Hartsdale, New York
Encyclopedia
Hartsdale is a hamlet and a census-designated place
(CDP) located in the town of Greenburgh
, Westchester County, New York
. The population was 5,293 at the 2010 census.
According to the United States Census Bureau
, the community has a total area of 2.3 sqkm, all land.
, and 2.10% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 9.55% of the population.
There were 4,314 households out of which 24.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.1% were married couples living together, 8.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.1% were non-families. 31.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.27 and the average family size was 2.86.
In the CDP the population was spread out with 18.2% under the age of 18, 4.8% from 18 to 24, 30.3% from 25 to 44, 28.8% from 45 to 64, and 17.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females there were 86.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 81.2 males.
The median income for a household in the community was $81,824, and the median income for a family was $100,330. Males had a median income of $62,362 versus $47,380 for females. The per capita income for the community was $45,691. About 1.6% of families and 2.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.5% of those under age 18 and 4.6% of those age 65 or over.
, lies on the Bronx River
just 20 miles (32.2 km) north of New York City
. It is served by the Metro-North Harlem River commuter rail line into Grand Central Terminal
. Hartsdale is the home of America's first canine pet cemetery
(started by veterinarian Samuel Johnson in 1896), and the world's first Carvel Ice Cream store (1934), which closed in 2008.http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008810060341
Hartsdale's earliest settlers were the Weekquaeskeeks (sometimes spelled Weekquasgeeks), a sub-tribe of the Algonquian
tribe
that lived in most of southern New York, from Westchester down through Manhattan. Weekquaeskeek is an Algonquian
term believed to mean "place of the bark kettle", and this kettle appears in the Greenburgh town seal today.
After the earliest British colonialists arrived, the area was developed under the manor system when Frederick Philipse, a Dutch merchant and British Loyalist, was "given" the land by the British government. As lord of his Philipse Manor, he leased his land to tenant farmer
s who, at least for a time, were believed to have lived alongside their Native American neighbors.
There is evidence to show that Hartsdale played a significant role during the Revolutionary War, some of which still stands today. On October 28, 1776, a Revolutionary War battle was fought alongside the Bronx River, near the site of the current Hartsdale train station. The Odell House
(on Ridge Road, built in 1732) served as the headquarters for the French general the Comte de Rochambeau
, and is where the count and George Washington
are supposed to have formed an alliance leading to the Battle of Yorktown
. The house was later named after John Odell, Washington's guide who bought the house in 1785. In 1965, his descendants deeded the house to the Sons of the American Revolution
, and today the house is a museum.
After the Continental Army
and American colonialists won the Revolutionary War, Frederick Philipse III (third lord of the manor and great-grandson to Frederick Philipse I) fled, his land was confiscated and sold to the remaining farming tenants, many of whom were descendants of the Hart family. The intersection of Central Park Avenue and Hartsdale Avenue was named "Hart's Corners" after Robert Hart, one of these farmers who successfully bid for the land, and in the mid-19th century the entire area became known as "Hartsdale".
The area remained largely agrarian until 1865, when Eleazar Hart deeded land for the development of the New York and Harlem Railroad
line into Manhattan, setting the stage for Hartsdale's change into a more cosmopolitan commuter village. Between 1880 and 1940, large tracts of farmland and estates were subdivided and converted into private houses and apartments at a furious pace. By the 1960s, almost no remaining farmland was left for sale.
In 1904, the successful German-Jewish banker Felix Warburg (1871–1937) purchased large tracts of land to build his 500 acres (2 km²) "Woodlands" estate in Hartsdale, a summer home next to the country club where he and his wife Frieda Schiff Warburg (1876–1958) spent considerable time. The estate would later become an important site in the history of modern American ballet
, when on June 10, 1934, their son Edward M. M. Warburg (1908–1992) helped produce the first American performance of George Balanchine
's masterpiece "Serenade
". In keeping with the family's philanthropic efforts, Frieda Schiff Warburg, on her death in 1958, bequeathed a remaining 150 acre (0.607029 km²) to the town of Greenburgh to build a public school. These 150 acre (0.607029 km²) are now the home of the Greenburgh Central 7 School District and Woodlands High School. The main Warburg mansion currently serves as the school district headquarters, but other remnants from the original estate grounds can still be seen standing in the surrounding woods and neighboring streets. The Warburg family's New York City home would later be donated to become the Jewish Museum of New York
.
