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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08 Subdivisions pg 257-279 part PC BB 2026-06-01 ...1004AM 257 Chapter 08: Rye Brook subdivisions partially within PCRUFSD & BBRUFSD The following Rye Brook residential subdivisions are partially within the PCRUFSD and the BBRUFSD: Tamarack Gardens (1929) ... ~132 of the homes are in the BBRUFSD. The balance in PCRUFSD. Rye Brook (1950) * entirely in the PCRUFSD, but it is presented in this group, since it was built at the same time during 1950, by the same developer as the Rye Hills subdivision across Lincoln Avenue. Rye Hills (1950) ... 33 of the 119 lots in BBRUFSD ... the other 86 lots in PCRUFSD. Candy Lane (1986) ** All 14 homes in BBRUFSD. Presented here due to proximity to Tamarack Gardens. Deer Run (1987) *** All 12 homes in BBRUFSD. Presented here due to proximity to Rye Hills. Hidden Falls (1989) ... ~10 of the 60 homes are in BBRUFSD ... the other ~50 are in PCRUFSD. Oak Ridge (1947) ... **** All 27 lots in PCRUFSD. Presented here due to proximity to Tamarack Gardens. The below ArcGISÔ mapping [ https://arcg.is/ifHqC ] shows the division line that separates the Blind Brook (BBRUFSD) and Port Chester (PCRUFSD) school districts ... running east from the Harrison boundary at the Blind Brook, just south of Deer Run … then running east through Jennifer Lane, Rye Hills Park, the Hidden Falls subdivision and Ridge Boulevard, before heading northeast on an angle through Windsor Road and Sylvan Road properties … then crossing Betsy Brown Road and heading north/northeast through Byram Ridge properties ... and crossing King Street & Comly Avenue to the NY/ CT state line. Close-up of 2022 ArcGIS ESRI mapping of Westchester County school districts, shows the boundary between District 5 (BBRUFSD) and District 4 (PCRUFSD) that in 1812 went straight across (east) from Ridge Boulevard to Greenwich CT border near Quintard, Drive, but now follows the 1868 Port Chester municipal boundary. 258 Tamarack Gardens subdivision (1929) at Ridge Street Revised Map of Tamarack Gardens in the Town of Rye, NY filed August 6, 1930 with the Westchester County Register. Scanned by the County Clerk as two folios, due to size. This map supersedes the Tamarack Gardens map filed July 26, 1929 as Map 3472 with County Clerk. Approx. 132 of the Tamarack Gardens homes are within the BBRUFSD. 259 Rye Brook **** subdivision (1950) at Lincoln & Westchester Avenues Developers Aaron Diamond and Ira Berne of Yonkers-based Berne Construction, acquired two tracts of 24.693 acres in January 1950 (Rye Brook) and 40 acres in March 1950 (Rye Hills), respectively, at opposite corners of Westchester & Lincoln Avenues, for their 1950 Rye Brook (67 lots) and 1950 Rye Hills (119 lots) subdivisions that flanked Lincoln Avenue. Both projects, aggregating 186 lots on 64.7 acres, were built at the same time during 1950, on farmland once owned by grocer Joseph Park of Park & Tilford ... and then his son, Hobart J. Park, after Joseph’s death in 1903. In January 1950, Berne Construction affiliate, Berknol Realty Corporation, acquired 24.693 acres at the northwest corner of Westchester Avenue and Lincoln Avenue, for a subdivision they named “Rye Brook,” abutting the Blind Brook behind 12 of the homes on Brook Lane. They immediately deeded it to their Murdock Woods, Inc. entity. **** NOTE: The name of this subdivision was selected 32 years before that same name was selected as the name of the new village in the northernmost portion of the Town of Rye that incorporated as the Village of Rye Brook in July 1982. The 1950 Rye Brook subdivision included 67 ranch style homes on grade (concrete slabs ... no basements) on minimum 10,000 sf lot sizes (R-10 zoning) in this post-war housing development intended to appeal to veterans. Map of Rye Brook ... Town of Rye, NY, prepared January 26, 1950 by surveyors John M. Farley & Co., Inc. and filed February 21, 1950, as Map 7004 with the Westchester County Clerk’s Office. 67 lots on 24.693 acres. 260 Rye Hills (1950) ... 