Cocktails * Dinner * Dancing * Silent Auction

The Larchmont Historical Society and its Fire History Committee invite you to the hottest event of the coming season:

• The Roaring ’20s Firemen’s Ball
• Saturday, October 30, 2010
• 6:30pm – 11:00pm
• The Larchmont Yacht Club

This sizzling event is to benefit the restoration of Larchmont’s vintage 1922 Engine One, an important piece of our nation’s fire history.

In the spirit of the Halloween Weekend … ’20s costumes are welcome!

LHS Members- $75 Non-Members- $95 (includes 1-year membership)

In the early 1900s, Larchmont’s Fire Department was known as the “Fire Department of Millionaires” and their social events were the envy of fire departments across the nation. On October 30th, the Larchmont Historical Society invites you to join us – 1920′s costumes are welcome  – in celebrating the 1920s in the style of the “Fire Department of Millionaires.”

The proceeds from the event will support the restoration of Engine One – Larchmont’s 1922 fire engine.

The Ball will take place at the Larchmont Yacht Club. We’ll begin by serving the “Manor Moonshiner” in the speakeasy bar – but remember you’ll need your password to get in. If you prefer wine, beer or other liquid refreshments, we will have a smuggled supply available.

• Purchase a member-price ticket online – $75 per person.
• Purchase a non-member price ticket online – $95 per person.
• Purchase a member-price ticket with a LHS membership – $95 per person.

The event will include 1920s music and dancing and dining in the high style to which the fire department members were then accustomed.

In 1922, Larchmont was fund-raising for Engine One which was going to cost the Village $10,000. In the spirit of the occasion, we will also be fund-raising to support the restoration of the very same Engine One.

Save the date – October 30th – and we’ll be announcing more details in the coming weeks.

Each year, the Larchmont Historical Society’s Board of Trustees, members and interested residents are invited to attend an open meeting to review and acknowledge the accomplishments of the LHS over the last year. It is also a time where we say farewell to retiring board members and welcome new ones. The LHS is truly blessed to have the support of so many talented, accomplished and committed board members.

President Colette Rodbell kicked off the annual meeting with a “State of Society” address which gave highlights of the many programs and events over the last year. Colette also gave a moving and heartfelt farewell to retiring board members Manuel Delgado, Lauren Gottfried, Peggy Kahn, Kate Kelly, Melissa Schoen and Roberta Warren. Their “big shoes” will be hard to fill and we will miss all their energy, talents and support. Kate Kelly donated all rights and proceeds of her book “The Great Marble Match” to LHS. In special thanks, a donor’s plaque will be placed at the Larchmont Library to acknowledge Kate’s generous gift.

Each officer and committee member then provided updates of his or her individual committee’s past accomplishments and future aspirations. There was a lot to review, starting with the
fabulous house tour and moving on to our Oral History Project, Membership Initiatives, Programs, Storefront Signage, the Fire Truck Restoration, Walking Tours and the Archives. We all enjoyed lots of laughter and a positive sense of accomplishment reviewing what this group has achieved over the last year.

Known more for our conviviality than formality, we then proceeded to learn the proper protocol of nominating and confirming new and re-elected officers and board members: I believe we all now can say “all in favor-say AYE!!” The following “official” confirmations were announced, confirmed and “Ayed”: Nancy White as First Vice President, Membership, for the term 2010-2012; re-election of second term board members: Colette Rodbell, President, Patricia Roberts, Second Vice President, Programs and Jim Sweeney, Treasurer. Margi Gristina was also reelected to the board for the term 2010-2013.

Drum roll please…. the newly formed and official 2010 Nominating Committee of Laura Hoffman, Nancy White and Pier Witek then introduced the following new and returning board members: Beth Belisle, Ned Benton, Susan Emery, Jim Fleming, Monica Foster, Rick Lefever and Katherine Ann Samon. Both Susan Emery and Ned Benton had taken a year off (not really, their fingerprints are all over many undertakings of the last year). Rick Lefever, an architect specializing in historic preservation became a new “pillar” of our society by rescuing and securing an errant poster being showcased for display in empty storefronts. Beth Belisle’s skill and contributions were already apparent with her help this year with the House Tour.

