South of the Moiuitcuns
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South of the Moiuitcuns The Historical Society of Rockland County Vol. 31, No. 4 October-December 1987 The Van Houten Farm, West Nyack VAN HOUTEN FIELDS AND RALPH BORSODI ROCKLAND CENTER FOR THE ARTS - 40th ANNIVERSARY IN THIS ISSUE Van Houten Fields and Ralph Borsodi John Scott has reconstructed the events in the life and career of Ralph Borsodi, Suffern philosopher and visionary. His experiments in "agrarianism for commuters" led to the formation of Van Houten Fields in West Nyack, the largest of Rockland’s back-to-the-land cooperative communities, started during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Page 3. Rockland Center for the Arts —40th Anniversary Formerly the Rockland Foundation, the Rockland Center for the Arts celebrates its 40th anniversary. As a cultural center, it was in the forefront during the 1940s of Rockland's emergence from an isolated back-country rural community to a haven for artistic talents in many creative fields. Page 21. An historical marker, sponsored by the Van Houten Fields Asso ciation, Inc. will be dedicated in celebration of the 50th anniver sary of their community, October 24 at 3 p.m. at Sickeltown and Van Houten Fields roads, West Nyack. I he Ihstor y Center will be closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year s Day. The museum galleries are closed between exhibitions. COVER PICTURE. 19th-century view of the Van Houten farm complex at 92 Sickeltown Road, West Nyack, as a working farm. The exact date of the painting and the artist are unknown. ADDENDUM SM 31:3 (July-September 1987). The history students recognized at the Strawberry Festival on June 14 were each awarded a two-volume dictionary, thanks to Prentice-Hall, Inc. of West Nyack. 1 1987 The Historical Society of Rockland County Editor: Marianne B. Leese Chm. Publications Comm.: John Scott Ed. Layout: Imogene R. Mayer Senior Historian: Isabelle K. Saveli Printed by Print Sprint Van Houten Fields and Ralph Borsodi by John Scott In 1937, a group of people from Nyack Borsodi, Jr. was appointed secretary. and vicinity entered into discussions with Five trustees were duly elected: Ralph Ralph Borsodi of Suffern, nationally Borsodi, Jr., Homer T. Bogle, Wharton known author, economist and philoso Clay, W. S. Fitz Randolph and Chauncey pher, regarding his back-to-the-land de D. Stillman, a philanthropic financier. centralization experiments in providing Mrs. Wharton Clay was elected as com self-sufficient homesteads within com munity manager. Homer T. Bogle, field muting distances of cities. The 106-acre manager, submitted the preliminary plan Van Houten farm had become available of the proposed development prepared at West Nyack, and they wished to secure by C. Earl Morrow. It was generally ap support of Borsodi’s Independence Foun proved, subject to any corrections that dation and the School of Living, which a definite survey would show to be ne had earlier financed a small association cessary. of homeowners at Bayard Lane, Suffern. One- and two-acre sites were to be made The old Dutch farm was part of the available for homesteads in a coopera original Oblenis 800-acre tract estab tive community. Each homeowner would lished in 1732 on lots 11 and 12 of the lease the acquired land from the Founda Kakiat Patent in the area of present tion and receive an indenture of a 99- West Nyack. John Van Houten pur year lease. One large tract was set aside chased the land in 1837 and built the as a forest playground and another, with three-story brick building at present 73 a spring-fed pond, for water sports, tennis Sickeltown Road on the site of the origi courts, nature gardens and playgrounds. nal Oblenis farmhouse. The old Van Houten brick farmhouse An organizational meeting with prin was intended as a community meeting cipals of the Independence Foundation place to develop the cultural and social was held on November 30, 1937 at the life of the settlement. For years it served Borsodi homestead, “Dogwoods,” on De- as temporary apartments for families Baun Avenue, Suffern for the purpose of during construction of their new homes. organizing the Van Houten Fields Asso ciation as a self-administering body of Flight from the City homeowners. Ralph Borsodi, Sr. called Ralph Borsodi began his new style of the meeting to order and on motion was country living, later labeled as “agrari elected chairman of the committee. Ralph anism for commuters,” in 1919. He, his 3 wife Myrtle Mae Simpson and two small market and the beginning of the Great sons moved from New York City and Depression caused widespread unem rented a small unimproved farmhouse ployment and financial insecurity for on seven acres near Suffern. While Bor- millions of Americans. Borsodi offered sodi commuted to work in the City, they a better way of life and was proving it in began their initial family experiments. rural Rockland County. With little capital and a small income, they