The Lorillard Snuff Mill now known as the Lillian and Amy Goldman Stone Mill, is the oldest existing tobacco manufacturing building in the United States. It was built around 1840 next to the Bronx River to supplement an earlier building of the same function.
The Lorillard firm was founded by Pierre Abraham Lorillard in 1760. His two sons, Peter and George, took over after he was killed during the American Revolutionary War, and they moved the manufacturing portion of the business to this location in the Bronx in 1792. Peter Lorillard III built a forty-five room mansion, stone cottage and stables nearby. The mansion burned in 1923.
The Lorillard company and family left the property in the Bronx in 1870 after relocating their business to Jersey City. The land was purchased by the New York City government in 1884 and was transferred to the New York Botanical Garden in 1915. The Mill was retained by New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and used for storage and shops until 1937 when it too was transferred to the Botanical Garden along with several other small parcels. The Mill was renovated in 1952-54 and a cafe and patio were installed on the lower side facing the Bronx River, and a meeting room was fashioned from the space that once held snuff-grinding equipment. The building is now used for staff offices and a catering facility.
References:The Villa d'Este is a 16th-century villa in Tivoli, near Rome, famous for its terraced hillside Italian Renaissance garden and especially for its profusion of fountains: the extraordinary system contains fifty-one fountains and nymphaeums, 398 spouts, 364 water jets, 64 waterfalls, and 220 basins, fed by 875 meters of canals, channels and cascades, and all working entirely by the force of gravity, without pumps. It is now an Italian state museum, and is listed as a UNESCO world heritage site.
Tivoli had been a popular summer residence since ancient Roman times due to its altitude, cooler temperatures and its proximity to the Villa Hadriana, the summer residence of the Emperor Hadrian I.
The Villa was commissioned by Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este (1509-1572), second son of Alfonso I d'Este, the Duke of Ferrara and grandson of Pope Alexander VI, along with Lucrezia Borgia.