North Salem, New York
North Salem is located in the northeast corner of Westchester County.
“In the 1730s, European settlers began to create a self-sufficient farming community out of the forested wilderness of the Titicus River Valley. The Keelers, Purdys, Van Scoys, Wallaces and other first families built their homes on parcels of the oblong (the eastern edge of town; ownership disputed with Connecticut) and on Stephen Delancey’s share of Van Cortlandt Manor. The Oblong portion here and in Lewisboro was the original town of Salem, while the Van Cortlandt Manor section was known as Delanceytown. Eventually, Salem was divided into Upper and Lower Salem. In 1788, the Town of North Salem was incorporated to include both Delanceytown and Upper Salem.
In the 1840s, the hamlets of Purdys and Croton Falls sprang up around two stations on the new Harlem Railroad. Dairy farmers thrived, using the new iron horse to get products to market. Imaginative entrepreneurs imported exotic animals and started America’s first circuses. Others created summer camps and vacation communities around Peach Lake.
When the New York City water supply was expanded in the 1890s, new dams and reservoirs displaced hundreds of people in North Salem and surrounding towns. The entire hamlet of Purdys was moved or torn down, along with farms and residences in the Titicus Valley and parts of Croton Falls.
Gradually, as horses replaced cows on the landscape, North Salem was transformed from a farming community to a lively mix of commuters, tradespeople, small business owners, professionals, artists, equestrians and celebrities. In the 1970s, a group of generous property owners created the North Salem Open Land Foundation
North Salem's oldest and most visited resident is Balanced Rock, a 60-ton glacial erratic that is perfectly perched on stone "pillars". Whether it was placed by man or nature is a subject of very lively debate!” (Adapted from the About section of the North Salem website.)
These photographs arose from a short visit I made there .
All descriptions are from the excellent Historic Landmarks of the Town of North Salem, NY. Second Edition, 2019, which contains many more landmarks. These are just a few that I came across during a short visit. I intend to return and take a look at as many of the others as possible.
Purdy Homestead -100 Titicus Road (1775)
Construction of the Homestead began on June 17, 1775, the date of the Battle of Bunker Hill. Joseph Purdy (1744-1814), who built the house, was the grandson of the first Purdy in Westchester, Francis Purdy. In the early 1700s, the family acquired 1000 acres of land along the Titicus and Croton Rivers in what was still Cortlandt Manor. On his 1779 map #43D, From Ridgebury to Somers, George Washington’s cartographer Robert Erskine marked the location of the homestead “Joseph Purdy.” Seven generations of the Purdy family occupied the house until the 1950s, including Isaac Hart Purdy after whom the hamlet of Purdy Station was named. He served as Town Supervisor from 1846 to 1850 and again from 1856 to 1857. Isaac Hart Purdy and his father, also Isaac, were partners in one of the menagerie shows, and it was their responsibility to winter some of the animals, including giraffes. This was done in several large barns erected for that purpose on Titicus Road just east of the dwelling. Most of the barns were taken down in 1919. The house, still owned by the Purdy family today, became a shop specializing in early American reproductions in the 1950s, and then home to a succession of restaurants. The building was totally renovated and updated in 2012 and became a farm-to-table restaurant called Purdys Farmer and the Fish. Sanchis in American Architecture in Westchester County tells us the Purdy Homestead is “typical of the rural, frame dwellings of the late eighteenth century. The symmetrical composition of the five-bay façade of the structure recalls a similar division on the facades of Georgian buildings.” The veranda was added about 1870 and probably the Italianate Revival brackets at the cornice line were added at the same time. The main, rectangular block of the house, two and one-half stories high, still has a central chimney that serves three original working fireplaces. The rear portion of the ell is of similar size and proportion and has an interior end chimney. The frame and exterior shingles are hand hewn and kept in place with hand-wrought nails. Many changes have been made to accommodate the different restaurants, but the original farmhouse is intact, and the outside looks much as it did when the family still lived there. The Purdy Homestead was listed on The National Register of Historic Places, January 25, 1973.
