A Walk to Sparta Cemetery
It’s been very hot and humid for the past several days, so I haven’t been getting out much. After a few days of this I was starting to get “cabin fever”. I decided that I would get up early and go for a walk while it was still fairly cool. My plan was to leave the house, walk down Scarborough Road to Route 9/Albany Post Road, which I would cross near the Presbyterian Church and go down to historic Sparta Cemetery. After that I planned to continue on the Stop and Shop, pick up some groceries and then get an Uber back home.
My first picture taking opportunity was the statue above. It’s not far from my house. I’ve tried to take pictures of it before, but it’s quite a long way away from the road on private land and I’d never been able to get a picture I was happy with…until now. I was quite satisfied with this one.
I don’t know what the subject of the statue is. I thought it might be Pan because of the pipes he’s playing, but the statue doesn’t seem to have the goat’s legs normally associated with Pan. After a bit of research, I’ve found images of similar statues called: “Boy Playing Pipers”. I thought the flowers were a nice touch, as were the frogs around the base.
Ashridge
As you descend from the corner of Scarborough and Holbrook Roads toward Route 9 you may have noticed a large house that looks like something out of “Gone with the Wind” on your left.
It’s called Ashridge and it stands at 508 Scarborough Road.
An interesting fact: the house was not originally in its present location. It originally stood on Albany Post Road near Saint Mary’s Church. The house, which is thought to have been built by George Swords around 1825, was sold in 1862 by J. Butler Wright to C.C. North for $500 with the understanding that it be moved within a certain time. It was taken down in sections, carefully marked, loaded on sledges and hauled up the hill over the snow. North called his new home Ashridge, because the only large tree on the ridge was an ash. Butler Wright’s own fine house (Weskora) near the original site of Ashridge, part of which is said to have dated from 1779, served as the golf house and, at times, the main clubhouse of the Sleepy Hollow Country Club, until it was torn down in the 1960s. (Adapted from Mary Cheever, The Changing Landscape: A History of Briarcliff-Manor Scarborough – copies available for sale at the Briarcliff-Manor Historical Society, 1 Library Road, Briarcliff Manor for the special price of $20.).
In 1910 Giles and Flora Whiting bought the estate from C.C. North as a country home to go with their New York City apartment. He was an architect and manufacturer of Persian rugs and his wife was the daughter of Louis E. Ettlinger, a printing magnate and the president of Crowell Publishing Co.
The Whitings added two wings on either side of the main house and bought more of the surrounding property, bringing the estate to about 400 acres. Many pieces of their furniture from Ashridge can now be seen in the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
For more on Flora Whiting see this piece on the Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society website:
In 1972, Thomas and Martha Shearman bought the estate and extended nearby Law Road, creating 40 building lots that were then sold. Martha was a professional decorator and many of her touches, such as the hand-painted Chinese wallpaper in the dining room, can still be seen in the house.
Other architectural details at Ashridge include a covered porch and sunroom with slate flooring, French doors, original hardwood floors, antique oak and pine paneling and a huge foyer that runs from the front door to the back. The master suite on the second floor remains one of the most impressive parts of the house. It boasts a large bedroom, two sitting areas, an indoor veranda and a full terrace.” (Journal News 12 24/25 2005).
In early 2016, filming for the Amazon Studios series Crisis in Six Scenes featured Ashridge. Scenes from the movie American Gangster were also filmed there.
A small tree
I was attracted to this small tree (I think it’s a maple of some kind, possibly a Japanese Maple) standing in a pool of sunlight.
A shadow
This shadow of some overhead wires caught my attention – I’m not entirely sure why.
Yellow Leaves
The bright yellow/green leaves first caught my attention. I liked the contrasts: the bright leaves against the darker background; the smooth leaves against the textured background. I also like the somewhat minimal composition: just two things: the leaves and the background. Simple, but attractive.
Around the Scarborough Presbyterian Church
According to Wikipedia:
Scarborough Presbyterian Church is the third-oldest in Briarcliff Manor., and has a 2.75-acre (1.11 ha) property. The church has its origins with Elliott Fitch Shepard and his wife Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt Shepard purchasing a roadhouse on the Albany Post Road. In 1892, after enlarging and remodeling the store, adding diamond-paned windows and replacing the floors and porches, the building was first used as a church. The church’s organization meeting was held with nineteen charter members.
