THE
PRESERVER VOLUME 3, ISSUE 3: FALL 2005
City of New Rochelle
HISTORICAL & LANDMARKS REVIEW BOARD
Historic Newsletter Highlighting New Rochelle’s Rich Past
The Romance of THE FRONT PORCH
Melvin Beacher, A.I.A. Chairman Larry Buster John Heller Gerard Ragone Donald Richards Samuel Spady, Jr. Rosemary Speight Jean Friedman, Preservation Consultant Special thanks to Barbara Davis, Acting City Historian Funding New York State Department of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation Certified Local Government Program. Please send comments and suggestions to: Historical and Landmarks Review Board c/o Mrs. Sheila Beacher HLRB Secretary Bureau of Buildings City Hall 515 North Avenue New Rochelle, NY 10801 (914) 636-8292
Paine Heights
he porch
— just the word
evokes images of wicker chairs, porch swings, and tall glasses of cold lemonade; cool breezes on a sultry summer afternoon; lush ferns and bright flowers. The porch is a place to retreat to during a gentle summer rain or engage in lively discussions with family and friends...a place to relax with a good book or take a nap in the sun. As Kenneth T. Jackson wrote in Crabgrass Frontier, porches “were places for observing the world, for meeting friends, for talking, for knitting, for shelling peas, for courting, and for half a hundred other activities.” Porches have been called “our window on the world.” They are the transition between the confines of the house and the outdoors. “On the porch it’s possible to participate in a public sense — and the public can participate in a homeowner's private world”. (Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Architect)
Rochelle Park
Residence Park
Residence Park
Beechmont Park
Beechmont Park
The porch is often the first element of a home that visitors see. It is a reflection of the people who live there. It can be friendly and inviting, invoke a sense of fun, or present a closed and silent front to the street. “A porch is an element that contributes to building a community. When we stop sitting on our front porches, we stop interacting with our neighbors” (Pat Burt, President, University Neighborhood, Palo Alto, California) and when that happens, we put our sense of community at risk. The word “porch” is derived from the Greek word portico and the Roman word porticus, both meaning the columned entry to a classical temple. Porches pro-
liferated in American residential design from the late 1840's until World War II. With the growth of suburbia, the rise of the automobile, and the invention of air conditioning, porches fell into disfavor; people began to turn inward, focusing their activities in the backyard or in front of the television, and almost imperceptibly losing their sense of community. In the last decade, the porch has undergone a newfound popularity. In an attempt to regain the neighborliness and sense of community once found in city neighborhoods, architects and city planners have resurrected the idea of the porch. Many planned communities, such as Seaside and Disney’s Celebration, either
require or strongly suggest that all new homes have porches. Thankfully, the idea of the porch is an ideal that New Rochelle never lost. Many homes in New Rochelle’s older neighborhoods are adorned with open front porches of varying styles, sizes and shapes. These homeowners have chosen to celebrate the authenticity of their vintage houses, by retaining the significant features and openness of their front porches. Attractive porches from several New Rochelle neighborhoods are depicted in the photos shown here. Article reprinted courtesy of Lakewood (Ohio) Heritage Advisory Board, May 1998. Photographs courtesy of Gerry and Karen Ragone.
