If Lyndhurst , a National Trust Historic Site in Tarrytown, New York seems familiar to you it’s because it has had its fair share of time on the silver screen. Because the site is less than 25 miles from New York City it has been a popular film and television location with credits including Dark Shadows (the 1970s films), The Gilded Age (the interior of Aurora Fane’s house and the site of the Globe Newspaper and Central Park Scenes), and as the site of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog show which took place at Lyndhurst during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With that in mind it should come as no surprise that Executive Director Howard Zar describes Lyndhurst as a place with “something for everyone.” A gorgeous Gothic Revival mansion (designed by Alexander Jackson Davis) with a beautiful landscape overlooking the Hudson River. Visitors can experience the wonder of a site shaped by three families and their staff: the Pauldings, the Merritts, and the Goulds, and explore the landscape through the various gardens, outbuildings, and trails that surround the home.

The site is also known for its remarkable exhibits, theatrical productions, and events such as its annual holiday market and spring flower show which brings magical floral designs to life within the house, creating a feast for the imagination.

To learn more about what drives his work at Lyndhurst and to hear about the future of the site we asked Zar a few questions.

What first inspired your love of history?

I am not now nor never have I been a historian. I am interested in beauty and its ability to connect us to emotions deep within ourselves, to make us more human and to connect us to each other as human beings.

What's your earliest memory of experiencing a historic site?

When I was four, my parents took us from South Bend, Indiana to Washington, DC on the requisite trip for young school children. I remember being fascinated by the rotunda of the National Gallery of Art with its green marble columns and copy of the Giambologna fountain, something I dreamed about for years. I went to the White House where they debated whether to let me in as Kennedy was giving a press conference and they were worried I might interrupt it. I sat in the cockpit of Lindburg’s Spirit of Saint Louis, as I was the smallest person on the tour in a time when they still did such things.

My parents declined to take us to Mount Vernon as they thought it was a completely uninteresting building and instead they took us to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, where I remember seeing the Faberge collection elaborately displayed, as Virginia was one of the first museums to do this and the lavishness of the display was well-known. In South Bend, many buildings were just “old” not historic and I visited both the Studebaker Mansion (where I performed in summer stock) and the Oliver Mansion, both Romanesque Revival piles but also went to the Mossberg House, a Frank Lloyd Wright house build in the 1940s, owned by friends, as well as the K. C. deRhodes house, which was a Moose Lodge at the time.

When people visit Lyndhurst, what you want them to see, do, and feel while they are there?

Whatever is important to them. Visitors expect to be met where they are, not where we are. So, I need to have a large enough offering where they can find something that interests them. My objective is to make them feel comfortable coming to Lyndhurst, so they will return and discover on their own.

What is your favorite part of your site?

Well, Lyndhurst has its original 67 acres on the Hudson River, 15 buildings and outbuildings and a 10,000 piece collection. So, it is hard to pick just one thing. However, I think the one thing universal to a visit to Lyndhurst is that the minute you drive on the property, your blood pressure goes down because of the beauty, peace and tranquility. It’s hard to believe that you are smack in the middle of one of the most populous parts of the country, what people often call the sixth borough of New York.