FALL 2009

INSIDE

Celebrating the Fourth!

Volume IV of

The Bronxville Journal

is hot off the press!

Play Dates.

A grand

Historical Pageant brings

thousands to Bronxville one

hundred years ago.

Home is where the art is.

The Conservancy adds a

beauty to our ever-growing

collection of early Bronxville

artists’ works.

The Host with the Most!

Dick Jenrette greeted

us with a gracious smile

and a glorious glimpse

of his humongous home

on the Hudson.

Wait a minute Mr. Postman!

Village Historian puts her own

stamp on Bronxville history

with a new, first-class book!

Plus more!

Above: former Bronxville resident SenatorTed Kennedy at his 1958

wedding to Joan Bennett at St. Joseph’s Church. Brother and best

man John F. Kennedy can be seen in the background.

A memorial to Senator Kennedy inside.

Masterpiece.

Bronxville, New York

A Publication of

“Ridgecroft,” the site of the Conservancy’s 2009 Fall House Tour

oin us on November 8th as

we visit one of Bronxville’s

oldest estates, “Ridgecroft,” built by

stone quarry owner, Alexander Master-

ton, for his wife, Euphenus, and their

family of eight.

In 1835, Alexander Masterton moved his

family to the classic Greek Revival he

had designed as a summer home. En-

amored of the house and the bucolic

lands surrounding it, Masterton and his

family never returned to their city

dwelling. For the next 150 years, the

house remained in the hands of the

Masterton family who greatly con-

tributed to the development of the

area. Also known as the Masterton -

Dusenberry homestead and a regis-

tered historic landmark, Ridgecroft has

been enhanced in each century to

allow subsequent generations to enjoy

the conveniences of modern living

within the context of a nineteenth-cen-

tury aesthetic.

The Conservancy’s annual meeting and

reception will follow the house tour at

Siwanoy Country Club. The house

opens at 2:45 p.m.; the annual meet-

ing/reception begins at 4:45 p.m.

Members, please let us know you will be

coming! Call Mary Thaler at 779-3081 or

email: events@bronxvillehistoricalcon-

servancy.org.

J

The Chronicle

A2009 Annual House Tour

Celebrating the Fourth!Volume IV of The Bronxville Journal

has arrived, an issue Editor MarilynnHill notes is “especially rich in its di-versity,” with more articles than anyprevious edition.

This journal, which celebrates the10th anniversary of the BHC, wasdelayed one year so the Conser-vancy could publish another 10thanniversary volume, Bronxville

Artists and Friends, the 2008 cata-logue of Bronxville artists’ works.

In elaborating on the rich content ofvolume IV, Hill said that “the focus ofthis issue is not only on how history ismade, but also on the variety ofways in which it is recorded – inpoems, in photographs, and in ourmemories, as well as in the moreconventional historian’s prose.”

She also noted the importance ofthe Journal’s collaborative processin which authors and editors workclosely together to create their fineproduct. The Journal’s talented edi-torial advisory board consists of Carolyn Martin, Associate Editor,and Charling Fagan, Eloise Morgan,Sarah Underhill, Nancy Vittorini, and Jayne Warman.

a

Bronxville’s Indiana Jones: The Remarkable Roy

Chapman Andrews By Eloise L. Morgan

Even when beset by wild dogs, pit vipers, and armed bandits, Roy

Chapman Andrews always kept his cool. Whether or not he was the

genesis of Indiana Jones, his expeditions supplied the world of natural

science with thousands of fossils still studied today.

Centennial Suite By John Barr

This commemorative poem by a prize-winning poet was written in 1998

to celebrate the village centennial and is republished here in recogni-

tion of the Conservancy’s tenth anniversary.

The Spirit of Place

Eighty years elapsed between the work of two vintage photographers

and that of a contmeporary photo-artist, but their images of the village

are remarkably similar.

Twilight of a First Lady: Mrs. Jefferson Davis at the

Hotel Gramatan By Marilynn Wood Hill

Widowed and bereft of all but one of her six children, Varina Howell

Davis, the Confederacy’s only first lady, chose Bronxville’s fashionable

new resort hotel for her last summer’s holiday and created an unusual

memento of her visit.