We also welcomed Jim Fleming (unfortunately not present) as an architectural historian, Monica Foster, an antique rug specialist who also brings much creative talents as a film producer and writer and Katherine Ann Samon a published author, writer and trendspotter. Wow, we are again so lucky to attract the interest and devotion of such incredible talent. Lots of “all in favors” and ayes in unison ended this years 2010 Annual Board Meeting at 8:20 pm.

We all look forward to another productive and exciting year in fulfilling the Larchmont Historical Society’s Mission which is: “to discover, preserve and disseminate information concerning the natural, social and civic history of Larchmont and to promote the preservation of historical sites and structures”. Many thanks one and all for being such a fun and “can do” group!

Joe Vandernoot at his front door at 27 Walnut Ave.

A few months ago I got an email from longtime Larchmont resident Frank Cox. He said that he and his wife Mary wanted to surprise her father, Joseph Vandernoot, for Christmas with a Century Homes Club plaque for his over 100 year old house at 27 Walnut Avenue.  Inspired we were to be the elves to their collective Santa Claus, we delved into our files to research the background of the house.

Well, long story – more than 100 years! – short, as it were, we determined that a Capt. Van Ness had had the house built in 1896, I believe as a rental property primarily – but never mind that for a moment.  Let’s talk about the real centenarian –not the house, but the current (and, for the past 66 years) owner, Joseph F.Vandernoot.

Bricks and mortar, shingle and nails – they just sit there and look pretty. This 101 year old  flesh and blood man-about-town (literally and figuratively!) is our real story here, well worth at least a quick review in these pages. Searching the archives, I’ve culled the following facts from recent coverage in local publications such as the Larchmont Gazette, Reflections, St. Augustine’s newsletter and A Catholic Life newspaper

Born in the Bronx, Joe left school early and went to work to help support his family. Working his way up the ladder, step by step, he became a bond trader in Manhattan, and later a vice president with the company where he worked for 45 years. He and his wife of 74 years, Alice, who died in 2006, moved to Larchmont to the aforementioned 27 Walnut Avenue, with their growing family in 1943..

Yada, yada, yada…. (They went on to have a total of 7 kids, 22 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren…..) as reported in the Larchmont Gazette, “By 1967 he was chair of the Larchmont Republican Committee and by 1969 he was serving on the Mamaroneck Town Council – appointed first to fill a vacancy and then elected in 1970 and 1974. In 1976, he was elected Supervisor… and then was re-elected in 1978 and stepped down at the end of 1979.”  Whew!

During his tenure on the Town Board, what were some of the issues at hand?  Let’s see… flood control, expanding the playing fields, developing ideas to keep kids away from drugs, ideas for sharing services between the Town of Mamaroneck  and the Village of Larchmont…. Gee, plus ça  change, plus c’est la même chose, huh? Or, what goes around, comes around.

But Joe Vandernoot, not content to rest on a bed of laurel, continued to assume major leadership roles in the community – in the Manor Park Society, Friends of the Reservoir and the Westchester Association of Retired Citizens.

As I said, these are some of the facts culled from the archive.  I should note that he’s also described in these sources as “a decent, honest man who tried to help a lot of people”; “known for his friendliness and good cheer”; “known for his sense of humor” ; “a man of honor, humility and integrity” and “always a gentleman.”  Perhaps many of you, dear Readers, can attest to these assertions.

Last, but in no way least, as a daily communicant, Joe has been an active participant at St. Augustine’s Church, serving as frequent server and lector.  In the parish he was a trustee, president of the men’s club and parish council, and a founding member of the local Knights of Columbus.

My friend Lu Doyle, a co-congregant with Joe at St. Augustine’s and an admirer, described him to me as The Oldest Living Altar Server in the World. On consulting Guiness (the book of world records, not the beer) I’ve found nothing to contradict that claim, and so I record it faithfully in the archives of the Larchmont Historical Society under “Vandernoot, J” with a cross reference to “27 Walnut Avenue”.

Bill will inform us about the history of German regional ornament making and discuss the care, workmanship and imagination that has gone into producing these wonderful creations, explaining why he is drawn to them.

This lecture and tour is open to Larchmont Historical Society members only, but anyone can become a member at any time through this website by clicking on “Join or Renew Membership” across the top of this page.

