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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06 Chapter pg 201-225 Recreation Waterfront, Rye VPC Banking 2026-06-01 ...1004AM 201 Chapter 06 Recreation and Waterfront Development in the Town of Rye These following series of 1893, 1910 and 1929 maps show development of the Long Island Sound watershed where the Blind Brook and Byram River flow into Rye’s Milton Harbor and the Port Chester Harbor, respectively ... and their freshwater origins at Rye Lake near the County airport and Byram Lake in the Town of North Castle. While the Port Chester Harbor and Byram River were once known for shipbuilding, fishing and waterfront-adjacent industry, the only sustained, waterfront recreation developed within the Town of Rye, has been in the City of Rye, with: (i) side-by-side, Manursing Island beachfront, membership clubs: the 1914 Manursing Island Club (8.01 acres) and the beach club component (44.6 acres) of Harrison’s 1922 Westchester Country Club; (ii) the three membership clubs along Stuyvesant Avenue at Milton Point (the 1933 Coveleigh Club, the 1946 Shenorock Shore Club and the 1887 relocation of the 1883 American Yacht Club from New York City to the 12-acre tip of Milton Point plus the Scotch Caps rock formation); (iii) the Town-owned, 1909 Rye Town Park/Oakland Beach consisting of 28.1 acres plus 34.5-acre Long Island Sound water grant of May 12, 1910; and (iv) the County-owned, 1928 Playland Amusement Park with its own bathing beach, swimming pool and Playland Lake (formerly Manursing Lake) used for row boating until 1985, when its 85-acre lake/ marshlands, and 94 acres of uplands were converted into the 179-acre, Edith G. Read Natural Park and Wildlife Sanctuary, as championed by lifelong Rye resident and environmentalist, Edith May [née Gwynne] Read (1904-2006). The following pages featuring atlas mapping from 1893, 1910 and 1929, show the various waterfront/ coastal areas of the Town of Rye and the 1904 Village of Rye that later incorporated as the City of Rye in 1942 ... with bodies of water such as Rye Lake, the Blind Brook, Milton Harbor, Playland Lake, Mill Pond (Kirby Pond) and the Long Island Sound ... and the Byram River that empties into Port Chester Harbor. They are all part of the Long Island Sound watershed as the 2011 Westchester County Major Drainage Basins map at the end of this section, illustrates. 1893 Joseph R. Bien atlas, Plate 17, Towns of White Plains, Harrison & Rye. 202 Excerpts of the 1910 G.W. Bromley & Co. atlas, Plates 34 (left) and 35 (right) and Plate 33 (below). 203 1929 G.M. Hopkins atlas, Plate 28 showing Milton Point (Peningo Neck) as the land holdings of the Margaret Stuyvesant Wainwright family evolved into land sales that created: (i) the American Yacht Club at the 499 Stuyvesant Avenue; (ii) the 1924 Milton Point Casino at 475 Stuyvesant Avenue that became the 1946 Shenorock Shore Club; and (iii) the 1933 Coveleigh Club, housed in the former 1904 Richard Tighe Wainwright, 50-room mansion he reportedly called Coveleigh, as the club’s website tells the story of how “Cove” means small bay and “Lea” means meadow. See link to website: https://www.coveleighclub.com/Our_History 204 Above: 1929 G.M. Hopkins atlas, Plate 32 showing Westchester County-owned 280-acre Playland Amusement Park with swimming pool & bathing beach ... and Town of Rye-owned ~28.1-acre Rye Town Park /Oakland Beach property bounded by Dearborn Avenue/ Forest Avenue/ Rye Beach Avenue (with 34.5-acre Long Island Sound water grants dated May 12, 1910) acquired from Augustus M. Halsted by the Town of Rye using eminent domain for park purposes under 1908 NYS Supreme Court litigation that established the acquisition cost in December 19, 1908 Court order at $295,000 paid under April 16, 1909 deed that netted $183,385.29 to Halsted after satisfaction of underlying mortgages and payment by the Town of interest from January 28th to March 8, 1909. Below: Map of Land Belonging to Augustus M. Halsted in Rye Village, prepared March 1906 by