Why is the Lovely Home at 467 Pelhamdale Avenue Only 18 Feet Wide on a 25-Foot-Wide Lot?

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There is a lovely, and some might say unique, two-story home located at 467 Pelhamdale Avenue in the Village of Pelham Manor that is only eighteen feet wide.  Moreover, it sits on a lot that is only twenty-five feet wide.  It is similar in design (though not exactly the same) as the home design known in other regions of the country as "shotgun style."  How did such a unique home come about?

The story behind the home at 467 Pelhamdale Avenue is fascinating and sheds interesting light on the history and growth of the Village of Pelham Manor.  The story begins in the earliest years of the village and, some might say, even before.  

With the coming of the Branch Line Railroad to Pelham Manor in 1873, a group of enterprising landowners formed the Pelham Manor & Huguenot Heights Association to develop and sell lots and homes in the region.  By that time, the Town of Pelham (which then included City Island, Hunter's Island and today's Pelham Bay Park) long had been considered a summer resort area and, indeed, a wealthy playground for affluent New Yorkers who wanted to summer -- or live -- away from the City.  

The men behind the Pelham Manor & Huguenot Heights Association hoped to trade off the concept that the Pelham Manor region was a respite from New York City for affluent New Yorkers.  It marketed and sold large lots intended for large homes.  The early deeds included restrictions intended to ensure that the community would develop as an affluent residential suburb without a commercial center or any manufacturing facilities, and no small homes.

With the onset of the Panic of 1873 and the profound economic depression that gripped the nation for years thereafter, the Pelham Manor & Huguenot Heights Association failed.  Its lands were sold in foreclosure, most bought by Silas Witherbee whose daughter married Robert C. Black of the jewelry firm Black, Starr & Frost.  After Witherbee's death, Mrs. Black and members of her family sold much of the land, continuing to nourish the community and guide its growth as an affluent residential destination with large lots and large homes.

In about 1889, however, the Pelham Manor community suffered a shock.  A company named the Pelhamdale Land Company backed by two women named Theresa Crocauer and Adela Payn was able to acquire about twelve acres of land that included, among other properties, a group of properties within the area bounded today by Pelhamdale Avenue, Manor Lane, and Siwanoy Place.  The company promptly announced that it would carve the acreage into several hundred small lots of 25 x 100 feet, 25 x 115 feet, 50 x 50 feet, and a few more sizes.  The company planned to sell an average lot within the acreage for what, in Pelham Manor, was the comparatively inexpensive price of $800.

The move by the Pelhamdale Land Company to acquire Pelham Manor lands and carve them into tiny lots was completely understandable from a business perspective.  As one local newspaper put it:

"Pelham Manor, which narrowly escaped annexation to New York along with the other villages of Westchester county recently taken in, is by far the most beautiful of the suburban places hereabouts.  The legion of land boomers that have their hands upon the Westchester county suburbs look with envy and amazement upon it and grow dizzy with mental calculations of how much money could be made by cutting it up into lots twenty-five by a hundred and auctioning off the place with the aid of a free lunch and a brass band."

"MRS. THERESA CROCAUER" Of the Pelhamdale

Land Company.  Source: EXCLUSIVE PELHAM

MANOR, The World [NY, NY], Nov. 20, 1892, Vol.XXXIII,

No. 11,415, p. 25, cols. 1-3 (access via this link requires paid

subscription).  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

"MRS. ADELA PAYN" Of the Pelhamdale

Land Company.  Source: EXCLUSIVE PELHAM

MANOR, The World [NY, NY], Nov. 20, 1892, Vol.XXXIII,

No. 11,415, p. 25, cols. 1-3 (access via this link requires paid

subscription).  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

All of Pelham Manor was horrified by the move to create such small lots to be sold so inexpensively.  The entire Village feared an entire development of tiny homes on tiny lots along one of the principal thoroughfares in the village.  Pelham Manor, it seemed, was at risk of appearing a little less affluent, at least in the minds of those horrified Pelham Manor residents of that time.  In 1892, a newspaper report describing Pelham Manor in glowing terms included, as an aside, the following:  the "section owned by the Pelhamdale Land Co., represented by Mrs. Theresa Crocauer and Mrs. Adela Payn, is an eyesore to the owners of mansions, because it is in the heart of the Manor and so can't be overlooked."  A local newspaper described what seemed to bother Pelham Manor residents in such a context.  It said:

"Pelham Manor lies between the southern parts of Mount Vernon and New Rochelle, close to the northern boundary of Pelham Bay Park, and a short ride from the Sound.  It is the only place within twenty miles of New York where the poor are not always with you.  There are no poor folks in Pelham Manor.  Neither are there any Queen Anne Cottages.  Most of the houses are so large, so substantial and so stately that it seems on a first visit almost like a village of palaces.  Many palaces of considerable fame must be considerably smaller than several of the enormous private houses in Pelham Manor."