The Artists of the Curtain By Dale Hanson Walker

Edward Morange and partners Francis and Richard Gates were known

in Bronxville for their paintings of the local countryside, but in New

York they were famous for the exotic realms they brought to life in the

stage sets they created for dozens of Broadway plays.

Election Fever in Bronxville: 1936 By Anne Curtis Fredericks

For one Bronxville resident, the election year of 2008 brought to mind a

time when she and her siblings first realized that their steadfast commu-

nity might not be as unwavering in its collective opinions as their faith

in the adult world had led them to believe.

Rebels in Suburbia: Women’s Liberation Comes to Bronxville

By Marcia Manning Lee

In the 1960s, the national discussion caused by Betty Friedan’s The

Feminine Mystique seemed to have eluded Bronxville, but beneath the

surface pressures were building that by the 1970s brought a lasting

change to village life.

One hundred years ago, on May 29 and 31,1909, agrand historical pageant was held in the village with a castin excess of 400 performers, counting musicians and choralgroups. The actors wore 645 costumes, morethan the number of performers because someactors had more than one role. The two per-formances also called upon two heralds, fourtrumpeters, more than 35 horses, a “fattedcalf” (dragged in from Frank Chambers’ sta-ble on Crows Nest) and 100 soldiers broughtup from Governors Island. More than 2000spectators (including the Governor of theState of New York) lined the DeWitt woodsnorth of Avon Road. Special trains scheduledfrom Grand Central Station brought many ofthem to Bronxville for the largest public event in the history ofthe village until that date.

The pageant, under the direction of Master of thePageant and artistically gifted Violet Oakley (her classic por-traits of William Van Duzer Lawrence and wife Sarah adornWestlands at Sarah Lawrence College), was scripted byrenowned Bronxville writers from the village’s artist colony in-cluding Theodore Jenks and Elizabeth Custer. Sevenepisodes covered principal events in the history of Westch-ester County, starting with the decision of a Dutch tradingcompany in 1614 to underwrite the establishment of a settle-ment in New Netherlands. The pageant continued with anepisode depicting the life and tragic death of AnneHutchinson in 1643, notwithstanding the good offices ofCaptain John Underhill (any relation to the spouse of ourConservancy board member Sarah Underhill?). Then cameepisodes dramatizing the arrival of the Huguenots from LaRochelle, France, the indecisive 1776 Revolutionary War Bat-tle of White Plains and the 1780 breakthrough capture nearTarrytown of Major André, carrying evidence of BenedictArnold’s treason. The last episode was set in Washington Irv-ing’s home, Sunnyside, in 1846 with young America’s intel-lectual leaders, including William Cullen Bryant, Edgar AllenPoe, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Daniel Webster and NathanialHawthorne, as visitors and speakers.

The pageant was performed 300 years followingHenry Hudson’s discovery of the river that was subsequentlynamed after him, but unlike historical pageants celebrating

the discovery held elsewhere in New York in1909, Bronxville’s pageant was not tied to thediscovery and indeed the actors made nomention of it. The pageant was the idea ofWilliam Van Duzer Lawrence who had beendeeply impressed the previous summer by ahistorical pageant he witnessed in Bruges, Bel-gium. The hospital opened in May 1909 andalthough he had supplied the funds for itsconstruction, the hospital was gravely in needof maintenance funds, as we know eventoday. Lawrence’s solution was a fund raising

pageant (admission tickets were sold). The pageant was anextraordinary success, judging by press coverage for monthsafter the event, and widely published historical journals cel-ebrated it as perhaps the finest of its genre. Kate Cham-bers, however, who served on the first hospital board, notedin her Bronxville memoir that “the receipts were eaten up bythe cost of production...,” a conclusion perhaps not unfamil-iar to charitable fund raisers today.

One hundred years ago, William Van Duzer Lawrence -- in a creative inspiration to raise funds for

fledgling Lawrence Hospital -- helped stage an extraordinary Historical Pageant that brought an

audience of thousands to our one square mile. Conservancy Life Chair Bob Riggs, fascinated with

the large-scale production, did the research and tells the story....

By Robert Riggs

Play Dates in History.