Delancey Hall 266 - Titicus Road (1765-1773)
Stephen Delancey began construction of his manor house in the 1760s. The Georgian plan included two rooms on either side of a central hall and four bedrooms on the second floor. The two-chimney structure was sheathed with narrow clapboards. The Palladian window above the front entrance, the carved keystone and picturesque cornice with modillions are typical Georgian embellishments. The belfry contains a Ziba Blakeslee bell that was cast and installed later. Stephen, a Loyalist, married Hannah Sackett, a staunch Patriot, in 1767. Delancey was forced to retreat behind British lines, and from 1776 to 1783 his home was used by patriots. In 1777, he sold the manor to his friend Cornelius Steenrod to protect it from confiscation. In 1779 Hannah divorced him. On their return march from the victory at Yorktown in October of 1782, the French Army camped nearby, and General Rochambeau (Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau) and his officers probably stayed in the hall. Area residents purchased the building in 1787 and remodeled it into an academy, the first academy in Westchester County, the third in New York State. Many notables were educated there over the next 90 years. Extensive additions were made in the 1800s, including four dormers in the front and three in the rear. Declining enrollment and the deterioration of the building forced the trustees to close the academy, and in 1885 the building was conveyed to the town to be used as Town Hall. The first town meeting was held there in 1904. Electricity was installed in 1924. In 1932, a library was established in the building and remained there until 1980. The dormers, a front porch and an enclosed outside staircase were removed in renovations in the 1950s. The building was completely restored in the 1980s, under the beneficence of the Ronald Stanton Foundation. Furnishings were funded by the North Salem Bicentennial Committee. The top, shingled portion of the gable roof was replaced by a red enameled standing-seam metal roof, and roofs were added to cover the back entry ramp (2002) and the east door (2016). The building was listed on The National Register of Historic Places on September 4, 1980. In recognition of the town’s place on the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route, the National Park Service installed an exhibit on the town hall campus in 2015.
Lobdell Store & Post Office - 274 Titicus Road (c. 1848)
Now the home of the North Salem Building Department, Lobdell Store and Post Office was built c. 1848 by Clark Stevens and originally stood across from Delancey Hall on the banks of the Titicus River. The two-story Greek revival building has a temple front with four columns. In his seminal work American Architecture Westchester County New York, 1977, Frank Sanchis wrote, “the columns support a partial entablature that is carried along the side of the building. The front gable is not pedimented…the size and configuration of the windows and door on the façade are more domestic than commercial. The small door may be an alteration.” Anson Lobdell acquired the building in 1866, and it is likely that he and Stevens were partners before that. It is “A.W. Lobdell Store” on the 1872 Beers map. Albert Jenkins Lobdell became proprietor in 1880 and sold everything from food and spirits to candles and cloth. When the City of New York took land for the expansion of the reservoir system, the store was moved to the north side of the road, just east of Delancey Hall. The outside staircase was removed, and a loading dock was added. Town records report many meetings in the upstairs hall, and the store was a mecca for town business, news and fun. Albert presided over all of it, including the town itself when he was supervisor 1915-28. His family lived next door in today’s Lobdell House. The store and post office were run by Lobdells until the 1950s, and then the building was rented out to various businesses. The town acquired it in the 1980s and dubbed it “The Annex.” In 1995, it was moved to its present location and underwent extensive renovations to accommodate the town court and police. After the court and police moved to 66 June Road, the interior was remodeled again for the building department in 2017.