At first the Pelhamdale Land Company lots sold briskly in the $800 range.  As sales began to slow, however, the company simply reduced the price of the lots to about $400, reigniting sales.  

A New York City real estate brokerage named MacLay & Davies established by Isaac Walker MacLay and William E. Davies handled all sales of the Pelhamdale Land Company properties.  MacLay served as Vice-President of the Pelhamdale Land Company.  William E. Davies served as the corporate secretary of the company.  The brokerage peddled the lots effectively and sold most of the lots.

Occasionally, as lot owners defaulted on payments, records reflect that the Pelhamdale Land Company pursued and obtained judgments typically in the amount of about $50.  Slowly the area developed and lovely homes were built on the comparatively small lots.

One lot, however, was never developed.  It was a small lot only twenty-five feet wide fronting on Pelhamdale Avenue.  The story as to why it was not developed is an odd one.

During the late 1890s, a host of Pelham Manor landowners in the area opposed the idea of laying trolley tracks on Pelhamdale Avenue and running trolley cars up and down the avenue.  At least two lawsuits were filed, though they ultimately were unsuccessful.  See Tue., Apr. 19, 2005:  Pelham Manor Residents Fight Construction of the Toonerville Trolley Line.  

As part of the effort to block the construction of the trolley line, Pelham Manor residents encouraged some of their trusted New York City friends who did not plan to live in Pelham to purchase lots so that they would be taxpayers eligible to oppose the trolley in certain contexts.  With this in mind, a New York City attorney bought the tiny little 25-foot wide lot.

Soon the trolley line was built along Pelhamdale Avenue.  The New York City lawyer never did anything with the lot he purchased.  It sat undeveloped for many years.  During the Roaring Twenties, however, a man named August Ackerman bought the lot (as well as a couple of other nearby lots).  He was able to sell the other nearby lots rather quickly, but had trouble selling the narrow 25-foot wide lot.  After failing in efforts to sell the lot to adjacent property owners and after paying property taxes on the lot for several years, he concluded that he needed a return on his investment.  In 1929 he filed plans for the construction of an eighteen-foot wide house on the lot.  Having filed his plans he sought a building permit.  

Once again, Pelham Manor residents were horrified, fearful for some reason that a small home on a small lot would somehow undermine the continued perception that Pelham Manor was an affluent suburb that attracted wealthy New Yorkers seeking a respite from the City.  The Pelham Manor Association obtained a ten-day delay in the issuance of the building permit to give the group time to mount an offensive against construction of the narrow home.  

The Pelham Manor Association convinced Mayor Joseph N. Greene to be arbitrator to resolve the "disagreement."  But, there really was nothing to resolve.  The small lot was unrestricted and Ackerman was entitled to the building permit.  Thus, "negotiations were not arranged" and, on Monday, October 14, 1929 -- only about two weeks before the stock market crash of 1929 and the end of the Roaring Twenties -- the building permit for construction of the shotgun-style home was issued.  

The die was cast.  The lovely home we know today as 467 Pelhamdale Avenue was built and continues to stand today.

View of the 18-Foot Wide Home on 25-Foot Wide Lot Located at

467 Pelhamdale Avenue in July, 2016 on Lot Once Part of the Area

Owned by the Pelhamdale Land Company. NOTE: Click on Image to Enlarge.

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"The section owned by the Pelhamdale Land Co., represented by Mrs. Theresa Crocauer and Mrs. Adela Payn, is an eyesore to the owners of mansions, because it is in the heart of the Manor and so can't be overlooked. It consists of a dozen acres and has been sliced up into several hundred lots, 25 x 100, 25 x 115, 50 x 50, etc. 

It was three years ago that this land was cut up. Most of the lots were sold at $800 each. At this figure these enterprising women have been doing a rushing business. Since September lots here are quoted at $400 each."

Source: PELHAM MANOR -- AN AMERICAN VILLAGE HELD EXCLUSIVELY FOR THE RICH, St. Louis Post-Dispatch [St. Louis, MO], Nov. 27, 1892, p. 12, cols. 1-3.

