Scarsdale Historical Society Awards Grant to Friends of Odell House Rochambeau Headquarters

Historic Site in Hartsdale, NY. Played A Key Role in Revolutionary War

The Scarsdale Historical Society (SHS) today announced the award of $7,500 granted to the Friends of the Odell House Rochambeau Headquarters (OHRH) in Hartsdale, N.Y. The grant is a part of SHS’s mission to discover, preserve and disseminate the rich history of Scarsdale and its neighboring communities in Central Westchester.

In 1781, OHRH served as the headquarters for the Comte de Rochambeau and his French Forces during the French American Encampment in Greenburgh, N.Y. It was here that Rochambeau and George Washington made the important decision to march their troops to Yorktown, Virginia, where they jointly defeated the British army and won America’s Independence. Not only is OHRH one of the most important sites of revolutionary history in Westchester County, but it is also a rare example of an 18th-century farmhouse, with its original details intact, that was occupied by one family from 1785 to 1990.

“Friends of OHRH are grateful for the continued support of the Scarsdale Historical Society,” stated Susan Seal, President of the Friends of Odell House Rochambeau Headquarters. This grant will help defray the cost of storing the vast contents of the house representing over 230 years of the life of the house. These antiques and artifacts have been safely removed from the house by the Friends to allow the restoration work to progress. The grant also continues to provide us with an expert to assist us in maintaining our website.”

“With this grant, we are pleased to play a role in making sure the history and legacy of OHRH lives on,” stated Randy Guggenheimer, President of the Scarsdale Historical Society. “OHRH is a community treasure that will educate and inspire the public for generations to come.”

Visit the OHRH website to learn more.

Historical Society Offers Reward for Lost Scarsdale Inquirers

The Scarsdale Historical Society is offering a reward of $50 for each issue of the missing Scarsdale Inquirers listed below for each of the first 10 issues found and if you have an issue you are willing to part with, please email scaref@wlsmail.org to make arrangements.  We are happy to accept either a hard copy or microfiche version of the newspapers. 

The Scarsdale Historical Society has provided grants over the last several years to the Library to preserve and digitize the older issues of the Scarsdale Inquirer. We have completed digitizing the issues between 1901 and 1977 and they are available here. 

The issues of the Scarsdale Inquirer that are missing – and that will qualify for rewards – include those between the following dates:

• July 1, 1907 – Dec. 31, 1907

• January 1, 1908 – Dec. 31, 1908

• January 1, 1910 – Dec. 31, 1910

• January 1, 1911 – Dec. 31, 1911

• January 6, 1918 – Dec. 18, 1918

• January 1, 1919 - June 13, 1919

• July 1, 1919 – November 8, 1919

• October 12, 1961 – Dec. 31, 1961

Documentaries Now on Website

We are thrilled to announce that our two most recent documentaries are now available on our website here.

THE LIFE AND ART OF ANNA RICHARDS BREWSTER is a short (9 minute), poignant film that rediscovers the magnificent work of Anna Richards Brewster (1870-1952), a Scarsdale resident, who in her day was recognized as one of America’s finest Impressionist painters. Her work was widely exhibited in Europe and America, and she painted many familiar stunning landscapes of Scarsdale.

A RIVER RETURNS: A HISTORY OF THE BRONX RIVER is a 40 minute film that provides a historical journey down the Bronx River and a tale of how it was rescued from severe pollution to become a model for restoring natural resources nationwide. The Bronx River may be a small river but it played a large role in shaping the towns and lives of people in Westchester County, including Scarsdale.

These documentaries were professionally produced and directed by Scarsdale native Lesley Topping with Barbara Shay MacDonald, Vice President and Historian of the Scarsdale Historical Society. Ms. Topping is an independent filmmaker, producer and film editor whose work includes dramatic films, documentaries, and television programs. She has edited award-winning films for the Cousteau Society, CBS, PBS, and A&E, and worked on many feature films. She also produces multimedia content for businesses and not for profits.