A Joint Presentation of the LHS and the University Club of Larchmont

Thursday, October 22nd

Phyllis McGinley:  the “Poet Laureate” of the Suburbs

presented by Dr. Joanna Gill, University of Exeter in the UK  Larchmont Yacht Club

$40.00     6:30 cocktails; 7:30 dinner, dessert and coffee; cash bar

For further information, call Patti Roberts 833-9080

On Thursday, October 22, the Larchmont Historical Society (LHS) together with the University Club will host a fascinating evening featuring a talk entitled Phyllis McGinley: the Poet Laureate of the Suburbs, presented by Dr. Joanna Gill, Lecturer in Twentieth-Century Literature at the University of Exeter, UK.  The event will be held at the Larchmont Yacht Club and include cocktails and dinner (see box below for ticket information).

In this talk Dr. Gill will discuss the life and work of Larchmont poet and essayist Phyllis McGinley, who in her mid-century heyday was one of the most celebrated figures in American letters. McGinley won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 for her selected poems Times Three (60,000 copies in hardback sold). Her book Sixpence in her Shoe, published in 1964, was devoted to ‘the glory of housewifery’ and it enjoyed six months on the New York Times bestseller list.

According to Dr. Gill, the talk will take guests from McGinley’s upbringing in rural Oregon and Utah to her life in Larchmont as wife and mother (McGinley and her family lived at 12 Hazel Lane, a home featured on the 2007 LHS House Tour.)  Dr. Gill will examine the emergence of McGinley’s poetic voice in the context of changing mid-century attitudes towards the suburbs and in relation to new trends in American poetry. More importantly, according to Jo Gill, “this talk will consider the significance to McGinley’s development of a distinctive poetic style of her everyday experience as a suburban wife and mother.” By examining particular poems in detail Dr. Gill will trace the influence of Larchmont life on her writing. “ By drawing on unpublished material from the McGinley archive at Syracuse University, I reveal the importance of the people, places and rituals of Larchmont to McGinley’s success—an importance which, sadly, became all-to-apparent to her when she briefly left the village for a new home in Connecticut.”

Gossip, success, husbands, fathers, privacy, children, vanity, cocktail clatter, seasons, sexual equality—it all ends up on the backyard barbeque in McGinley’s  upbeat, witty, yet sometimes unnerving, rendering of the suburban landscape.  This is an evening not to be missed.

About Dr. Joanna Gill: Dr. Jo Gill is Lecturer in 20th Century Literature at the University of Exeter, UK. She has three children. She is the author of Anne Sexton’s Confessional Poetics (University Press of Florida 2007), of Women’s Poetry (Columbia University Press 2007), and of The Cambridge Introduction to Sylvia Plath (Cambridge University Press 2008). She is currently writing a book—from which this talk is drawn—entitled The Poetics of the American Suburbs.

In celebration of oysters past, the Oyster Festival at Five Islands Park will take place in New Rochelle on September 25-27. But the shellfish will come from oyster beds far from Larchmont’s Manor Park and the surrounding coastal waters that once teemed with “safe-and-delicious” seafood.

What happened to Larchmont’s oysters? Over 100 years ago local oystermen and polluters waged a sometimes violent war on the Long Island Sound. Who won? Who is winning now?

An oyster boat passes by Manor Park in the late 1800s. (Photo courtesy of the Larchmont Historical Society)

Oysters Thrived in Local Waters

Attendees at the Oyster Festival at Five Islands Park will be able to look out over a large part of the western Long Island Sound. In the 1880s, these waters were a prime site for oyster harvesting, an industry that employed more than 100 families in Pelham, New Rochelle, Mamaroneck and Rye. City Island’s fleet of 45 sloops, 25 floats and 100 skiffs replenished a large steamer that transported the oysters to New York City. While natural oysters could be found in the bays and sheltered nooks, large commercial seed-beds were cultivated off-shore – including off the shore of New Rochelle and Mamaroneck. (Ingersoll, p. 88-89)

But by the 1870s and 1880s, experts and advocates were already warning that the Sound was being poisoned and polluted and that the oyster industry and local way of life was at risk. The Town of Mamaroneck, including a new housing development called Larchmont Manor, was ground zero for much of the controversy.

