Scarborough Historic District facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Scarborough Historic District
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Woodlea at Sleepy Hollow Country Club
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Map of the Scarborough Historic District
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| Location | U.S. Route 9, Briarcliff Manor, New York |
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| Area | 376 acres (152 ha) |
| Built | 1770 |
| Architect | Multiple; McKim, Mead & White |
| Architectural style | Mid-19th Century Revival, Late Victorian |
| NRHP reference No. | 84003433 |
| Added to NRHP | September 7, 1984 |
The Scarborough Historic District is a special area in Briarcliff Manor, New York. It's like a time capsule, showing how people lived and built things long ago. This district covers about 376 acres (152 hectares) and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. It includes seven important buildings and places that are interesting because of their history and how they were built. These places date from the late 1700s to the early 1900s. Most of them are homes, schools, or churches. You'll see many buildings here in styles like Mid-19th Century Revival and Late Victorian.
Contents
Discovering the Scarborough Historic District
This large district has 26 important buildings, two special sites, and one structure that tell a story. They are connected to three big estates: Beechwood, Rosemont, and Woodlea (now Sleepy Hollow Country Club). The district also includes The Clear View School, two churches (Saint Mary's Episcopal Church and Scarborough Presbyterian Church), and Sparta Cemetery. This cemetery is very old, dating back to before the Revolutionary War! Most of these places look much like they did when they were first recognized as historic. Sadly, Rosemont was taken down in the 1980s.
Many buildings here show off architectural styles from the mid-1800s, like Greek, Gothic, Renaissance, and Neoclassical designs. Their beautiful gardens also show how estates were landscaped around the early 1900s. Many wealthy landowners built these properties between the late 1700s and early 1900s. The area is still mostly rural and open, bordering the Hudson River. It sits between the villages of Ossining and Sleepy Hollow.
Most of the buildings in the district are on large pieces of land. You can see many of them clearly from U.S. Route 9, which was once the old Albany Post Road. Stone and brick walls line Route 9 through the district. This area became a State Register site in August 1984 and a National Register district in September 1984. It also became a local landmark in January 1988.
Grand Homes and Estates
Beechwood Estate
Beechwood is an estate that was built in 1780. It was most famous as the home of Frank A. Vanderlip, who was the president of National City Bank. The mansion has been changed and added to many times. More recently, it was divided into three parts to become condominiums. Beechwood was even used as a filming location for movies like House of Dark Shadows (1970) and Savages (1972).
In the 1890s, Henry Walter Webb made the estate much larger by buying more land. He also updated the mansion, hiring architect R. H. Robertson to double its size. Robertson designed the additions in the Colonial Revival style. This style matched the original neoclassical Federal style but added more fancy details.
Rosemont Mansion
Rosemont, also called Scarborough House or Hillside, was a beautiful Greek Revival mansion built around 1840. This house was close to where Rear Admiral John Lorimer Worden (1818-1897) was born. In 1973, it became the main office for a company called Stein and Day. Sadly, the house was taken down in February 1990. In the late 1990s, five fancy homes were built on the land where it once stood.
Frank Vanderlip also used the mansion as a place for students who boarded at his Scarborough School. Rosemont was right across from Vanderlip's Beechwood estate, at the corner of Route 9 and Scarborough Road.
Sleepy Hollow Country Club (Woodlea)
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The Sleepy Hollow Country Club started in 1911. Its main building was once a grand mansion called Woodlea. This huge 140-room mansion was built in 1895 for Elliott Fitch Shepard and his family. It cost about $2 million back then! The building has Beaux-Arts and Georgian Revival features. It was designed by famous architects McKim, Mead & White and built between 1892 and 1895. In 1910, Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt Shepard sold the estate to Frank A. Vanderlip and William Rockefeller. They turned it into the country club we see today. Famous people like Bill Murray and James Patterson are members there.
Schools and Learning
The Clear View School
The Clear View School building was first built in 1917 by Frank Vanderlip on his Beechwood property. It was called the Scarborough School and was the first Montessori school in the United States. The Montessori method is a special way of teaching that helps children learn by exploring and discovering things on their own.