On February 9, 1928, Hartsdale became the birthplace of the American "Couch Potato" when the Scottish inventor John Logie Baird
(1888–1946) transmitted the world's first inter-continental short-wave television
signal from a transmitter (call sign 2KZ) in Coulsdon
, Surrey (a suburb of London
) to his colleague O. G. Hutchinson in the cellar of Robert M. Hart, an amateur radio operator (call sign 2CVJ) in Hartsdale.
In 1932, Henry Jacques Gaisman
, inventor and founder of the Gillette safety razor
blade, purchased 136 acre (0.55037296 km²) of land along Ridge Road, most of which he purchased from George Christiancy, the former U.S. minister to Peru
. In 1952, at age 82, he married his nurse Catherine "Kitty" Vance Gaisman, aged 33, a former Catholic nun
. In 1957, he and his wife Catherine (Mrs. Henry J. Gaisman) passed the title for his land to the New York Archdiocese
for $600,000, with the agreement that they could live there as long as they wished. Mr. Gaisman died in 1974 at age 104, and Mrs. Gaisman remained on the estate until she moved to Connecticut
in 1995. In 1999, the estate was saved from sale and development when the Town of Greenburgh
acquired the property and reopened it as the Hart's Brook Nature Preserve. Part of the agreement included the preservation of some portion of the estate as a home for retired Catholic nuns. Today the Catherine and Henry J. Gaisman Foundation continues to donate large amounts of money to support medical research.
On a hot Memorial Day
weekend in 1934, Greek immigrant
and ice cream salesman Tom Carvel
as was selling ice cream from his truck around roads in Westchester
, when he broke down with a flat tire
along Central Avenue in Hartsdale. With his ice cream melting rapidly, he decided to simply sell it along the side of Central Avenue where his truck broke down. Successful at selling his stock at this location, he decided to buy the plot of land where he was stuck, and in 1936 he opened up the world's first Carvel ice cream store. The store stood on the southbound side of Central Avenue (just south of the "Four Corners" section of Hartsdale) until October 5, 2008, when the store was closed and the land sold to developers. The original store has since been demolished. To commemorate the birth of Carvel ice cream in Hartsdale, the Hartsdale Fire Company distributes Carvel "Flying Saucers" from Fire Station 1 after every Memorial Day parade.
Salvation Army
leader Evangeline Cory Booth (1865–1950), originally from London, lived in Hartsdale until her death on July 17, 1950. The classical music composer Charles Ives
also lived and commuted from Hartsdale for a brief period. Other influential people who have lived in Hartsdale include the artist/sculptor Malvina Hoffman
, American businessman Vernon Jordan, National Urban League president John Edward Jacob
, pro-wrestler "Classy" Freddie Blassie, actor Peter Riegert
, singer/musician/composer Billy Vera
, novelist and educator Michael Rubin, Mad magazine artist Jack Davis
, and Nobel laureate Louis J. Ignarro.
Hartsdale is one of the few communities immediately surrounding New York City that still has two working farms, both on Secor Road. It also has several parks, including the 25 acres (101,171.5 m²) Secor Woods Park, the 170 acre (0.6879662 km²) Ridge Road Park, and 86 acres (348,030 m²) Rumbrook Park.
The town can generally be subdivided into several areas, including the "Village" or downtown part (East Hartsdale Avenue), Manor Park, Windsor Park, Poet's Corners, Ridge Road, Orchard Hill, College Corners, or more specifically one of the several condominium developments built since the 1970s. Over the years, the town has attracted many different ethnic groups, and the downtown village has a significant Japanese
population with Japanese shops, restaurants, real-estate brokers, and even a Japanese supermarket all within walking distance of East Hartsdale Avenue.