NEW ROCHELLE RAILROAD STATION– Nomination to the National Register of Historic Places original settlers, the railroad prompted a new business district to take shape further inland. In 1848 the New York and New Haven Railroad constructed a one-track line that ran through New Rochelle. The first scheduled service to New York began on December 28, 1848. At the time, New Rochelle was the final railroad station before entering NYC. A fatal head-on collision in New Rochelle in 1851 led to the construction of a second track in 1853. By 1869 six trains traveled between the two cities each day. In 1884 the railroad drew up plans for the present brick structure, which was constructed in 1887 to replace the original Gothic Revival structure that had stood just northeast of what is now North Avenue. By the turn of the century, the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad had five tracks through New Rochelle. The population had surged to 15,000 inhabitants. A roundhouse for steam engines, tracks for passenger cars and a large freightyard near Cedar Street was built. Over the years, New Rochelle became one of the busiest stations on the line. As it developed into a commuter town and its reputation grew as “the Queen City of the Sound”, local travel increased. New Rochelle obtained national fame in 1906 when George M. Cohan wrote his popular song entitled “45 minutes from Broadway”. In 1955, growing competition from automobile and truck transportation led to financial problems for the railroad. The NewYork, New Haven & Hartford Railroad filed for bankruptcy in 1968. A private developer purchased the New Rochelle Railroad Station from the bankrupt railroad. Over time, the condition of the station deteriorated. In 1982, the City purchased the station property and assumed its management. On October 25, 1987 Amtrak began service to and from New Rochelle, greatly expanding commuter and other ridership. Amtrak and the City of New Rochelle agreed to share the cost of renovating the structure after a 1988 fire badly damaged the second floor and roof. A beautifully restored station by New Rochelle architect, Mel Beacher, was opened on March 1, 1991. Increased Metro North and Amtrak ridership in recent years has greatly increased the demand for additional station parking. In 1994 the City launched a plan to create an Intermodal Transportation Center, including a large
Exterior of Train Station 1887 (From Dominick Bruzzese Postcard Collection, New Rochelle Public Library)
Exterior of Train Station 2005
Nick Saraco Photography
he City of New Rochelle is proceeding with the nomination of the historic railroad station building to the State and National Registers of Historic Places. The current train station, constructed in 1887 by Geo O. Hawes, is located downtown between I-95 and the railroad tracks. A freestanding Intermodal Transportation Center now stands to the east of the station building off of North Avenue. The station is built of brick, 11⁄2 stories in height, with an asphalt shingled gable roof punctuated by a series of hipped dormers. A centered hexagonal dormer projects away from the building to allow vistas along the tracks. Its eaves overhang beyond the plane of the building, and is supported by unadorned wood brackets. Fenestration is flat-topped, one over one, including paired windows in the pediments of the gable ends. The interior of the 3,760s.f. building retains many original features. The station was fully renovated in 1990, and careful attention was placed on restoring it to its original historical accuracy. The waiting room is typical of New Haven line stations, with plaster walls, a wood ceiling and wood wainscot sheathing. The original flooring was probably wood, but was replaced sometime in the 1930s with terrazzo. Wood moldings around the doors were repaired, and crown moldings enhance the perimeter at the ceiling line. The wood windows are the original size and configuration. The station is heavily used on a daily basis by the many residents who commute to New York City, as well as long distance travelers on Amtrak. The building illustrates the importance of the railroad during the nineteenth century when it provided the main transportation in the County. It was primarily due to the railroad that the City of New Rochelle became a “commuter suburb” of New York City and developed into a community of fine homes and desirable neighborhoods. When rail service through the Sound Shore communities was first envisioned in the mid-1800s, New Rochelle had a population of approximately 2,000 inhabitants. Steamboats were used for freight, and ferries carried commuters to NYC, Long Island and Connecticut. The railroad soon supplanted boats as the major form of transportation, and the water-dependent community of New Rochelle began to change. While the waterfront had developed as the residential and commercial hub for the
Interior of Train Station parking garage with bus and taxi connections. This center has been completed and is in active use. The old and the new have been blended together successfully to serve
the growing needs of the commuter population, while preserving the historical and architectural integrity of the 1887 New Rochelle Railroad Station.
FORTY-FIVE MINUTES FROM BROADWAY Extracted from an article by Barbara Davis “Forty-five minutes from Broadway, Think of the changes it brings. For the short time it takes, What a difference it makes In the way of the people and things. Oh what a grand bunch of Rubens, Oh what a jay atmosphere. They have whiskers like hay, And, imagine, Broadway, Only 45 minutes from here.” So begins the chorus of “Forty-five Minutes From Broadway” — George M. Cohan's hit song, from his smash musical of the same title. The “here” in the song? New Rochelle, New York, of course. Cohan's comedy, which was said to have put this city "on the map," first delighted New York audiences on New Years Day, 1906.
