William Lewis Morris and his wife Mary Elizabeth Babcock acquired land in Riverdale in 1836, and built what we know as Wave Hill House in the early 1840s. ... The internationally known publisher William Henry Appleton bought Wave Hill in 1866. By then, the areas was easily accessible to New York City by rail, and had become a fashionable location for summer houses. The Appletons transformed the house into a Victorian villa, calling it Holbrook Hall. ... Between 1893 and 1911 George W. Perkins acquired several pieces of property in Riverdale, including Wave Hill House in 1903. He and his family settled in Glyndor, leasing Wave Hill House to a number of notable residents, including a young Theodore Roosevelt, Arturo Toscanini, Mark Twain and his family, Queen Mother Elizabeth's visit in 1956 and, of course, Bashford Dean, an unusual scholar, scientist and expert on armor. ...