Wave Hill (28 acres) is a botanical garden in the northwest Bronx, New York City, New York.
The original Wave Hill House was built in 1843 by William Lewis Morris in Greek Revival style, and owned from 1866-1903 by William Henry Appleton , who enlarged the house in 1866-69 and again in 1890. During these years, the house was visited by Thomas Henry Huxley and Charles Darwin. Theodore Roosevelt's family rented Wave Hill during the summers of 1870 and 1871, and Mark Twain leased it from 1901-1903. The house was then purchased in 1903 by George W. Perkins , a partner of J. P. Morgan, along with adjacent property. Perkins performed extensive landscaping on the site, and leased Wave Hill House itself to an eminent zoologist, Bashford Dean . Other famous residents included the conductor Arturo Toscanini (1942-1945) and chief members of the British Delegation to the United Nations (1950-1956). In 1960, the Perkins-Freeman family deeded Wave Hill to the City of New York.
Wave Hill's gardens include:
- Woodland (10 acres of second-growth forest)
- Special Collections, including the Shade Border, Elliptical Garden and Conifer Slope
