HomeMy WebLinkAbout02 Chapter 2 pg 45-64 School Districts, KSS, RSS 2026-06-01 ...1004AM 45
Chapter 02
School Districts in New York State
“The Act of 1795 for the encouragement of schools” adopted April 9, 1795 was the first general statute in New York State
to establish a system of common schools, as addressed in the 1919 publication by Robert Francis Seybolt, Ph.D. of
The University of the State of New York (see link:
https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmassbookdig.actof1795forenco00seyb/?sp=1&st=pdf&pdfPage=1&r=-0.394%2C-0.089%2C1.788%2C1.788%2C0 )
NYS “common school districts” were laid out pursuant to an act of the NYS legislature in 1812, before any villages
in Westchester County were incorporated, such as the 1868 Village of Port Chester, the 1904 Village of Rye, which
became the City of Rye in 1942 … and the 1982 Village of Rye Brook. That’s why school district boundaries don’t
line up with the boundaries of villages and towns.
In 1853, “union free school districts” legislation allowed for secondary education (grades 9-12). Common school
districts can only provide elementary education through eighth grade and must contract with a union free school
district for secondary education services. The NYSED website elaborates on the NYS educational system and terms
referenced herein: (https://www.p12.nysed.gov/mgtserv/sch_dist_org/GuideToReorganizationOfSchoolDistricts.htm).
December 8, 2008 graphic enhancement of Westchester County school districts map, in the public domain.
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1868 F.W. Beers atlas Plate 45 shows the boundaries of ten (10) separate school districts within the
Towns of Harrison and Rye at that time, with each town having their own school districts, numbered as 1-5.
NOTE: A framed original of this 1868 map was donated to the BBRUFSD in April 2024 by Dean P. Santon.
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District No. 5 of the Town of Rye, which became the Blind Brook-Rye Union Free School District (“BBRUFSD”)
on August 22, 1973, once included the northeasterly portion of District No. 4 of the Town of Rye … now known
as the Port Chester-Rye Union Free School District (“PCRUFSD”). The area surrounding the circa-1954, King
Street Elementary School at 697 King Street, as detailed in the maps and captions below, was annexed by District
No. 4 in around 1915-1920. In the transcribed text of a letter from former District No. 5 trustee James Todd Pine
to a subsequent school board member, Fred Johnston, with an accompanying November 5, 1935, The New York Sun
news article found in the BBRUFSD archives (see bottom right of page 57), James Pine noted how District No. 5
once extended farther south down King Street towards Putnam Avenue. NOTE: The Pine family were Colonial-era
settlers, owning large tracts of King Street farmland on both sides of Ridge Street since about 1734.
Side-by-side comparison of the 1868 F.W. Beers atlas Plate 45 (left) and 2022 ArcGIS ESRI mapping (right) of
Westchester County school districts, show how District No. 5 (BBRUFSD) once included the northeast corner of
District 4 (PCRUFSD), surrounding its circa-1954 King Street Elementary School at 697 King Street … the area
bounded to the west and north by the Port Chester/ Rye Brook municipal boundary, to the south by Indian Road/
Quintard Drive and east by Greenwich CT border. The southerly ~30% of the Village of Rye Brook (south of Deer
Run, Jennifer Lane, Ridge Blvd.) is in the PCRUFSD, except for the RiverView at Purchase office building at 287
Bowman Avenue that in in the Harrison Central School District. The entire 24-acre, Port Chester Middle School
campus at 113 Bowman Avenue and the westerly portion of the Port Chester High School campus containing the
actual PCHS school building at 1 Tamarack Road are both within the Village of Rye Brook.
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Above: Close-up of 2022 ArcGIS ESRI mapping of Westchester County school districts. Prior to ~1915, the boundary
between District 5 (BBRUFSD) and District 4 (PCRUFSD) went straight across (east) from Ridge Boulevard to
Greenwich CT border near Quintard, Drive, but now follows 1868 Port Chester municipal boundary. Below: While
the southerly ~30% of the Village of Rye Brook (south of Deer Run, Jennifer Lane, Ridge Blvd.) is within the
PCRUFSD, four (4) Rye Brook parcels (0.77, 11.05, 1.3 & 2.19 acres) between the south side of Bowman Avenue
and the Blind Brook (Rye Brook/Harrison boundary) that are within the Harrison Central School District.