"Judgments. . . .

KELLER, Esbon B. -- The Pelhamdale Land Company....................50 [dollars]"

Source:  Judgments, N.Y. Times, Nov. 18,. 1896, p. 15, col. 4 (Note:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).  

"Judgments. . . . 

PEARCE, John K. -- The Pelhamdale Land Company.....................51 [dollars]"

Source:  Judgments, N.Y. Times, Dec. 25, 1896, p. 12, col. 4 (Note:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).

"Elections and Meetings. . . . 

THE ANNUAL MEETING of the Stockholders of The Pelhamdale Land Company for the election of Directors for the ensuing year, and for the consideration of such other business as may properly come before the meeting, will be held at the office of the company, No. 44 Pine Street, in the City of New York, on the eighteenth day of January, 1897, at two o'clock in the afternoon.

Transfer books will be closed until after the election.

WILLIAM E. DAVIES, Secretary.

Dated January 7, 1897."

Source:  Elections and Meetings. . . . THE ANNUAL MEETING of the Stockholders of The Pelhamdale Land Company, The Sun [NY, NY], Jan. 14, 1897, p. 9, col. 6 (Note:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).  

"THE ANNUAL MEETING of the stockholders of The Pelhamdale Land Company, for the election of directors for the ensuing year and for the consideration of such other business as may properly come before the meeting, will be held at the office of the Company, 67 Wall Street, on the 19th day of January, 1903, at two o'clock in the afternoon.  Transfer books will be closed from the 8th day of January, 1903, to the 20th day of January, 1903.  WILLIAM E. DAVIES, Secretary.

Dated January 3rd, 1903."

Source:  THE ANNUAL MEETING [Legal Notice], The Sun [NY, NY], Jan. 6, 1903, p. 10, col. 1.  

"PELHAM MANOR TRACT CHANGES HANDS.

Maclay & Davies have sold for the Pelhamdale Land Company to James M. Hanley a plot of fifty-two lots fronting in Pelhamdale ave., Pelham st. and Manor Lane, Village of Pelham Manor."

Source:  PELHAM MANOR TRACT CHANGES HANDS, New-York Tribune, Aug. 25, 1906, p. 8, col. 3 (Note:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).

"OBITUARY.
-----
MAJOR ISAAC WALKER MACLAY.

Major Isaac Walker Maclay, U.S.A. (retired) who helped to carry President Lincoln out of Ford's Theatre after his assassination, died on Tuesday night at his home, No. 304 Palisade avenue, Yonkers.  Although he had been ill for nearly two years, his death was unexpected.

Born in New York City in 1841, Mr. Maclay was graduated from New York University with the class of '60, and from the Military Academy four years later with the rank of second lieutenant.  Following his graduation he was made instructor of artillery to the 69th New York Volunteers at Fort Wadsworth, holding this post for several months, when he was transferred to the ordnance corps at the Washington arsenal, where he remained for two years.

Major Maclay saw service at the Watertown arsenal and was assistant superintendent of the Springfield armory.  He also served as chief ordnance officer of the Department of the Platte and assistant ordnance officer of the Watervliet arsenal, at West Troy.  He was a member of the board appointed to estimate the value of the arsenals at Rome, N.Y., Vergennes, Vt., and Fayetteville, N.C.  Later he was connected with the Rock Island arsenal, and after a short time at that post retired from active military service to become assistant topographical engineer of the Department of Parks, in this city.  He also helped in the laying out of the streets and avenues north of 155th street and the 24th and 25th wards after their annexation.  He resigned from that post to become chief engineer of the Long Island Railroad.  

With William E. Davies, Major Maclay established the real estate firm of Maclay & Davies, with which concern he remained actively engaged up to the time of his death.

In company with two other officers Major Maclay attended Ford's Theatre on the night President Lincoln was shot by J. Wilkes Booth, the actor.  He was the first to reach the President's side, and with the assistance of his friends carried him to a rear room.  Then he went for Dr. Dodd, the President's family physician, after which he was detailed to guard the home of Mr. Seward, the Secretary of War.

