by Mike Hays Undercliff, or Underclyffe as it was styled in 1885, was an estate house named for its presence near or ‘under’ Hook Mountain. Built for the young, but wealthy Arthur C. Tucker family at the height of the Gilded Age when many Upper Nyack farms became estates, Undercliff was one of the most ornate Victorian houses designed for summer entertaining and leisure. Located at 649 N. Broadway, the 22-room home was equipped with a 65-foot octagonal tower, a kitchen with a stove capable of cooking for 200 people, and modern utilities like steam heat and gas lights with electric starters. The farm, purchased from the Snedeker family, was cultivated with crops and fruit trees, and included barns and large greenhouses on Midland Ave. at the corner with Larchdale Ave. Tucker grew roses for export to NYC. Undercliff became the center of a social whirl that lasted for just one generation, making way for a new house at the beginning of the Roaring Twenties.