Scarsdale NY

Scarsdale, NY at a Glance

The Town and Village of Scarsdale, NY is considered one of the top residential neighborhoods in Westchester Country. Situated just north of New York City, its modest 6.6 mile reach is strewn with more than 20 parks and anchored in a picturesque downtown designed in the Tudor style. The area boasts an exceptional school system, from which 99% of its graduate go on to pursue higher education.

Removed from the urban hustle, Scarsdale residents find ample space for sauntering and play. Scarsdale Parks & Recreation maintains no fewer than 26 community tennis courts in addition to a pool complex that offers recreation and fitness programs, four sports playing fields and the Weinberg Nature Center, which hosts a nature museum surrounded by wooded trails for hiking. Red Maple Swamp at Valley and Gorham Roads offers another unsullied outdoor retreat, while the Westchester Colonial Greenway is accessible along its 14.5 mile system of unpaved trails through five Westchester County municipalities.

The birthplace of the territory's original proprietor, Caleb Heathcote, son to the Mayor of Chesterfield in Scarsdale, England, is the namesake to the Town and Village. As story has it, Heathcote lost the woman he was to marry to an older brother. Dejected, the young man took his broken heart to sea. Enlarging the fortune he got from his father through trade, he purchased lands to assemble a private manor in modern-day Westchester County. When he died in 1721, Heathecote's property fell to his daughters and two years later to the tenants of the land. It officially became a town on March 7, 1788.

Scarsdale, NY at a Glance

While in the 18th and early 19th Centuries Scarsdale was less well-positioned than its waterfront neighbors for industrial and economic development, the town got a boost in 1846 with the completions of the New York and Harlem Railroad. A real estate venture by the Arthur Suburban Home Company erecting a row of single-family homes in 1891 furthered residential development in the area, which underwent two more major expansion in the 1920's and post-World War II eras.

Civic organizations early on played a central role in the life of the Scarsdale community, with major clubs and groups cropping up at the turn of the 20th Century. The Town and Village Civic Club and the first Neighborhood Association had their beginnings in 1904, and the Scarsdale Women's Club formed in 1918 and began publishing The Scarsdale Inquirer the following year. In 1921, a year after the 19th amendment enfranchised woman citizens of the United States, the Scarsdale League of Women Voters was created.

Each year a car show called the Scarsdale Cours d'Elegance takes place in the town center with more than 100 automobiles displayed. The event takes voluntary admission fees and donations to fundraise for local nonprofits including Habitat for Humanity and United Way of Westchester. A 15K run also occurs annually with a 2-mile Fun Run for kids under 12. And an assortment of free arts exhibitions and events including the outdoor art show are held by the Scarsdale Arts Association.

Dozens of famous people have lived in Scarsdale since its founding. During the American Revolutionary War, a short battle was fought near the intersection of Mamaroneck and Garden Roads. Armies on both sides passed through parts of Scarsdale and the British General Sir William Howe sojourned for a time in the Griffin farmhouse. American author James Fenimore Cooper conducted also lived in Scarsdale and conducted interviews with locals while writing a narrative of the war in his novel The Spy: A Tale of the Neutral Ground.

More modern celebrities include artist and wife to Beatle John Lennon, Yoko Ono, who joined her family in Scarsdale after leaving Japan in the 1950's, screen stars Judy Garland and her daughter Liza Minelli, and musicians Beyonce Knowles and Jay-Z.