surveyors J.A. Kirby and Son, as filed with the office of the Westchester County Register (now the Clerk’s Office) on February 3, 1908 as Map No. 1774. The below March 1906 survey indicates area of 36.339 acres (including 9.4 acres between high and low water marks) ... meaning 26.939 acres of dry land, whereas the above 1929 G.M. Hopkins atlas Plate 32 indicates 28.1 acres of land. 205 1929 G.M. Hopkins atlas, Plate 33 (above in color and below in higher resolution, black & white) continues where the prior Plate 32 left off, by showing the eastern portion of the Westchester County-owned, 280-acre, Playland Amusement Park complex’s Playland Lake (formerly Manursing Lake) used for row boating until 1985, when its 85- acre lake & marshlands plus 94 acres of uplands were converted into the 179-acre, Edith G. Read Natural Park and Wildlife Sanctuary ... that curtailed the County’s proposed Manursing Island Park with additional active recreation of a lakefront beach, lakefront boating docks, another beach on the Sound, athletic fields, and car parking areas. 206 Above: 1929 G.M. Hopkins atlas, Plate 33, as described in prior page with color original. Below: 1927 illustration of Playland, Rye Beach, Westchester County Park System by artist Earl Purdy from the New York Public Library Digital Collections (Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, shelf locator 08-8014) 207 2011 Westchester County Major Drainage Basins map prepared by the Westchester County Department of Planning, and is found on their website, Zoom in on this high-resolution map for closer attention to the various bodies of water such as: (i) the Blind Brook that flows through Rye Brook, Harrison and the City of Rye, into Milton Harbor; and (ii) the Byram River that flows through Armonk, Greenwich CT and Port Chester into the Port Chester Harbor. All being part of the Long Island Sound watershed and basin, which includes a variety of inland and coastal ponds such as Playland Lake and Mill Pond (Kirby Pond) or the inland Kensico Reservoir /Rye Lake near the airport. 208 The Advent of Banking in the Villages of Port Chester and Rye Banking came to the Port Chester and Rye, just a few years prior to incorporations of their villages in 1868 and 1904, respectively. Newly formed banks, each receiving new charters from New York State, opened on the main streets of each village, amidst their retail/business sections, in short walking distance of their train depots. The unincorporated portion of the Town of Rye that incorporated in 1982 as the Village of Rye Brook, got its first bank when the Rye Ridge Shopping Center opened in 1961 with a branch of White Plains-based The County Trust Company (chartered in 1903). 36 years prior to Rye Village getting its first bank (The Rye National Bank) in 1900, the First National Bank of Port Chester formed in May 1864, and leased initial offices for five (5) years at the multi-tenanted, The Abendroth Building at 133 N. Main Street at the northeast corner of Willett Avenue. The First National Bank of Port Chester purchased their own building at 44-48 N. Main Street at the southwest corner of Adee Street, in July 1869. Twenty years later in January 1889, they purchased the lot at 122-124 N. Main Street at the southwest corner of Willett Avenue, where they built their own bank building that opened in August 1890. See photo below. Undated photo of the 1890 First National Bank of Port Chester building at 122-124 N. Main Street at the southwest corner of Willett Avenue, from Westchester County Historical Society archives (Call Number G-03191). 