Briarcliff Manor is a suburban village in Westchester County, New York, around 30 miles north of New York City. It is on 5.9 square miles of land on the east bank of the Hudson River,  geographically shared by the towns of Mount Pleasant and Ossining.

Briarcliff Manor includes the communities of Scarborough and Chilmark, and is served by the Scarborough station of the Metro-North Railroad‘s Hudson Line. A section of the village, including buildings and homes covering 376 acres, is part of the Scarborough Historic District and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places  in 1984.

The village motto is “A Village between Two Rivers”, reflecting Briarcliff Manor’s location between the Hudson and Pocantico Rivers. Although the Pocantico is the primary boundary between Mount Pleasant and Ossining, since its incorporation the village has spread into Mount Pleasant.

In the precolonial era, the village’s area was inhabited by a band of the Wappinger tribes of Native Americans. In the early 19th century, the area was known as Whitson’s Corners. Walter William Law moved to the area and purchased lands during the 1890s. Law developed the village, establishing schools, churches, parks, and the Briarcliff Lodge.

Briarcliff Manor was incorporated as a village in 1902, and celebrated its centennial on November 21, 2002. The village has grown from 331 people when established to 7,867 in the 2010 census.

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 180 acres 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

The Scarborough School closed. In 1980, the Chilmark Club became a part of the village’s Parks and Recreation Department; Pace University began leasing the middle-school building, and the middle school was moved to a portion of the new high-school building.

Rotary International founded a local chapter the following year.

The grade-school building was demolished in 1996, and senior housing was built on its site the following year.

In 1998, the high-school auditorium opened. On September 16, 1999, the Beech Hill Road bridge was destroyed by the rising Pocantico River during Hurricane Floyd. The village celebrated its centennial in 2002, which involved numerous celebratory events. In 2000, the pool house in Law Memorial Park was demolished; construction on a new facility began shortly after.

In November 2001, a $4-million rehabilitation ($5.35 million in 2015) of Law Park was completed, with a new pavilion and pool house, paved walkways, lights and benches, a redesigned and filtered pond, and relocation of the Veterans Memorial.

Over 300 people attended the Veterans Day rededication ceremony. In summer 2007, construction of a 6,600-square-foot addition to the Briarcliff Manor Public Library began; the facility was opened for use on February 19, 2009.

The area now known as Briarcliff Manor had seen human occupation since at least the Archaic period, but significant growth in the settlements that are now incorporated into the village did not occur until the Industrial Revolution.

The village, which was incorporated with one square mile in 1902, has expanded primarily through annexation: of Scarborough in 1906 and from the town of Mount Pleasant in 1927 to its current area of 6.7 square miles The village has also grown in population; from 331 when established to 7,867 in the 2010 census.

Prehistory Timeline

• Archaic period: Around this time, the area of Scarborough-on-Hudson is first inhabited.
• Precolonial era: The area of present-day Briarcliff Manor is inhabited by a band of the Wappinger tribes of Native Americans known as Sint Sincks (or “Sing Sings”).

17th centuryTimeline

• 1680: Frederick Philipse purchases the Ossining area from Indian sachem Ghoharius with the consent of his brother Weskora. Weskora becomes the first name of Scarborough.
• August 4, 1685: Philipse purchases about 156,000 acres (630 km²) from the Sint Sincks, Philipsburg Manor, extending from Spuyten Duyvil Creek along the Hudson River to the Croton River.

18th century Timeline

• 1778: The Wappingers unsuccessfully attempt to sue the Philipse family for control of the land; their claim dies out after around fifty tribespeople, organized into the Stockbridge Militia under Abraham Nimham and his father Daniel Nimham, are killed by British forces in the Battle of Kingsbridge during the American Revolutionary War.
• 1779: The New York State Commission on Forfeiture confiscates the Philipses’ land; it is sold in 1784–85.