33 of the 119 lots are within BBRUFSD; 86 lots in PCRUFSD Berne Construction’s second development was the ~40-acre tract acquired by their Murdock Woods, Inc. entity in April 1950 from Property Holdings, Inc. (Wall Street financier Otto Marx) for the 1950 Rye Hills subdivision at the eastside of Lincoln Avenue, with an additional 119 homes (Ranch style and Cape Cod style). Again, both the 1950 Rye Brook (67 lots) and 1950 Rye Hills (119 lots) subdivisions were built at the same time during 1950, on farmland once owned by Joseph Park and then his son, Hobart J. Park, as heir, after Joseph’s death in 1903. Above: Map of Rye Hills, Town of Rye, NY, prepared by surveyors John M. Farley & Co., Inc. and filed May 17, 1950, as Map 7064 with Westchester County Clerk’s Office. Lots 1-103. 33 of the 103 lots in BBRUFSD with the other 70 in PCRUFSD. Below: Map No. 2 of Rye Hills, Town of Rye, NY, prepared by surveyors, John M. Farley & Co., Inc., filed four weeks later on June 13, 1950 as Map 7093. Lots 104-119. All 16 of the below lots in PCRUFSD. Overall: 86 of the total 119 Rye Hills lots are within PCRUFSD, and 33 are in the BBRUFSD. 261 Candy Lane (Blind Brook Estates ... 1986) ... All 14 lots/homes in BBRUFSD Subdivision Map of Blind Brook Estates (14 homes/ lots along Candy Lane) filed January 17, 1986, as Map 22406 with the Westchester County Clerk. 262 Deer Run (1987) ... All 12 lots/ homes in BBRUFSD Subdivision Map of Kenneth Loewentheil and Daughter Inc. (14 homes/ lots along Deer Run) filed August 3, 1987, as Map 22873 with the Westchester County Clerk. 263 Hidden Falls (Rye Brook Estates ... 1989) ~10 of 60 homes in BBRUFSD ... the other ~50 in PCRUFSD Subdivision Map of Rye Brook Estates (Hidden Falls) filed July 28, 1989 as Map 23809 with the Westchester County Clerk. ~10 of the 60 homes in BBRUFSD ... the other ~50 in PCRUFSD. 264 The 256-acre, Knollwood Farm assembled by Edgar F. Price in 1915-1927 Edgar Field Price (1872-1935), an engineer who retired in 1925 as Vice President of the chemicals company, Union Carbide, spent his business career at several companies, where he notably: (a) innovated the commercial uses of acetylene; (b) built an entire village in Sweden during World War I, to house workers for an important mining operation; and (c) developed a water power plant in Norway, for which he was conferred the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav, First Class. Mr. Price assembled ~256.26 acres of land in 1915-1927 from the former farms and country estates of Hobart J. Park, William Slater and the Thomas Lyon Farm along Ridge Street, Lincoln Avenue, Westchester Avenue and Bowman Avenue for his Knollwood Farm country estate and working dairy operation of breeding prized herds of Guernsey cattle. Excerpts of 1929 G.M. Hopkins atlas, Plates 42 (above) & 39 (below), showing 256.26 acres of Edgar F. Price, as: 133.75 acres north of Westchester Avenue to Crawford Park ... between Ridge Street and Lincoln Avenue. 107.81 acres south of Westchester Avenue to Bowman Avenue .... from Ridge Street west to Purchase Street in Harrison. 14.698 acres south of Bowman Avenue ... from Ridge Street west to the Harrison boundary at the Blind Brook. 265 Excerpt of 1910 G.W. Bromley atlas, Plate 37, showing 256.26 acres acquired in 1915-1927 by Edgar F. Price from: Hobart J. Park (109.5 acres at Ridge Street, Westchester & Lincoln Avenues in 1915, for $136,848.75) ... Laura B. Seybel (19.7 acres at Ridge Street, south of Crawford property in 1916*) ... Thomas Purdy (10.2 acres + 47.4 acres of Thomas Lyon Farm flanking Bowman Avenue in 1920) ... Benjamin O’Shea (5 acres east of Ridge Street, opposite Price’s Pond, in 1920) ... Frank C. Mertz (4.5 acres south of Bowman Avenue in 1921, abutting Blind Brook, formerly of Park’s Mill/Farm) ... Hobart J. Park’s Shanorocke Realty Corp. (60.4 acres south of Westchester Avenue, straddling the Blind Brook ... the centerline being the boundary between the Towns of Rye and Harrison ... in 1927). NOTE: The 19.7-acre, Seybel tract at Ridge Street, abutting the Crawford estate, was purchased by Edgar F. Price in May 1916, from John William Kiser, a wealthy, retired bicycle manufacturer from Chicago, subject to a $90,000 purchase money mortgage from Kiser, who purchased the land nine months earlier in August 1915 for $160,000 from the executors of the Estate of Daniel Edward Seybel, following