Report from the Scarsdale Historical Society: Cudner-Hyatt House to be Sold

This update on the activities of the Scarsdale Historical Society was submitted to Scarsdale10583 by the society's President Randy Guggenheimer:
Dear Scarsdale Historical Society Member,

I would like to update you on the exciting changes we are implementing at your Scarsdale Historical Society. We have been working over the past several years to transform the Society from an organization operating a House Museum and its vintage buildings for an extremely limited audience to one that uses modern techniques to further its mission of preserving, discovering, and sharing historical information about Scarsdale and the Central mid-Westchester region as widely as possible.

Recent Activities

• For several years we have been working with the Scarsdale Public Library to preserve and digitize many of the back issues of the Scarsdale Inquirer. Many of these issues contain information not available anywhere else, and the newspapers and microfilms held at the Library, already in fragile condition, were deteriorating further. Pursuant to our grants totaling $50,000, the Scarsdale Inquirers from 1901-1945 are now available online. They can be accessed through our website at www.scarsdalehistory.org, as well as through the library and other sites that are used by students, scholars and the public. Please take a few minutes and check it out.

• Starting in 2014, we have funded summer and term-time internships to allow high school and college students interested in history to help the library preserve and catalogue its holdings of Scarsdale documents and photographs.

• Earlier this year, we made a 5-year loan to the Westchester County Historical Society (WCHS) of a large number of the Society's papers, books and photographs which had been stored in boxes at the Cudner-Hyatt House. The Scarsdale Historical Society has provided a grant to allow the WCHS to catalogue these materials and make them readily available to historians and the general public at their state-of-the-art facility in Elmsford.

• We have completely revamped our website, http://www.scarsdalehistory.org, to make it a user-friendly means to preserve and share Scarsdale history with our own content and links to other websites where the public can learn about the history of our village and the surrounding communities.

Planned Programs

We are developing a number of exciting programs to further our mission of discovering, preserving and educationally disseminating historical information about Scarsdale and the Central mid-Westchester region.

1. Digitization/Preservation – We are working to digitize and transcribe Helen Lorraine Hultz's 1,100+ page hand calligraphied book, Scarsdale Story, which former Village Historian Richard Lederer, Jr. called "the most comprehensive history of Scarsdale ever to be done." We are continuing to work with the Scarsdale Public Library to preserve and digitize more recent years of the Inquirer, and share then to the extent allowed by copyright law. Future projects include digitization and preservation of Scarsdale High School yearbooks as well as Scarsdale Town and Village Minute books and photographs held by the Village of Scarsdale and the Scarsdale Public Library.

2. Original Articles – We are working on and seeking to support articles on key subjects relating to the history of Scarsdale and our region. We have committed a $10,000 grant to the WCHS to assist in funding an up-to-date history of our county to replace Westchester County: A Pictorial History first published in the early 1980s.

3. Lectures – The Scarsdale Historical Society has given consideration to sponsoring a lecture series, but given the number of organizations that already invite quality speakers to Scarsdale and neighboring communities, we have decided instead to offer our support, with funding and publicity (to our membership and the public) of relevant lectures and other programs in conjunction with existing organizations including the Scarsdale Public Library, Scarsdale civic organizations and historical societies in nearby communities. We believe that by leveraging our resources with the substantial well-established efforts of others, we can accomplish more than we would ever be able to on our own.

4. Scarsdale Historical Society Collection – As discussed above, we have provided a grant to the WCHS to catalogue and make our collection of papers, books and photographs accessible to historians and the public. We intend to continue to work with the WCHS and other organizations to preserve and make historical documents available.

5. Bring Your History Day – We are working with the Scarsdale Public Library to sponsor a "Bring Your History Day" to encourage Scarsdale residents to bring documents, photographs and maps to be reviewed by experts to determine whether these materials should be preserved and digitized and the Scarsdale Historical Society intends to fund this to the extent that the items are historically worthy. Even in advance of the event, if you have individual items, collections or archives you'd like to share, please let us know about it by visiting www.scarsdalehistory.org/shareyourhistory.

Real Estate

As is the case with many house museums throughout Westchester County and beyond, the cost of maintaining the Scarsdale Historical Society's buildings at 937 Post Road has far outstripped the benefits to the community of continuing to operate the Cudner-Hyatt House as a museum. The Cudner-Hyatt House cannot compete with other much more significant historic house museums, historic societies and libraries in our area. The Board of the Scarsdale Historical Society has concluded that the time has come to put the property up for sale.

We know that many in the community (and we) are pleased to view the 18th century farmhouse on the Post Road, and we have therefore decided to offer the property for sale subject to a façade easement that will protect the east (Post Road) and south (Boulevard) facing façades. We do not intend to place restrictions on a potential purchaser with respect to the 1828 Quaker Meeting House located on the property.

"Steps in Time" Bricks

Some long-time residents will remember that when the Scarsdale Historical Society was planning to renovate the Cudner-Hyatt House a number of years ago, the plan included a brick pathway that would honor the donors. While the planned renovations were made to the Cudner-Hyatt House at that time, the brick pathway was not made. In light of the current plans to potentially sell the property, the Scarsdale Historical Society Board has decided to recognize those donors with a special page on our website in the near future. We thank all of you again for your generous donations which were essential to the Scarsdale Historical Society at that time.

An Invitation to Public Input

We aim to become a much more dynamic and relevant resource to our community. To that end, we welcome ideas and opportunities to partner with other educational and charitable organizations in our area. If you are aware of an appropriate project, we invite you to let us know about it. We will shortly be mailing membership renewals to all of our members along with information about our upcoming Annual Meeting in early 2017. Please be on the lookout for these items.

On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I thank you for supporting the Scarsdale Historical Society and hope you are as excited about the recent accomplishments and plans of the Society as we are.

Best regards,
Randy Guggenheimer
President, Scarsdale Historical Society