Briarcliff Manor, New York
Briarcliff Manor was historically known for its wealthy estate-owning families, including the Vanderbilts, Astors, and Rockefellers. It still remains primarily residential and its population is still considered affluent by U.S. standards. It has about of recreational facilities and parks, all accessible to the public. The village has seven Christian churches for various denominations and two synagogues. The oldest church is Saint Mary's Episcopal Church, built in 1851. Briarcliff Manor has an elected local government, with departments including police, fire, recreation, and public works. It has a low crime rate: a 2012 study found it had the second-lowest in the state. In the New York State Legislature it is split between the New York State Assembly's 95th and 92nd districts, and the New York Senate's 38th and 40th districts. In Congress the village is in New York's 17th District.
History of Briarcliff Manor
In 1903, Mrs. Dow's School for Girls was founded at the Briarcliff Lodge; two years later, Walter Law gave Mary Elizabeth Dow and built the Châteauesque Dow Hall; the school later became known as Briarcliff College. Also established in 1903, the Briarcliff Manor Fire Department was founded on February 10 by Frederick C. Messinger from Briarcliff Manor's first fire company, the 1901 Briarcliff Steamer Company No. 1. The department's first fire engine was white, which Messinger thought more visible than the conventional red in a village without street lights, and the village's engines remain white. The first twenty-nine street lights, all electric, were installed in 1904, and Scarborough was incorporated into Briarcliff Manor in 1906. Law largely developed his land as a business corporation until 1907, when Briarcliff Farms moved to Pine Plains, New York, and Law began developing Briarcliff Manor as a municipal corporation instead.
In 1908, Briarcliff Manor sponsored The First American International Road Race; the event centered around the village, and more than 300,000 people watched the race; the village had more than 100,000 visitors that day. The race was held again in 1934 and 1935. Also in 1908, the village police department was organized and The Church Houseparish house of the Scarborough Presbyterian Churchwas completed. The Briarcliff Community Center, nicknamed "The Club", was a social organization established by the village in 1910 in the 1898 Briarcliff Schools building. The Club became a social and recreational center, hosting dinners, dances, and variety shows, and containing a gymnasium and library. The organization ceased to exist in 1927; the building burned down in 1928, shortly after scheduled demolition to make way for the Briarcliff-Peekskill Parkway. Sleepy Hollow Country Club was founded on May 11, 1911 in Scarborough, at the former house of Colonel Elliott Fitch Shepard. The Village Municipal Building was built in 1913 at a cost of $20,000 ($ in ), and was opened on July 4, 1914. Currently housing several businesses, during the 1960s its cupola bell, which had tolled at the end of the World Wars, was moved to the front of the new firehouse. In 1914, the Briarcliff Community Center created the library which eventually became the Briarcliff Manor Public Library.