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.)

 

Walter and Mabel Filor purchased their 150 acre estate in Rockland County at the end of the nineteenth century and started Greyridge Farm. The present house was constructed in 1917; it is where the couple raised their daughters, Mabel Ann and Margaret Gertrude, and son, James. In addition to the Filor family members, four servants lived at Greyridge Farm in 1920, according to the U.S. Census: a butler and cook from Sweden, a chambermaid from New York, and a nurse from Newfoundland, possibly to help care for the newborn James.

 

As you tour the first floor of the home (the second floor, which is not part of today’s tour, contains private rooms for the Shrine’s resident priests), you may notice that the architectural elements are rather plain. Although they were wealthy, the Filors did not decorate lavishly, in contrast to many of their Edwardian-era peers. They were, however, active in the social life of Manhattan, Tuxedo Park, and Prescott, Arizona, where the family also owned a home.

 

Features of particular note include the wood-frame glass pocket doors, which are original to the home. The house has three fireplaces; they also are rather unadorned, although the mantle in the present dining room is made of marble.

 

Over the years, changes have been made to the rooms. The lovely stained-glass windows, for instance, were added by the Marian Shrine. Also, at the far end of the first floor is the priests’ chapel, which was an open porch when the Filors were in residence. The leaded-glass front door is original to the home, as is the staircase leading to the priests’ second-floor rooms. There is a servants’ staircase near the center hall, which was usual at that time.

 

One of the best features of the Filor House is the view from the back of the house toward the Hudson River. The once verdant fields of Greyridge Farm have given way to a lovely landscape dotted with religious statues and the many buildings associated with today’s busy religious educational and pilgrimage site.