his suicide at the Ridge Street property in May 1915, a month after his 57th birthday. Seybel’s wife, Laura Baldwin Seybel, purchased adjoining parcels of: (a) the 19-acre Slater homestead from heirs of Harriet Newman Slater (1822-1908) in November 1905 that had long been in the family of her late husband, William Slater (1812-1891); and (b) a 0.7129-acre parcel from Hobart J. Park in March 1906. Tragically, Laura B. Seybel died in 1912 at age 44. Their daughter Lalla Seybel died 1 day after birth in January 1902, and son Daniel Edward Seybel, Jr. died in April 1904 at 2 months of age. All four members of this Seybel family are buried at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla (cemetery photos below via Find A Grave ™ website). 266 Edgar F. Price’s stately mansion of his 256-acre Knollwood Farm, was situated very close to its northern property line, shared with 36.7-acre, Edna & Everett L. Crawford estate and their circa-1907, Shanarock Farm mansion to the north. The Price mansion was reportedly built in 1908 on a 19.7-acre parcel, with its curving driveway and stone wall at 102 North Ridge Street), by its prior owner, Manhattan-based real estate attorney, Daniel Edward Seybel (1858-1915) and his wife, Laura Baldwin [née Morton] Seybel (1867-1912). The 29-room, 8-bath mansion was situated at the current Rye Hills Park lawn area immediately south of the basketball court and driveway cul-de-sac. Above: The circa-1908, Knollwood Farm mansion of Edgar F. Price from page 71 of the 1917 Views of Rye book, self-published by prominent Rye realtor, Blakeman Quintard Meyer (1882-1952). Meyer, B. Q. (Blakeman Quintard). Views of Rye / [Blakeman Quintard Meyer]. [New York]: B. Q. Meyer, 1917. The book is available in the Library of Congress online at: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/scd0001.00142243969 Below Left: 2009 Aerial View of 6.7-acre, Rye Hills Park via Town of Rye Assessment Office website photo in the SDG Imagemate Online database. Below Right: Excerpt of 1929 G.M. Hopkins atlas Plate 42 shows the proximity of the Knollwood Farm mansion to the Crawford mansion and their shared property line. 267 1925 flyover survey #12841-268 (below) and close-up excerpt (above) by Underwood & Underwood from the Historical Aerial Photograph Collection -- Westchester County GIS, showing 129 acres of the 256-acre, Edgar F. Price Knollwood Farm ... bounded to the west by Lincoln Avenue, south by Westchester Avenue, east by Ridge Street and to the north by Edna & Everett L. Crawford’s 36.7-acre Shanarock estate. Their mansions (Crawford on the right of each photo, and Price on the left of each photo) being so close to each other. 268 Left: Photo of Edgar Field Price via Find A Grave™ website, purportedly from a 1923 US Passport application https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/58273563/edgar-field-price#view-photo=49994202 , Center & Right: Obituary for Edgar F. Price in The New York Times on April 16, 1935, the day after his death at age 62. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 269 Re-development of Edgar F. Price’s 256-acre, Knollwood Farm Edgar F. Price’s Estate and widow Ida Owen Price sold his ~256-acre Knollwood Farm via three (3) 1940 deeds: (1) 5 acres at eastside of Ridge Street to local developer Theresa Lombardi on January 4, 1940, that Became the 1947 Oak Ridge subdivision, with 27 lots along Maywood Avenue & N. Ridge Street. Oak Ridge (1947) ... **** 27 lots entirely within PCRUFSD Above: Map of Oak Ridge, in the Town of Rye, NY, prepared October 15, 1940 by surveyor J.A. Kirby & Co. and filed July 17, 1947, as Map 6369 with the Westchester County Clerk’s Office. Below: This 5-acre tract is shown on the 1929 G.M. Hopkins atlas, Plate 39 excerpt (below) and on Plates 41 & 42 (see next page). As reported in The Daily Item on September 1, 1921, on this 5-acre site of a former iron mine, Mr. Price erected a 148’ long x 44’ wide barn to hold 42 cows plus two abutting grain silos (each being 30 feet above ground by 12 feet in diameter), to feed his Knollwood Farm’s prized herd of Guernsey dairy cows that as of April 1923 was reported as 123 registered (accredited) cows. 270 1929 G.M. Hopkins atlas, Plate 