209 Above: Undated photo (circa-late 1890s with unpaved roads) from page 22 of the March 1, 1968, Port Chester Centennial Historical Book, which 74-page book is available digitally from Port Chester Village Clerk’s Office. Looking north, the 1890 First National Bank of Port Chester building at 122-124 N. Main Street (southwest corner of Willett Avenue), built by general contractor, George Mertz & Sons, is at near left. The 1893 Port Chester Savings Bank building at 125 N. Main Street with tower atop its two stories, can be seen at upper right of photo. At left center of photo is the 3-story, red brick, Scott’s Building (with its own clock tower) at 126 N. Main Street aka 109 Willett Avenue that was also built by George Mertz & Sons, for dry goods retailer Samuel Scott & Co., which building opened in October 1887. Below: Circa-1900 photo from Westchester County Historical Society archives (Call Number G-03186) of the Samuel Scott & Co. building at 126 N. Main Street aka 109 Willett Avenue (center of photo), occupied in 1969-1982 by Zemo’s Menswear for 13 of its 55 years on Main Street since 1927. The 1890 First National Bank of Port Chester building is at left. 210 Renamed as the First National Bank and Trust Company of Port Chester, N.Y. on April 10, 1925, the bank demolished its 1890 building in 1926 and built an impressive, one-story replacement that opened for business at 122-124 N. Main Street on August 27, 1927, which structure remains in 2026 as a Chase Bank branch. Above: Circa-1927 photo of 1-story, bank building under construction at 122 N. Main Street (southwest corner of Willett Avenue) for the First National Bank and Trust Company [corporate name change adopted April 1925 to succeed the May 1864 – April 1925 name of First National Bank of Port Chester]. Photo from unknown source, but published on page 32 of March 1, 1968 Port Chester Centennial Historical Book, which 74-page book is available digitally from Port Chester Village Clerk’s Office. Below (L to R): Series of three August 1927 ads in The Daily Item on August 25th, August 26th (full page ad) and August 27th (full page ad announcing Saturday, August 27, 1927 public reception to tour the new First National Bank and Trust Company building at 122 N. Main Street, before opening for business on Monday, August 29, 1927, replacing its location at 44-48 N. Main Street (at Adee Street). 211 The Port Chester Savings Bank opened on June 17, 1865, joining the First National Bank of Port Chester, as tenants in The Abendroth Building at 133 N. Main Street (northeast corner of Moseman Place ... re-named as the beginning section of Willett Avenue, between N. Main Street and Byram River). Excerpt of 1868 F.W. Beers atlas Plate 9 of Port Chester, showing N. Main Street (Boston Post Road) corridor and roads accessing waterfront docks (Left to Right): Lyons Point (Westchester Avenue); Peck’s Point via Adee Street where Jared V. Peck operated building materials business (lumber, brick, hardware, coal, etc.), Moseman Place (Willet Avenue extension) with De Soto House (renamed here as W.P. Purdy Hotel ... see RED arrow), the Abendroth Building (see GREEN arrow) then housing First National Bank and Trust and the Port Chester Savings Bank, as tenants ... and the Peck Dock at the river; Church Street (Highland Street) in the middle of the Abendroth Brothers Foundry; and Mill Street with the bridge across the Byram River into East Port Chester (re-named Byram), CT. Beginning section of King Street, then known as Fountain Street ... and Rail Road Avenue renamed as Broad Street. 212 Moseman Place, was named after Willet Moseman (1786-1863), who along with his wife Lavinia Coe Moseman (daughter of Reuben Coe), owned land on both sides of Main Street, including the famed De Soto House at the southeast corner of Main Street/Moseman Place, which hotel had several subsequent proprietors and name changes Above: Undated photo of the circa-1806 De Soto House hotel, formerly Moseman’s and reportedly built in 1806 as The Pavilion by Reuben Coe of Greenwich, CT. at southeast corner of Boston Post Road (N. Main Street) & Moseman Place (re-named Willett Avenue) from Westchester County Historical Society archives (Call # H-1064). Reuben Coe’s daughter, Lavinia Coe, married Willet Moseman in 1811 and inherited tracts of land on both sides Port Chester’s N. Main Street (Boston Post Road). Below: Map of Property of Isaac B. Merritt filed September 17, 1836, with the Westchester County Register in Vol. 1 at Page 45, showing the De Soto House structure. 