Park Hill

It’s March Madness time which means, you guessed it - Basketball!

Basketball is not only a sport filled with excitement, slam dunks, and unbelievable athletes; it’s also a social event in the lobby bar of the Racquet Club at Park Hill!

Join us Saturday April 2nd at 6PM for food, fun and frivolity! Enter our drawing and you could be a winner in our special Breeder’s Cup thoroughbred race to be run at half time. Not a basketball fan?

Join us for drinks and darts and the excitement of a thrilling horse race. Bring your family, bring a guest or just bring yourself. Meet old friends and make some new ones. No one leaves disappointed and you could go home a winner in our half-time horse racing event.

For info, contact:
Robert Moment
914-376-0255
rjmoment.applepromotions AT verizon DOT net

From the NYT (soul-sucking registration required, or use bugmenot), a great article about Hezi Aris’ interesting site, Yonkers Tribune.

You’ll have to form your own opinions about the site, but whatever you think, he’s certainly starting to catch the attention of a few folks in city hall.

Gail Averill just sent me some more information on Park Hill’s former railroad connection:

Yonkers Rapid Transit Railway was incorporated March 18, 1879 as a three mile spur of the New York City & Northern Railroad connecting New York City (155th St) to Getty Square through the Park Hill, Lowerre & Caryl sections of Yonkers. In 1894 it became part of the New York Central Railroad - Putnam Branch. In 1942 the NYCentral filed for abandonment of the Yonkers branch, citing annual losses of $71,000. Despite opposition from Yonkers the ICC approved the petition. The fight went to the Supreme Court which refused the stay of cessation of service but did stop the scrapping of the line. However, on Dec. 12, 1944, the court denied a rehearing and nine days later the New York Central began scrapping the Yonkers Rapid Transit Railway for the WWII effort.

Remnants of the infrastructure remain visible. The stone abutments of the bridge that carried the tracks over McLean Ave. is visible on the North side of McLean opposite the parking lot of the Parkside Diner. The line passed from there into what is now the lower part of Sutherland Park, between Undercliff & South Broadway, to the Park Hill Station which stood on the current site of 254-260 Broadway. Walking along this route through the woods you can still see some evidence of concrete ‘curbing’ along the old rail bed.

Behind the Park Hill station was a stairway of cut stone steps to Undercliff Street and the lower elevator house. Part of the wall is still there, just below the triangle where Park Hill Terrace turns of Undercliff.

The Park Hill Elevator was built for the American Real Estate Company by Otis Elevator in 1895 - a water powered cable car that ran from the lower house behind the station to Alta Ave at the top of the hill. The upper house on Alta Ave. is basically intact and is now a private home. The structure of the elevator platform is still visible in the rear. The lower house was essentially destroyed by a fire in the early 1990s but was rebuilt, not as an exact copy but in an appropriate style, as a 3 family apartment. After the American Real Estate Company was dissolved, the elevator was owned by a group of Park Hill residents who formed Park Hill Properties, Inc. A ride on the elevator cost 5 cents but the elevator lost money (it seems that the cost of water ($900 annually) was a large factor in this loss. There was dispute with the City over bills for water which supplied pressure to power the elevator but was not actually “used” and was then piped to buildings on South Broadway and re-billed) In 1931 the City agreed to buy the elevator for $21,000 but title never closed because of political wrangling. Park Hill Properties closed the elevator in October, 1934. Despite various private and neighborhood efforts the elevator passed on a mortgage to the First National Bank & Trust Co which became defunct in 1935. It was among properties scheduled for the Auction of the bank assets but did not find a buyer.

So, let’s lobby the MTA to bring it back - it’ll cut down on my wife’s commute, that’s for certain.

The Racquet Club will be holding their first Board Game Sunday this coming, um, Sunday, March 20th.

Anybody up for some backgammon?

From the Racquet Club -

All Members are Welcome!

The kick-off meeting of the Social Commitee will be held at 7:30PM on Thursday, March 3rd in the Clubhouse. All members are welcome to attend either as individuals or as a group to talk about ideas for one-time events and ongoing social activities.

We want to develop a year-long social calendar for adults, families, and kids. We need new ideas and lots of good energy! Come to the meeting to find out what’s already being planned and how your own event ideas can come to life at the Racquet Club.
If you can’t make the meeting, but have an idea you’d like to discuss, email Patty Gamba at pgamba100 AT aol DOT com or call at 914-709-0834.

Chamber Music in Park Hill
PARK HILL
CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERT 2005
Sunday, March 13, 2005 at 12 noon

Park Hill continues its tradition of beautiful music in beautiful homes with this year’s sole concert.

Featuring Park Hill residents Anca Nicolau playing the violin and husband Myron Lutzke playing the cello, the duo will be joined by guest artist Steven Lubin on the piano for an afternoon of trios by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.

PROGRAM:
Haydn: Trio in C, No. 25
Mozart: Trio in B-flat, K. 502
Beethoven: Trio in E-flat, Op. 1, No. 1

A reception will follow the concert, giving you an opportunity to meet with the artists.
Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for children 8-12 yrs.

To reserve your tickets:
Print out our flyer and mail in the reservation form before Tuesday, March 8. After Tuesday, March 8, tickets will be available at the door, however, you must contact Marilee Schueneman prior to the day of the concert at (914) 965-0197 for directions to the concert location.

All proceeds benefit the Park Hill Land Conservancy in its never-ending quest to plant trees and conserve property in our beautiful neighborhood.

An “Anonymous” reader posted an answer to a question about the old Park Hill railroad station I’d posed in this post:

The tracks were the Getty Square Branch of the Putnam Division of the New York Central Railroad. They started at Putnam junction in Van Cortlandt Park and terminated at Getty Square. The post card shows the lower elevator house as it looked before it was rebuilt after suffering a fire sometime in the 1980s. If you walk down Undercliff, you will see the two stone columns that are in the foreground of the post card. They are at the top stairs that lead down to what is now the parking lot of an apartment building on South Broadway. That parking lot sits partially on the former right of way. If you want to see the rails, just look at the supports for the guard rail.

Another reader wrote to me that he knows where the right of way is and would be perhaps willing to field an archaeologist for a day excursion for me. Perhaps he could be talked into doing it for more folks?