42 (above) and Plate 39 (below) showing portions of Edgar F. Price’s 256-acre, Knollwood Farm at Ridge Street, with tracts on both sides of Westchester Avenue, Bowman Avenue and Ridge Street, including the 5-acre portion that became the 1947 Oak Ridge subdivision with 27 lots. 271 (2) Contiguous parcels of 10.195 acres and 4.509 acres at the southside of Bowman Avenue, between Ridge Street and the Blind Brook, were sold to Gertrude De Mane on May 3, 1940, for $7,500. Her husband and PGA golf pro Nick De Mane, turned the 10.195 acres into the Ridge Street Golf Range from 1940-1958. That 10.195-acre site became the 1961 Rye Ridge Shopping Center on 13 acres, with the other three acres acquired by DeMane from the abutting 1924 Chester Terrace subdivision. The 4.509-acre parcel was sold by DeMane in November 1948 to roadway construction contractor, Barber & Coccola, Inc., of Rye for their use as a quarry over the next several decades. They sold the former quarry 45 years later in November 1993 to K&M Realty Group, Ltd., for re-development that spent over two decades on & off, before the Rye Brook Planning Board and Board of Trustees under various subdivision applications. It was referred to as “The Keyhole Site” because of the shape of the Bowman Avenue peninsula of land jutting into the large pond within the Blind Brook that was created as the excavated Barber & Coccola quarry site filled up with water. As of 2026, the 4.509-acre site consists of the 2.12-acre, Rye Ridge Park purchased by the Rye Ridge Shopping Center owners and the 1.92-acre The Pointe townhouses (including underwater areas). The Pointe ... ten townhouses completed in 2016 on the ~1.3-acre peninsula at the southside of Bowman Avenue where the two branches of the Blind Brook merge ... just west of the 13-acre Rye Ridge Shopping Center that opened in November 1961. November 1960 flyover survey #389-218 by American Air Surveys, Inc. from the Historical Aerial Photograph Collection -- Westchester County GIS, showing clockwise, what as of 2026 are the sites of the aforementioned: 2975 Westchester Avenue, 1 Webb Avenue, 800 Westchester Avenue, 760 Westchester Avenue, 113 Bowman Avenue (Port Chester Middle School) & The Pointe townhouses at Bowman Avenue, adjacent to the Rye Ridge Shopping Center, shown under construction at the bottom right of this 1960 flyover photo. At the upper left center of this photo, you can see the 1950 Rye Brook subdivision developed by Aaron Diamond and Ira Berne of Berne Construction with streets named Brook Lane, Jean Lane, Phyllis Place and Sunset Road, as well as homes along the north side of Westchester Avenue and west side of Lincoln Avenue. 272 (3) Two weeks after May 25, 1940, public auction bids aggregating $31,500 were rejected, Manhattan- based financier, Otto Marx, Jr. (who lived at Orienta Point on the water at Mamaroneck Harbor), through his Lincwest Corporation entity, acquired nine (9) parcels aggregating 236.56 acres or 92.3% of Edgar Price’s 256.26 acres in the Towns of Rye and Harrison for $40,175, under a deed dated June 7, 1940. So, the land Mr. Price acquired in 1915-1927 for over $300,000, only fetched $40,175 for 92.3% of it, in a depressed 1940 real estate market. May 31, 1940 The Daily Item, page 11 article detailing the May 25, 1940 auction yielding only $31,500 that ended up getting rejected by the Edgar F. Price executors, who instead sold the 199.873-acre balance of the Knollwood Farm a week later on June 7, 1940 to financier Otto Marx’s Lincwest Corporation, a single-purpose entity for the transaction. 273 Between 1941-1943, Otto Marx’s Lincwest Corporation sold small parcels at 80, 88, 90, 92, 100 & 102 N. Ridge Street with Knollwood Farm buildings abutting Price’s Pond and the eastern branch of the Blind Brook, to individual homeowners, plus a 33.592-acre tract in Harrison, aggregating 37.0084 acres, as follows: (a) the 0.649-acre parcel at 80 N. Ridge Street to Christen and Hulda Kolding on July 31, 1943; (b) the 1.54-acre parcel at 88-90 N. Ridge Street to James A. Smith & Evangeline Payne on November 16, 1942, following a prior deed dated August 29, 1940 from Lincwest Corporation (subject to a $7,700 Purchase Money Mortgage) to Emalyne