New York Garbage Dumped on the Oyster Beds

In the spring of 1886, two oystermen from Port Washington, Captain William Mackey and Garret Rothar, were working the oyster beds off of New Rochelle and Mamaroneck on their sloop. Belching smoke and clatter announced the arrival of a New York City Sanitation tugboat, pulling two large scows of ash, dirt and garbage. Shifting the clanking steam engine into neutral, the sanitation workers started dumping their cargo into the Sound. Some of the trash floated to the surface, and the rest descended to the oyster beds below.

New York City garbage scows depositing refuse (Photo from the NYC Public Library)

The two oystermen, angry and frustrated at repeated despoilings of the oyster beds, rowed their dingy though the garbage, reached the tugboat, and confronted the sanitation workers who, after a surly exchange, produced a permit which purported to authorize the dumping in front of Mamaroneck, Larchmont and New Rochelle. Rowing back to their sloop, through the greasy slime and stinking refuse drifting toward the shore, Captain Mackey and Mr. Rothar must have wondered whether the Long Island Sound – the basis of much local recreation and their own employment – could be saved.

The New York Times reported on a series of dumping incidents. “Vast quantities of garbage and other light refuse floated and were thrown by the tide on the shore of Larchmont and New Rochelle. From time to time oystermen working in their boats saw the process of dumping and protested vehemently against it, but without avail, the crews upon the tugs and scows replying to them with insult or at best impudently claiming, by virtue of a permit from somebody, the right to perpetrate the outrage. The damage done to the oyster interests in the Sound by this means has been estimated at many thousands of dollars and was rapidly increasing, not only as a consequence of dumping, but by the spreading of the foul matter already dumped.“ (Read the 1886 NY Times news article: Spoiling the Oyster Beds.)

Mackey and Rothar Call on the State Oyster Protector

But Captain Mackey and Mr. Rothar had a plan. A new state law had just been passed, in May 1886, making it illegal to deposit industrial sludge, cinders, ashes, waste or garbage into the Long Island Sound. To enforce the law, the governor was authorized to appoint a “State Oyster Protector” and selected an old oyster planter and railroad worker named Joseph W. Mersereau.

The two oystermen contacted Mr. Mersereau, who immediately came up to New Rochelle, got the sheriff and the district attorney involved, and had a warrant issued for the arrest of the boat’s captain and three sanitation workers. Within a week they were arrested, made bond, and were brought before Justice J.W. Steves in New Rochelle. The two oystermen complained that the dumping had been going on for quite a while and that the amount involved was “at least 2,400 cartloads of material per diem.”

The trial took place later that year, and the captain and his three workers pleaded guilty and paid fines of $50 each. (Read the NY Times article about the trial: Tugboat Captains Fined for Dumping Garbage on the Beds.) But the story, as is usually the case when protecting the environment is involved, doesn’t end here.

Industrial Pollution & Sewage Discharge Into the Sound

Each generation faces its own challenges to preserve the quality of the Sound. In the latter half of the 1800s, the challenge came from urbanization and its byproduct, pollution. In 1858, less than 25% of New York City’s streets were sewered, and waste seeped into the water table, infecting wells and spreading disease. (Andersen, p.78) The remedy, however, was to construct sewer lines, so that the waste could be discharged directly, untreated, into the Sound.

Industrial pollution was another problem. In Connecticut, the area around New Haven became known as the “Brass Valley” because of the many metal working plans that discharged industrial wastes into the Naugatuck and Houseatonic Rivers and eventually into the Sound. (Anderson, pp. 72, 73)

The State Fish Commissioner Inspects Newtown Creek

Soon after the dumping incident off Larchmont, the State fish commissioner and several other officials rowed up Newtown Creek, which empties into the East River at the border between Brooklyn and Queens, approximately where the Midtown Tunnel is today. After the inspection, he reported to the press. “To adequately describe the results of the deposits of sludge acid, coal tar and other poisonous substances from the various chemical works and bone and fat rendering establishments is beyond my ability. It is simply frightful.” He explained that he had to burn the clothing he wore for the inspection.

He had gathered seventeen samples of the water along the way, and to drive his point home, he offered to a reporter for the Brooklyn Eagle the opportunity to smell a sample. “The odor emitted was something beyond conception,” the reporter wrote. (Brooklyn Eagle, 7/14/1886, p. 4)

The commissioner vowed to prosecute the companies involved, invoking new federal and state laws against pollution. “The only defense they make is that to remove the waste from their factories would entail additional expense.” (Brooklyn Eagle, 7/14/1886, p. 4)

Not in My Back Yard…

There was, however, another problem. Abatement of Newtown Creek had been ordered several times, including an order by the governor five years before, in 1881. Ambivalence about implementing the order culminated in a cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper’s Weekly.