Ferncliff Cemetery
is located on Secor Road in Hartsdale, famous as the burial grounds for many celebrities including Aaliyah
, Malcolm X
, Judy Garland
, Jerome Kern
, Joan Crawford
, Basil Rathbone
, Ed Sullivan
, Jam-Master Jay
, Gerry Mulligan
, James Baldwin
, Michel Fokine
, Jim Henson
, Tom Carvel
, Oscar Hammerstein
, Thelonious Monk
, Paul Robeson
and others. British rocker John Lennon
was cremated there. Composer Béla Bartók
was initially buried in Hartsdale before being reinterred in his native Hungary
in 1988. Radio DJ Alan Freed
was also initially buried in Hartsdale until his ashes were moved to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
in 2002.
The popular J-pop
rap/R&B duo Heartsdales
borrow their name from Hartsdale, as the two members spent considerable time here.
On the NBC series Heroes
, The Company's Primatech Research facility and home of Level 5 is located in Hartsdale.
One scene from the comedy film The Other Guys
was filmed at the Harmon Discount in Hartsdale.
Census-designated place
A census-designated place is a concentration of population identified by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes. CDPs are delineated for each decennial census as the statistical counterparts of incorporated places such as cities, towns and villages...
(CDP) located in the town of Greenburgh
Greenburgh, New York
Greenburgh is a town in the western part of Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 88,400 at the 2010 census. Paul J. Feiner has been the Town Supervisor since 1991.-History:...
, Westchester County, New York
Westchester County, New York
Westchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Westchester covers an area of and has a population of 949,113 according to the 2010 Census, residing in 45 municipalities...
. The population was 5,293 at the 2010 census.
Geography
Hartsdale is located at 41°1′32"N 73°48′17"W (41.025690, −73.804742).According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the community has a total area of 2.3 sqkm, all land.
Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 9,830 people, 4,314 households, and 2,756 families residing in the community. The population density was 3,068.0 per square mile (1,186.1/km²). There were 4,478 housing units at an average density of 1,397.6/sq mi (540.3/km²). The racial makeup of the community was 76.14% White, 8.71% African American, 0.19% Native American, 10.17% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 2.64% from other racesRace (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 2.10% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 9.55% of the population.
There were 4,314 households out of which 24.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.1% were married couples living together, 8.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.1% were non-families. 31.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.27 and the average family size was 2.86.
In the CDP the population was spread out with 18.2% under the age of 18, 4.8% from 18 to 24, 30.3% from 25 to 44, 28.8% from 45 to 64, and 17.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females there were 86.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 81.2 males.
The median income for a household in the community was $81,824, and the median income for a family was $100,330. Males had a median income of $62,362 versus $47,380 for females. The per capita income for the community was $45,691. About 1.6% of families and 2.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.5% of those under age 18 and 4.6% of those age 65 or over.
History
Hartsdale, a CDP/hamlet/post-office in the town of Greenburgh, New YorkGreenburgh, New York
Greenburgh is a town in the western part of Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 88,400 at the 2010 census. Paul J. Feiner has been the Town Supervisor since 1991.-History:...
, lies on the Bronx River
Bronx River
The Bronx River, approximately long, flows through southeast New York in the United States. It is named after colonial settler Jonas Bronck. The Bronx River is the only fresh water river in New York City....
just 20 miles (32.2 km) north of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. It is served by the Metro-North Harlem River commuter rail line into Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal —often incorrectly called Grand Central Station, or shortened to simply Grand Central—is a terminal station at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...
. Hartsdale is the home of America's first canine pet cemetery
Pet cemetery
A pet cemetery is a cemetery for animals.-History:Many human cultures buried animal remains. The Ancient Egyptians mummified and buried cats, which they considered deities....
