Roslyn Harbor's Two Bryant Landmarks Share One Fall Calendar

Roslyn Harbor has two public landmarks, the Nassau County Museum of Art on the hill and Cedarmere by the pond on Bryant Avenue. Most people treat them as separate places. They started out as one property belonging to one man, William Cullen Bryant. From the first Saturday in October through the second weekend of November, their calendars fit together so closely that they work as one season.

On Saturday, October 3, both sites have programs from morning to late afternoon. A month later the museum's Tiffany exhibition closes the weekend after Cedarmere celebrates Bryant's birthday. Taken together, the two schedules cover a full afternoon on the poet's former land.

One Estate, Divided Twice

According to the museum's own history, most of its 145 acres originally belonged to Bryant. He was the longtime editor of the New York Evening Post, as well as a poet, lawyer, conservationist and patron of the arts. He settled at Cedarmere, on Hempstead Harbor, in 1843. The land that is now the museum was his Upland Farm. In 1862 he built a Gothic Revival guesthouse there and named it for his friend, the poet Jerusha Dewey. The Roslyn Landmark Society restored that cottage in 2011.

The split came in two steps. The museum dates the first to 1900, when Lloyd Stephens Bryce bought the Upland Farm and hired Ogden Codman to design the neo-Georgian mansion that now holds the galleries. In 1919, Henry Clay Frick bought Bryce House as a gift for his son and daughter-in-law, Childs and Frances Frick. They renamed it Clayton. Nassau County acquired the estate in 1969, four years after Childs Frick died, and designated it the William Cullen Bryant Nature Preserve.

The Roslyn Landmark Society describes the connection more carefully. It says some of the Clayton acreage had been part of Bryant's Cedar Mere, so not every acre of the preserve traces back to the poet. Either way, the museum and the house next door share a founding owner. They also share a funder. The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation pays for the current Tiffany exhibition, and Long Island Press reported that it has also given grants to the Friends of Cedarmere.

Up the Hill, Tiffany's Final Weeks

"Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artist of the Gilded Age" opened July 25 and closes November 8, 2026. That leaves about five and a half weeks from today. The museum calls it the first time it has shown its full holdings of Tiffany paintings, more than 130 oils and watercolors. The collection came through an anonymous gift that the museum describes as the largest private collection of Tiffany paintings. Tiffany is known mostly for stained glass and lamps. This show focuses on the paintings he made himself early in his career and hangs them alongside his lamps, metalwork and ceramics. One watercolor shows a loggia at Laurelton Hall, the artist's own Long Island estate.

Long Island Press coverage of the show quoted chief curator Franklin Hill Perrell and associate curator Alex Maccaro on how the works were chosen. Most of the talks are scheduled for October. Arlie Sulka speaks on "The Legacy of Louis Comfort Tiffany" on Sunday, October 4 at 3 pm. Perrell gives his own curator's talk the following Sunday, October 11, also at 3 pm. Both talks are free for members, $20 for non-members, $15 for seniors and $10 for students.

On October 17, Terry Cavanagh leads "Tiffany's Flowers: From Garden to Glass," a one-hour special tour starting at 11:30 am. The museum's Louis Comfort Tiffany Gala, a benefit, is listed for Saturday, November 7, 2026, the day before the exhibition closes.

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 11 am to 4:45 pm, with last tickets sold at 4:15 pm. The mansion is closed Mondays. Mansion admission is $15 for adults, $10 for seniors 65 and over, $5 for students with ID and $5 for children under 12. Children under 4 and members get in free.

The Shared Calendar

The overlap between the two sites is clearest when both calendars sit side by side. Dance Visions NY performs at Cedarmere on October 3 and runs a workshop at the museum a week later. A poetry retreat at Cedarmere falls on the same morning as the Tiffany flower tour up the hill.

Family Saturdays also run on October 10, 17 and 31.

Down by the Pond

The Cedarmere half of the calendar exists because a volunteer group rebuilt it. Bryant's great-granddaughter gave the house and seven acres to Nassau County in 1975, and it ran for a time as a museum. Long Island Press reported that during the 2008 financial crisis the museum closed, the artifacts were removed and the house fell into disrepair. The Friends of Cedarmere formed in 2009 and, working with the county and private donors, led the revival. The house exterior was restored in 2013 and the interior in 2014.

The mill is the newest piece. In a June 2025 Long Island Press interview, Friends president Thomas Powell said the 1860s Gothic Revival mill had been fully restored inside and out. The waterwheel turns again and the original machinery works. The Friends' About page still lists the mill as closed for interior restoration, so don't assume you can walk in on any given day. The November 1 birthday listing does include mill demonstrations. Powell also told the paper that the group now gets "maybe 15%" of the county funding it once received, which is why donations come up on nearly every Cedarmere event page.

The October 17 retreat is a full day with poets Christina M. Rau and Stefanie Maura. The $85 fee covers coffee, lunch, workshop materials and a donation to Cedarmere. The November 1 afternoon celebrates Bryant's 232nd birthday with dramatic readings of his poems, nature walks, mill demonstrations and cake. It's free, but the RSVP link hadn't been posted yet. The Friends' site says the grounds are open all year. It lists guided first-floor house tours on Thursdays at 2 pm and 3 pm, though that page carries no date, so confirm before you go. The upper floors hold the offices of nonprofits that lease space from the county, which is why tours stay on the first floor.

"...Go forth, under the open sky, and list to Nature's teachings..." William Cullen Bryant

The Free Part of the Hill

The grounds connect the two sites, and on the museum side they're free every day. The arboretum, trails and sculpture garden are open daily from 9 am to dusk at no charge, including Mondays when the mansion is closed. The preserve has nine marked nature trails covering more than six miles. It also holds more than 40 outdoor works by 30 sculptors, made between 1913 and 2018. Among them are Mark di Suvero's "ONE OKLOCK" from 1968–69, Joel Perlman's "DREADNOUGHT" from 1989, Tom Otterness's "FREE MONEY" from 2001 and Marko Remec's "NYET (WALL TOTEM)" from 2018.

That free access is why the October 3 Autumn Sculpture Stroll works as a starting point. Dr. Einav Dembin, the museum's education director, leads a 90-minute walk through the outdoor collection that ends at 12:30 pm. Cedarmere's "Tuffets & Tricksters" starts at 3 pm. The Friends describe it as a site-specific program of dance, song, spoken word and visual art. With Family Saturdays running at the museum in between, one family can spend the whole day moving from Bryant's former farm down to his former house.

After the Tiffany paintings come down on November 8, the museum switches to a very different decade. "NYC Glam: The 60s – 80s" opens November 21, 2026 and runs through March 7, 2027. It includes works and material connected to Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Halston, Diana Vreeland, Richard Avedon and David Bowie.

Many Roslyn Harbor homes sit on land with its own estate history, and we enjoy helping neighbors learn how their property fits into that story. If you're hosting family this fall and want more ideas near home, or you're wondering how your own lot came to be, Limor Karudo & Elimore Kochavi are always glad to talk. Reach Out.