213 Historical accounts surrounding the reported 1824 visit by Revolutionary War ally, Marquis de Lafayette, as he rode horseback on route to New England, down the Boston Post Road from New Rochelle to hand-off at Byram Bridge at Port Chester NY/ Greenwich CT border, with stops for dinner at Penfield’s Hotel in Rye (now the Square House home of the Rye Historical Society at 1 Purchase Street, Rye, NY) followed by a reception in Port Chester at the De Soto House, as told by Port Chester Judge Wilcox on page 23 of his 1918 book: The Bar of Rye Township, An Historical and Biographical Record 1660-1918, Arthur Russell Wilcox, The Knickerbocker Press, New York, 1918. 214 After spending 27 years from its June 1865 formation, as a tenant in The Abendroth Building at 133 N. Main Street ... in June 1892, the Port Chester Savings Bank purchased another Abendroth property, across the street at 125 N. Main Street (southeast corner of Willett Avenue), from its first bank President and one of its founders, William Phillip Abendroth (1818-1898), who was also a co-founder of the First National Bank and Trust of Port Chester in 1864. William P. Abendroth, along with brothers Augustus and John immigrated with their parents from Germany to New York City in 1832. Arriving in Port Chester at age 22 in 1840, William founded Rollhaus and Abendroth with a relative, Philip Rollhaus, and their Eagle Foundry and Iron Works became Abendroth Bros. Foundry in 1845, with vast land holdings along the Byram River, stretching inland along Highland and Mill Streets. One of the largest employers in Port Chester, and one of the largest foundries on the East Coast, manufacturing stoves and furnaces, it closed during the Depression, with The Daily Item reporting in a January 10, 1940 article how their business fell off ~75% in 1929 and was in receivership by 1933, with the buildings razed in 1940. Above: Circa-1880 illustration of the Abendroth Brothers’ Eagle Iron & Stove Works factory buildings along the Byram River, Highland Street and Mill Street, via Westchester County Historical Society. Note the Mill Street bridge crossing the Byram River from Port Chester into Byram CT that was once known as East Port Chester. Below: Illustration from circa-1880, 96-page, Abendroth Brothers illustrated Catalogue No. 38 of Stoves and Ranges For Either Wood Or Coal ( https://archive.org/details/CatalogueNo.38CatalogueOfStovesAndRangesForEitherWoodOrCoal/page/n5/mode/2up ). 215 Excerpt of 1910 G.W. Bromley atlas Plate 36, showing the N. Main Street (Boston Post Road) corridor with three (3) bank buildings: the 1901 Mutual Trust Company building at 16 N. Main St.; the 1893 Port Chester Savings Bank building at 125 N. Main Street (labeled on above 1910 map as BANK ); and the 1890 First National Bank and Trust Company of Port Chester building at 122-124 N. Main Street, before its demolition and replacement 17 years later with the new 1927 First National Bank and Trust Company building (abbreviated, corporate name change in April 1925). 216 Circa-1893 photo of the Port Chester Savings Bank building on ~30’ x ~77’ lot at 125 N. Main Street (southeast corner of Willett Avenue ... formerly known as Moseman Place), purchased in June 1892 from William P. Abendroth (1818- 1898), one of bank’s founders and its first President from 1865 until his death in January 1898. Photo of unknown source, but used on page 33 of March 1, 1968, Port Chester Centennial Historical Book, available as PDF from Port Chester Village Clerk’s Office. This Port Chester Savings Bank site at 125 N. Main Street served the bank from 1893 until the new white marble & stone, neoclassical building (shown on next page) was completed in 1926 to replace the demolished, multi-tenanted, Abendroth Building. 217 Undated photo of the 1926 neoclassical Port Chester Savings Bank building at 133 N. Main Street from the John Gass Photograph Collection in the Westchester County Historical Society archives (resource ID# PJG162). 