19th century Timeline

• 1839: Briarcliff Manor’s oldest church, Saint Mary’s Episcopal Church, is founded.
• 1854: All Saints’ Episcopal Church is founded.
• 1864: Weskora is renamed Scarborough.
• 1865: A one-room schoolhouse is built on land donated by John Whitson; it is the first schoolhouse and church in the area.
• 1880: The Whitson’s Corners station is added to the New York City & Northern Railroad train schedule,^[13] and the first train arrives on December 13.
• 1881: The Whitson’s Corners post office is established.
• 1890: Walter W. Law moves with his family to the area and purchases his first 236 acres (96 ha) with the James Stillman farm for $35,000 ($921,800 in 2015
• 1891: Congregation Sons of Israel is formed by eleven men in Ossining.
• 1892: Elliott Fitch Shepard ordered the construction of Scarborough’s first dock at the present Scarborough Park to allow construction materials to be shipped to his property.
• October 13, 1893: The Scarborough Presbyterian Church is founded.
• 1895: Elliott Fitch Shepard’s mansion Woodlea is completed.
• 1896: Briarcliff Congregational Church is built to replace the congregation’s use of the schoolhouse.
• 1897: The post office is renamed the Briarcliff Manor Post Office.
• August 4, 1898: The first Scarborough train station and post office is struck by lightning and burns down.
• 1900: Law owns more than 5,000 acres (7.8 sq mi) of Westchester County, and becomes the largest individual landholder in the county.
• 1900: Law establishes the School of Practical Agriculture on Pleasantville Road on 66 acres (0.1 sq mi).

20th century Timeline

• c. 1901–10: Walter Law establishes Briarcliff Farms, the Briarcliff Table Water Company and the Briarcliff Greenhouses.
• 1901: Briarcliff Steamer Company No. 1 is formed.
• 1902: Law has invested $2.5 million ($68.4 million in 2015) in the village by this time.
• 1902: A proposition is presented to the supervisors of Mount Pleasant and Ossining on October 8 for the incorporation of the Village of Briarcliff Manor.On November 21, the village is incorporated. At the time, Law owns all but two small parcels of the square mile village, and employs 100 of its residents.
• 1902: The Briarcliff Lodge opens.
• February 10, 1903: The Briarcliff Manor Fire Department is founded by Frederick C. Messinger from Briarcliff Steamer Company No. 1.
• 1903: Briarcliff College is founded at the Briarcliff Lodge.
• 1904: The first twenty-nine street lights, all electric, are installed.
• 1906: Walter Law replaces the village railroad station; Law’s building currently houses part of the Briarcliff Manor Public Library.
• 1906: Scarborough is incorporated into Briarcliff Manor.
• 1907: Law’s Briarcliff Farms move to Pine Plains, New York, and Law begins developing Briarcliff Manor more as a municipal corporation.

  

   PHOTO: The First American International Road Race, 1908

• April 24, 1908: Briarcliff Manor sponsors The First American International Road Race; the event centered around the village, and more than 300,000 people watch the race; the village has more than 100,000 visitors that day.
• 1908: The village police department is organized and The Church House, the parish house of the Scarborough Presbyterian Church, is completed.
• 1909: Walter Law forms the Briarcliff Realty Company to sell Briarcliff Farms’ original property in the village.
• 1910: The Briarcliff Community Center, nicknamed “The Club”, is established in the 1898 Briarcliff Schools building.
• May 11, 1911: Sleepy Hollow Country Club is founded in Scarborough, Elliott Fitch Shepard’s home “Woodlea” is purchased for its clubhouse.
• 1912: Walter Law’s School of Practical Agriculture building burns down.
• 1913: The Village Municipal Building is built at a cost of $20,000 ($478,900 in 2015); it is opened on July 4, 1914.
• 1914: The village library, originally in the Briarcliff Community Center, is founded.
• 1914–18 (World War I): 91 Briarcliff Manor residents serve in the U.S. armed forces.
• 1917: The first village Girl Scout troop is founded by Louise Miller and Mrs. Alfred Jones.
• 1925: V. Everit Macy donates 265 acres (107 ha) to the Girl Scouts of the USA, which later becomes the Edith Macy Conference Center.
• 1926: St. Theresa’s Catholic Church is founded with thirty-six families; the present church is dedicated two years later.
• 1927: Briarcliff’s school building is demolished to make way for the Briarcliff-Peekskill Parkway.
• 1928: The high school opens, and a section is added to the 1909 school building.

  

  PHOTOL Village Municipal Building decorated for the village semicentennial, 1952

• 1934: A 100-mile race in the village is sponsored by the Automobile Racing Club of America.
• 1935: Briarcliff’s road race is held again.
• 1936–1954: The Briarcliff Lodge houses the Edgewood Park School.
• 1941–45 (World War II): More than 340 of the village’s 1,830 residents Briarcliff Manor residents serve in the U.S. armed forces.
• 1946: The People’s Caucus, an organization which calls out interested residents for candidacy, is created.
• 1950–53 (Korean War): Approximately 30 Briarcliff Manor residents serve in the U.S. armed forces.
• October 10, 1952–October 12, 1952: Briarcliff Manor celebrates its semicentennial celebration, publishing a book about the village and its history.
• 1952: The Crossroads neighborhood of 84 houses is completed.
• 1953: Todd Elementary School opens to free space at the Law Park grade school for middle- and high-school students.
• 1955–1994: The Briarcliff Lodge houses The King’s College.
• 1958: The Briarcliff Manor train station, along with the Putnam Division, is shut down.
• 1959: The Briarcliff Manor Public Library reopens in the former train station.
• 1959: Faith Lutheran Brethren Church is founded in Scarsdale.