These films join the two previous documentaries that the Society produced and which are also available for viewing on the website: SCARSDALE IN THE 18TH AND 19TH CENTURIES: FROM HARDSCRABBLE FARMS TO GRACIOUS ESTATES and A TOUR OF THE CUDNER-HYATT HOUSE MUSEUM.

Additional content relating to each of the Society’s films can be found under the Articles tab of the website.

Jordan Copeland Joins the Scarsdale Historical Society Board

Jordan Copeland was recently elected trustee of the Scarsdale Historical Society and serves as the secretary. He attended Brown University, where he met his wife Lisa, and New York University School of Law. He worked as an attorney for eleven years, including ten as a public defender in the Bronx. He then switched careers, and is now in his seventh year as a fifth grade public school teacher in the Bronx. He has researched the history of Clason Point in the Bronx in order to help his students learn about their neighborhood, and often attends tours of the Bronx Historical Society.

Jordan has lived in the Edgewood neighborhood of Scarsdale since 2003. He has researched the history of the Arthur Manor and Edgewood neighborhoods, and gives a yearly tour of those neighborhoods. He is looking forward to helping the Society furthering its educational goals.

Preserving History: Digitization of the Scarsdale Inquirer Continues

We are pleased to continue working with the Scarsdale Public Library to digitize issues of the Scarsdale Inquirer. Our latest grant will allow digitization of the issues from 1954 to 1977. Issues starting in 1901 are already online at news.hrvh.org. Here is the press release about the project:

Preserving History: Digitization of The Scarsdale Inquirer ContinuesScarsdale Historical Society and Scarsdale Public Library in Joint Effort

SCARSDALE, NY (May 5th, 2018)  In 2010 the Scarsdale Historical Society and the Scarsdale Public Library began a joint project to digitize back issues of The Scarsdale Inquirer, Scarsdale’s source for local news since 1901. Grants of over $50,000 given by the Historical Society funded the first two phases of the digitization project, covering the years 1901-1950. Now the Society has committed an additional $37,000 to continue the project through the year 1977. Anybody can access the digitized material at news.hrvh.org, an online resource housing historical newspapers as part of the Hudson River Valley Heritage (HRVH) service. You can also find links to the papers on the websites of the Scarsdale Historical Society and the Scarsdale Public Library. We anticipate full digitization through 1977 within a year.

Re-filming from the original papers and the generation of digital images for the project is being done by Hudson Archival, located in Port Ewen, N.Y. We are happy to continue working with this great local business for this part of the project. Generation of the metadata (METS/ALTO) necessary to put the images onto HRVH is being done by Digital Divide Data (DDD). DDD’s innovative social model enables talent from underserved populations to access professional opportunities and earn lasting higher income, including youth from low-income families in developing countries, as well as military spouses and veterans. 

The digitization of The Scarsdale Inquirer opens our history to students, researchers, and residents. In the past, access to back issues was available at the library in print and microfilm, with limited finding aids created by Scarsdale librarians. The creation of these indexes was very time intensive and did not allow for full text searching. Furthermore there is no index for the years 1958-1979. Once issues are put onto HRVH they are fully searchable and the content can even be found through Google searches.

“We are so grateful to the Scarsdale Historical Society for their continued support for this digitization project. The Scarsdale Inquirer is an important resource for our community and having online access will increase its availability exponentially.”
—Elizabeth Bermel, Scarsdale Library Director

Scarsdale’s 18th and 19th Century Heritage Homes

Scarsdale has a remarkable number of 18th and 19th century homes that have been beautifully restored and preserved through the years. To expand on our documentary film, Scarsdale in the 18th & 19th Centuries: From Hardscrabble Farms to Gracious Estates, we’ve created a new article with photos and information on many of the heritage houses in the film, as well as some additional houses.

The Wayside Cottage is one of Scarsdale’s oldest  houses. The date the cottage was built is unknown, but Caleb Heathcote, the founder of the Manor of Scarsdale, conveyed the land to Edmund Tompkins in 1717.