The Willows is one of very few paintings that have comeon the market in many years and is a fine example ofAnn Crane’s work. Through the bare branches of twowillow trees on the snow-laden bank of a river are sev-eral buildings, a farm perhaps. The buildings are re-flected in the intense blue water, the trees aresilhouetted in snow and light and the artist unifies thecomposition by adding touches of the pinks and reds ofthe building in the tree branches. Although probably ex-ecuted in the 1920s, the painting has a decidedly mod-ern feel and expresses a distinct vitality that marked AnnCrane’s painting style.

Ann Brainerd Crane was educated in Europe and was astudent of the French academic painter Luc-Olivier Mer-son. On her return from Paris she studied under thenoted American Impressionist John Twachtman, whoseinfluence is clearly evident in her work. She was known inNew York art circles and exhibited regularly at the Na-tional Academy of Design, the MacDowell Club, the So-ciety of Women Painters and Sculptors, as well as at art

galleries such as E & A Milch. She also showed her workat the Philadelphia Academy of Art and in Old Lyme,Connecticut. In Bronxville she organized exhibitions oflocal artists at the Women’s Club and in her own artgallery in The Towers well into the 1930s. Well-knownmasters such Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Gainsborough,George Romney, as well as the leading Americanpainters of the day, were represented in her exhibitions.

Ann Brainerd married the celebrated landscape artistBruce Crane in 1904 and by 1910 listed Bronxville as theiraddress. She remained in Bronxville until her death in1948. The couple summered in Old Lyme, where Brucehad established himself as an important member of thatartist colony. Ann, however, often felt overshadowed byher famous husband and would choose to stay behindduring the week in Bronxville and join him and theirdaughter on weekends in Old Lyme. Both of their chil-dren, A. Bruce and Ann Francis-Marie, were married inApril 1937, five months before their father’s death.

Home is where the art is.The Conservancy continues its quest to bring home

Bronxville artists’ work with the addition of a very

distinctive painting by Ann Brainerd Crane...soon to

join our growing collection in Village Hall.Ann Brainerd Crane (1881-1948), The Willows, oil on canvas,

26 x 24 inches, signed at lower right, titled and signed again

on the stretcher

By Jayne Warman

Winter Sunset, Bruce Crane

Winter Light, Hobart Nichols

Aspens in Color, Sheldon Parsons

Seen at the OSilas!Earlier this fall, the OSilas Gallery at ConcordiaCollege offered a rare treat for all who treasurethe work of Bronxville’s early artists. The DaviesCollection, an exhibit of 19th and early 20thcentury American paintings, included artworkby such former residents as Hobart Nichols,Bruce Crane, Milne Ramsey and SheldonParsons.

Conservancy member Jayne Warman co-cu-rated the show with gallery director Patricia Mi-randa, choosing 80 paintings not only withBronxville artists in mind, but also to spotlight thebroad range of paintings in the Davies collec-tion. Thomas Davies, who is a friend of Conser-vancy members Si and Vicki Ford, shared hispassion for collecting in several talks at thegallery.

The host with the most...

September 27th may not have been the most beautifulday weather-wise. Nevertheless, more than a hundredmembers of the Bronxville Historical Conservancy bravedthe elements on this year’s Hudson River cruise to visitRichard Jenrette’s classical home, “Edgewater.”

Passengers left the dock in Yonkers around 11 a.m.aboard the comfortable, capacious catamaranSeaStreak, and the 2 ½ hour trip north was filled withlaughter, friendship, a bridge game or two and greatchatter. After docking at Kingston and a short bus trip,the group began a breathtaking visit back in history witha walk through Edgewater’s estate -- lush, green lawns,ancient trees, profuse perennial gardens, elegant statu-ary, and incredible views of the Hudson River.

Upon arrival at the residence that was built in 1825,Richard Jenrette greeted each guest at the front door.Once inside, it was a feast for the eyes: fourteen-foot highceilings; tall windows; late Federal-style moldings, medal-lions, mantels and doors; priceless antique furniture in-cluding Duncan Phyfe; beautiful window treatments; andobjets d’art.

The tour also gave the group a glimpse of the guest-house, a Jenrette addition which is beautifully furnishedand totally in keeping architecturally with Edgewater.

The return trip south included a scrumptious dinner high-lighted with conversations about Edgewater and thetreasure that it is. To top off the day, a special cake wasserved in celebration of Henry Hudson’s discovery of theHudson River 400 years ago.

By Robert Scott

...impeccable taste, gracious manner,

generosity and charm.