For 100 years now, many New Rochelleans still proudly note their hometown's starring role in the show. But this may not have always been the case. The Columbus, Ohio opening was reviewed in 1905 as follows: “The audience last night plainly liked the entertainment and it seems quite certain that audiences the country over (barring New Rochelle) will like it.” The show had a January 1 opening at the New Amsterdam Theater in NYC. Its lyrics and plot had already reached the burgeoning community of New Rochelle. Apparently, some of the townsfolk were not amused. “A new farce is to be produced in New York in the near future called ‘Forty-five Minutes From Broadway,’” began an article in the New Rochelle Pioneer. "The scene is laid in New Rochelle, which is, when the trains run on time, about three-quarters of an hour from the ‘Great White Way’.
“The principal character is a prizefighter who is brought to New Rochelle by a rich man to work temporarily as a valet. The character is made to use the most up-to-date slang, and his language is unintelligible to the New Rochellites he meets — all of who are represented as ‘rubes’ of the hayseed type ... “From advanced reports it would seem that Mr. Cohan pictures New Rochelle as a hopelessly back-in-thewoods sort of burg, but then, he has probably never been here, which may account for his ignorance of the fact that we have outgrown village manners and customs, and are not in a position to be poked fun at.” Cohan was familiar with the community from a friend and fellow song-and-dance man, T. Harold Forbes. A native New Rochellean, he had bragged to Cohan that the wonderful little town he lived in had all the delights of bucolia yet was only forty-five minutes away from
New York by rail. Forbes was somewhat apprehensive about his town's role in the show, particularly when he heard the title song's opening lyrics. Yet, he acted as Cohan's local-color authority, and Forbes was in the (original) cast with such famous folk as Fay Templeton, Victor Moore and Donald Brian. Cohan later said in a newspaper interview, described in a 1938 issue of the Standard Star, “that he was not poking fun at New Rochelle ... it just happened that he wanted to portray the difference between metropolitan life and that outside the City, thus he chose New Rochelle, the best known of these communities at that time. Moreover, it was just 45 minutes from Broadway then, which was convenient for his lyrics.” What would Cohan think if he visited the downtown area of New Rochelle today?
ROCHELLE PARK – ROCHELLE HEIGHTS: Local and National Register Historic District he Rochelle Park — Rochelle Heights Historic District is historically and architecturally significant as an intact and distinctive example of residential park development at the turn of the twentieth century. Laid out in 1885, Rochelle Park is particularly distinguished as one of the first planned residential subdivisions in Westchester County. Its landscape plan was designed by the prominent architect Nathan F. Barrett for the Manhattan Life Insurance Company. Rochelle Park epitomizes the suburban development design principles that Frederic Law Olmsted advocated with the creation of Central Park in New York City: a landscape that provides urban dwellers with the restorative physical
ROCHELLE HEIGHTS
ROCHELLE PARK
Rochelle Heights has an imposing gateway set back from North Avenue at Hamilton Avenue. Unlike Rochelle Park, there is no park area such as The Lawn at the entry or anywhere else in the plan. This was a nineteenth-century feature that the planners of Rochelle Heights evidently considered outmoded. With the exception of the wide plaza leading to the Hamilton Avenue pillars, there is little of the intentional public landscape design found in Rochelle Park.
THE CIRCLE, SOUTH SIDE Just inside the entrance gateway to Rochelle Park off of North Avenue, a large circular green space was created. Many of the houses built in the early years of the park encircle “The Lawn”.
15 CORTLANDT AVE. In Rochelle Heights, the planners laid out large expensive lots on the southerly side of Cortlandt Avenue where buyers would be able to have views of Long Island Sound. Realizing this, naming the subdivision the “heights” had certain legitimacy. Tudor Revival designs were popular at this elevation, such as this one. This collection of houses was at the highest echelon of the development.