(started by veterinarian Samuel Johnson in 1896), and the world's first Carvel Ice Cream store (1934), which closed in 2008.http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008810060341
Hartsdale's earliest settlers were the Weekquaeskeeks (sometimes spelled Weekquasgeeks), a sub-tribe of the Algonquian
Algonquian peoples
The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups, with tribes originally numbering in the hundreds. Today hundreds of thousands of individuals identify with various Algonquian peoples...
tribe
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
that lived in most of southern New York, from Westchester down through Manhattan. Weekquaeskeek is an Algonquian
Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...
term believed to mean "place of the bark kettle", and this kettle appears in the Greenburgh town seal today.
After the earliest British colonialists arrived, the area was developed under the manor system when Frederick Philipse, a Dutch merchant and British Loyalist, was "given" the land by the British government. As lord of his Philipse Manor, he leased his land to tenant farmer
Tenant farmer
A tenant farmer is one who resides on and farms land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management; while tenant farmers contribute their labor along with at times varying...
s who, at least for a time, were believed to have lived alongside their Native American neighbors.
There is evidence to show that Hartsdale played a significant role during the Revolutionary War, some of which still stands today. On October 28, 1776, a Revolutionary War battle was fought alongside the Bronx River, near the site of the current Hartsdale train station. The Odell House
Odell House
Odell House is a historic home located at Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York. The house consists of a -story central section erected in 1732, with flanking wings. The east wing was built in 1765 as a -story structure and raised to a full two stories in 1785...
(on Ridge Road, built in 1732) served as the headquarters for the French general the Comte de Rochambeau
Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau
Marshal of France Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau was a French nobleman and general who participated in the American Revolutionary War as the commander-in-chief of the French Expeditionary Force which came to help the American Continental Army...
, and is where the count and George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
are supposed to have formed an alliance leading to the Battle of Yorktown
Siege of Yorktown
The Siege of Yorktown, Battle of Yorktown, or Surrender of Yorktown in 1781 was a decisive victory by a combined assault of American forces led by General George Washington and French forces led by the Comte de Rochambeau over a British Army commanded by Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis...
. The house was later named after John Odell, Washington's guide who bought the house in 1785. In 1965, his descendants deeded the house to the Sons of the American Revolution
Sons of the American Revolution
The National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution is a Louisville, Kentucky-based fraternal organization in the United States...
, and today the house is a museum.
After the Continental Army
Continental Army
The Continental Army was formed after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War by the colonies that became the United States of America. Established by a resolution of the Continental Congress on June 14, 1775, it was created to coordinate the military efforts of the Thirteen Colonies in...
and American colonialists won the Revolutionary War, Frederick Philipse III (third lord of the manor and great-grandson to Frederick Philipse I) fled, his land was confiscated and sold to the remaining farming tenants, many of whom were descendants of the Hart family. The intersection of Central Park Avenue and Hartsdale Avenue was named "Hart's Corners" after Robert Hart, one of these farmers who successfully bid for the land, and in the mid-19th century the entire area became known as "Hartsdale".
The area remained largely agrarian until 1865, when Eleazar Hart deeded land for the development of the New York and Harlem Railroad
New York and Harlem Railroad
The New York and Harlem Railroad was one of the first railroads in the United States, and possibly also the world's first street railway. Designed by John Stephenson, it was opened in stages between 1832 and 1852 between Lower Manhattan to and beyond Harlem...
line into Manhattan, setting the stage for Hartsdale's change into a more cosmopolitan commuter village. Between 1880 and 1940, large tracts of farmland and estates were subdivided and converted into private houses and apartments at a furious pace. By the 1960s, almost no remaining farmland was left for sale.
In 1904, the successful German-Jewish banker Felix Warburg (1871–1937) purchased large tracts of land to build his 500 acres (2 km²) "Woodlands" estate in Hartsdale, a summer home next to the country club where he and his wife Frieda Schiff Warburg (1876–1958) spent considerable time. The estate would later become an important site in the history of modern American ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
, when on June 10, 1934, their son Edward M. M. Warburg (1908–1992) helped produce the first American performance of George Balanchine
George Balanchine
George Balanchine , born Giorgi Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a Georgian father and a Russian mother, was one of the 20th century's most famous choreographers, a developer of ballet in the United States, co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet...