Richard Jenrette once again opened the doors to

Edgewater, his magnificent home on the Hudson,

to give Conservancy members and guests a

private glimpse of his take-your-breath-away,

perfectly preserved get-away!

A new book on the history of

Bronxville is set for publication this

fall—just in time for Christmas.

Published by the Bronxville Local

History Room, Bronxville Views: The

Past in Picture Postcards, displays

images dating from 1905 through

1981, many in vivid color. The book

opens with a series of postcards

published in 1906 that were in-

spired by a burst of local construc-

tion, including the Hotel Gramatan,

a new school, a new housing de-

velopment and the first village hall.

These cards were printed at the

height of worldwide, early 20th-cen-

tury postcard collecting mania,

during which billions of cards were

produced in this country alone. The book concludes with a

series of colored postcards depicting the mid-1960s village

scene.

Subjects covered in the forthcoming book include the Bronx

River, Bronxville railroad stations, Pondfield Road, apartment

houses and local businesses. Cards dating from 1905 to 1950

illustrate a chapter on the Hotel Gramatan. Still other chap-

ters feature Lawrence Hospital, the village’s five churches,

various village schools, and the original and current village

halls. Images of streetscapes and private homes round out

the 112-page volume. The whole family will enjoy this lav-

ishly-illustrated book filled with engaging glimpses of the way

Bronxville once was.

Bronxville Views was researched and written by Village Histo-

rian Eloise L. Morgan. Liz Folberth, Betsy Harding, Marilynn

Wood Hill and Mary Means Huber volunteered their advice

and copy-editing skills in the production of the book, which

was designed by charlesdaveybooks.

Picture postcards were the email of the early 20th century,

wildly popular at a time when multiple daily mail deliveries

permitted same day correspondence and postcard collect-

ing was a national pastime. Although most pre-World War I

cards were published in Germany,

real photograph postcards were

also popular. Photographers

printed these cards from negatives

directly onto pre-printed postcard

stock, often as contact prints. The

History Room has several dozen

real photograph cards, many of

which are reproduced in the new

book.

All over America, communities

large and small were memorialized

in candid photographs that ap-

peared on postals in the early

1900s. Freelance photographers

and publishers’ representatives

went from town to town capturing

local images. Merchants sold the

resulting postcards as souvenirs. Many of Bronxville’s earliest

postcards were published by three village shops: Chambers

Pharmacy, Frederick S. Steinman’s Pharmacy, and stationer

Thomas J. Lydon. At least 30 other publishers produced

Bronxville cards over the years.

Postcards are grouped into two categories based on their

pictures: “views,” usually of street scenes, buildings or events,

such as those in Bronxville Views, and “topicals,” which fea-

ture specific subjects such as animals or holidays. View post-

cards are a rich source of local history, enjoyed for their

candid real-life images. Bronxville’s Local History Room is for-

tunate to have an extensive collection of “these honest, di-

rect little pictures” that famous photographer and lifelong

postcard collector Walker Evans called “some of the truest

visual records ever made of any period.” Many early

Bronxville cards include electric wires, telegraph poles,

water towers or smokestacks, but, as illustrated in Bronxville

Views, other postcards printed from the same negatives, are

hand retouched to remove these unwanted features.

The book will be available this fall at Womrath Bookshop

and Village Hall for $40. Pre-publication copies may be pur-

chased now for $30. To order prepublication copies, please

contact Eloise Morgan at the Local History Room, 337-7680.

New Village History Book is First-Class

By Eloise Morgan

Based entirely on vintage postcards from the Local History Room archives, this new hardcoverbook is a fascinating record of Bronxville’s past, featuring more than 180 postcards

illustrating a concise, yet surprisingly comprehensive history of the village.

w

In Memoriam

“I associate Bronxville with late autumnand winter. And largeness. Everythingwithin our gates seemed so large backthen -- including my siblings, from my lit-tlest-kid perspective. The three-storywhite house and its surrounding treesappeared to reach into the clouds,”said Edward Kennedy in his memoir,True Compass.

Ted Kennedy lived his first six years inour village in “Crownlands,” a ClassicalRevival-style mansion on a nearly 8-acre estate on Pondfield Road --what is now Crown Circle and Cramp-ton Road.