218 The Mutual Trust Company of Westchester County opened in temporary space in June 1901, before building its own bank building at 16 N. Main Street, at the foot of King Street ... facing Liberty Square and Westchester Avenue in Port Chester that opened on May 1, 1902. 1906 photo of Liberty Square bandstand in right foreground with 1-story, Mutual Trust Company (chartered in 1901) that opened on May 1, 1902 at 16 N. Main Street in center of photo. 219 Excerpt of 1910 G.W. Bromley atlas Plate 35 (above), showing the 1-story, brick building at 86 Purchase Street (southeast corner of Purdy Avenue), labeled on the 1910 map as BANK , and depicted (below left) in an early 1900s postcard. Built by property owner J. Mayhew Wainwright, a founder, officer & director of The Rye National Bank (founded in December 1900), following his August 28, 1900 purchase of the 50’ x 100’ lot from Estate of Sarah M. Sniffen, to replace the wood structure that once housed Sniffen’s Fruits & Vegetables store. Below right: Another photo from the Rye Historical Society collection [Catalog no. 1990.11.23] of the circa-1880s, 3-story, wood frame, Budd Building at 83 Purchase Street, which building is labeled in the map as P.O. , as the abbreviation for post office. 220 Charles A. Greer, of the abovementioned, 96-acre Brookside Farm (corner of Purchase Street & Ridge Street), along with other prominent residents of Rye, was one of the founders in December 1900 of the The Rye National Bank ... the first bank in the Village of Rye, which opened for business on January 16, 1901 at a temporary Purchase Street location, while a new bank building was being constructed for their tenancy at 86 Purchase Street. Above: Advertisments in January 17, 1901 (left) and February 14, 1901 (right) of The Daily Item for Rye’s first bank. Below:: Circa-1890 photo from the Rye Historical Society collection [Catalog no. PH94.12.5, provided to them courtesy of Mary Seymour of Seymour Electric] showing the intersection of Purchase Street, Purdy Avenue & Railroad Avenue (now Theodore Fremd Avenue). At the left center of photo, is the wood frame, Sniffen building at 86 Purchase Street (southeast corner of Purdy Avenue), where Sniffen’s Fruit & Vegetable operated. That building replaced by the current brick building. However, across Purchase Street is the circa-1880, 3-story, wood-frame, Budd Building at 83 Purchase Street (right of photo), which still stands in 2026 and housed the post office until 1910, when it relocated to 7 Purdy Avenue where Sunrise Pizza has operated for over four decades since 1982. Read this October 3, 2024 article from The Rye Record: https://ryerecord.com/vintage-rye-the-road-that-helped-build-a-nation/ . The Rye Trust Company, formed in April 1923, opened on July 24, 1923, at 77 Purchase Street in Rye after retrofitting the 2-story, stone building they purchased from the Guerin pharmacy, for bank use with steel bars on windows and bank vaults. One of the founders and Chairman of the Rye Trust Company, was Everett L. Crawford (1879-1960), who resided from 1904 until his death in 1960 at his 36.7-acre Ridge Street estate at 122 N. Ridge Street in what is now Rye Brook ... a property that became Crawford Park in 1973 after his widow, Edna Gregory Crawford (1880-1973) passed away that year and bequeathed it to the Town of Rye in her Last Will and Testament. 221 Above: Excerpt of 1929 G.M. Hopkins atlas Plate 34, confirming that The Rye National Bank had moved across the street from 86 Purchase Street (southeast corner of Purdy Avenue) to its brand new bank building at 73 Purchase Street (southwest corner of West Purdy Avenue) on July 18, 1923, after acquiring the 0.5-acre site from the Rye Free Reading Room (library) on December 1, 1919 and breaking ground on March 7, 1922. Also confirmed in the above 1929 map is the Rye Trust Company occupying the 2, story, stone building at 77 Purchase Street, since their July 24, 1923 purchase from the Guerin family, who had once operated the Guerin Pharmacy there. Below Left: November 26, 1924 ad in The