Major Maclay was vice-president of the Pelhamdale Land Company, a director of the Westchester Trust Company, and the People's Savings Bank of Yonkers.  He was a member of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Municipal Art Society, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Municipal Art Society of New Jersey and New York, the Real Estate Exchange, the Yonkers Library and Historical Society, the New York Zoological Society, the American Forestry Association, the American Museum of Natural History, the Association of the United States of the Military Academy, the Sons of the Revolution, the Veteran Corps of Artillery, the Society of the War of 1812, and numerous other societies and clubs.  He had served on various important commissions in Yonkers, and in June, 1906, was appointed a member of the Rapid Transit Commission of Yonkers.  In 1869 Major Maclay married Miss Laura A. Havemeyer.  She, with two sons and three daughters, is living.

The funeral will be held to-morrow at 11 o'clock.  The burial will be in the family plot at Woodlawn Cemetery."

Source:  OBITUARY -- MAJOR ISAAC WALKER MACLAY, New-York Tribune, Dec. 31, 1908, p. 7, col. 3 (Note:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).  

"Permit Granted For Eighteen Foot House
-----
August Ackerman To Build Narrow House on 25 Foot Lot In Heart of Pelham Manor Residential District
-----

In spite of the protest of the Pelham Manor Association, August Ackerman will build his 18 foot house on a narrow lot in the heart of Pelham Manor's residential district.  Building Inspector Arthur Telford issued the permit Friday and ground was broken on the 25 foot lot on Pelhamdale avenue Saturday.  No word has been heard from those who so strongly opposed the move.

The narrow lot is the only unrestricted parcel of land in the residential district.  It is situated on the westerly side of Pelhamdale avenue between Witherbee avenue and Manor Lane.  It was originally sliced off the Pelhamdale Land Co.'s property for a New York attorney several years ago to establish him as a taxpayer and qualify him in an attempt to block the trolley franchise on Pelhamdale avenue.  Ackerman purchased it several years ago with adjacent property which had been restricted.  

Sales of the restricted lots did not include the narrow lot and after paying taxes on it for several years Ackerman sought a return.  Owners of abutting property were not in position to undertake the purchase, so he filed plans for a narrow building.  The permit was withheld for ten days at the request of the Pelham Manor Association which sought to arrange a settlement.  Mayor Joseph N. Greene agreed to be arbitrator, but negotiations were not arranged.

Monday night the building inspector announced that the construction of the narrow house would proceed."

Source:  Permit Granted For Eighteen Foot House -- August Ackerman To Build Narrow House on 25 Foot Lot In Heart of Pelham Manor Residential District, The Pelham Sun, Oct. 18, 1929, Vol. 20, No. 29, p. 1, col. 7.

"Pelham Manor's Distinction.
-----
A SUBURBAN SETTLEMENT THAT LOOKS LIKE A VILLAGE OF PALACES.

Pelham Manor, which narrowly escaped annexation to New York along with the other villages of Westchester county recently taken in, is by far the most beautiful of the suburban places hereabouts.  The legion of land boomers that have their hands upon the Westchester county suburbs look with envy and amazement upon it and grow dizzy with mental calculations of how much money could be made by cutting it up into lots twenty-five by a hundred and auctioning off the place with the aid of a free lunch and a brass band.

Pelham Manor lies between the southern parts of Mount Vernon and New Rochelle, close to the northern boundary of Pelham Bay Park, and a short ride from the Sound.  It is the only place within twenty miles of New York where the poor are not always with you.  There are no poor folks in Pelham Manor.  Neither are there any Queen Anne Cottages.  Most of the houses are so large, so substantial and so stately that it seems on a first visit almost like a village of palaces.  Many palaces of considerable fame must be considerably smaller than several of the enormous private houses in Pelham Manor.  

The village has no shops, no street railway, no cobbles, and no spindle-like trees set at regular intervals and protected with wooden boxes.  It is as unlike an ordinary suburban village as anything that can well be imagined, for it has no saloons, and its politics are of the rosewater sort.  Its shade trees, which run the length of all the streets in double and sometimes triple rows, are mostly giants of the forest spared when the village was laid out.  It has a small and picturesque church, a much smaller and even more picturesque chapel, and a parsonage that looks almost mediaeval.  It has likewise severe local laws that strike terror into the hearts of the few tramps that find so retired a place.

The people of Pelham Manor are thoroughly satisfied with themselves and their village.

Nevertheless, they do import New Yorkers to give a foreign flavor to home society.  They are so well pleased with their retired situation that they do not mind coming to New York by slow and infrequent trains or going over to New Rochelle for faster ones.  They even profess discomfort at the prospect of a trolley line, and they are glad that the boundary of the latest annexation leaves them out. -- N. Y. Sun."

