Guests of the Gramatan
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The Chronic le A Publication of The Bronxville Historical Conservancy Fall 2014 Members Relive History as Guests of the Gramatan Co-chairs Stafford Meyer, Michelle McBride and Erin Saluti link arms with the 1920s dancing couple. INSIDE: Historic Richmond Town • Village Clock Restored • Brick Road Update • Tuckahoe Marble • A Masterton Visits Members Relive History as “Guests of the Gramatan” e l o C . D d r a h c i R y b s o t o h P Society from all over the world flocked to Saturday, October 4, was a magical Aer considering several locations night for Bronxville Historical Conservancy for the event, the Jane Hotel was selected. members who donned 1920s finery and e committee chose e Jane Ballroom, gathered in a “ballroom” at the Jane Hotel a popular and exclusive nighttime venue in in New York City. Sipping “Gramatan the West Village, because they felt the Jane’s Gimlets” while enjoying the hip sounds of plush leather and velvet furnishings, fancifu l electro-swing music, the crowd got a sense artwork, oriental rugs and taxidermy would of what it must have been like to attend one transport guests back in time. “e cavernous, of the fabled “Saturday Evening Balls” at two-story space,” said co-chair Stafford Bronxville’s Hotel Gramatan, circa 1923. Meyer, “was exactly as we had envisioned e evening, titled Guest of the the Gramatan back in the day—glamorous, Gramatan, was the brainchild of the yet inviting.” Conservancy’s Young Families Committee, During the evening, guests were composed of Erin Saluti, Michelle McBride mesmerized by a 1920s dancing couple and Stafford Meyer, the same team who and a spine-tingling mentalist who worked produced the popular, family-oriented the room, eerily pulling thoughts from Ghosts of Bronxville last October. Joined people’s minds. “Magic and the arcane were this year by board member Judy Foley, the a popular fascination in the 1920s,” said Erin team designed the event to make partygoers Saluti. “We learned in our research that the feel as if they were indeed guests of the Hotel Gramatan had ‘gypsy dance interpreters’ Hotel Gramatan, which enjoyed international as entertainment, and decided to add the repute as the place to be in the Roaring concept of illusion to the evening.” Twenties. “We hoped to bring that era’s A massive complex straddling spirit of historical intrigue to our Bronxville’s Sunset Hill from 1905 until Young Families members, with an event it was torn down in 1972, the Gramatan designed just for adults,” said event enjoyed its spectacular heyday in the 1920s. co-chair Erin Saluti. Developed by real estate mogul William 2 • THE CHRONICLE the Gramatan to rub elbows with the glitterati. Van Duzer Lawrence, the hotel had an e committee’s objective for the exclusive, international reputation, attracting event was to involve more families with stars such as Greta Garbo, John and Ethel school-age children with the Conservancy, Barrymore, Gloria Swanson, Peaches and communicate an exciting and important Daddy Browning, and eodore Dreiser. slice of Bronxville history, and highlight the Society from all over the world flocked to the work of the Conservancy. “Congratulations Gramatan to rub elbows with the glitterati. to the Young Families Committee for a Its balls and social events served as mixers sparkling evening, which combined history, for the rich and famous. nostalgia and fun,” said Conservancy To communicate the extraordinary co-chair Judy Unis. Co-chair Bill Dowling history of the Hotel Gramatan, an interactive, added: “e Conservancy is so pleased with multi-media digital scrapbook was created. the excitement and enthusiasm shown for e scrapbook includes layers of photos, the special events created by this talented, links to music and video, as well as photos hardworking committee.” of the evening’s festivities.Visit the digital e Young Families Committee has scrapbook (best viewed on a desktop for announced that, due to popular demand, the full experience) at www.guestohe e Ghosts of Bronxville will return in gramatan.com. October 2015. FALL 2014 • 3 Two Centuries Later, Another Masterton Travels to Bronxville by Marilynn Hill On a late October day, Gordon Masterton their descendants), houses of Masterton’s of Scotland, head of the Masterton family significant neighbors and contemporaries, website and avid Masterton genealogist, the road Masterton built between White visited Bronxville to see and learn about Plains and Pondfield roads, and the the historic footprint le by his kinsman locations of other buildings and quarry and former countryman. Although he has sites that figured into the family’s personal not found a direct connection between and business histories. Gordon Masterton, their two branches of the family, Gordon a civil engineer by profession, has a particular Masterton has spent quite a few years interest in the quarry industry and its studying our Alexander, Sr., and his