Gilded Age Enthusiasts Can Get a Glimpse of Blairsden This May

Ever since 1974, the storied estates of the Somerset Hills have had their gates thrown open by the Women's Association of Morristown Medical Center for the enjoyment of lovers of architecture and opulence. 

The cost of admission for a rare glimpse into the homes of the denizens of the Gilded Age has been modest, but in the decades since the 'Mansions in May' program began, it's added over $6 million to the hospital's coffers.

In 2014, though, the Women's Association has, by all accounts, outdone itself. The group has captured the fabled Blairsden in Peapack-Gladstone as the site for its biannual tour excursions.

Built in 1903 for railroad mogul C. Ledyard Blair, Blairsden's 62,000 square feet and 38 rooms done up in a Louis XIV style had every modern convenience, the Historical Society of the Somerset Hills says: 19 bathrooms, two elevators, an indoor swimming poor, and along its mile-long driveway, 12 marble busts of Julius Caesar.

Blair lived in the mansion 46 years, until his death in 1946. The estate's 600 acres were subdivied and the mansion sold off to a religious order as a retreat. It exchanged hands a few more times, until it was purchased by T. Eric Galloway, a New York developer, according to the Bernardsville News.

Galloway is allowing Blairsden - who is renovating the mansion, NewJerseyHills.com said - to be open to the public.

The estate will be open the entire month of May for tours running several times a day. Rooms on the first and second floor will be decorated by 40 top interior decorators, the Women's Association said.

Tickets to last year's tour were $30. This year, the tickets will be on sale on Feb. 1. The money raised will go to fund an expanded Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and a new Autism Center at Morristown.

For more information on the tour and tickets, go to the Mansions in May website.