Daily Item newspaper with an illustration of the new, 1-story, limestone building opened by The Rye National Bank on July 18, 1923 at 73 Purchase Street with its name and founding year (1900) etched in the façade. In 1984, 73 Purchase Street became a branch of Chase Manhattan Bank after they acquired Rochester-based, Lincoln First Banks, Inc. in 1984. Chase merged in 2000 with J.P. Morgan and now operates as Chase Bank. Lincoln First Banks had acquired the National Bank of Westchester (“NBW”) in the mid- 1970s, and NBW had occupied the building after its 1960 acquisition of the Rye National Bank, which had merged with and succeeded the Rye Trust Company in 1954. Below Right: Circa-1970 photo of 73 Purchase Street from City of Rye Assessor’s Office Historical Property Record Card showing the 1923 dedicated bank building, still occupied by Chase, 42 years later in 2026 ... in the majestic, century-old, bank building on the City of Rye’s main street. 222 Above: Excerpt of 1929 G.M. Hopkins atlas Plate 34, revised as of 1936, confirming that The Rye National Bank had moved across the street from 86 Purchase Street (southeast corner of Purdy Avenue) to its brand new bank building at 73 Purchase Street (southwest corner of West Purdy Avenue) on July 18, 1923 after acquiring the 0.5-acre site from the Rye Free Reading Room (library) on December 1, 1919 and then breaking ground on March 7, 1922. Also confirmed in ther above map is the Rye Trust Company occupying since July 24, 1923 the circa-___, 2, story, stone building at 77 Purchase Street that Rye’s second bank, purchased on July 24, 1923 from the Guerin family, who had operated the Guerin Pharmacy there. The above map also shows how the post office that moved into the Budd Building at 83 Purchase Street in 1880, moved to 7 Purdy Avenue in 1910 in the space occupied since 1982 by Sunrise Pizza. The above 1936 mapping also shows how Rye Post Office had just relocated again to its 1935 red brick building at 41 Purdy Avenue, where it remains almost a century later in 2026. 223 May 13, 1954, page 3 advertisement in The Daily Item announcing the merger (consolidation) of The Rye National Bank (founded in 1901) and the Rye Trust Company (founded in April 1923) to operate as The Rye National Bank under its charter, as announced in a March 22, 1954, page 2 article in The Daily Item, which disclosed the proposed plan as providing that “Rye Trust Company shareholders will receive 13½ shares of $2 par value shares of the consolidated bank for each $25 par share of Rye Trust Company stock, and The Rye National Bank shareholders will continue to hold their present shares.” 224 Circa-1970s photo from City of Rye Assessor’s Office Historical Property Record Cards showing: (i) the former 1-story building leased by J. Mayhew Wainwright to The Rye National Bank from 1901-1923 at 86 Purchase Street (above), having added a 2nd floor for offices in 1926, after the bank built its own bank building across the street at 73 Purchase Street, as its prior 86 Purchase Street building at the southeast corner of Purdy Avenue, leased retail space to a series of stationers from 1923-1961, until the Lepler Brothers stationery & toy store leased the ground floor in the mid-1950s, and then purchased the building in 1961 plus the adjacent, 3-story, 84 Purchase Street, which Lepler Brothers used for its ground floor retail; and (ii) 83 Purchase Street (below), a circa-1880, 3-story building that originally served as the U.S. Post Office until 1910, then as realtor offices over the years (Katie Holmes in this 1970s photo, then Weichert). 225 Above: Excerpt of April 21, 1980, flyover survey #608-R19-4538 by Keystone Aerial Surveys, Inc. from the Historical Aerial Photograph Collection -- Westchester County GIS. Below: December 23, 1974 The Daily Item photo with caption, showing the massive spruce evergreen on Jean Flagler Matthews’ Brookside estate (formerly Charles Greer) at the intersection of Purchase Street & Ridge Street that was decorated with Christmas lights from 1935-1978.