's masterpiece "Serenade
Serenade (ballet)
Serenade is a ballet by George Balanchine, subsequently co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet, to Tschaikovsky's 1880 Serenade for Strings in C, Op. 48...
". In keeping with the family's philanthropic efforts, Frieda Schiff Warburg, on her death in 1958, bequeathed a remaining 150 acre (0.607029 km²) to the town of Greenburgh to build a public school. These 150 acre (0.607029 km²) are now the home of the Greenburgh Central 7 School District and Woodlands High School. The main Warburg mansion currently serves as the school district headquarters, but other remnants from the original estate grounds can still be seen standing in the surrounding woods and neighboring streets. The Warburg family's New York City home would later be donated to become the Jewish Museum of New York
Jewish Museum (New York)
The Jewish Museum of New York, an art museum and repository of cultural artifacts, is the leading Jewish museum in the United States. With over 26,000 objects, it contains the largest collection of art and Jewish culture outside of museums in Israel. The museum is housed at 1109 Fifth Avenue, in...
.
On February 9, 1928, Hartsdale became the birthplace of the American "Couch Potato" when the Scottish inventor John Logie Baird
John Logie Baird
John Logie Baird FRSE was a Scottish engineer and inventor of the world's first practical, publicly demonstrated television system, and also the world's first fully electronic colour television tube...
(1888–1946) transmitted the world's first inter-continental short-wave television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
signal from a transmitter (call sign 2KZ) in Coulsdon
Coulsdon
Coulsdon is a town on the southernmost boundary of the London Borough of Croydon. It is surrounded by the Metropolitan Green Belt of the Farthing Down, Coulsdon Common and Kenley Common...
, Surrey (a suburb of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
) to his colleague O. G. Hutchinson in the cellar of Robert M. Hart, an amateur radio operator (call sign 2CVJ) in Hartsdale.
In 1932, Henry Jacques Gaisman
Henry Jacques Gaisman
Henry Jacques Gaisman was a philanthropist and inventor of a type of safety razor, the autographic camera, and over one thousand other patents which benefited common items such as swivel chairs, men's belts, and carburetors.-History:His father, Jacques Gaisman , was an immigrant originally from...
, inventor and founder of the Gillette safety razor
Safety razor
A safety razor is a razor that protects the skin from all but the very edge of the blade. These razors reduce the possibility of serious injury, which makes them more forgiving than a straight razor.-Cartridges introduced:...
blade, purchased 136 acre (0.55037296 km²) of land along Ridge Road, most of which he purchased from George Christiancy, the former U.S. minister to Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
. In 1952, at age 82, he married his nurse Catherine "Kitty" Vance Gaisman, aged 33, a former Catholic nun
Nun
A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...
. In 1957, he and his wife Catherine (Mrs. Henry J. Gaisman) passed the title for his land to the New York Archdiocese
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York covers New York, Bronx, and Richmond counties in New York City , as well as Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester counties in New York state. There are 480 parishes...
for $600,000, with the agreement that they could live there as long as they wished. Mr. Gaisman died in 1974 at age 104, and Mrs. Gaisman remained on the estate until she moved to Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
in 1995. In 1999, the estate was saved from sale and development when the Town of Greenburgh
Greenburgh, New York
Greenburgh is a town in the western part of Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 88,400 at the 2010 census. Paul J. Feiner has been the Town Supervisor since 1991.-History:...
acquired the property and reopened it as the Hart's Brook Nature Preserve. Part of the agreement included the preservation of some portion of the estate as a home for retired Catholic nuns. Today the Catherine and Henry J. Gaisman Foundation continues to donate large amounts of money to support medical research.