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Map 8-1 of School & Public Facilities, prepared in April 2012 by the Westchester County Department of
Planning, highlighting the schools and boundaries of the Blind Brook UFSD and Port Chester UFSD.
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District No. 5, Town of Rye, shared a schoolhouse with Glenville CT
on the Connecticut side of King Street from 1863 to 1868
In the effort to trace the history of schoolhouses within the Blind Brook-Rye Union Free School District (formerly
District No. 5 of the Town of Rye), the trail leads across King Street into Civil War-era, Glenville, Connecticut.
On October 28, 1863, John B. Haight conveyed an approx. 56’ x 88’ lot at the easterly side of King Street (north of
Glenville Street ... opposite the Rye Brook Village hall entrance driveway) within his 102-acre, Glenville CT estate,
to James Willson, Silas Brundage and James H. Clark, as the committee of the Lower King Street School District of
Greenwich, CT and William H. Craft, Thomas E. Wilson and Ebenezer Raymond, as trustees of School District
No. 5 of the Town of Rye, NY.
John Haight’s 102-acre Glenville, CT estate consisted of two large triangular tracts separated by Glenville Street, and
bounded to the north by Glen Ridge Road, which lined up with the Town of Rye’s Ridge Street, before New York’s
Hutchinson River Parkway extended north in 1936 to meet Connecticut’s Merritt Parkway, and Ridge Street had to
be curved northwest by 100 yards to intersect King Street northwest of the parkway bridge. Mr. Haight reacquired
the 56’ x 88’ school parcel, three months prior to the April 1883 sale of his entire 102-acre estate to Richard Sutro.
Excerpts of 1868 F.W. Beers atlas Plate 45 (left) and 1929 G.M. Hopkins atlas Plate 42 (right) show the shared 1863-
1883 schoolhouse on Glenville CT side of King Street, across from today’s Rye Brook Village Hall at 938 King Street.
LEFT: 1868 F.W. Beers atlas Plate 45 (see enlargement on page 43).
RIGHT: 1929 G.M. Hopkins atlas Plate 42 (see enlargement on page 53)
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District No. 5 (Town of Rye) one-classroom, schoolhouse
on New York side of King Street from 1868 to 1936
After sharing the Glenville, CT schoolhouse for five years, District No. 5 (Town of Rye) paid $1,500 to Jotham
Merritt and his wife Elizabeth under a February 15, 1868 deed for a 0.469-acre parcel on the New York side of King
Street at what was then the corner of Ridge Street, where the northbound Hutchinson River Parkway (“HRP”) exit
19A ramp at King Street (adjacent to 952 King Street) has been since Westchester County condemned land in
1936 to extend the HRP … “The Hutch” … north to meet Connecticut’s Merritt Parkway in 1937, when the path
of Ridge Street shifted to the northwest, to intersect King Street approximately 100 yards to the north instead of at
the previous 4-way, intersection with Glen Ridge Road at the east side of King Street in Glenville, CT.
Fun Fact: Ridge Street was once known as “Hog-pen ridge Road” (a reference to the high ridge just north of the
current Betsy Brown Road) under older deeds, such as a May 28, 1875, deed and accompanying map (see below)
covering Ridge Street lots of the abovementioned Jotham Merritt, who sold his corner lot to District No. 5 in 1868.
excerpt from the 1875 deed or from map below
Page 56 excerpt from Charles W. Baird’s 1871 book, with text of 1680 Peningo Neck purchase deed
referencing “hogg penn ridge.” See page 9 hereof for details about the Indian treaties (land purchases).
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Excerpt of 1910 G.W. Bromley atlas, Plate 37 showing (i) the convergence of Blind Brook branches, south of Old
White Plains Road (Bowman Avenue) where in 2024, the City of Rye owns land and a dam in Rye Brook that was
once the site of Bloomer’s Mill and then Park’s Mill , and (ii) the large estates between Ridge Street and Lincoln
Avenue. The Ridge Street pond with waterfall on the Hobart J. Park property became known as “Price’s Pond” after
Edgar F. Price purchased the land in 1915 from Park. It is now the centerpiece of the 1989 Hidden Falls conservation
subdivision. MAP ERROR NOTED: The William W. Cook parcel at Ridge Street is overstated as 136 acres,
since Cook only purchased the easterly 58.571 acres of the parcel from Sullivan M. Pine in April 1907. Pine sold the
westerly 77.5 acres to Wal Realty (Robert Law, Jr.) ...19 years later in December 1926, which became 12.2 acres of the
Hutchinson River Parkway in 1931-35 and the 63.3-acre Meadowlark subdivision in 1956-62. Cook purchased a total
of 96.9 acres: the 58.571 acres in 1907 plus Ridge Street parcels of 17 acres + 5.815 acres in 1904, and 15 acres in 1905.