and spiritual benefits of a picturesque natural environment. Incorporating open space, recreational areas, naturalistic settings, and broad boulevards for public interaction, Barrett’s small but ambitious design for Rochelle Park exceeded the standard set in other residential parks in the region. In addition, the quality of Rochelle Park’s architecture rivals its landscape. Many fashionable Shingle Style “cottages” were designed with tall towers and attic porches to take advantage of the views toward Long Island Sound nearly a mile away. Rochelle Heights was laid out in a number of phases beginning in 1905 by New York architects Mann, MacNeille and Lindeberg for the Sickles Estate Improvement Company. Its landscape design was more efficient than Rochelle Park, reflecting its later period of development, although its principal roads followed curving routes. The architecture of Rochelle Heights does not have the same uniformity of design as Rochelle Park; rather it reflects the diversity of the scale and style of suburban housing popular in the early twentieth century. These two neighborhoods, combined into one historic district in 1986, reflect the history of suburban design since 1885 when the phenomenon first took hold in the United States. Rochelle Park is essentially rectangular in dimension; the southeast corner had been clipped with the construction of the New York & New Haven Railroad in the 1850s. In Barrett’s plan, the parcel was diagonally divided by a wide boulevard (The Boulevard) that entered the park at a stone gateway and terminated at a circle (“The Court”). The Boulevard was intended to continue east through a tunnel under the railroad tracks and south to Long Island Sound. This planned connector gave the park the cachet of water access even though the development
8 THE CIRCLE A number of Queen Anne and Colonial-style houses incorporated corner towers. It is believed that the towers and porches off the upper floors were conceived to provide access to the views and breezes of Long Island Sound. However, the growth of the foliage in the neighborhood obscures this amenity today.
THE BOULEVARD AND THE SERPENTINE In the center of the Rochelle Park plan, Barrett created the most unusual aspects of its landscape. The Boulevard is 100 feet wide allowing for an abundance of green space and deep set-backs for the houses. The scale and design of The Boulevard reflected Barrett’s taste for formal landscape elements that anticipated the City Beautiful Movement. The broad vista created by the Boulevard is intersected in two places by The Serpentine, a roadway that meanders within a rough, rocky section of the landscape. The terrain made continuing the grid plan difficult, but also presented Barrett with an opportunity to design a more interesting landscape.
was a good distance away. This amenity was of short duration due to additional subdivisions of property and the elimination of the right-of-way. The plan for Rochelle Heights is organized around a promontory in the northeastern quadrant of the subdivision that was set aside for large houses with the status of water views. As the plan descended from this high elevation, a hierarchy of lots and architecture was expressed with a secondary echelon encircling the hill, tertiary properties platted in a tight pattern, and detached
212 HAMILTON AVE Down the slope, the extension of Hamilton Avenue east of Brookdale Avenue also responded to the status of elevation and southern exposure. The north side of the street east of Slocum was divided into large lots similar to those on Cortlandt Avenue above. Houses there are larger and with extensive upper-story fenestration to capture views. The house located at 212 Hamilton Avenue illustrates a feature repeated in many houses with views: two-story porches on both ends that connect to public spaces on the first floor and bedroom spaces on the second. They are often found to be enclosed with windows, either by original design or later alteration. These features are a clear factor of New Rochelle’s coastal location reflected in its residential architecture, even in areas removed from the waterfront.
ROCKLAND PLACE, SOUTH OF FIFTH AVENUE The streets at the outer boundaries of Rochelle Heights contain smaller lots. These streets frame the core of the development and buffer the interior properties. Although these tertiary streets were lesser properties in the context of the Rochelle Heights development, they were still above the mean in the village overall and were intended for a middle-class clientele.
houses at the outer limits. These latter properties provided a buffer against the more random development outside the district, and protected the neighborhood’s exclusive environment within. Rochelle Park and Rochelle Heights have separate but related histories that follow a sequence of residential park development from its origins in the 1880s, at the beginning of suburban growth in Westchester County, to the 1920s when the automobile and Progressive Era ideas of planning and architecture were coming into
prominence. The landscape and house architecture of the district remains remarkably intact, and provide valuable information about the range of innovative planning principles that were applied there. Excerpts from “Nomination to the National Register”, by Neil Larson & Associates.
