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    Larchmont
    Larchmont
    Larchmont
    Ebook213 pages1 hour

    Larchmont

    By Judith Doolin Spikes

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    About this ebook

    Larchmont has always been distinguished from other settlements north of New York City by its thirteen acres of public-access shoreline and glaciated coast on Long Island Sound. Settled in the early 1800s, it became a resort community after wealthy New Yorkers began buying up abandoned farmland to create country estates. It rose to international fame on the coattails of the Larchmont Yacht Club.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateNov 24, 2003
    ISBN9781439612033
    Larchmont
    Author

    Judith Doolin Spikes

    Judith Doolin Spikes, researcher and writer, and Anne Marie Leone, photographer, coauthor a weekly series published in the Rivertowns Enterprise. With a majority of the vintage images contributed by the Irvington Public Library, these companion images honor Irvington�s past and present.

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      Book preview

      Larchmont - Judith Doolin Spikes

      consulted.

      INTRODUCTION

      From prehistory to the present day, it is the waterfront that has drawn people to Larchmont. In the spring of 1614, when the Dutch sea captain Adriaen Block sailed through the previously unbreached Hell Gate and along the western shore of Long Island Sound, he saw the fires of a Siwanoy fishing camp in what is now Manor Park. In 1661, the English–West Indian trader John Richbell struck a deal with two Siwanoy chieftains for access to three necks of land along Long Island Sound, apparently intending to establish a smuggler’s roost between Dutch New Amsterdam and English Connecticut. By 1700, a Quaker farmer, Samuel Palmer, held title to the entire Middle Neck, which eventually became Larchmont.

      The salt hay made it possible to pasture cattle without first clearing land and planting. Oysters, clams, and fish thrived in the marshland, and the streams not only provided fresh water without the need for digging a well but also made it possible to travel to the commercial centers in Mamaroneck, New Rochelle, and even across the Sound to Long Island before roads were laid out or ferry service established. The Palmers built a tidal mill on the site of the old Siwanoy fishing weir, where the Premium River empties into Long Island Sound, laying the foundations for a commercial milling industry. James Mott, the next owner of the mill property, built one of the largest flour milling industries on the East Coast after the Revolution.

      At the same time, wealthy residents of New York City began to seek country estates to escape the crowding, heat, immigrants, and recurring epidemics of the city. Salt water and salted air were thought to be especially salubrious. Thus, the era of the country gentleman arrived in Larchmont. The largest such establishment was that of Peter Jay Munro, a nephew of John Jay who was raised in the Jay family.

      The last person to hold this land as a country estate was the shipping magnate Edward Knight Collins. He bought much of Munro’s land at auction in 1845, made extensive renovations to the house, and named his estate Larchmont. In 1860, he commissioned Frederick Law Olmsted—freshly famous for his design of Central Park—to survey his land and draw up a subdivision map. By the end of the Civil War, however, Collins’s shipping empire had collapsed. Larchmont went on the auction block in 1865, advertised as high, undulating and extending nearly a mile into the Sound, with unusual adaptability for building sites.... Those wishing to locate a first class watering place will find a combination of advantages probably not to be found elsewhere in the country.

      Thus, the stage was set for the next step in Larchmont’s evolution. A total of 288 acres of the best land was snapped up by Thompson J.S. Flint, a man with a checkered career who profited greatly during the Civil War. By 1870, he had become president of the Continental Bank and owned a town house on Madison Avenue, described at the time as a palatial mansion. In preparation for his retirement to the country, Flint formed the Larchmont Manor Company in 1873 and began marketing the property as suburban homes for businessmen of moderate incomes—say from $2,500 to $5,000 a year. But city dwellers proved uninterested in making permanent homes in the absence of amenities such as sewers, water mains, graded roads, gas lighting, schools, and the like. A few buyers of the type Flint sought did buy lots and put up summer cottages; somewhat later, several of these cottages were turned into boardinghouses, which attracted a colony of the dramatic profession. With the financial panics of 1873 and 1879, development languished throughout the decade.

      The establishment of the Larchmont Yacht Club in the Elegant Eighties made Larchmont what it became in the Gay Nineties. As the club grew and world-class yachtsmen became members, the budding resort acquired fame and status and the lots began to sell merrily. In 1891, the Manor Company announced its intention to dissolve. By then, almost 1,000 people were living in Larchmont Manor—at least in the summer—and they wanted better streets, fire and police protection, sewers, and street lights. At that time, many of these services could not, by law, be provided by a town form of government, so the cottagers decided to incorporate as a village within the town of Mamaroneck. Three years later, the village of Mamaroneck was incorporated, leaving about six sparsely populated square miles of the town unincorporated. This unincorporated area subsequently acquired a Larchmont postal address and is included in this book.

      Larchmont Village developed rapidly after incorporation, changing in ways its founders did not foresee. The clubby, intimate in-group, which was largely related by ties of blood, marriage, or corporate board membership and who solved problems quietly and settled disputes discretely, dissolved into political parties and neighborhood associations. The early 20th century brought paved roads, streetcars, automobiles, electricity, and faster and cheaper commutation to New York City. Development spread first to the part of the village that lay between the Boston Post Road and the railroad tracks. As the automobile became more common, commuters began buying homes farther from the station, or even drove to work. After World War I, the unincorporated area was rapidly subdivided. Commerce in real estate became Larchmont’s largest industry—its only industry. Only one thing has remained constant from the time of the Siwanoys: the lure of the waterfront.

      WELCOME TO LARCHMONT 10538. Larchmont Village and the unincorporated town of Mamaroneck share a postal address—Larchmont 10538—but have different governing bodies. Their boundaries are marked by portal signs. The Larchmont sign (left) was created c. 1940 by C. Paul Jennewein, a celebrated sculptor who lived in Larchmont for 53 years until his death in 1978. Among Jennewein’s most important works are the large aluminum figures in the Department of Justice Building and two large sculptures flanking the entrance to the Rayburn House Office Building, in Washington, D.C., and the elaborate bronze entrance doors to the British Empire Building in Rockefeller Center in New York City. According to Jennewein’s son, the sculptor chose Neptune as his subject for the Larchmont signs because Larchmont is a waterfront community, and fishing was his favorite pastime. The town of Mamaroneck signs were designed in 1996 by Donald Meeker, a nationally known signage artist who is a current resident of Larchmont. In addition to the heron sign shown here, others feature waterfalls, trees, and bulrushes, emblematic of the many conservation areas within the town.

      One

      FROM PREHISTORY TO LARCHMONT MANOR

      UMBRELLA POINT. In Manor Park near Umbrella Point, one glance shows the

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