remodeled their first tiny building, learning the use of necessary tools, and began raising fruits and vegetables. Ac quiring a goat, cow and chickens, they tested their theories and dreams of self subsistence and economic freedom while enjoying the beauty of nature. In 1924, they selected a larger 18-acre site off present DeBaun Avenue in Suf fern to design and build the homestead they really wanted. Combining their own amateur labor with the skilled labor of “Dogwoods,” the Borsodi Homestead, local workmen, they cleared the land, 24 DeBatm Avenue, Soffem. gathered native fieldstone and built the west wing of the house to live in while Invited to the White House, Borsodi completing the rest. Construction was was asked to serve as a consultant in a based on Ernest Flagg’s experiments in large government homesteading project building attractive, economical, sturdy for the unemployed of the city of Dayton, houses made with a concrete slab and Ohio. After a short time, 1932-33, the available fieldstones for walls. project languished, mired down in in In a period of 10 years, they con ternal bickering and bureaucracy. He structed an enclave of five buildings, returned to Suffern to continue his including a barn and their own home writing and lecturing, promoting the stead, “Dogwoods,” which contained a School of Living and supervising various workshop for weaving, a laundry, billiard projects in Rockland and other areas of room, printing plant and an outdoor the country. swimming pool. Here they first experi His best-selling book, Flight from the mented with a theory called the School City, appeared in 1933 when the country of Living that would later lead to classes was mired in the depths of the Depres in self-sufficiency. sion. Firing the imagination of strug Borsodi had written several books on gling families, many with low-paying economics, but This Ugly Civilization, inner-city employment and an aimless published in 1929, brought him national future, the book described a way to seek attention. In it he deplored the smoke out a good agrarian life-style and gra stack industries and factories that he phically detailed his family’s experiences viewed as dominating civilization, con and accomplishments at homesteading tributing to the noise, congestion and in Suffern. filth in towns and cities and reducing Borsodi’s lecture tours and writings de the workers to servitude and mere cogs scribing the decentralization movement in the throbbing factory machinery. At and his family’s experiments in self- the same time, the collapse of the stock sufficiency received support nationally; 4 his theories gained the endorsement of considerable as they could do as much leading educators, sociologists, econo of the work as desirable, calling in help mists and numerous organizations. The when needed. The Independence Foun news media gave wide attention to his dation would also offer loan contracts activities, which often appeared in fea for the houses to be paid in 10 to 13 tured articles. Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt’s years. To prevent substandard, unat interest in social engineering projects tractive buildings, construction plans brought her to “Dogwoods” to observe were to be reviewed by a committee. the Borsodi methods. The initial success of the Bayard Lane experiment in homesteading, coupled with his own family experiences, con Bayard Lane vinced Borsodi that larger, better or In 1935, Borsodi launched Bayard ganized groups could be developed. Van Lane, a small experimental cooperative Houten Fields offered the opportunity community off Route 202, Suffem, con he needed for the large-scale venture he sisting of a group of 17 houses built of envisioned would attract national atten native fieldstone by the Flagg method. tion and forever change the American Housed in a separate building, the School life-style. of Living was organized in 1936 to handle Come to the Fields research and promotion of the movement, and the Independence Foundation to In November 1937, The New York finance it. Most of the funds were de Times ran a feature article that caught rived from his associate, Chauncey D. the attention of many families, especial Stillman, a financier who had an absorb ly New York City dwellers looking for a ing interest in the decentralist move new and more satisfying life, some of ment. whom would be the pioneer settlers, “city The school taught the essentials of farmers,” in Van Houten Fields. do-it-yourself agrarianism, including canning, poultry raising, animal hus bandry, masonry, carpentry, use of tools and household equipment. A list of pro Old Farm in West Nyack Will Be Site posed publications was solicited na for New Cooperative Homestead Project tionally though only a few were ever completed for distribution. A new cooperative community to be A guild plan was formulated as a busi made up of homesteads which will be at ness relationship between owners and least partially self-sustaining and which builders.