Source:  Pelham Manor's Distinction -- A SUBURBAN SETTLEMENT THAT LOOKS LIKE A VILLAGE OF PALACES, MOUNT VERNON DAILY ARGUS, Jul. 15, 1895, Vol. XIII, No. 1003, p. 3, col. 2.  

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Detailed and Fascinating Description of the Village of Pelham Manor in 1892

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As suburban development gained momentum in the Pelhams during the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, real estate puff pieces about the desirability of living in the "exclusive" community appeared in a wide variety of newspapers in New York City and the surrounding region.  I have documented such puff pieces on a number of occasions.  See, e.g., Tue., Apr. 28, 2015:  A 1910 Real Estate Puff Piece About "The Pelhams" -- Description of the Attractions of the Three Villages of the Pelhams Published in 1910.  

Today's posting to the Historic Pelham Blog transcribes a fascinating real estate "puff piece" about the Village of Pelham Manor on November 20, 1892, only a year after the village was first incorporated.  The article portrays Pelham Manor as an "exclusive" enclave inhabited by "Members of the '400' and Those Just Out of It."  (The reference to "the 400" is a reference to the four hundred most fashionable socialites of the day.)  

The article contains a great deal of interesting early information about the Manor Club and the original Manor Club clubhouse, the Priory, the home once owned by Henry B. B. Stapler on the Esplanade, and much, murch more.  It describes the status of property developments throughout the incorporated village and in an unincorporated section adjacent to the village at the time.  

In addition to its text, the article included a number of sketches of various buildings and persons referred to in the article.  Both the text and the sketches appear below, followed by a citation and link to their source.  (I have inserted the sketches roughly where they appear within the text of the article.)

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"EXCLUSIVE PELHAM MANOR.
-----
Where Members of the '400' and Those Just Out of It Reside.
-----
BUILT ON A PICTURESQUE BLUFF OVERLOOKING THE SOUND
-----
The Priory, the Duchess de Dino's Country Place ,and H. B. B. Stapler's $35,000 Mansion -- From a Business Point of View It Is a Good Place for Investment -- One Mile from New Rochelle and Three from Mount Vernon.

Delightfully situated on the northern border of Pelham Bay Park, the biggest of Gotham's greenwood possessions, on a high bluff quietly sloping to Long Island Sound, is Pelham Manor -- picturesque, fashionable, exclusive.  It is on the Harlem River branch of the New Haven Railroad, three miles north of the village of Westchester, and one mile south of bustling New Rochelle.  It is just above the line of the proposed annexation of Westchester County to the metropolis.

It would be difficult to find a more ideal spot for a luxurious home.  The scenery is unsurpassed.  The Manor lies on a romantic piece of ground several miles in diameter, at a high elevation gradually rolling down to the Sound, which at this point is dotted with green islets.  Below is the park with its 1,750 acres of natural woodland beauty.

Pelham Manor is one of the few exclusive suburbs of New York.  Here those able to do so erect mansion homes on wide expanses of land and then beautify their possessions to their hearts' content.  It is the one place within easy reach of the city that has baffled the real estate speculator with his 25x100 foot lots and $2,500 cottages.

It is true that two energetic Harlem real estate women have secured a slice of land there and are cutting it up and laying it out in defiance of the exclusive atmosphere of the place.

Pelham Manor, in addition to its scenic beauty, offers about every other inducement that people of refined taste and long purse could well ask.  It has fashionable boarding-schools; it has a feudal-looking manor-house, the coutnry seat of a real duchess; the blue-blooded New York Athletic Club has here its grounds, and most of the residents are rich and of good stock.  

Pelham Manor people are more sociable than is usual among folk so exclusive.  They have a village club-house, where everybody makes merry with everybody else.  Here they have amateur theatricals once a month.  

The village manor house, as this club-house is called, is a long, narrow, one-story building, of unique design, half of stone and half of wood, with unstained shingle exterior.  It was built thirteen years ago, at a cost of $10,000.  The main floor is an ampitheatre, with a stage and gallery.  In the basement is a brilliant hall for the men folk, who must, however, submit to having their tables shoved into the corners when sociables are held and dancing-room is needed.  A bowling-alley and a kitchen are also on the premises.  The building is on the Esplanade, the most fashionable thoroughfare in the village, and stands on an acre and a half of land.  Among those active in the management of the theatricals are Mrs. J. F. Secor, Jr., H. E. Dey, C. F. Roper and Mrs. H. B. B. Stapler.

