Where Was Anne Hutchinson Park? Even Pelham's Town Board Did Not Know at Tax Time!

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The entire Town Board was huddled in the Board room at Town Hall on the evening of Wednesday, May 18, 1938.  To a man, they were scratching their heads in puzzlement.  Finally, they could stand it no longer.  One of them blurted out to the crowd seated in the public section:  "Where is Anne Hutchinson Park?"

Pelham, it seemed, had a park that few knew existed.  It sounded like a lovely park.  The melodic name of "Anne Hutchinson" remains to this day a name spoken sonorously and with profound respect within the boundaries of the little Town of Pelham.  Every schoolchild knows that the famed Anne Hutchinson moved in 1642 to the region that became the Manor of Pelham.  Yet, on that Wednesday evening in 1938, no one seemed able to answer the question "Where is Anne Hutchinson Park?"

Finally an informed reporter for the local newspaper, The Pelham Sun, broke the uncomfortable silence in the board room.  The Village of Pelham Manor had created the park nearly two years before.  

It was, indeed, a lovely park.  It was adjacent to the Pelham Manor Station that once stood on the Branch Line near today's Manor Circle.  It was located on a tiny plot of land bounded on the east by the plaza in front of the station, on the north by Pelhamdale Avenue, on the west by Terrace Avenue (a roadway destroyed when I-95 was built), and on the south by Esplanade.  A detail from a map published in 1914 shown immediately below shows the tiny strip of land that formed the park.

Detail from Map Published in 1914 Showing a Sliver

of Land Designated as Owned by "Mary G. W. Black"

Bounded by Pelhamdale Avenue, Terrace Avenue,

Esplanade and the Pelham Manor Station Plaza.  The

Plot was Designated "Anne Hutchinson Park" by the Village

of Pelham Manor Board of Trustees in May, 1936.

Source:  "Pelham Manor" in Bromley, G.W., Atlas of Westchester

County, N.Y. Pocket, Desk and Automobile Editiion, Vol. I, p. 129

(NY, NY:  G. W. Bromley & Co., 1914).  NOTE:  Click Image to Enlarge.

The tiny little park no longer exists.  The area it once encompassed now lies beneath the concrete behemoth we know today as I-95 -- the New England Thruway.

Anne Hutchinson Park was the brainchild of Town Historian William R. Montgomery in 1936.  He proposed to the Village of Pelham Manor Town Board that the tiny little area be designated "Anne Hutchinson Park" in recognition of "the heroism of Anne Hutchinson who settled in this region in 1642, after being exiled from Massachusetts, in a religious controversy."  

Little seems to have been done to publicize the creation of the new park.  Within a year or so, the park already was the butt of trivia questions trying to test local residents' knowledge of Pelham minutia.  See Quiz Proves Knowledge Can Be Gained In Adult School After Classes -- Amusing "Information Please" Program is Presented at Eleventh Night Entertainment.  Local Experts Know Enough to Correct Authorities, The Pelham Sun, Dec. 15, 1939, p. 12, cols. 4-5 (Answer to "Information Please" trivia question was "Anne Hutchinson park is located in Pelham Manor between the Esplanade and Pelhamdale avenue, adjacent to the New Haven railroad branch line.").  There was even talk of erecting a memorial tablet at the little park in further honor of Anne Hutchinson, but that never seems to have been done.  See PELHAM BATTLE ANNIVERSARY WILL BE OBSERVED IN PROGRAM PLANNED BY TOWN HISTORIAN, The Pelham Sun, Jul. 8, 1938, p. 1, cols. 1-2 ("As a memorial to Anne Hutchinson, the first white settler in this section, a Memorial Tablet is to be erected at Anne Hutchinson Park in Pelham Manor at the southerly end of the Esplanade."). 

It seems that even the Village of Pelham Manor -- the very entity that created the little park -- forgot its existence.  Law at the time provided that municipal property dedicated as a park would be assessed for the nominal sum of one dollar for purposes of the Hutchinson Sewer Tax Act.  When the Town of Pelham assessed the property and sought payment of the full sewer tax for the property in 1937, the Village of Pelham Manor dutifully paid the tax without question.  