fore - applications, so was delighted to be in bears and descendants. Masterton and his Bronxville during the showing of the wife Lynda were shown around Bronxville “Tuckahoe Marble Legacies and Landmarks” Scotland’s Gordon Masterton by Marilynn Hill and Bob Riggs, two of our exhibition at the OSilas Gallery at Concordia and wife Lynda stand in front local Masterton historians. College. of the 180-year-old Alexander e day’s tour included seeing the e Mastertons departed Bronxville Masterton homestead at 90 White Plains Road, currently locations of all of the family’s homes (in - extending an invitation to return the the home of Andre and cluding those of sons Alexander, Jr., Robert, courtesy of the day’s visit with a tour of Michael Koester. and John, and some of the residences of Forfar, Scotland, Alexander, Sr.’s, birthplace. TUCKAHOE MARBLE “…Tuckahoe marble has le a legacy in America that must be remembered for all times.” Legacies and Landmarks Louis Torres, Tuckahoe Marble: e Rise and Fall of an Industry, 1822-1930 (Harbor Hill Books, 1976) From September 4 through November 9, the OSilas Gallery at Concordia College hosted an exhibition, Legacies, Landmarks & Achievements: Celebrating 350 Years – e e L Eastchester, Tuckahoe, Bronxville , e c n curated by Mike Fix, in partnership e r w with Eastchester’s 350th Anniversary a L © Committee. A special section of the s o t larger show was a pictorial exhibit o h entitled “Tuckahoe Marble Legacies P and Landmarks” that was conceptual - Façade of the Branch Bank of the United States, Federal Hall National Memorial, 1842 ized and organized by Bob Riggs. 1824 (original location: Wall Street; current (formerly the New York Custom House) location of façade restoration: e Metropolitan 26 Wall Street, New York, NY is section included over 40 large Museum of Art, New York, NY) contemporary photographs that illustrated local marble as it survives Along with biographical accounts of these buildings are pictured here today, as well as some images of these of Alexander Masterton and other in photographs by Lawrence Lee, landmark marble buildings as they founders of the industry, they high - who did all the current photography, were pictured in vintage lithographs, lighted the remarkable survival of illustrations, and reproductions. photographs, and paintings. buildings, monuments, works of art, Along with Riggs and Lee, Hill On October 7, Riggs and Marilynn and artifacts, all craed of the authored some and was the editor of Hill, Conservancy members and distinctive white marble quarried all of the captions for the photographs former BHC co-chairs, gave a talk in Tuckahoe, that have endured well and other items in the exhibit and its at the gallery describing the rise of over 100 years following their accompanying catalogue. the marble industry in Tuckahoe. creation. Two of the finest examples 4 • THE CHRONICLE S We Saved Our uccess! Yellow Brick Roads On September 8, Bronxville’s village trustees voted to approve the Conservancy’s request to restore and rebuild one of the village’s historic brick roads. e Conservancy has agreed to buy and ship to Bronxville the bricks required to restore the road in return for the Department of Public Works installing the brick roadway. “e brick and granite block roads on the e restoration affects the portion of Park Avenue steepest hills in the Lawrence Park Hilltop, which has been that leads down from the Hilltop past 28-33 Park Avenue. designated as a National Historic District, add much to e Department of Public Works estimates that the cost the character and appeal of Bronxville as a community,” to replace the bricks with asphalt is $304,339. e cost to said Village Historian Eloise Morgan. In a letter to the properly restore the road with historic bricks is estimated editor of My Hometown Bronxville , Morgan urged that to cost another $65,000, not counting the cost of the bricks saving the brick roads made sense for both economic which the Conservancy is paying for. and preservation reasons. “e vote of the Village Board Conservancy co-chair Bill Dowling said: “e Con - of Trustees to restore this section of Park Avenue,” added servancy is grateful to the Board of Trustees for voting Morgan, “was a proud moment for Bronxville, and unanimously to restore one of Bronxville’s few remaining shows what a special place this village is.” remnants of our history.” Bronxville Village Clock Restored r e w o B y l e e N y b s o t o h P A reception to celebrate the restoration of the historic in a seriously deteriorated condition. Based on recommen - village clock was held September 25 at the People’s United dations by the Conservancy, People’s United chose to restore Bank, sponsored by the Bronxville Historical Conservancy. the clock to look as close as possible to the original, only Bronxville Mayor Mary Marvin was on hand to cut the rib - changing the name on the face from Gramatan to People’s bon and to thank People’s Bank and the Conservancy for bank.