On a hot Memorial Day
Memorial Day
Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War...
weekend in 1934, Greek immigrant
Greek American
Greek Americans are Americans of Greek descent also described as Hellenic descent. According to the 2007 U.S. Census Bureau estimation, there were 1,380,088 people of Greek ancestry in the United States, while the State Department mentions that around 3,000,000 Americans claim to be of Greek descent...
and ice cream salesman Tom Carvel
Tom Carvel
Thomas A. Carvelas, also known as Tom Carvel was a Greek-born American businessman and entrepreneur known for the invention and promotion of soft ice cream in the northeastern United States...
as was selling ice cream from his truck around roads in Westchester
Westchester County, New York
Westchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Westchester covers an area of and has a population of 949,113 according to the 2010 Census, residing in 45 municipalities...
, when he broke down with a flat tire
Flat tire
A flat tire is a deflated pneumatic tire, which can cause the rim of the wheel to ride on the tire tread or the ground potentially resulting in loss of control of the vehicle or irreparable damage to the tire and wheel....
along Central Avenue in Hartsdale. With his ice cream melting rapidly, he decided to simply sell it along the side of Central Avenue where his truck broke down. Successful at selling his stock at this location, he decided to buy the plot of land where he was stuck, and in 1936 he opened up the world's first Carvel ice cream store. The store stood on the southbound side of Central Avenue (just south of the "Four Corners" section of Hartsdale) until October 5, 2008, when the store was closed and the land sold to developers. The original store has since been demolished. To commemorate the birth of Carvel ice cream in Hartsdale, the Hartsdale Fire Company distributes Carvel "Flying Saucers" from Fire Station 1 after every Memorial Day parade.
Salvation Army
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
leader Evangeline Cory Booth (1865–1950), originally from London, lived in Hartsdale until her death on July 17, 1950. The classical music composer Charles Ives
Charles Ives
Charles Edward Ives was an American modernist composer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown, though Ives' music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, Ives came to be regarded as an "American Original"...
also lived and commuted from Hartsdale for a brief period. Other influential people who have lived in Hartsdale include the artist/sculptor Malvina Hoffman
Malvina Hoffman
Malvina Hoffman , was an American sculptor and author, well known for her life-size bronze sculptures of people...
, American businessman Vernon Jordan, National Urban League president John Edward Jacob
John Edward Jacob
John Edward Jacob was a U.S. civil rights leader. He served as the president of the National Urban League between 1982 and 1994....
, pro-wrestler "Classy" Freddie Blassie, actor Peter Riegert
Peter Riegert
Peter Riegert is an American actor, screenwriter, and film director, best known for his role as Boon from Animal House and crooked New Jersey State Assemblyman Ronald Zellman on the HBO original series The Sopranos.-Early life:...
, singer/musician/composer Billy Vera
Billy Vera
Billy Vera is an American singer, actor, writer and music historian.-Life and career:Vera was born in Riverside, California. He began his singing career in 1962 as a member of the Resolutions. He went on to write several songs throughout the early 1960s, writing for the likes of Barbara Lewis,...
, novelist and educator Michael Rubin, Mad magazine artist Jack Davis
Jack Davis (cartoonist)
Jack Davis is an American cartoonist and illustrator, known for his advertising art, magazine covers, film posters, record album art and numerous comic book stories...
, and Nobel laureate Louis J. Ignarro.
Hartsdale is one of the few communities immediately surrounding New York City that still has two working farms, both on Secor Road. It also has several parks, including the 25 acres (101,171.5 m²) Secor Woods Park, the 170 acre (0.6879662 km²) Ridge Road Park, and 86 acres (348,030 m²) Rumbrook Park.
The town can generally be subdivided into several areas, including the "Village" or downtown part (East Hartsdale Avenue), Manor Park, Windsor Park, Poet's Corners, Ridge Road, Orchard Hill, College Corners, or more specifically one of the several condominium developments built since the 1970s. Over the years, the town has attracted many different ethnic groups, and the downtown village has a significant Japanese
Japanese American
are American people of Japanese heritage. Japanese Americans have historically been among the three largest Asian American communities, but in recent decades have become the sixth largest group at roughly 1,204,205, including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity...
population with Japanese shops, restaurants, real-estate brokers, and even a Japanese supermarket all within walking distance of East Hartsdale Avenue.