That all changed in 1938.  That year the Town of Pelham assessed the property as valued at $14,000 and issued a sewer tax bill of $11.41 to the Village of Pelham Manor.  This time the village issued a letter of protest citing a decision providing that "village property used for park purposes is to be assessed at the nominal assessment of one dollar."

That protest led to the meeting held on Wednesday evening, May 18, 1938 at which the Town of Pelham officials sat huddled, scratching their heads and asking "Where is Anne Hutchinson Park?"  A headline in the local newspaper two days later screamed, tongue in cheek, "11.41 Tax Bill For Anne Hutchinson Park Gives Town Board Opportunity To Find Out Where It Is Located."

Local Newspaper Article Noting That Town Board

Did Not Know Location of Anne Hutchinson Park.

Source:  $11.41 Tax Bill For Anne Hutchinson Park
Gives Town Board Opportunity To Find Out Where It Is Located,The Pelham Sun, May 20, 1938, Vol. 29, No. 7, p. 1, cols. 1-2.

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

That evening, the Town Assessor was called before the Town Board.  He defended himself saying that "the assessors had not been previously notified that the property in question was a park" and emphasized that "Pelham Manor paid taxes on the property last year."  The Board ended the meeting by instructing the Town Attorney to ask Village of Pelham Manor officials "to submit proof that the property has been dedicated as a park" which, presumably, they did.

Tiny little Anne Hutchinson Park sat quietly and without fanfare even after the Branch Line railroad ended its regular commuter service and the Peham Manor station closed (and later reopened as the headquarters of a model railroad club).  The tract disappeared beneath the concrete of I-95 when that superhighway was constructed in the 1950s, a victim of transportation progress.

"Anne Hutchinson Park Is Proposed In Peham Manor
-----

At the suggestion of Town Historian William R. Montgomery, the Pelham Manor Board of Trustees on Monday night, took steps to officially designate the park adjacent to the Pelham Manor depot of the N.Y., N.H. & H.R.R. branch line 'Anne Hutchinson Park.'  The Town Historian will be asked to prepare an official document relative to the history of Anne Hutchinson, to be filed in the village archives.

Mr. Montgomery proposed the designation of the park in recognition of the heroism of Anne Hutchinson, who settled in this region in 1642, after being exiled from Massachusetts, in a religious controversy."  

Source:  Anne Hutchinson Park Is Proposed In Peham Manor, The Pelham Sun, May 28, 1936, p. 3, col. 6.  

"$11.41 Tax Bill For Anne Hutchinson Park Gives Town Board Opportunity To Find Out Where It Is Located
-----

Protest of a tax bill prompted the Town Board to do a little historical research on Wednesday night.  A letter of protest against the $11.41 tax bill against property known as Anne Hutchinson Park in Pelham Manor was received by the board and this prompted the question, 'Where is Anne Hutchinson Park?'  None of the village or town officials present could answer the question and it remained for a Pelham Sun reporter to inform them that the small park adjacent to the Pelham Manor station of the New Haven Branch Line was recent[ly] officially designated 'Anne Hutchinson Park' by the Pelham Manor Board of Trustees.  The park extends from Pelhamdale avenue to the Esplanade and fronts on Terrace avenue.  

The Hutchinson Sewer Tax act provides that municipal property owners . . . shall pay sewer taxes the same as private property, but Village Attorney Edgar C. Beecroft in his letter of protest called attention to a recent decision which provides that village property used for park purposes is to be assessed at the nominal assessment of one dollar.  The town tax roll lists Anne Hutchinson Park at $14,000 and a sewer tax of $11.41 has been levided against it.

Assessor Edward B. Harder informed the board that the assessors had not been previously notified that the property in question was a park.  'Pelham Manor paid taxes on the property last year,' he said.  'We didn't know but what they were going to do so again.'

Town Attorney George Lambert was authorized to ask the village officials to submit proof that the property has been dedicated as a park."

Source:  $11.41 Tax Bill For Anne Hutchinson Park Gives Town Board Opportunity To Find Out Where It Is Located, The Pelham Sun, May 20, 1938, Vol. 29, No. 7, p. 1, cols. 1-2.

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