“Neighborhood children liked to rompinto our yard for games of football andtag, and sledding in the winter.” Thefamily left Bronxville in 1938, but TedKennedy came back 20 years later tomarry his sweetheart, Bronxville residentJoan Bennett.

Edward Kennedy passed away on August 25th at the age of 77. At thetime of his death, he was the secondmost senior member of the Senate,and the third-longest-serving senator inU.S. history.

Pondfield Road was also home to tele-vision personality Ed McMahon, knownfor his “Here’s Johnny!” introductionson The Tonight Show. He lived in thevillage with his family from 1962-1972.

Involved in a number of communityand school activities, McMahon is re-membered as being the chaperone ofthe 1970 high school graduation party.He was also a Bronco fan, cheering onhis son Mike, an all-star running back atBronxville High School.

He died at the age of 86 on June 23rd.

A capacity crowd attended the spring event of the Bronxville Historical Conservancy onSunday afternoon, April 26, at the Pietruski Auditorium of Concordia College. Conser-vancy Board member and award-winning architect Peter Gisolfi (AIA, ASLA) presented alecture on “Finding the Place of Architecture in the Landscape” which is also the title ofhis new book. The program was followed by a wine and cheese reception where mem-bers of the Conservancy and the public were able to meet and speak with Gisolfi abouthis presentation.

Peter Gisolfi’s name should be well known to Bronxville residents. In the recent past, heenlarged the Bronxville elementary school and redesigned its Midland Avenue entrance;successfully doubled the size of the Bronxville Public Library; and was responsible for theextensive renovation of Village Hall. With degrees from Yale and the University of Pennsyl-vania in architecture and architectural landscaping, Gisolfi used these examples as wellas several other projects to illustrate his approach to design, which includes the funda-mental recognition that the most successful architecture will be creatively responsive toits natural and man-made setting. With his engaging style and beautiful photographs, theaudience learned how the various types of landscapes (broken into five categories in-cluding Townscape, Campus, Landscapes and Buildings, Gardens and Houses, andTransformation) shaped his approach to each projects’ challenges.

In the opening remarks for his book, Gisolfi states that, “Architecture, of all the arts, shouldbe the most tied to its place.” His objective “to build something that belongs where it isand belongs to the people who use it” was perfectly illustrated during this special Bronxville Historical Conservancy event.

House &Garden.

The tie that binds.

By Dale Walker n

We say farewell to two famous men who once called Bronxville home -- Ted Kennedy and Ed McMahon.

The Chronicle © Fall 2009

Editor and Designer: Nancy VittoriniContributing Photographers:

Katie Primerano, Allaire Warner & Neely Bower

Submissions welcome!

The Bronxville Historical Conservancy was

founded in 1998 to further the understanding and

appreciation of the history and current life of the

Village of Bronxville, New York.

The Conservancy furthers its mission through the

presentation of programs, publications, lectures and

special events that foster an awareness of the village’s

architectural, artistic and cultural heritage and lends

its support for projects designed to strengthen

and preserve those legacies.

P. O. Box 989Bronxville, NY 10708

...OldNews...

“RIDGECROFT,”

the home of one of

Bronxville’s earliest

families, is the site of the

FALL HOUSE TOUR on NOVEMBER 8th

90 White Plains Road

Doors open for members at 2:45 p.m.

Joe Raposo

Feeling nostalgic or in need of a pick-me-up? Click into myspace music or Youtube and delight in

old videos with such lyrics as “Sing, sing a song…sing of good things, not bad…sing of happy, not

sad”…and other great Sesame Sreet hits by composer and former Bronxville resident Joe Raposo.

A COOKIE MONSTER himself, Raposo was rumored to be an inspiration in the evolution of the

furry blue beast who sings his song, “C is for Cookie.” That’s good enough for me!

Featured in the

Westchester

Historian this

summer,

a SWINGING

picture of the very first

PGA Champion, Jim

Barnes, who made

the winning rounds at

Siwanoy Country Club

in 1916.

Jim Barnes, winner of the first

PGA Championship held at

Siwanoy Country Club.

The HOUSE OF BRICKS that served as a gathering spot for

friends of the Kennedy kids was a “distinctive Colonial Resi-

dence of Tapestry Brick in perfect condition throughout,”

according to this vintage real estate ad.