The Scarborough School closed in 1978. Then, The Clear View School bought the property in 1980 and opened its doors in 1981. Today, it helps 83 students who have mental disorders with a special day treatment program.
Historic Churches
Saint Mary's Episcopal Church
Saint Mary's Episcopal Church is the oldest church in Briarcliff Manor. It was started in 1839 by William Creighton. Its first service was held in a small schoolhouse on Creighton's Beechwood property. The church was officially recognized in 1883 as Saint Mary's Church, Beechwood, and then again in 1945 as Saint Mary's Church of Scarborough.
The church building, made of granite, was built in 1850 by local stonemasons. William Creighton and his son-in-law, Reverend Edward Nathaniel Meade, paid for most of it. Other wealthy neighbors, like US Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry, also helped. The church's design is based on the 14th-century Gothic St. Mary's parish church in Scarborough, England. It's special because it has a complete set of beautiful stained-glass windows by John Bolton.
The church's rectory (the house for the priest) was built in 1931 to honor its first two rectors, Creighton and Meade. Famous people who attended this church included Commodore Matthew Perry, actress Viola Allen, and author Washington Irving. Irving, who wrote "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", even planted the ivy around the church. He got the ivy from Walter Scott's home, Abbotsford. The ivy on the parish house came from the Argonne battlefield after World War I, brought by Narcissa Vanderlip. The Sleepy Hollow Country Club surrounds the church grounds on three sides.
Sadly, Saint Mary's Episcopal Church closed on July 5, 2015, after 175 years. William Rockefeller, who lived nearby, was a regular attendee in his later years.
Scarborough Presbyterian Church
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Scarborough Presbyterian Church is the third-oldest church in Briarcliff Manor. It sits on a 2.75-acre (1.1 hectare) property. The church began when Elliott Fitch Shepard and his wife Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt Shepard bought an old building on the Albany Post Road. In 1892, they made the building bigger and nicer, adding special windows and new floors. It was first used as a church that year.
After Elliott Fitch Shepard passed away in 1893, Margaret gave the current church building and manse (a house for the minister). The church was designed in the Spanish Renaissance style by Augustus Haydel and August D. Shepard. The cornerstone was laid on October 13, 1893. During construction, workers found quicksand, but Shepard insisted they dig 30 feet (9 meters) down to find solid ground for the foundation. Workers from Europe helped build it. The building is made of limestone from Indiana, which was brought by a special railroad track laid just for the delivery. The finished church was dedicated on May 11, 1895, in memory of Elliott Fitch Shepard.
The church is made of pink granite with limestone details and has a tall steeple supported by flying buttresses. Inside, you'll find mosaic tile floors, fancy columns, a special ceiling made of redwood, and beautiful stained-glass windows. The church's organ, built around 1894, has 1,498 pipes and was the first all-electric organ in the world! The church property also has a carriage house, now used for offices, and a parish house, completed in 1908.
From 1929 to 1974, the Scarborough Engine Company, part of the Briarcliff Manor Fire Department, had its first firehouse in the church's garage or barn. This building is even older than the church itself.
Since about 1995, the church has run the Scarborough Presbyterian Children's Center. This is a preschool for all faiths, located in a building next to the church with an outdoor playground. It serves families from Briarcliff Manor and nearby towns.
The church building has been renovated several times, including in 1995 and more fully in 2002, after years of damage from floodwater.
Oldest Cemetery: Sparta Cemetery
Sparta Cemetery, also known as the Presbyterian Burying Ground at Sparta, is a 2-acre (0.8 hectare) cemetery that dates back to 1764. This makes it the oldest cemetery in Westchester County! The Ossining Historical Society has taken care of the cemetery since 1984. As of 1984, it was still owned by the First Presbyterian Church of Ossining. Many of the area's first residents are buried here, including 34 known veterans of the Revolutionary War.
In September 1780, a British ship called HMS Vulture fired a cannonball that hit the gravestone of Abraham Ladew, Jr., who died at age 7 in 1774. The Vulture was on its way to pick up Major John André, a British spy, but he was captured in Tarrytown before he could get to the ship.
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Entrance from Revolutionary Rd.
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The Ledew gravestone was stolen before 2009; a plaque remains to describe the event
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Gravestone of the Leatherman
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Entrance from US Route 9
