Owners of 41 Olmstead Road Appeal to the Scarsdale BOT for Permission for a Partial Demolition

The owners of a large Tudor home at 41 Olmstead Road are appealing to the Board of Trustees for permission to tear down more than 50% of the house after the Committee for Historic Preservation denied their application in July 2016. The CHP also denied the owners the right to tear down the entire house when they applied in September 2015.

Property records show that the house is 4,767 square feet and sits on three quarters of an acre in Fox Meadow. It is assessed at $3,250,000 in the 2016 revaluation. An online video of the interior of the home shows extensive woodworking and paneling, a gracious stairway, large bedrooms and renovated bathrooms.

Owners Vick and Pallavi Mehta applied for the demolition permit in order to renovate the Tudor style home.

The Committee for Historic Preservation found that the house, which was designed by architect Stanwood Phillips and built in 1931, is part of the Scarsdale Tudor heritage. The CHP also found that the original homeowners were descendants of the Adams family, including the second and sixth president of the United States.

However, speaking on behalf of her clients at the July meeting of the CHP, architect Roz Young said that the original structure has been extensively altered and shows general deterioration. The architect proposed to renovate the home in the Tudor style. Plans are to "preserve the original home to the maximum extent possible and enhance the distinctive Tudor style." Young said that they were not "aware of any historical information inherent in the building" and that the house had not been identified in the Cultural Resources Survey of Scarsdale, prepared in February 2015.

Ultimately in July, the committee found that the home was not of historic importance, but four votes were needed to permit the demolition. Only four of the seven committee members were present at the meeting and the vote was 3-1, so the application was denied.

The Mehta's subsequently appealed to the Scarsdale Board of Trustees who will hear the matter on September 26 at 7:30 pm.

On September 1, the Village received a letter from Lucia Chiocchio of the law firm Cuddy and Feder of White Plains. She also argues that the house has been substantially altered and "does not fully embody the distinctive characteristics of the Tudor style nor does the house possess high artistic value."

The attorney denies the significance of the original owner's relation to the Adams family, saying, " there is absolutely no information about these descendants and any historical significance they may have contributed."

They are asking that the denial of the application for a partial demolition be overturned.

Sales:

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