Articles from The Historian, March/April/May 2006
Judith A. Handelman, Editor

Dinner-Dance Date Changed to March 25

The Annual Spring Benefit Dinner is scheduled for Saturday, March 25, at Fenway Golf Club (instead of originally announced date, April 1). This year the Society's Board has selected as honorees the Scarsdale Show House 2005, Society volunteer Christa Schutz and the late G. Estabrook Kindred, chairman of the Scarsdale Committee for Historic Preservation.

The Show House event, which included the refurbishing of the Rowsley Estate, home of the Scarsdale Woman's Club, was one of the top cultural highlights in the village during 2005. The show house organization will receive the 2006 Historic Preservation Award and be represented by Heide Sander, president, co-chairs Maureen Lambert and Gay McCreery from the Scarsdale Woman's Club, and Linda Blair-Doescher, president, co-chairs Georgene Mongarella and Michael Weiner from the New York Chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers. Schutz will receive the 2006 Civic Award and Kindred the 2006 Community Service Award.

Christa, a longtime Society Trustee, Advisor, volunteer and contributor, will receive the 2006 Civic Award. The 2006 Community Service Award will be presented, posthumously, to Kindred, who died in January. He chaired the Village's Committee for Historic Preservation for six years, and was also active as a Boy Scout scoutmaster, Volunteer fireman, and president of the Friends of the Scarsdale Parks.

Tickets cost: Platinum Table $2500 (includes 10 tickets, premier seating); Gold Patron $300; Silver Patron $250; Benefit Ticket $200.

We need your help!! We need the support of the community to make this event truly successful!!! There are lots of things you can do:

Please attend and invite friends and family!

Be an underwriter! Take a table, purchase a table, organize a table!

Donate items for the Silent and Live Auctions!

Everyone is encouraged to donate items, such as a weekend in a vacation home; tickets to sporting or cultural events; gift certificates for restaurants, home, fitness, beauty, clothing and baby items. If you have something you would like to donate, call Cindy at the office, 723-1744 to arrange for pick-up or delivery.

Buy a “Donor Pathway” Brick for Capital Campaign!

Years from now, wouldn’t it be wonderful for your family and friends to stop by the Society, take a stroll along our ‘Steps in Time’ donor pathway and find your name? ” asked President Bill Doescher. As part of our renovation project and to thank our donors for their kind generosity, plans have been made to install a beautiful brick pathway with the names of our supporters. For a donation of $300 or more to our 2005-2006 Capital Campaign, your name(s) will become an everlasting part of history. Many thanks to the donors who have already purchased bricks!

Once again, in 2005, the Society continued to get its house in order. Literally. Capping a two-year effort begun in the fall of 2004 under the leadership of Board Member Ralph Della Cava, the Society concluded its restoration project in the fall of 2005 by completing the painting of the exterior of Cudner-Hyatt House. Prior to the painting of the house, some unexpected exterior and interior repairs were taken care of. In 2004, the roofs on both the 1828 Quaker Meeting House and the Cudner-Hyatt House were replaced and the exterior of the Quaker Meeting House was painted.

A prior successful capital campaign, led by Doescher, helped defray part of the costs of the restoration project. "While all the activities started and finished by the society during 2005 were important and useful for the society and the Scarsdale community, it was the completion of the restoration project that will have a lasting effect," Doescher said. In his third year of his presidency, Doescher oversaw a cost-cutting program, a renewed development effort that included a village-wide fund-raising mailing, an increase in the Society's educational efforts and curatorial progress.

Curatorial Corner by Mimi Sherman

With the exterior work of re-roofing and new leaders and gutters completed, the cellar of the Cudner-Hyatt House has now remained dry through the spectacular rains of summer 2005. This means that the entire interior is consistently drier, lending protection to all of the objects and surfaces. The rebuilt kitchen porch and bulkhead doors should serve for many years. All of the plantings on the property have been inventoried and plans are under way for improvements that will reflect the late nineteenth-century interpretation of the House. Thanks go especially to landscaper John Naughton. John, the proprietor of his own landscaping business, Hermit’s Hut, has volunteered his services to the Society.

Strides have also been made regarding the collection. Volunteers have been important here, too. Tobey Zuckerman is now well into the transcription of the 1905 portion of the Hyatt letters, and we are learning about how Elvira (Wertheimer) and Caleb Hyatt met. Watch The Historian for updates. The audio tapes and transcriptions from the Oral History Project of the 1980s are now filed in an orderly manner, and work is progressing on the images of buildings and homes in Scarsdale and Westchester. Volunteer Jane Stanley has completed creation of a catalog for our "Rare Books" -- those with publication dates prior to 1900 -- and has begun work on the volumes in the general library collection.

The volunteer services of the estimable Dorothy Pandeleon are helping to bring order to the collection of costumes and textile pieces. Loving homes in other institutions are being found for items that do not meet the mission of the Scarsdale Historical Society.

