The Glen Iris Inn, William Pryor Letchworth's former home, is located on the top of a cliff overlooking Middle Falls in Letchworth State Park

Letchworth State Park

Letchworth State Park is a New York state park located 35 miles southwest of Rochester and 60 miles southeast of Buffalo in Livingston and Wyoming counties. The park is roughly 17 miles long, covering of land along the Genesee River...

, New York State, USA

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. William Letchworth found the day-to-day operations of business burdensome and so sought refuge from the business world and decided to build a home; he settled on the location while as a tourist gazing at the view in what the Seneca Indians called the Sehgahunda Valley through which the Genesee River

Genesee River

The Genesee River is a North American river flowing northward through the Twin Tiers of Pennsylvania and New York. The river provided the original power for the Rochester area's 19th century mills and still provides hydroelectric power for downtown Rochester....

flowed. In 1859 he purchased his first tract of land near Portage Falls.

Letchworth hired noted landscape architect William Webster to design the grounds of the estate, which Letchworth named Glen Iris after the Greek goddess of rainbows. Webster and some special guests would eventually plant huge varieties of differing trees and flowing bushes throughout the park, including white and red pines, oaks, and dogwoods.

He bequeathed his 1000 acres (4 km²) estate to New York in 1906, which now forms the heart of Letchworth State Park. In 1914 Letchworth's home became a country inn and grew to become the center of a thriving state park.