Lobdell House - Hickory Glen - 270 Titicus Road (1883)
Albert Jenkins Lobdell built this house for his wife, Mary Louise Braden, in 1883, and they named it Hickory Glen. It stood west of Delancey Hall until 1893 when the City of New York took the land for creation of the Titicus Reservoir. The house was moved to its current location on log rollers. The significant architectural features that define the style of the house as “Stick Victorian” include sloped gables, cross gables and dormers with “Kings Post” trusses, deep bracket overhangs and wrap-around porches. Other features are the twin brick chimneys with corbelled bases and tops, the angled and bracket dormer on the east side and the posts, brackets, railings and the angled corner of the porch. Most of the original features are intact, but the entry door that faced the road is now a window, and the front porch stairs were removed. A new stairway and door were added on the west side in the 1940s. The Lobdells were the heart and soul of Salem Center for nearly 200 years. Albert and Mary Louise raised six children here, including Albert junior who died while serving in France in WWI. Five of the children clerked in the family store and post office. Albert ran the store — and the town as supervisor 1915-1928. Daughter Cornelia was postmistress until 1951. She and sister Jenny lived in the house until their deaths: Cornelia in 1964, Jenny in 1995. The town acquired the building and converted it into offices. An older addition on the north side was removed and replaced with the current one. Today the building is home to the assessor, receiver of taxes, planning board, recreation department and town historian.
Balanced Rock - 667 Titicus Road - Glacial period
George H. Cable bequeathed this .384-acre parcel, including the barn on p. 36, to the Town of North Salem in 1959. The town fathers found Balanced Rock to be of “historical and scientific” interest. That is an understatement, given the number of visitors who have been drawn to the site from all over the world. Scientists agree that the 60-ton granite rock was a passenger from New England during the last glacier. But how did it come to be perched on limestone pillars? In 1798 Supervisor Daniel Delavan wondered “whether by nature or by art...” Early in the 19th century, British mineralogy professor John Finch argued that primitive limestone never appears naturally above ground as pillars, so the rock had to have been placed. While there were many Native Americans here before settlers came in the early 1700s, they were not known for erecting huge stone monuments. Historian Robert Bolton, Jr. described the rock romantically in his 1848 History of Westchester Coun ty, “This immense block viewed from the valley beneath has much the appearance of a huge mammoth ascending the hill. From its weather-beaten sides the Indian magician and priest is presumed to have deciphered the destinies of his tribe.” In an October 28, 1875, speech, John Jay’s grandson, following a visit to Europe, marveled at the resemblance between this rock and the many dolmens (ceremonial stones erected for memorial or religious purposes) he had seen abroad. In the late 1900s , Harvard scientist Barry Fell and archaeologist Salvatore Michael Trento, Director of the Middletown Archaeological Research Center in New York, advanced the theory of Celt-Iberian presence in our area. Other sites nearby — stone chambers aligned to solstices, standing stones, circular earthworks — suggest possible pre-Columbian visitors as well. Whether Balanced Rock is a man-made artifact or a stunning accident of nature, it is a priceless North Salem treasure that cries out for further scientific investigation.
The Stebbins B. Quick Carriage Barn - 667 Titicus Road - c. 1869
This carriage barn was built by Stebbins B. Quick when he remodeled the family homestead (p.34). The carriage barn and Balanced Rock were separated from the original Quick property in 1959 when George Cable bequeathed them to the town, and the town board designated the .384-acre parcel North Salem Park land. Following the teachings of English architect Charles Eastlake, Quick built this board-and chamfered-batten- sided three bay carriage barn featuring simple, straight lines. The original paint colors of this structure were disclosed during the 2002 restoration which stripped off all layers of paint to expose a cream siding color and dark green trim. The test was done by Sam Fleischman, proprietor of Rock Miracle Company, Brooklyn, New York. The chamfered moldings, cross pieces and window frames would have been painted a color to contrast with the siding. The original shutters are no longer on the building. The squared cupola is original. A cedar shake roof was installed in about 1978 to replace a seamed metal roof which had replaced a slate roof. In 2002, all exterior lead paint was removed. An asphalt shingle roof was installed in 2015, and new gutters and leaders in 2019. In the bottom level of the barn a cover slides back, revealing a pit. Water from an underground stream runs from the hill across the road and under the carriage barn through the pit. Milk cans from nearby farms were stored there to be kept cold until wagons could deliver them to the train in Purdys. Water from the spring collects behind the barn at the bottom of the slope to the Titicus River and eventually runs into it.