Fully nine-tenths of Pelham Manor is tolerably safe from people of modest means, the land being held by rich owners, who will sell only in tracts of not less than an acre and then only to 'desirable' parties.

It was in 1872 that Pelham Manor sprang into existence.  The Huguenot Heights Association, composed of the Stevens Bros. and S. H. Witherby [sic; should be Witherbee], the latter an iron miner, of Port Henry, sunk [sic] all their money in the enterprise.  They bought at the start some two hundred acres.  Four years later came the panic of of 1876 and then land could be bought at $200 per acre -- a little over $14 per lot.  Witherby bought out his two partners, and his daughter, Mrs. Mary George W. Black ,is one of the largest owners of Pelham Manor property to-day.

One year ago Pelham Manor was incorporated, with James M. Townsend, jr., the well-known Broadway lawyer, as its President.

The Esplanade is the central street in Pelham Manor.  It is 90 feet wide and through the centre for its entire length runs a pretty pathway 25 feet wide,.  One side is macadamized, but the other isn't.  This is because Mrs. Black owns nearly the whole side of the street and she had it macadamized at her own expense.  The Esplanade runs from the railroad station to the Boston Post Road, and along it are built some of the finest residences.  Twenty villas, each standing on a plot of from 16 to 40 lots, take up the whole thoroughfare, and there is no land here for sale.  There is not even a fence on the street or between the plots.  Land here is considered to be worth whatever the owner may want.  The last sale occurred two years ago when R. R. Hardock bought an acre for $6,000 and on it built a $12,000 house.  

Assistant District Attorney Stapler owns a two-acre plot.  He paid $15,000 for it four years ago, including the house which stood upon it.  This was calculated to be at the rate of about $4,000 per acre for the land.  He has since purchased an acre and a half more and has spent $20,000 in improvements.  The house was designed by Richardson and is perhaps the finest in Westchester County.  Its lower story is built of field boulders.

Not a mark of a chisel is to be seen on any of these stones which project boldly with plaster slapped in between in a way that looks careless but isn't.  The house is two and a half stories high and has a variety of porches, verandas and piazzas.  It occupies a ligh eminence and is admirably suited to its surroundings.  It has some twenty rooms.  In it reside Mr. and Mrs. Stapler and their five bright children.

At the rear of the house is Mr. Stapler's private club-house, a story and a half in height, and built of the same material as the house, it has a large billiard hall.

"THE STAPLER MANSION, AT PELHAM MANOR."

Immediately Below is a Recent Photograph of the

Stapler Mansion, Known as "Stone Croft" that Still Stands.

To Learn More, See:  Tue., Jan. 13, 2015:  "Stone Croft"

on the Esplanade, Once the Home of Henry B. B. Stapler.

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

Stone Croft with Stables (Later, Carriage House)

Partially Visible to the Right of the Home.

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

In Pelham Manor there is no place pointed to with more with more pride than the Priory, a gray stone mansion a century old and having a history.  It is situated on top of a high bluff overlooking the Sound in a delighfully laid out park of fifteen or twenty acres.  The wood is one of the most picturesque in the vicinity and is laid out in circular drives and walks with gardens, lawns and groves.  The Priory is two and ahalf stories in height and looks like a feudal castle with its two quaint turrets.  Mrs. Bolton was one of its earlier occupants.  She kept a young ladies' seminary, and here some of the women of the Knickerbocker stock of the metropolis received their education.  After her came John C. Furman, a brother-in-law of John C. Waterbury, President of the Country Club and member of the Four Hundred.  Mrs. Stevens who married the Duke de Dino and who was formerly a pupil in the seminary, purchased the old Manor ten years ago.  F. M. Jenks, of the Fourt Hundred, leased it from the Duchess and lived there awhile.  The next occupants were the Van Cortlandts, from whom Van Cortlandt Park was named.  They moved two years ago, and now the house is being made ready for the Duchess de Dino's daughter, who latedly married Fred H. Allen.  There are several cottages on the grounds for the servants, and here also stands the old Priory Church, which has been presented to the Presbyterian parish.

"'THE PRIORY,' AT PELHAM MANOR.

On the northwest boundary of the village on the old Boston Road is a three-story, gray cut-stone house with a flat roof and a piazza, in which Frederic R. Coudert was brought up.