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The white, wood-frame, one-classroom schoolhouse with green shutters shown in photo below, stood on the King
Street site for 68 years and served as the lone District No. 5 school for grades K-8, from the post-Civil War period
of 1868 until the land was conveyed to the Westchester County Parks Commission by deed dated May 7, 1936.
ABOVE: Circa-1936 photo of the District No. 5 (Town of Rye) King Street School, with “For Sale” sign on the wood
structure prior to May 1936 conveyance of underlying 0.469-acre land to Westchester County for construction of the
Hutchinson River Parkway extension to connect with Connecticut’s Merritt Parkway at King Street. Notice the
parkway construction underway in the distance, with the large excavation stockpile at right of photo.
BELOW: Illustration of the King Street School by former District No. 5 Trustee Robert H. Blattner, based upon a
November 5, 1935 photo in The New York Sun newspaper (see page 59). NOTE: As of 2026, the original color
illustration hangs in the BBRUFSD District offices, after decades on the wall of the Ridge Street School main office.
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The 1925 flyover survey #12841-300 by Underwood & Underwood from the Historical Aerial Photograph Collection
-- Westchester County GIS (above) and the 1929 G.M Hopkins atlas Plate 42 (see page 56) show the Ridge Street &
King Street corridors flanked by the following large estates & farms:
Daniel & Emma Merritt (112-acre farm became Rye Acres, parts of the Hutchinson River Parkway and
Country Ridge);
Irving Lehman (45.7 acres; became the 15-acre BMPRSS and a 30.7-acre portion of Country Ridge);
Robert Law, Jr. (87.64-acre “Lawridge” estate);
Harriet & Sullivan M. Pine (20.5-acre Pine homestead became parts of the HRP, relocated Ridge Street and
Country Ridge);
Wal Realty (77.5 acres became 12.2 acres of the Hutchinson River Parkway and 63.3-acre
Meadowlark subdivision. NOTE: “Wal” is “Law” spelled backwards … as in Robert
Law, Jr.);
William W. Cook (96.9 acres became the 37.844-acre, The Arbors, the 20-acre BBHS, the 3.92-acre
Harkness Park, the 18-acre, 900 King Street office building … plus 16.625 acres
acquired by eminent domain for 1937 Hutchinson River Parkway extension to connect
to the Merritt Parkway at the King Street border of New York and Connecticut).
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The (above) 1925 flyover survey #12841-268 by Underwood & Underwood from the Historical Aerial Photograph
Collection -- Westchester County GIS and the 1929 G.M Hopkins atlas Plate 42 (see page 56), show large estates and
farms lining Ridge Street, north of Westchester Avenue (most extending to Lincoln Avenue):
Edgar F. Price (now Rye Hills, Avon Condominiums, former Rye Town Hilton, Hidden Falls );
Edna & Everett Crawford (now 36.7-acre Crawford Park);
Katherine Allen’s Elm Hill Farm (now Elm Hill, Pine Ridge Sections 1-3, Talcott Woods);
George C. Clausen (now Red Roof Farm );
Katherine & Dunlevy Milbank’s Ridgelands (now Brookside, Pine Ridge Sections 4-6 and Roselyn Estates);
Daniel & Emma Merritt, siblings … (now Rye Acres, and Country Ridge Sections 7 & 13), prior to 1937 HRP extension
north of Westchester Avenue to King Street.