F. Clark, who died 2 weeks later on September 13, 1940 at United Hospital; (c) the 0.5984-acre parcel at 92 N. Ridge Street to Concetta Zeno on November 12, 1941; (d) the 0.629-acre parcel at 100 N. Ridge Street to Dorothy & Herman A. Schupp on August 14, 1941; and (e) the 33.592-acre tract in Harrison bounded by Purchase Street, Bowman Avenue, Westchester Avenue and the Blind Brook border with the Town of Rye (now Rye Brook) on June 6, 1941, to Sid & Miriam Hydeman, which as of 2026 is: (i) a portion of the Cross Westchester Expressway (I-287); (ii) the Webb Avenue right-of-way; (iii) the Webb Avenue office building with 2975 Westchester Avenue address built in 1985; and (iv) the 1 Webb Avenue residential apartment building under construction in 2025-2026. Above Left: Survey of Property to be Conveyed to Emalyne F. Clark, in the Town of Rye, prepared by surveyor Chas. H. Sells, Inc. and filed September 3, 1940 as Map No. 5210 (known as the 1.54-acre, 88-90 N. Ridge Street lots, conveyed to Mrs. Clark on August 29, 1940 ... 2 weeks before her September 13, 1940 death). Above Right: Survey of Property to be Conveyed to William Carlucci et al, in the Town of Rye, prepared by surveyor Chas. H. Sells, Inc. and filed April 7, 1941 as Map No. 5346 (known as the 0.41-acre, 102 N. Ridge Street). 274 4 ½ years after Wall Street financier, Otto Marx, through his single-purpose, Lincwest Corporation, purchased 236.56 acres of the 256-acre Knollwood Farm in June 1940, Lincwest sold their remaining 199.873 acres of the former Edgar F. Price farm to Property Holdings, Inc. (“PHI”) on December 21, 1944. As reported in a series of 1944-1945 newspaper articles, there was discussion at Rye Town Council meetings of a massive residential development project by a joint venture of Long Island-based builder developer (and contract vendee) Airway Homes, Inc. and Property Holdings, Inc. that 651 homes (later revised to 700 homes) might be built on the remaining ~200 acres of Edgar Price land. September 26, 1944 The New York Times, page 31 article (above left) and October 29, 1945 The Daily Item, page 1 article (above right). 275 Rye Hills Development Corp. (1946) ... 38, 40 & 42 South Ridge Street *entirely within the PCRUFSD Property Holdings, Inc. used the name of Rye Hills Development Corp. on its plat map for a 3-lot subdivision at the southwest corner of Ridge Street and Westchester Avenue as filed in April 1946 (shown below), in what appears to have been a preliminary step in their ambitious 700-unit development scheme ... undoubtedly intended as sites for model homes at the highly visible intersection of Westchester Avenue and Ridge Street. The three lots at 38, 40 & 42 South Ridge Street had building permits issued in December 1945 to Property Holdings, Inc. Survey of Property of Rye Hills Development Corp., in the Town of Rye, NY, prepared by surveyor D.B.Metcalf and filed April 3, 1946, as Map 6048 with the Westchester County Clerk’s Office. NOTE: This 3-lot, 1946 subdivision at South Ridge Street, whereby Property Holdings, Inc. used an entity “Rye Hills Development Corp.,” should not be confused with the 1950 Rye Hills subdivision of 40 acres at Lincoln Avenue into 103 lots by other developers Aaron Diamond and Ira Berne of Berne Construction. Having built only three (3) houses at 38, 40 & 42 S. Ridge Street in 1946, instead of the proposed 700 units touted in the September 26, 1944, The New York Times and at Rye Town Council meetings, between August 1948 and January 1960, Property Holdings, Inc. sold off almost the entirety of its December 21, 1940 acquisition of 199.873 acres, as follows: (i) 40 acres sold in March 1950 to Murdock Woods, Inc. (developers Ira Berne & Aaron Diamond) for their 1950 Rye Hills subdivision at the east side of Lincoln Avenue, north of Westchester Avenue; (ii) 3.559-acre site at 90 South Ridge Street (northwest corner of Bowman Avenue) sold by PHI to Citizens-New York, Inc. on August 2, 1950. It remained as vacant land for another 15 years until 1965 when the offices & showroom for The Donald Art Company, relocating from Mamaroneck, was built. It is essentially the same structure seen in 2026, with mostly interior renovations occurring over the years; 276 (iii) the adjacent 0.826-acre site at 111 Bowman Avenue, a former farmhouse dating back to the Thomas Lyon Farm (1850-1920), was sold by PHI to Vivian Rodvogin on August 27, 1948, for single-family residential use, before conversion to office use in 1962 by a subsequent owner; (iv) 24 acres, abutting the above mentioned 38, 40 & 42 South Ridge Street lots and 111 Bowman Avenue, was sold to the Port Chester school district on January 17, 1964, to build a new grades 7-8, Port Chester Junior High School (later converted in Summer 1982 to the grades 6-8, Port Chester Middle School) at 113 Bowman Avenue; (v) 14.247 acres sold on May 28, 1954 by PHI to The Dickbar Corporation that became the 1963 Rye Ridge Garden Apartments complex (2-story garden apartments) that was built as “rentals” at a new, horseshoe-shaped roadway named Avon Circle at the northwest corner of Ridge Street and Westchester Avenue, but then converted in 1975 to condominium ownership as the Rye Ridge Condominiums ... a project that people generally refer to as Avon; (vi) ~68.82-acre tract at the north side of Westchester Avenue between Lincoln Avenue and Ridge Street) was sold by PHI to developer Arthur Marros on January 26, 1960, who sold it a decade later in December 1970 to a joint venture of the Hilton Corporation that built the 1973 Rye Town Hilton hotel on 35.609 acres at 699 Westchester Avenue ... with ~7-acres donated to the Town of Rye for a Rye Hills Park. The 1989 Hidden Falls subdivision of 60 homes on 26.211 acres fronting onto N. Ridge Street was built on the remainder of the tract by the same developer who would go on to develop BelleFair at 1200 King Street in 1998; (vii) the 19.338-acre site at 760 Westchester Avenue sold by PHI to Reciprocal Realty Inc. on April 13, 1949, which became the 2-story, red brick, building to house a group of fire & casualty insurance companies in 1950, before the property was sold in 1955 to the Royal McBee Corporation (a 1954 merged Fortune 500 company producing Royal typewriters, McBee accounting machines & supplies). The property was sold again in 1961 to General Foods Corporation. (viii) the abutting 25.987-acre site at 800 Westchester Avenue in the Town of Rye was sold by PHI to Time, Incorporated on April 5, 1951. Four months later in August 1951, Time, Inc. acquired the contiguous Harrison parcel of the ~30-acre portion of the former ~33.592-acre tract previously sold by Lincwest Corporation to Miriam & Sid Hydeman on June 6, 1941, which parcel Edgar F. Price had acquired from Hobart J. Park in July 1927. NOTES: The 1959 condemnation of ~11.5 acres of Time, Inc.’s ~30-acre Harrison tract for the construction of the Cross Westchester Expressway (I-287) and Webb Avenue, running parallel to I-287 to connect Bowman and Westchester Avenues, left remaining Town of Harrison parcels of: (i) 8.41 acres that became the 4-story office building erected in 1985 at Webb Avenue using a 2975 Westchester Avenue address; and (ii) the 10.5-acre vacant parcel in Harrison between Webb Avenue and the Blind Brook, which combined with the aforementioned 25.987-acre, 800 Westchester Avenue parcel, became the General Foods headquarters campus, containing a one million square foot building in Rye Brook with office space and parking decks at 800 Westchester Avenue that opened in June 1983 next to its 19.338-acre, 760 Westchester Avenue campus with the red brick, former Reciprocal Realty/ Royal McBee building. After single-tenant occupancies of the combined site since 1983 by General Foods, who was acquired in 1985 by Phillip Morris Companies, Inc., which was then re-branded as Altria Group, Inc. in 2003, the 55-acre, 760-800 Westchester Avenue property was sold in September 2004 and converted for multi- tenant use. As of 2026, the long-vacant, 10.5-acre, Harrison parcel ... bounded by the Blind Brook, Bowman Avenue, Webb Avenue and Westchester Avenue, is under construction as a 5-story, residential project with 200 units at 1 Webb Avenue in Harrison, NY. 277 The Noble School (1941-1955) at 699 Westchester Avenue before the 1973 Rye Town Hilton The Edgar F. Price / Knollwood Farm mansion sitting on 3 acres of the otherwise vacant 68.82-acre tract acquired by Lincwest Corporation