By Lesley Topping

Treasures are often found in the most unlikely places. Such is the case with a donation made to the Scarsdale Historical Society in 2020.  In the 1960s, an old family photo album at a flea market caught the eye of hobbyist and collector, Everett Brandt of Saugerties, New York.  He bought the album that contains 24 photographs from the 1890s of the magnificent 500-acre estate owned by Charles and Emily Butler in Scarsdale that became the neighborhood of Fox Meadow.

When Everett Brandt passed, his wife Joan decided to clear some of her husband’s extensive collectables. Instead of tossing the album that had been on Everett’s shelf for over fifty years, the Brandt children googled its connection to Scarsdale and encouraged their mother to contact the Society. Their only clue was title of the book Fox Meadow, as there are no descriptions inside the album.

It remains a mystery as to how the book ended up at the flea market, except to note that Charles Butler was born in Kinderhook, New York, not far from Saugerties and likely had relatives in the area.  Butler was an influential financier, lawyer and philanthropist.  He purchased farmland for his summer home in Scarsdale in 1853 originally to improve the health of his ailing son, Ogden (whose namesake is Ogden Road).  Butler called his estate Fox Meadow, which was the farm’s original name. It was derived from the days when indigenous tribes lived in the Bronx River Valley and foxes, wolves, beavers, deer and other animals were bountiful. When Charles Butler died, his sole heir and daughter, Emily held onto the estate until 1925 making Fox Meadow one of the last areas of Scarsdale to become a neighborhood of private homes. Emily was a progressive thinker and a supporter of Women’s Rights who contributed greatly to the Scarsdale Community.  During her life, she welcomed neighbors to enjoy her property and Fox Meadow became a popular center for events, tennis, skating and nature walks.

You can view the photographs from the album below. Check out our video page to watch the film, Path to a Scarsdale Community: Fox Meadow and the Butler Estate which is about Charles and Emily Butler and the suburbanization of Fox Meadow.