Yes, David Abercrombie is a founder of the clothing brand Abercrombie and Fitch and this is his abandoned home.
The History
David Abercrombie's life story and career are quite remarkable but for here we'll only focus on the history of his castle in Ossining, New York. The Castle is named Elda which is an acronym using the first letter of David's four children: Elizabeth, Lucy, David, and Abbott. Construction on Elda begun in 1925 and was completed two short years later in 1927. Tragically after completion, Lucy died in an Ossining factory chemical fire in 1929 and the son David died in 1937 when kicked in the abdomen by a horse in Wyoming.
The castle was constructed primarily from David and his wife's plans and vision and used many local materials including granite and stone taken directly from the 22-acre property. The castle featured 25 rooms, 4 different areas including servant quarters, and has Scottish castle architectural influences possibly due to David Abercrombie's Scottish roots.
The before and now's show the eerie decay and vandalism that's taken place over the many years of inoccupancy.
David Abercrombie passed away in 1937 from rheumatic fever and shortly after Mrs. Abercrombie moved to New Jersey to live with her daughter Elizabeth and Elda was sold soon after in the 1940s. The house was sold to a firm researching paints which seems odd but is what ended up leading to the downfall of the property. The house laid empty many years after WWII and had been destroyed by leftover paint spills and fires. Several restoration attempts going back to 1964 have ultimately failed and to this day remains in an unoccupied vandalized condition.
Exploring the Castle
Entering any part of the property is unadvised and should be noted that entering any part of the remaining building structure is highly ill-advised because of the deteriorated condition.
There are two main entrances to the property, one is a road from Allapartus Rd and the other is from Croton Dam Rd which would be a bit longer of a walk up the driveway. Parking is difficult for both and may require parking away from the entrances themselves.
The entrance on Allapartus Rd has a small black metal gate with a rock in front and from there travel up the cracked and overgrown driveway and you'll reach an old barn or horse stable like structure. It's hard to tell from the overgrowth of vines but it's known that David had Horses and riding trails on the property. From the stable, you can see the castle and the driveway splits at the castle and can be followed almost all the way around the structure to get good viewing angles of the outside.
The castle as seen from the backside from the top roof as pictured above and below.
As haunted as this castle feels there is no true horror that has taken place on the property. There is a lot of architecture and decay to explore inside and if you're completely mad I even saw a set of stairs leading to a dark basement. That was a hard pass for myself however.
History and historic photos above provided by New York Almanack. Check out their website if you're interested in hearing about David Abercrombie and the Castle in much more detail.
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