in June 1940 and then by Property Holdings, Inc. in December 1944, with driveways at both Westchester Avenue and North Ridge Street just south of Ridge Boulevard, was leased to The Noble School from 1941 through June 1955. It’s owner and operator, Miss Annie Ellis Roberts (1878-1954), who immigrated to Massachusetts from Wales, UK at age 6, in 1884, passed way in May 1954 at The Noble School, at age 76. Her younger sister, Mrs. Caroline Ryan, was a teacher and helped run the school. Above Left: April 10, 1941, The Daily Item article regarding the leasing of 3 acres containing the Knollwood Farm mansion for use by The Noble School, a private boarding school that relocated in 1941 from Forest Avenue in Rye. The headline citing a “purchase” is in error. Above Right: September 17, 1941 ad for The Noble School in The Daily Item newspaper. Anecdotes re: Edgar Price estate: (1) I remember a picnic lunch in 1969 at age 12 with my Pine Ridge next door neighbor, Tommy Byrnes of 43 Lincoln Avenue, at the long-abandoned Edgar F. Price/ Knollwood Farm mansion that was very close to Mrs. Edna Crawford's mansion. We walked along Lincoln Avenue past James Talcott’s 24- acre, densely wooded, Bramble Hill estate and up through Mrs. Crawford’s Lincoln Avenue meadows towards the Crawford mansion. Mrs. Crawford generously allowed kids to play on her property ... especially sledding during the winters. Sometimes seeing Mrs. Crawford at the rear lawn of her home. Sitting with our back against the tall concrete wall at the border of the Crawford/ Price properties, we ate our picnic lunch while staring at the rear facade of the spooky, abandoned circa- 1908, Edgar F. Price mansion that was a large white, clapboard house with broken windows. We 278 always wondered what it was like inside, but we never had the guts to wander inside or even get close to it. In our imagination, it was a haunted house. (2) Kids growing up in the 1950s through 1970s will also remember the elevated pond with a waterfall near Ridge Street, just west of the Maywood Avenue intersection, as Price's Pond that is now the centerpiece of the 1989 Hidden Falls “conservation subdivision” of 60 homes that includes 9 or 10 homes within the Blind Brook school district, with the rest in the Port Chester school district. It took almost 50 years from the June 1940 sale of the ~256-acre, Edgar F. Price estate for this last 26- acre parcel to be re-developed as the 1989 Hidden Falls at Ridge Street. Improvements to the 7-acre Rye Hills Park were completed by the Village of Rye Brook. The combination basketball court/ three pickleball courts are located in what was the rear yard of the circa-1908 Knollwood Farm mansion that was also within what is now Rye Hills Park ... very close to the wall separating it from the circa-1905 Edna & Everett Crawford mansion at the center of what became Crawford Park in 1974. See sketch from the July 21, 1970 The Daily Item on the next page and you will see just how close the Knollwood Farm mansion was to the north property line shared with the Crawford property. 1925 flyover survey #12841-268 by Underwood & Underwood from the Historical Aerial Photograph Collection -- Westchester County GIS, showing the large farms & estates north of Westchester Avenue (visible at the left edge of photo), between Ridge Street (bottom of photo) and Lincoln Avenue (top of photo). Left to Right: (1) an ~100-acre portion Edgar F. Price’s ~266-acre, Knollwood Farm ... (2) Edna & Everett Crawford’s 36.7-acre, Shanarock Farm ... (3) Katherine & Edwin Allen’s 22-acre, Elm Hill Farm ... (4) John I. Downey’s 51-acre estate ... (5) Sophie & George C. Clausen’s 22-acre homestead that later became known as Red Roof Farm ... (6) Katherine & Dunlevy Milbank’s 66-acre Ridgeland ... and (7) part of Emma Merritt’s remaining 100-acre farm known as the Merritt Homestead/ Farm dating back 150 years. 279 July 21, 1970, The Daily Item sketch & caption, showing 68.82-acre site and layout of: (1) the proposed 35.609-acre, 1973 Rye Town Hilton, and what became (2) the 7-acre Rye Hills Park where the 1908 Knollwood Farm mansion was situated, and (3) the 26.211-acre, 1989 Hidden Falls subdivision with 60 homes surrounding Price’s Pond with dam.