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1929 G.M Hopkins atlas Plate 42, showing large estates and farms lining Ridge Street, north of Westchester Avenue
(most extending to Lincoln Avenue): Edgar Price (now Rye Hills, Avon Condominiums, former Rye Town Hilton,
Hidden Falls ) … Edna & Everett Crawford (now Crawford Park) … Katherine Allen’s Elm Hill Farm (now Elm Hill,
Pine Ridge Sections 1-3, Talcott Woods) …George C. Clausen (now Red Roof Farm ) …Katherine & Dunlevy Milbank’s
Ridgelands (now Brookside, Pine Ridge Sections 4-6 and Roselyn Estates), siblings Daniel & Emma Merritt (now Rye
Acres, and Country Ridge Sections 7 & 13), prior to 1937 HRP extension north of Westchester Avenue to King Street.
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The terminus of Ridge Street at King Street had to be curved ~100 yards northwest to make way for the 1937
extension, entrances and exits of New York’s Hutchinson River Parkway to connect with Connecticut’s Merritt
Parkway. The maps on these next two pages illustrate the change in the path of Ridge Street, and how District No.
5’s K-8 school relocated from King Street (next to 952 King Street), 4/10 of a mile south to 431 North Ridge Street.
Excerpts of 1929 G.M. Hopkins atlas Plate 42 (below) and Westchester County Park Commission Map of Lands
To Be Acquired For The Hutchinson River Parkway, Sheet No. 25A, filed June 30, 1931 as Map No. 3791 (above)
show the Ridge Street/ Glen Ridge Road intersection at King Street before eminent domain acquisition/relocation of
the Ridge Street terminus, curving 100 yards to the northwest. NOTE: Ridge “Ave.” [Street] in atlas below is a typo.
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Above: “Existing Conditions as of October 30, 1930, Town of Rye” map by Zoning Commission Technical Advisory
Corp. and its excerpt show: the 0.469-acre King Street school site acquired on February 15, 1868 by District No. 5, at
what was then (prior to the 1937 Hutchinson River Parkway extension) the corner of Ridge Street …adjacent to
952, 944 & 942 King Street residences and what is now the Rye Brook Village Hall campus at 938-940 King Street.
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A November 5, 1935, article in The New York Sun newspaper with photos, chronicled the tale of what was described
as “an almost perfect example of the fast-vanishing little red schoolhouse.” According to the article, 18 pupils were being taught
in 1935 in District 5’s one-classroom schoolhouse, ranging in age from five (kindergarten) to thirteen (8th grade).
The typewritten student names (above) and transcribed letter at the bottom right of page 60, from James Pine to District No.
5 board member Fred Johnston, were added to the November 5, 1935, The New York Sun news clipping, as found in
BBRUFSD archives. JamesPine, whose family owned large tracts of King Street farmland on both sides of Ridge Street since
the early 1800s, described the schoolhouse location moving from Glenville CT side of King Street (near 933-937 King Street)
to NY side of King Street, and how District 5 once included the northeast corner of what is now District 4. See page 47.
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District No. 5 King Street School relocates farther south on Ridge Street in 1936
As part of the 1931-1936 condemnation of land by the Westchester County Parks Commission for the 1937
extension of the Hutchinson River Parkway (HRP) to the Connecticut border at King Street, 34.3 acres of land was
acquired in the Town of Rye between North Ridge Street (Exit 29, renumbered in 2021 as Exit 18) and King Street
(Exit 30, renumbered in 2021 as Exit 19A). See recorded Map No. 3791 below. Under two separate May 7, 1936
deeds, the County paid $1,500 to acquire the 0.469-acre parcel of District No. 5 at King Street and allowed the
District to sell its clapboard schoolhouse … and then deeded the school district a 0.929-acre replacement parcel,
located 4/10 of a mile south at 431 N. Ridge Street (shown below), surrounded on three sides by other HRP land.
Above Map 4302 filed May 7, 1936 shows 0.929-acre lot at 431 N. Ridge Street swapped on May 7, 1936 by
Westchester County for condemned 0.469-acre King Street School lot (below) on Map 3791 filed June 30, 1931
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Above: Excerpt of 1929 GM Hopkins atlas, Plate 42, revised as of 1942, with glue-on paper strips to show 1937
Hutchinson River Parkway extension to King Street, with its northbound exit ramp 19A being where the King Street
School had been from 1868-1936 … plus the District No. 5, red brick, school schoolhouse built in 1936 on 0.929-acre
at 431 N. Ridge Street (4/10 mile to the south), opposite the 87.64-acre Lawridge estate.
