Historic Pelham: The Three Original Neighborhoods Planned by the Pelham Manor & Huguenot Heights Associations in the Early 1870s

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During the 1870s, real estate speculators who owned lands in the area of today's Village of Pelham Manor began to dream. They formed the Pelham Manor & Huguenot Heights Association to develop a first class, elegant suburban respite from the giant metropolis nearby. Their plans were grandiose. They developed an Esplanade "in the center of which rows of trees are left standing with such care as to give it the appearance of one of the drives in the famous Bois de Boulogne."

They placed the center of the new development at the location we know today as Four Corners. They had a grand plan to build a magnificent church at the corner. The developers flooded the Metropolitan region with handbills, sales brochures, newspaper advertisements, and even a stock prospectus in connection with the sale of shares in the venture.

I have written on numerous occasions about the Pelham Manor & Huguenot Heights Association, as well as the development of the suburb that came to be known as Pelham Manor. See the end of this article for a lengthy list of such postings with links to each.

The Pelham Manor & Huguenot Heights Association developers envisioned three neighborhoods that would form the initial basis of the new development. The three were: (1) Pleasant Ridge Division; (2) Glen Mitchill Division; and (3) Chestnut Grove Division. Where were these three original Pelham Manor neighborhoods? It turns out that one of the three was not even within the boundaries of today's Village of Pelham Manor. Rather, it was within an area now part of Pelham Heights in today's Village of Pelham.

Marketing materials for the Pelham Manor & Huguenot Heights Association shed light on the locations of the three original neighborhoods. In 1875, the Association released a large map entitled "MAP of THREE DIVISIONS AS PLOTTED of Lands of the PELHAM MANOR & HUGUENOT HEIGHTS ASSOCIATION. PELHAM, WESTCHESTER CO. N.Y." (see below).

NOTE: Click on Image to Enlarge.

The map provides a fascinating glimpse of the original vision of the Pelham Manor & Huguenot Heights Association developers. For example, the map shows that a large hotel once was planned along the Esplanade near its eastern end adjacent to the Pelham Manor Depot that once stood where I-95 now cuts through Pelham Manor. The hotel would have stood roughly adjacent to the home that now stands at 1084 Esplanade. A store and post office was planned for the area across the street from Huguenot Memorial Presbyterian Church where today's Four Corners Shopping Center stands.

The rough center of the development was expected to be today's Four Corners intersection of Boston Post Road and Pelhamdale Avenue, anchored by the beautiful church building of the Huguenot Memorial Presbyterian Church known as the "Little Red Church." A detail from the map above showing the planned Little Red Church roughly a year before it actually was built appears immediately below.

NOTE: Click on Image to Enlarge.

The central avenue of the new development was the exceptionally-wide boulevard known as "Esplanade." According to text included with the map, the planned development would include:

"Dwelling Houses of new & tasteful designes for sale, -- (or may be rented,) as now built, or building, -- $4,000 to $12,000 for Estate Complete fitted for residence the year roudn, -- having furnaces on sanitary principles, (from Gold's Heater Co. of New York,) -- Hot and Cold Water circulation, Lavatories, Closets, etc., -- Gas, (at less than one-half City cost,) -- Sidewalks, Graded Lawns, &c. Built after best models from Boston Suburbs and elsewhere in the Healthful, well privileged including liberal and handsome grounds and select suburb called  Pelham Manor and Huguenot Heights, extending from the New Haven Railroad to the Sound. Accessible from N. Y. City business centres -- with over 40 trains daily, by two thoroughly equipped railroads, and the well appointed East River Boats. One commutation ticket serves on both railroads. Two Depots, Two Churches, Schools, etc. on premises. About one hour's ride to Fulton Street, by Cars and Boat, -- or by all rail, about half hour only to Grand Central Depot. Also, -- Choice Lands in parcels, large or small, on good Avenues, for sale favorably. This Westchester County suburb is now so endowed and regulated as to offer almost everything sought for in the externals of a home; -- its healthfulness is proven by the Sanitary Record for nearly forty years of the adjacent 'Priory' (Young Lades') School, -- by the continuous health and longevity of the several families there resident from the beginning of the century, -- as well as by its gravelly, well drained soil. Those subject to Asthma elsewhere, having come to Pelham Manor to live, find themselves rid of that distressing malady. All family supplies daily served at residences; -- good public and social privileges; -- associations refined; absolute restrictions insuring against nuisances; landscape beautifully wooded, and combined with attractions of Sound, most picturesque; delightful drives, with boating and fishing ad libitum; Neptune House and Pelham Bay Hotels near by, &c., &c. Taxes in Pelham are very light, about one-eighth of city imposition. Agents effecting sales fairly dealt with. Excursions, -- pleasures, -- plans, -- etc., furnished by Stephens Brothers, Managers for Corporation, 187 Broadway, New York City. R. M. Mitchill, Sup't residing at Pelham Manor."

Although a number of the anticipated roadways either were not built or, subsequently, were rerouted or (in the case of those where I-95 now stands) were destroyed, it is still possible to determine the rough locations of the three original neighborhoods planned by the Pelham Manor & Huguenot Heights Association.

The Pleasant Ridge Division stood in a portion of today's Pelham Heights. It was bounded, roughly, by Colonial Avenue (designated as Old Boston Post Road on the map above), Wolfs Lane, properties plotted on the north side of today's Boulevard (designated as "Ridge Avenue" on the map, and properties plotted on the north side of what looks to be, roughly, today's Cliff Avenue (designated as "Glen Avenue").

The Glen Mitchill Division, apparently named after the on-site Superintendent of the Pelham Manor & Huguenot Heights Association, Robert M. Mitchill, stood in an area now part of today's Village of Pelham Manor. It was bounded, roughly, by Colonial Avenue (designated as Old Boston Post Road on the map above), Pelhamdale Avenue, an area near but not adjoining today's Boston Post Road (designated "Boston Boulevard" on the map above), and properties plotted on the north and east sides of the curving Monterey Avenue (designated "Lake Avenue" on the map above).

The final neighborhood was the Chestnut Grove Division that likewise was planned in an area that is part of today's Village of Pelham Manor. That neighborhood was bounded, very roughly, by the New Haven Branch Line Railroad tracks still in use that run parallel to today's I-95, today's Lake Drive to the northeast of Pelhamdale Avenue (designated as a planned "Continuation of Glen Avenue" on the map above"), today's Boston Post Road (designated "Boston Boulevard" on the map above), and properties plotted on the east and south sides of the curving roadway consisting of today's Prospect Avenue and Highland Avenue.

If you live in one of these three areas today, congratulations! You live in what were the first planned suburban neighborhoods designed by the founders of the Pelham Manor & Huguenot Heights Association in the early 1870s!

1874 Newspaper Advertisement for Pelham Manor and Huguenot Heights.

Source: Westchester County Property for Sale and to Rent, N.Y. Daily

Herald, Jun. 28, 1874, p. 14, col. 5 (Note: Paid subscription required to

access via this link). NOTE: Click on Image to Enlarge.

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Wednesday, November 20, 2019

The Three Original Neighborhoods Planned by the Pelham Manor & Huguenot Heights Associations in the Early 1870s

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