Activities scheduled for 2006 are: a room-by-room inventory of the farmhouse; opening to the community -- by appointment -- of the Rare Book Collection; improved interpretation of the beds in the farmhouse bedrooms; continuation of projects already under way. Anyone interested in doing volunteer work should contact Mimi Sherman, Consulting Curator at 914-723-1744.

“Wish List”: We are also looking for a Pentium 4 computer so that computerization of the collection can be started.

Handelman Wins Scarsdale Bowl By Bill Doescher, President

Former Scarsdale Mayor Walter Handelman, who has been involved with the Scarsdale Historical Society in one way or another since its founding in 1974, has been selected to receive the 2006 Scarsdale Bowl.

The village's highest honor for volunteer service is indeed well- deserved. In addition to the Scarsdale Historical Society, Walter has been involved over the years with the creation of numerous village institutions, including the Board of Architectural Review.

The Scarsdale Bowl is given annually by the Scarsdale Foundation to "a person who has given exceptional time, energy and effort to the civic welfare of the community." Walter will receive the award at a dinner at Lake Isle Country Club on March 29.

Walter, who has been an excellent sounding board and advisor for me since I became president of the Society four years ago, is credited with being a key part of a group of concerned citizens who saved the Cudner-Hyatt House.

In 1974, a builder had purchased our historic house on the Post Road and planned to take it down. The Scarsdale Historical Society was quickly formed to try to save the house. Handelman was the one in that group who went to different banks and persuaded them to enter into a consortium to give a $60,000 mortgage to the new society.

The former mayor has continued to provide financial support --including directing gifts for specific society activities from the James A. Macdonald Foundation, which he manages-- and legal services to the society over the ensuing years. He and his wife, Judy, who is still the society's publicity director, were honored for their contributions at our Spring Benefit Dinner in 1997.

“Home, Hearth & History” Continues through June 30

Our current exhibition. “Home, Hearth & History”, has been extended through June 30.

It includes histories of several neighborhoods in Scarsdale, and stories of the many famous, and some slightly infamous, people in Scarsdale’s history -- from the nationally recognized, such as James Fenimore Cooper and Vice President Daniel Tompkins, to the purely local, such as “Hot Dog Joe”.

Museum hours are 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., Monday-Friday; weekends by appointment (phone the office, 723-1744). Admission for members is free.

Board Names 2 Trustees, Elects New Officers

After the October Annual Meeting, the Board elected two new members to its Board of Trustees to fill vacant spots. They are Cheryl Millstein, a top volunteer in the Village of Scarsdale and member of the Barnard College Board of Trustees, and Gloria Forte, vice president of the Bank of New York at the Scarsdale office. Forte will be the organization's new treasurer, and Ed Hardy, former treasurer, will become assistant treasurer. Linda Blair Doescher, who has been a member of the Board of Trustees for many years, was appointed to the post of Recording Secretary.

Museum Available for Meetings and Parties

Our Museum space is available to members and the public for hosting meetings; it’s also a great place for kids’ birthday parties. The capacity is 42 people. Please phone the office, 723-1744, concerning rates and reservations.

Society Grateful for Grants

Grants from many arts and government organizations, friends, supporters and businesses have aided the Society's programs. The Westchester Arts Council has been of great assistance, with a $3400 basic support grant. A grant from the James A. Macdonald Foundation assisted the mounting of the "Home, Hearth & History" exhibition. The Leon Lowenstein Foundation, the Liz Claiborne and Art Ortenberg Foundation and the Irving J. Sloan Education Fund, the McCreery Family Foundation, the Robert H. Lorsch Family Foundation Trust, the Henry Laird Smith Foundation and Samson Capital Advisors are among the private foundations that help fund programs and exhibitions.

Congratulations!

To our Board Member, Village Historian Irving Sloan, who has been elected to the Westchester County Senior Citizens Hall of Fame, and to the Non-Partisan nominees for Village Board: David Buchen, Dan Hochvert and Sharon Lindsay.

Dates to Remember:

“Home, Hearth & History” Exhibition: Extended through June 30, 2006; Monday-Friday 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., weekends by appointment

Spring Benefit Dinner-Dance Saturday, March 25, 7 p.m.

Spring Lecture Thursday, May 4, 8 p.m. Scarsdale Library: Speaker and topic to be announced

Dutch Bulb Sale: Look for our mailing early in May!

Condolences

The Society mourns the passing of G. Estabrook Kindred, chairman of the Scarsdale Committee for Historic Preserva-tion, who will be honored posthumously at this year’s Spring Benefit Dinner; Janice Downs Lee, one of our earliest members; longtime volunteer Nancy Tramontine, and our members Bernie Cedarbaum, George Damashek and Irwin Smoler. We send heartfelt condolences to their families.