  

  PHOTO: Current location of the original fire bell

• 1960s: The Municipal Building’s cupola bell, which had tolled at the end of the World Wars,^[7](p78) is moved to the front of the new firehouse.
• 1960: The village’s first corporate facility (part of Philips Laboratory) opens.
• 1964: The new Village Hall opens, replacing the Municipal Building.
• 1965–72 (Vietnam War): At least five men serve in the U.S. armed forces, with four killed and another wounded.
• 1971: The present Briarcliff High School opens to ease the large enrollment at the grade-school building.
• 1974: A permanent firehouse is built in Scarborough; it is replaced with a larger station in 2009.
• 1974: The Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society is founded from the village’s 75th anniversary committee.
• April 1977: Pace University purchases Briarcliff College as a satellite of the school’s Pleasantville campus.
• 1978: The Scarborough School closes; it reopens in 1981 as The Clear View School.
• 1980: The Chilmark Club becomes a part of the village’s Parks and Recreation Department; Pace University begins leasing the middle school building, and the middle school is moved to a portion of the new high-school building.
• 1981: Rotary International founds a local chapter in the village.
• 1984: The Scarborough Historic District is added to the State and National Historic Registers.
• February 1990: Rosemont, a Scarborough Historic District property, is demolished.
• 1996: The grade-school building is demolished, and senior housing is built on its site the following year.
• 1998: The high school auditorium opens.
• September 16, 1999: The Beech Hill Road bridge is destroyed by the rising Pocantico River during Hurricane Floyd.
• 2000: The pool house in Law Memorial Park is demolished; construction on a new facility begins shortly after.

21st century Timeline

• November 2001: A $4-million rehabilitation ($5.35 million in 2015) of Law Park is completed, with a new pavilion and pool house, paved walkways, lights and benches, a redesigned and filtered pond, and relocation of the Veterans Memorial. Over 300 people attend the Veterans Day rededication ceremony.
• 2002: The village celebrates its centennial, which involves numerous celebratory events.
• 2002: Ambient Corporation and Consolidated Edison install an experimental broadband over power lines (BPL) system in Briarcliff Manor; the system is now defunct.
• 2003: The present Briarcliff Middle School building is completed at a cost of $24 million ($30.9 million in 2015).
• September 20, 2003: The original 1902 Briarcliff Lodge building burns to the ground, and contemporary portions of the lodge and other campus buildings are later demolished.
• 2006: The village government installs new street signs featuring the Briarcliff Rose.
• 2007: In the summer, construction of a 6,600-square-foot (610 m²) addition to the Briarcliff Manor Public Library begins; the facility is opened for use on February 19, 2009.
• 2008–2012: Briarcliff Manor hosts a weekly indoor farmers’ market, first at the Briarcliff Congregational Church’s parish house; it moves to Pace University’s Briarcliff Campus in 2012.
• March 21, 2010: The Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society is given its first permanent location at the Eileen O’Connor Weber Historical Center, established as part of the expanded Briarcliff Manor Public Library.
• 2011: Hurricane Irene causes a sinkhole, of about 20 feet in diameter, to form on North State Road near Route 9A; New York’sdepartment of transportation spends about $900,000 repairing the damage.
• 2011–2015: The village becomes involved in an annexation proposal with the town of Ossining for Briarcliff Manor to annex land on which 1,600 people live. After debate and public hearings, the village government decides to end its pursuit of the annexation in May 2015.
• July 5, 2015: Saint Mary’s Episcopal Church closes after 175 years in operation.
• December 12, 2015: The Law Park pavilion is damaged in a large fire; around 100 firefighters in multiple departments assist to put out the fire that night.

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1910	950	—
1920	1,027	+0.78%
1930	1,794	+5.74%
1940	1,830	+0.20%
1950	2,494	+3.14%
1960	5,105	+7.43%
1970	6,521	+2.48%
1980	7,115	+0.88%
1990	7,070	−0.06%
2000	7,696	+0.85%
2010	7,867	+0.22%

Names

Briarcliff Manor’s original settlement was known as Whitson’s Corners for brothers John H., Richard, and Reuben Whitson, who owned adjoining farms in the area totaling 400 acres.