An 1881 illustration by Thomas Nast presents the poisonous odors of Newton Creek experienced from across the river in Manhattan.

An 1881 illustration by Thomas Nast presents the poisonous odors of Newton Creek experienced from across the river in Manhattan.

In 1888, a bill was introduced by a Brooklyn Assemblyman to make it “lawful to deposit dredgings, stone, earth, mud, ashes and refuse in deep water on Long Island Sound at a place designated by the Shore Inspector, not less than 20 miles from the Battery of New York.” (Read the New York Times article Haggerty’s Dumping Bill – It Provides for Cultivation – of the Dollar.) The effect of this law would be to fully legalize the very dumping that the two oystermen – Mr. Mackey and Mr. Rothar – had witnessed in 1886.

The Larchmont Manor Company and the Larchmont Yacht Club immediately joined forces in opposition to the bill. Members suspected a connection with efforts to clean up Newtown Creek.

Vigilante Justice – and 20 Dead Dogs Wash Up at Manor Park

The conflicts played out in the courts, the legislature and the news media, as well as on the Sound itself, where the oystermen formed a vigilante committee, laying in wait for the sanitation workers, providing rough justice to each worker before reporting them to the authorities.

The sanitation companies retaliated in their own ways. President Charles Murray of the Larchmont Manor Company soon reported discovering 20 dead dogs in the water off Larchmont Manor. The Manor Company advertised Larchmont’s “attractive panorama of land and water” with “picturesque coves and inlets” rife with “delicious clams and nice oysters.” (Read the New York Times Article A New Suburb – A Domestic Problem Solved – Larchmont Manor and its Prospects.)

The New York times reported, “One of the landowners said yesterday that in some quarters credence as been given to a rumor to the effect that the bill has been brought forward in the interests of jobbers, whose purpose was to compel the wealthy residents along the Sound to pay a large sum through fear of having their property damaged with a dumping ground just off their water fronts.” (Read the New York Times article To Keep the Waters Pure – Protesting Against Dumping in Long Island Sound.)

Could the Larchmont Manor Company continue to market its land if Larchmont Manor Park adjoined a regional waste dump?

The Town of Mamaroneck Takes a Stand

When threatened by big-box stores, airline noise or any other assault on the local and regional environment, modern-day Larchmont and Mamaroneck residents come together at public hearings to protest and to organize a response. So it was in 1888. On March 7th, the Town of Mamaroneck held a public hearing. After hearing from representatives of the Larchmont Manor Company and the Larchmont Yacht Club, the Town Council passed the following resolution:

• Resolved, That the proposed bill, if enacted into a law, would do the greatest injury to the people of Westchester County who live on the shores of Long Island Sound, and we protest against it as an outrage upon our rights and interests.
• Resolved, that the dumping of refuse from New York into the waters of the Sound would not only render life along the Sound uncomfortable, but would destroy the numerous oyster beds that are now planted along the shores.
• Resolved, That the Senators and Representatives for Westchester, Queens and Suffolk Counties be earnestly requested to oppose this mischievious bill by all the means in their power.
• Resolved, That Mr. W.H. Campbell be appointed a committee to present the above resolutions to the proper committee in Albany.

The Demise of the Oystering Industry

Local efforts to “save the Sound” appear to have been in vain. By the end of the 19th century, most of the oyster beds on the western end of Long Island Sound had been so polluted that oysters failed to survive or were too poisoned to eat.

In 1896, the State fish commissioner reported: “I would not care to eat any of the Long Island oysters at present. The immense amount of refuse matter dumped into the sound every year makes it impossible to keep the water circulating through clean and pure. This condition is worse in the upper part of the Sound where hundreds of tons of rubbish and refuse is deposited in the waters every year. As a result the bottom of the Sound is covered with foreign material, and the feeding grounds of the oyster are made a regular dump heap.” (Brooklyn Eagle, May 26, 1896, P. 3)

Can the Oysters Rebound?