THE
PRESERVER
V OLUME 3, I SSUE 3: F ALL 2005
Historic Newsletter Highlighting New Rochelle’s Rich Past
City of New Rochelle
PRSRT-STD U.S. Postage
HISTORICAL & LANDMARKS REVIEW BOARD
PAID New Rochelle, NY Permit No .17
Ci t y of New Rochel l e • 515 Nor t h Av enue • New Rochel l e, NY 10801
HLRB
HLRB
New Rochelle in the Great War by Don Richards hen war was declared against Germany and her allies in the Spring of 1917, it was certainly no surprise to the citizens of New Rochelle. The prosperous and growing city of 27,554 had already been preparing for the conflict. In the previous February, “setting up” exercises began in New Rochelle by the state Military Training Commission. New York’s National Guard Division was activated under the command of Major General John O’Ryan of Westchester. New Rochelle’s naval militia was activated and “torpedo” boats patrolled Long Island Sound. Ft. Slocum, an important army post since the Civil War, increased its preparations for training, recruiting and shipping American soldiers to other posts and foreign countries. Thirty new barracks were under construction as well as ten new mess halls. By the end of the war, 140,000 recruits would pass through Ft. Slocum on their way to Europe and other posts with the American Expeditionary Forces. New Rochelle would contribute 2,547 men for military service, over 9% of the total population. Volunteers and enlistees came from all walks of life. Martin Keough, a Westchester Supreme Court Judge, had three of
his sons serve. His eldest, Grenville, had already been wounded twice at Verdun as a volunteer ambulance driver. Another New Rochellean, John Finn, a laborer from Washington Ave., would later perform heroically at the front. Many would be sent to camps or training centers on the east coast, such as Camp Upton in New York and Camp Wadsworth in South Carolina. New Rochelle women also contributed to the war effort. In July, 1917, a number received their chauffeurs’ licenses to become ambulance drivers. Noteworthy is the comment of an examiner who said “The women generally show an exceptional knowledge of the mechanical properties of their car, while they handle their automobile more skillfully than many men.” On the home front, New Rochelle was confronted by thousands of new soldiers who descended on the City. In Dec. 1917, New Rochelleans helped feed and house 8,000 new recruits. Schools were shut down and churches were used for sleeping quarters. Vaudeville and silent film actors entertained the troops. Help also came from the Knights of Columbus, the Red Cross Canteen, the Trustees of Temple Israel, and substantial monetary support from the Iselin family. Ordinary citizens contributed to Liberty Bond drives and local talent, like artist
Coles Phillips, contributed to poster campaigns. Not surprisingly, the influx of soldiers also created a dilemma for the City. Mayor Griffing responded to great public outcry to control the proliferation of “Dance Halls” and “Whiskey Peddlers” in the City. Throughout the war, New Rochelleans served in some of the best known military divisions including the New York National Guard 27th Division (O’Ryan’s Roughnecks), the 1st Division (Fighting First) and the 42nd (Rainbow) Division. Residents also served in the Navy, Marines and the aviation sector of the Signal Corps. These divisions would participate in some of the most intense fighting of the war at the Argonne, ChateauThierry, Belleau Wood and the assault on the Hindenburg line. According to military records, six New Rochelle residents received the Distinguished Service Cross during the war, the nation’s second highest military honor. These included 2nd Lieutenant Charles Porter, who downed three enemy planes in France in July 1918, 2nd Lieutenant William Eddy, a Marine intelligence officer who led an important raiding party in June 1918, Sgt. Carr Thomas of the 2nd Division Field Artillery for courage under fire, Capt. Hamilton Foster of the 1st Division for leading an important advance
while severely wounded, Sgt. Joseph Krause of the 79th Division, who rescued three wounded comrades three days before the end of the war, and Pvt. John Finn of the 27th Division for extraordinary heroism in rescuing five comrades, and overtaking an enemy dugout in Sept. 1918 near Ronssoy, France. In the little visited but not forgotten small V shaped Faneuil Park located at the intersection of Huguenot and East Main Streets, is the World War I memorial. Erected and dedicated in Dec. 1921, the monument is inscribed with the names of sixty-one New Rochelleans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their nation during the Great War.
Lost! Spared by the construction of the New England Thruway in the mid 1950s, this 1890 13-room Queen Anne treasure was lost to fire in the early morning of August 27, 2005. The foundation remains, but the house, located at the corner of The Serpentine and Manhattan Avenue in Rochelle Park, appears to be beyond preservation.