Ferncliff Cemetery
Ferncliff Cemetery
Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum is located on Secor Road in the hamlet of Hartsdale, town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, about 25 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. It was founded in 1902, and is non-sectarian...
is located on Secor Road in Hartsdale, famous as the burial grounds for many celebrities including Aaliyah
Aaliyah
Aaliyah Dana Haughton , who performed under the mononym Aaliyah , was an American R&B recording artist, actress and model. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and was raised in Detroit, Michigan. At the age of 10, she appeared on the television show Star Search and performed in concert alongside...
, Malcolm X
Malcolm X
Malcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its...
, Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
, Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
, Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
, Basil Rathbone
Basil Rathbone
Sir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was an English actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films...
, Ed Sullivan
Ed Sullivan
Edward Vincent "Ed" Sullivan was an American entertainment writer and television host, best known as the presenter of the TV variety show The Ed Sullivan Show. The show was broadcast from 1948 to 1971 , which made it one of the longest-running variety shows in U.S...
, Jam-Master Jay
Jam-Master Jay
Jason William Mizell , better known by his stage name Jam Master Jay, was an American musician and rapper. He was the DJ of the influential hip hop group Run-D.M.C. and helped define the sound of the band, the style of the black hats and Adidas shoes that came to be the band's trademark. During the...
, Gerry Mulligan
Gerry Mulligan
Gerald Joseph "Gerry" Mulligan was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and arranger. Though Mulligan is primarily known as one of the leading baritone saxophonists in jazz history – playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz – he was also...
, James Baldwin
James Baldwin
James Baldwin was an American novelist, essayist and civil rights activist.James Baldwin may also refer to:-Writers:*James Baldwin , American educator, writer and administrator...
, Michel Fokine
Michel Fokine
Michel Fokine was a groundbreaking Russian choreographer and dancer.-Biography:...
, Jim Henson
Jim Henson
James Maury "Jim" Henson was an American puppeteer best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and created advanced puppets for...
, Tom Carvel
Tom Carvel
Thomas A. Carvelas, also known as Tom Carvel was a Greek-born American businessman and entrepreneur known for the invention and promotion of soft ice cream in the northeastern United States...
, Oscar Hammerstein
Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...
, Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
, Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
and others. British rocker John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
was cremated there. Composer Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
was initially buried in Hartsdale before being reinterred in his native Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
in 1988. Radio DJ Alan Freed
Alan Freed
Albert James "Alan" Freed , also known as Moondog, was an American disc-jockey. He became internationally known for promoting the mix of blues, country and rhythm and blues music on the radio in the United States and Europe under the name of rock and roll...
was also initially buried in Hartsdale until his ashes were moved to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
in 2002.
The popular J-pop
J-pop
, an abbreviation for Japanese pop, is a musical genre that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. Modern J-pop has its roots in 1960s music, such as The Beatles, and replaced kayōkyoku in the Japanese music scene...
rap/R&B duo Heartsdales
Heartsdales
Heartsdales was a Japanese hip hop group composed of sisters and , known by their stage names Rum and Jewels, respectively.Yumi was born on December 17, 1981, and Emi on December 4, 1976 in Tokyo, Japan. Their family moved to the Yonkers area of New York right after Yumi was born, due to their...
borrow their name from Hartsdale, as the two members spent considerable time here.
On the NBC series Heroes
Heroes (TV series)
Heroes is an American science fiction television drama series created by Tim Kring that appeared on NBC for four seasons from September 25, 2006 through February 8, 2010. The series tells the stories of ordinary people who discover superhuman abilities, and how these abilities take effect in the...
, The Company's Primatech Research facility and home of Level 5 is located in Hartsdale.
One scene from the comedy film The Other Guys
The Other Guys
The Other Guys is a 2010 American action comedy film directed and co-written by Adam McKay, starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, and featuring Dwayne Johnson, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Keaton, Eva Mendes, Steve Coogan, and Ray Stevenson...
was filmed at the Harmon Discount in Hartsdale.