Below: Ridge Street entrance and gate lodge of the Lawridge estate of Robert Law, Jr. from The Work of Dwight
James Baum Architect book published in 1927 by William Helburn Inc. of New York City, featuring 26 pages of
photos of Lawridge. The gate lodge in photo below, is part of the significantly expanded dwelling at 446 N. Ridge
Street, but the Lawridge pillared driveway in photo below serves the adjacent 440 N. Ridge Street, via an easement.
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In the summer of 1936, District No. 5 built a new 55’ x 52’, one-story, schoolhouse on the 0.929-acre site at 431 N.
Ridge Street. Designed by architect, John C. Moore, the new schoolhouse was constructed of red brick with a slate
roof and cupola, in sharp contrast to its King Street predecessor, the one-classroom, white clapboard structure.
The building was set back about 50 feet from both Ridge Street in the front and the Hutchinson River Parkway at
the rear. The exterior façades were designed to be identical, facing these two roadways, with a straight set of steps at
each façade’s entry. The interior layout featured two classrooms, a teacher’s office, library, coat room, two lavatories
and a large center hall at the first floor. A proposed basement level playroom was eliminated, because the New York
State Department of Education refused to approve a recreation space without windows to admit light and air.
Illustration of 1936 Ridge Street School at 431 North Ridge Street by former Loch Lane resident and school board
Trustee Robert H. Blattner. As of 2024, the original color illustration hangs in the BBRUFSD District offices, after
hanging for decades on the wall of the Ridge Street School main office, with the other illustrations by Mr. Blattner.
The general contract to construct the Ridge Street schoolhouse was awarded in 1936 to Aniello La Rosa of Port
Chester on a bid of $21,605. The total appropriation by District No. 5 was $28,617.47 to cover the general
construction contract, plus additional costs of digging an artesian well, fencing, grading, landscaping, architectural
fees and legal fees. This 1936 red brick building was the only District No. 5 school facility, serving grades K-8, from
until 1946 when 9.95 acres of the Irving Lehman estate, 3/10 of a mile away at 390 N. Ridge Street, was acquired.
When the $23,000 bond financing on top of a proposed $5,500 cash outlay was unanimously approved 46-0 at the
February 7, 1936 District No. 5 referendum vote, it was pointed out in The Daily Item reporting how a $28,500
project cost for a projected K-8 enrollment of 25, was essentially $1,100 per student, which the reporting claims to
exceed that which is typically spent on high schools with more extensive infrastructure requirements..
In a February 10, 1936, The Daily Item editorial and other news articles, a recurring theme was how District No. 5
(Town of Rye) was a rural school district (large in geography, small in population) whereby many children of its
wealthy residents with large farms and country estates, didn’t even attend District No. 5’s grade K-8 school and that
the arrangement of District 5 students attending grades 9-12 at Port Chester High School in District No. 4 on a
tuition basis, was perhaps inequitable, since the per pupil tuition didn’t fund what it costs to build, maintain and
operate District 4 schools. This tension between Districts No. 4 and 5 continued until the BBHS was built in 1973.
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To illustrate the difference in the Town of Rye school districts, below are the 1936-37 budget amounts, per district,
as reported on October 5, 1936, in The Daily Item:
District 1 (Rye Neck) $225,014.64
District 2 (Milton) $150,791.22
District 3 (Rye) $205,399.95
District 4 (Port Chester) $533,735.37
District 5 (King Street) $ 5,000.00
District 6 (Rye-Harrison) $ 11,822.72
For added context: The Daily Item reported the following District No. 5 annual budget amounts:
May 8, 1930 article: $5,000 for the 1929-30 school year; and $6,500 adopted for the 1930-31 school year.
May 8, 1940 article: $9,333 for the 1940-41 school year, whereby The Daily Item, also reported that Anton C.
Stauttener of Port Chester, holding a MA degree from NYU, was both Principal and teacher of the “upper grades”
at the K-8 school with enrollment of 43 pupils at that time; his salary increasing by $100 to $2,100. Elizabeth
Coulter teaching the lower grades; her salary increasing by $100 to $1,400 for said 1940-41 school year.
February 11, 1937 photo & caption from The Daily Item, showing the brand-new, 1936 District No. 5 school on 0.929-
acre at 431 N. Ridge Street, serving ~25 students in grades K-8 that was still referred to as the King Street School.