While oyster harvesting ceased on the western end of Long Island Sound, oystering continued further east. The Long Island Sound Study reported in 2001, “Today, after a long period of decline, the Sound’s oyster industry is once again one of the largest in the nation. The Sound’s oysters are marketed throughout the country, and their high quality commands a premium price. The oyster is, by far, the most economically important shellfish harvested from Long Island Sound. The volume of oyster and other shellfish harvests is indicative, in part, of improved water quality and successful oyster culture practices.”

To the east, only 25 miles from Larchmont, Norwalk is considered Connecticut’s Oyster Capital based on weight of catch.

To the west, oysters are now reappearing in locations such as the Bronx River where it flows into the East River. The NY/NJ Baykeeper Oyster Restoration Program is restoring oysters to the waters around New York City. Liberty Island, known as “Oyster Island” before the Statue of Liberty was installed there, was an early site of a program that has now spread to places like the infamous Gowanus Canal.

Can Larchmont’s shores once again be abundant with edible clams and oysters? Can the Long Island Sound described by the Larchmont Manor Company in 1872 be recaptured?

According to Mamaroneck Town Council Member Nancy Seligson, who also serves as the co-chair of the Citizens Advisory Committee of the Long Island Sound Study, we can get part of the way by implementing the plans that are in place. These include the improvement of sewage treatment facilities, restoration of wetlands, improved management of non-point sources of pollution such as roadway run-off, and repair of storm water and sanitary sewer systems so they do not leak and overload the water treatment plants.

However, that won’t get us all the way. Restoring the oyster beds will require working with professionals and volunteers to re-establish the oyster beds where they used to flourish. The benefits of oyster restoration could be remarkable. An adult oyster can filter as much as 50 gallons of water a day, and oysters improve water quality wherever they flourish.

“Restoring the beds is one of the goals of the Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan,” said Ms. Seligson. “But that’s proving much more difficult than was originally thought in 1994, when the plan was originally signed.”

She is hopeful, though. “They opened one new bed in Greenwich a few years ago. It would be just wonderful for our area to be able to harvest shellfish from the Sound.”

This article is co-published with the Larchmont Gazette.

Bibliography

This Fine Piece of Water: An Environmental History of Long Island Sound, by Tom Anderson (Harrisonburg, VA, R.R. Donnelly and Sons, 2002)
The Oyster Industry, by Ernest Ingersoll (Washington D.C., The Government Printing Office, 1881.)

by Susan Emery

“Built to Last: Stories in Stone” is the apt title for this year’s spring house tour. Given the architectural richness of our community, our annual tours generally include a diverse range of styles. This year is no different. As in the past, there is a stylistic assortment of exteriors and interiors that will be
highlighted on the tour.

In certain years, however, a theme or common thread among the houses has been difficult to discern. This year the theme was readily apparent. All five of the houses on the 2009 house tour are distinguished for their varied examples of stonework, from a Colonial Revival house partly clad in uncut stone, to a second Colonial Revival style house that incorporates field stone in its original construction and matching stone recovered from the property for its 2001 addition, to an Arts & Crafts home and a Tudor that include
partial random ashlar facing, and a second Arts & Crafts house that features not only a stone foundation but actually appears to have been constructed atop a hill of stone.

This group of houses  also shares interesting histories, as each is connected to the early development of the neighborhood in which it was built and some
of the personalities involved were rather intriguing. Yet in addition to distinctive stonework and great history, there are numerous other features and decorative elements that grace these homes. But why wait until next month when the individual homeowners open their doors to the LHS membership to discover what is in store?

While the five addresses will not be revealed here, read on for a taste of what to expect, as well as an  introduction to some of the descriptive vocabulary associated with the houses (see the accompanying glossary for an explanation of terms highlighted in bold). From the clues, perhaps some
clever readers might even be able to identify a few of the houses!

The five houses on this year’s tour are scattered across Larchmont. Just one house is in the Manor and one is in the Village, while three are located in the unincorporated section of town. Additionally, four of the houses have never appeared on the LHS house tour before. And one house was recently awarded an LHS Century Homes Club plaque! As mentioned, the architectural styles range from early Colonial Revival to Colonial Revival Style to Arts & Crafts to Tudor. One of the two Colonial Revival houses incorporates an old stone gatehouse that was originally part of a late 19th century Weaver Street estate; the other Colonial Revival house was among the first houses in the development originally known as Larchmont Park. One of the Arts & Crafts houses was an early structure in the Larchmont Gardens development; the other is one of several authentic Gustav Stickley houses in Larchmont Woods. The Tudor house was designed by the architect of the Larchmont Shores development and built for the man who developed Larchmont Shores.
Water is a theme at all five of the houses. One house is actually located on the water, connected to its neighborhood by a causeway, while another has a natural waterfall on its property, a third is built near a waterfall, a fourth has a miniature pond with waterfall added by the current owners, and the fifth house once had a small pond used for swimming and skating! In addition to
water, several of the properties are large and feature lovely gardens.

