The Warner House

Constitution Island was purchased by Henry Whiting Warner, an attorney from New York City, after he became interested in it while visiting his brother Thomas, chaplain at West Point from 1823 until 1838. A thick stone wall from a Revolutionary War-era barracks built in 1775 was all that remained there, and Henry used it as the foundation for an eight-room home. After his wife’s death in 1829, Henry Warner, his sister Frances, and his daughters Anna and Susan moved from New York City to the new house in 1836. The house still contains original family possessions, including the Warner sisters’ cradle and Henry’s wedding china. Henry Warner died in 1875. Susan and Anna Warner both became religious writers. In 1875, Susan Warner began a Bible class for West Point cadets every Sunday afternoon in the Cadet Chapel. The cadets considered visits to Constitution Island a privilege and called themselves Miss Warner’s Boys. Workers brought over as many cadets as possible, usually by filling a small sailboat to capacity, and the visitors were given a meal because cadets were not otherwise allowed to leave West Point. Susan Warner wrote The Wide, Wide World in 1850, regarded as one of the first American bestsellers and one of the most circulated novels of its era. Anna Warner wrote well-known children’s Christian songs including Jesus Bids Us Shine and Jesus Loves Me, This I Know. Susan Warner died in 1885. In 1908, Anna Warner gave the property to West Point as a gift of faith, rejecting higher offers so that the land would become part of the West Point Reservation, and Theodore Roosevelt thanked her for what he called a real and patriotic service. Anna Warner died in 1915. Susan and Anna Warner are the only two civilians buried in the military cemetery at West Point. The Constitution Island Association works to maintain the house and gardens so they remain similar to Anna Warner’s Gardening by Myself, another of her bestsellers.

Philipstown, New York · United States