What to See in Briarcliff Manor - Top Sights and Attractions

Beechwood is a Hudson River estate in Scarborough-on-Hudson, in Briarcliff Manor, New York. The estate was most notably the home of Frank A. Vanderlip and his family, and is a contributing property to the Scarborough Historic District. The house and property were owned by the Vanderlip family from 1906 to 1979. The property is now a 37-condominium complex as the result of a development project that began in the 1980s.

Contemporarily, Beechwood is known for being a filming location of the 1970 film House of Dark Shadows, and a filming location and the primary setting of Savages, a 1972 Merchant Ivory film. In June 2016, Money Man: Frank Vanderlip and the Birth of the Federal Reserve premiered there. The film documents Vanderlip's life and was filmed at Beechwood.^[1]

Public library in Briarcliff Manor, New York. The Briarcliff Manor Public Library is the public library serving the village of Briarcliff Manor, New York, and is located on the edge of the Walter W. Law Memorial Park. The library is a founding member of the Westchester Library System. It is staffed by a director and eleven employees, including reference and youth librarians, and is governed by a ten-member board, with a liaison to the village board of trustees. The library offers computer classes, book discussion groups, young adult programs, a children's room and a local history collection. The library building also houses the Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society, the Briarcliff Manor Recreation Department, and the William J. Vescio Community Center.

The library was founded in 1914 in the Briarcliff Community Center. Around 1921, the library was established as the Briarcliff Free Library, an association library within the New York State library system. From the building's destruction in 1929 and over the next thirty years, the library was without a permanent location, and was moved between sites, including public school buildings and the village recreation center. In 1959, the library purchased the former Briarcliff Manor station of the New York and Putnam Railroad, which had been ordered and funded by Briarcliff Manor founder Walter Law in 1906. In 1964, the association library became a public library and adopted its current name. In 1981, the trackbed which ran alongside the building became part of a 48-mile-long (77-kilometre) rail trail, consisting of the South County, North County, and Putnam County Trailways. The biking, running, and walking trail stretches from the Bronx north to Brewster. After library renovations in the 1980s and 1990s, a significant expansion was completed in 2009, adding the section in which the library is housed today. In 2016, the village's community center opened in the original portion of the building.^[2]

Private school in Briarcliff Manor, New York. The Scarborough Day School was a private school in Scarborough-on-Hudson, in Briarcliff Manor, New York. Frank and Narcissa Cox Vanderlip established the school in 1913 at their estate, Beechwood. The school, a nonsectarian nonprofit college preparatory day school, taught students at pre-kindergarten to twelfth grade levels and had small class sizes, with total enrollment rarely exceeding 150 students. Since 1980, the buildings and property have been owned by The Clear View School, which runs a day treatment program for 83 students. The current school still uses the Scarborough School's theater, which was opened in 1917. The school campus is a contributing property to the Scarborough Historic District.

The Scarborough Day School was accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools and the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York. The school also was a member of the Cum Laude Society and the National Association of Independent Schools. Its seal copies that of Scarborough, North Yorkshire; Scarborough-on-Hudson's namesake.^[4]

Building in Westchester County, New York. The Carrie Chapman Catt House, also known as Juniper Ledge, is located on Ryder Road in the town of New Castle, New York, United States. It is an Arts and Crafts-style building from the early 20th century. In 2006 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places; five years later it was designated a town landmark as well.

While it is a fine example of its school of architecture, the house's primary historical value is that it was the home of suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt and her partner Mary Hay from 1919 to 1928. That period was the height of her activism; it began with the passage and ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted women the right to vote, and continued with her founding of the League of Women Voters and advocacy of women's suffrage in other countries.

She found the house an ideal place to rest her "tired nerves" since the land was too steep to farm productively. However, later on she did start limited farming, including raising cattle and chickens, on the land, and made some significant modifications to the property. She also claimed to a group of guests during the early years of Prohibition that she had bought the land to prevent anyone from using its juniper berries to make gin.

After nine years, she and Hay, who had never embraced the rural lifestyle, moved out. The land has been further subdivided but the house remains largely intact. It is still a private residence. Composer Carmino Ravosa, who learned of Catt's residence there while researching a musical, has worked to preserve it.^[5]