The largest house in Pelham Manor is that of Robert C. Black, the Fifth avenue jeweller.  It stands on a four-acre plot.  It was bought at the rate of $200 an acre, and has increased in value to over $6,000 per acre.  The house is three stories in height, and is of the colonial style, with a broad piazza running all the way around it.  The house cost some $30,000, and is the most handsomely furnished in the Manor.

Benjamin F. Corlies, of Corlies, Macy & Co., of Nassau street, lives in a quaint house of colonial type on the Esplanade.  It is a 'shingle and field-stone' house, a species Pelha Manor is partial to.  Near Mr. Corlies's house are two boarding schools, erected by him at a cost of $40,000.  Mrs. Hazen conducts the schools, and has forty-five young ladies in her charge.

Joseph Arthur, author of 'Blue Jeans' and 'The Still Alarm,' lives in a $10,000 cottage that stands on an acre and a half of land fronting on Wolf's lane.  He can often be seen driving behind the two well-trained horses used in 'The Still Alarm.'

Alongside Mr. Arthur's house is the home of E. T. Gillilande, of the Edison Company.  The house and the acre of land on which it stands cost $21,000.  Mr. Gilillande has since built an office and work-rooms on the premises.  He is an electrical expert and spends his time experimenting on inventions.

The land in the market in and about the village is for sale mostly in big tracts only.  On the northwest part of the Manor, beyond the Boston turnpike.  Isaac Rodman owns between fifteen and twenty acres, on which stands the Coudert mansion.  House and land are in the market at $75,000.  Next, on the south,, is a tract of about thirty acres, owned by Lord & Taylor, which is for sale at $30,000.  Then comes a tract owned by Secor, of about seventy acres, which is not very high land, and is in the market at from $3,000 to $5,000 per acre.  Along the western boundary is the Ropes property, consisting of ten acres, owned by Isaac Rodman.  This land has no improvements and is offered at $1,500 per acre in a lump.

Prospect Hill is next in order and it breaks the icy reserve of exclusiveness.  Here stand a dozen neat cottages, which cost from $1,500 to $3,500 each.  Land on the hill can be bought in half-acre plots.  The Parkside Land Company, just outside the boundaries of the Manor, is in the hands of M. J. Denton, Pelham Manor's real estate man.  Here lots can be had of almost any size, 25x100, 50x100, 100x100, half acre and acre plots.  Twenty-five-foot lots can be had at $250, and larger tracts are offered for sale at the rate of from $2,500 to $5,500 per acre.

To the south is the Black property, some fifty acres.  It is in the market for sale in acre tracts.  A dozen handsome cottages, costing from $4,000 to $10,000 each, have been erected here, most of them standing on one-acre plots.  The Priory property adjoins this, and then comes a tract of twenty-five acres owned by Mr. Roosevelt.  This is being cut up and is for sale in not less than acre plots at $4,000 and upward.  Mr. Roosevelt has another ten-acre tract between the Black property and the Sound, which will be cut up in the spring, and to give it a good send-off and show what he thinkis of it the owner will erect a $15,000 house and spend $10,000 on the grounds.

The section owned by the Pelhamdale Land Company, represented by Mrs. Theresa Crocauer and Mrs. Adela Payn, is an eyesore to the owners of mansions, because it is in the heart of the Manor and so can't be overlooked.  It consists of a dozen acres and has been sliced up into several hundred lots, 25x100, 25x115, 50x50, &c.

It was three years ago that this land was cut up.  Most of the lots were sold at $300 each.  At this figure these enterprising women have been doing a rushing business.  Since September lots here are quoted at $400 each.

"MRS. THERESA CROCAUER."

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

"MRS. ADELA PAYN."

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

Westchester County up to the northern limit of Pelham Bay Park will doubtless soon be annexed to New York City, which will give the people of Pelham Manor the advantage of city improvements without expensive city assessments.

The Westchester Water Company began laying a main line of water pipes here a year ago and is now laying out branches.  With the $40,000 recently voted great improvements will be made in the streets.  There are hourly trains over the Harlem River branch road, and trains every half hour are promised next season.  It is but thirty minutes to Harlem by train, and the lure is 22 cents a day by communtation.  The New Haven road will, it is said, make this branch its main line."

Source:  EXCLUSIVE PELHAM MANOR, The World [NY, NY], Nov. 20, 1892, Vol. XXXIII, No. 11,415, p. 25, cols. 1-3 (access via this link requires paid subscription).

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