Wyndcliffe is the ruin of a historic mansion near Rhinebeck in Dutchess County, New York. The records at the Library of Congress state that the brick mansion was originally named Rhinecliff and constructed in 1853 in the Norman style. The mansion was built for New York City socialite Elizabeth Schermerhorn Jones as a weekend and summer residence. The design is attributed to local architect George Veitch. A master mason, John Byrd, executed the highly varied ornamental brickwork using only rectangular and few molded bricks. The adjacent hamlet to the north of Wyndcliffe was originally platted as "Kipsbergen" ; the hamlet was later renamed as "Rhinecliff" after the Jones-Schemerhorn estate of the same name. Writer Edith Wharton was a frequent childhood visitor. The phrase "keeping up with the Joneses" is thought to originate from the Wyndcliffe estate. In 1886, the mansion and land was sold by the executors of the will of Elizabeth S. Jones to Andrew Finck for $25,000. Wyndcliffe was later known as Linden Hall or Finck Castle, for those subsequent owners. Andrew Finck was a New York City brewer whose son August Finck and grandson August Finck Jr. operated one of the larger breweries in New YorkCity. The mansion passed from Andrew to his grandson August in 1901 and then to another of Andrew's grandsons, Theodore Finck in 1919. Theodore died in the mansion in 1923, identifying his daughterAnna Wolf Finck Rice in his Last Will as his sole devisee. The mansion and 31.8 acres passed to Nissan S. Hanoka, Rebecca hanoka and Mrs. Victori Hazen in 1927 for $100 plus a $5,000 mortgage. In 1934, the property was awarded back to Anna Wolf Rice for $1,117.94 at foreclosure auction, and then passed through several subsequent owners from 1936 onward. The mansion was abandoned sometime around 1950. Originally situated on 80 acres including waterfront access to the Hudson River, the property was eventually reduced to 2.5 acres. Portions of the mansion have collapsed after nearly 70 years of abandonment. In 2003 the mansion was sold and the new owner erected a security fence around the property. However the announced plans to restorethe house never came to fruition. In September 2016 the house was sold for $120,000 at auction. The new buyer filed an application to demolish the remaining structure. Images taken in early 2017 showed that major sections of the second story had collapsed.