After Elliott Fitch Shepard’s death in March 1893, Margaret donated the present church building and manse. The Spanish Renaissance-style church was designed by Augustus Haydel (a nephew of Stanford White) and August D. Shepard (a nephew of Elliott Shepard and of William Rutherford Mead. The two nephews later designed the 1899 Fabbri Mansion in Manhattan. The church’s cornerstone was laid on October 13, 1893. During construction of the building’s foundation, workers found quicksand, though Shepard was intent on constructing the church there and had the construction workers dig 30 feet into the ground to find firm ground for the foundation. European workers were brought to the site to aide in the building’s construction. The Italian Renaissance Revival building was of limestone delivered from Indiana by railroad, requiring a special track laid at Scarborough to accommodate the delivery. The completed church was dedicated on May 11, 1895, in memory of Elliott Fitch Shepard. It was briefly known as Shepard Memorial Church. The dedication was attended by Cornelius Vanderbilt II, Frederick W. Vanderbilt, Chauncey Depew, William Sloane of W. & J. Sloane, William Seward Webb, H. Walter Webb, and James A. Burden Jr.
It was built of pink granite rubble with limestone trim, with a steeple supported by flying buttresses. The interior has mosaic tile floors, fluted pilasters with gilded capitals, a coffered ceiling made of redwood, and stained-glass windows. The church’s 1,498-pipe organ was constructed around 1894; it was the first all-electric action organ in the world. The 3-acre (1.2 ha) church property also contains the church’s carriage house, used for offices, and the parish house, designed by Augustus D. Shepard and completed in 1908.
From 1929 to 1974, the Scarborough Engine Company of the Briarcliff Manor Fire Department had its first firehouse in the church’s garage building or barn, which is older than the church building itself.
Since around 1995, the church has run the Scarborough Presbyterian Children’s Center, a non-denominational preschool housed in a building next door to the church, with an outdoor playground nearby. The preschool serves families in Briarcliff Manor and Scarborough, Ossining, Tarrytown, Sleepy Hollow, Pocantico Hills, and Pleasantville.
In 1995, some of the church was renovated; in 2002, the building was more fully renovated due to years of floodwater and runoff damage, including floods from Hurricane Floyd.
The Scarborough Presbyterian Church House
“The Church House, given by Mrs. Edith Shepard and designed by Augustus D. Shepard, was completed in 1908.” (Mary Cheever. The Changing Landscape. A History of Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough, p.53
The Scarborough Presbyterian Church Manse
The Manse is across the road from the Presbyterian Church.
According to Mary Cheever.
During his pastorate at the church, Mr. Blessing lived with the Misses Dennis, cousins of Mr. Shepard, whose home was on the site of the Arcadian Shopping Center. With the arrival of the second minister, Benjamin T. Marshall, a manse was established in the house Dr. Holden had built for his son George Clarence Holden on the hill on the hill between the Holden homestead and Scarborough Road (later the Easton House). The present manse next to the Sparta Buying Grounds on Revolutionary Road was given by Mrs. Shepard and completed in 1913. It was designed by William C. Holden, son of George C. Holden, who was the builder, and who owned and operated the Ossining Pressed Stone Company on the river front in Ossining Village. (Mary Cheever. The Changing Landscape. A History of Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough, pp.53-54).
I don’t have much to say about this other than that I found it interesting.
The flower bed is located directly in front of the entrance to the Manse.
A Path
Sparta Cemetery
Sparta Cemetery, or the Presbyterian Burying Ground at Sparta, is a two-acre (0.81 ha) burying ground dating to 1764, making it the oldest cemetery in Westchester County. It is the only contributing property outside Briarcliff Manor; the Ossining Historical Society has maintained the cemetery since 1984. As of 1984, the cemetery is still owned by the First Presbyterian Church of Ossining; its original church building was built c. 1768 and was moved towards the center of Ossining in 1800. The grounds hold 34 known Revolutionary War veterans. Many of the area’s earliest residents are buried in the cemetery.
In September 1780, HMS Vulture fired a cannonball into the gravestone of Abraham Ladew, Jr., who died in 1774, at the age of 7. The Vulture was traveling south from Croton Point to pick up Major John André, a rendezvous that never occurred; Andre was captured in Tarrytown on his way to the vessel.
That’s all I have to say about Sparta Cemetery. I’ve done many posts on this cemetery (you can look them up on my blog) and on this occasion, I had been walking for around two hours, it was almost noon, and it was getting hot and humid. So, I didn’t stay long. Just a few shots taken from near the entrance, and I was off.
A colorful fire hydrant
As I walked off along Revolutionary Road, I came across this brightly colored fire hydrant. I thought the bright colors contrasted nicely with the stonework.
And yes, this is the Revolutionary Road in Richard Yate’s well-known novel and the movie of the same name.
Novelist and short-story writer Richard Yates lived at the corner of Revolutionary Road and Route 9 in Scarborough. The Beechwood estate contained a carriage house, gatehouse, squash court (no longer extant), and a white-stucco artist’s studio named Beech Twig. In his youth, novelist Richard Yates lived there, as well as other artists, writers, and composers (e.g. John Cheever).