One property in particular had the good fortune to have been re-designed by the famous landscaping pair Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd of North Hill Garden in Readsboro, Vermont. North Hill is considered one of the most famous private gardens in America, and Mr. Eck and Mr. Winterrowd came to
Larchmont and worked their magic on delightful grounds that our tour-goers will be able visit next month. These gardens boast a boxwood parterre and a potager.  Interested in learning more? Then attend the slide lecture that Mr. Eck and Mr. Winterrowd will be giving at St. John’s Church on April 25th,
the afternoon before the house tour. They will be selling and signing copies of their most recent book, “Our Life in Gardens,” as well.

Aside from their common themes of stonework and water, the five houses boast numerous other individual architectural features that enliven their facades. Look for a gambrel roof on one of the Colonial Revival houses, a pergola on the other Colonial Revival example, a standard gable on one of the Arts & Crafts homes, and a cross gable on the second Arts & Crafts house, while the Tudor features timber framing. There is a great variety of windows, including several types of sashes and casements, a Palladian window, and an oriel window. Two of the houses possess an assortment of stained glass windows, including a large stairwell skylight in one home and five unusual
roundels in the other.

Interior architectural details to be found include transoms, a coffered ceiling, an original hammered copper fireplace hood, original light fixtures and hardware, decorative plasterwork, French doors, carved woodwork, and more. Decorative motifs abound. In one house, you will see fleur de lys tiles on a powder room floor. In another house, the fleur de lys motif is incorporated into the border of a stained glass window. Decorative styles abound as well. One house has delightful dose of chinoiserie, another features contemporary artwork, while yet another is more traditional, and the others are perhaps eclectic.

If your curiosity has been piqued, or if you think that you have guessed some of the houses described, then please join us on Sunday April 26th for the house tour. A reception and art show will be held afterwards at Mamaroneck Artists’ Guild.

A talk with garden designers Wayne Winterrowd and Joe Eck…

North Hill is the designer of a spectacular garden featured on the Larchmont House Tour. Mr. Winterrowd and Mr. Eck, founders of North Hill, gave an informative talk based on their travels throughout the U.S. and Canada as landscape design consultants and as lecturers on horticultural subjects.

They recently published Our Life in Gardens, pictured above.

Mamaroneck High School, 1940s or 1950s, from the Herb Roth Photo Collection of the Larchmont Public Library

by Lynne Crowley, LHS Archivist

A few months ago I contacted Tina Pantginis, the Librarian at Mamaroneck High School, to consult her on a research inquiry I had received. She was very helpful, as all librarians are – it’s in the blood, I believe – and we got to chatting about a project they’re undertaking to digitize some records that have accumulated over the years.

This includes school related newspaper clippings, old student newspaper publications and even photo albums. I think they don’t yet know all they have in that back room. The most thrilling part to me is that this treasure trove of local history will eventually be accessible to the general public through the Larchmont Historical Society!

The digitizing process has just begun but I can share with you a tidbit. We have a photo album called MHS Memories 1932-33 created by a student, John S. Gallagher, Jr. He notes that this is the second edition –- the past year’s edition evidently featured photos of faculty members “in their off moments”. Hmmm.

Wish we had that one! This edition features students in their “off” moments. Perhaps we could regard it as a precursor to Facebook? I hope to be able to bring some of the images to you in a later newsletter; meanwhile, I have looked at the MHS yearbook from 1932 and I found a shot of our young photographer,  John Gallagher, helping backstage at one of the many theatrical productions at MHS that year.

Readers, remember, if you have any wonderful or even ordinaire documents that chronicle some aspect of life here in Larchmont, please consider contacting us. We may be able to take them off your hands! Or, you may want to share them temporarily so we can scan them for posterity. I can be reached at 381-2239 or by email at lhs@larchmonthistory.org.