Whitson’s Corners was named after the corner of Pleasantville and South State Roads, where John H. Whitson’s house, the Crossways, stood from 1820 until the 1940s. The Briarcliff Congregational Church’s parish house currently stands at its former location.

The neighboring community of Scarborough was known as Weskora until it was renamed in 1864, after resident William Kemey’s ancestral hometown in Yorkshire.

After the community was incorporated into Briarcliff Manor in 1906, the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad put up a sign reading “Briarcliff West” at the village’s Scarborough station. Soon afterward, attributed to the neighborhood’s pride over their name, that sign was thrown into the Hudson River and replaced with the original Scarborough sign.

Briarcliff Manor derives from “Brier Cliff”, a compound of the English words “brier” and “cliff”. The name originated in Ireland as that of the family home of John David Ogilby, a professor of ecclesiastical history at the General Theological Seminary. Ogilby had named his New York summer home Brier Cliff after his family home in Ireland.

In 1890, Walter Law bought James Stillman’s 236-acre  Briarcliff Farm and further developed it, later using the name Briarcliff for all his property.

Law’s friend, Andrew Carnegie, called him “The Laird of Briarcliff Manor”; since the title appealed to all concerned, the village was named “Briarcliff Manor”

By 1897, the village post office and railroad station bore the name Briarcliff Manor. The village (and its name) were approved by its residents in a September 12, 1902 referendum; the name prevailed over other suggestions, including “Sing Sing East”.

On November 21, 1902, the village of Briarcliff Manor was established.

The village is also known by several other names. It is conversationally called “Briarcliff”, and often erroneously written as “Briar Cliff Manor” (although historically there has been little distinction). The village has been called “Briarcliff on the Hudson” by Mark Twain and Aileen Riggin; it is also known as “the Village of Briarcliff Manor”.

The name Briarcliff has also been applied to other municipalities, including the 470-person town of Briarcliffe Acres in South Carolina; in naming it, the town’s founder had drawn inspiration from Briarcliff Manor’s name.

Precolonial and colonial eras

The history of Briarcliff Manor can be traced back to the founding of a settlement between the Hudson and Pocantico Rivers in the 19th century. The area now known as Briarcliff Manor had seen human occupation since at least the Archaic period, but significant growth in the settlements that are now incorporated into the village did not occur until the Industrial Revolution.

In the precolonial era, the area of present-day Briarcliff Manor was inhabited by a band of the Wappinger tribes of Native Americans, known as Sint Sincks (or “Sing Sings”). They owned territory as far north as the Croton River.

In the 1680s, Frederick Philipse purchased about 156,000 acres from the Sint Sincks, and named it Philipsburg Manor. The Philipses lost their claim to the land because of the American Revolutionary War; the family, which was Loyalist, had its property confiscated in 1779.

The area remained largely unsettled until after the war; in 1693, fewer than twenty families lived in the 50,000-acre area of Westchester which included Briarcliff Manor.

Progressive era to present day

After retiring as vice president of W. & J. Sloane, Walter Law moved with his family to the present Briarcliff Manor. He bought his first 236 acres (96 ha) in 1890, and then quickly expanded his property, buying about forty parcels in less than ten years; by 1900, he owned more than 5,000 acres (7.8 sq mi) of Westchester County. Law developed the village, establishing schools, churches, parks, and the Briarcliff Lodge.

His employees at Briarcliff Farms moved into the village, and the population grew to encourage Law to establish the area as a village. A proposition was presented to the supervisors of Mount Pleasant and Ossining on October 8, 1902 that the area of 640 acres with a population of 331 be incorporated as the Village of Briarcliff Manor, and the village was incorporated on November 21.

The Tudor Revival-style Briarcliff Lodge was opened in 1902 as a premier resort hotel. It was surrounded by Walter Law’s dairy barns and greenhouses, and hosted numerous distinguished guests, including Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. The lodge held the Edgewood Park School (1936–1954) and The King’s College (1955–1994) before it burned to the ground on September 20, 2003.

The Briarcliff Manor Fire Department was founded on February 10, 1903 from Briarcliff Manor’s first fire company, the 1901 Briarcliff Steamer Company No. 1.

Scarborough was incorporated into Briarcliff Manor in 1906, and the Police Department was organized two years later. The Village Municipal Building was built in 1913 and was opened on July 4, 1914.

The high school opened in 1928, and in 1946, the People’s Caucus party, an organization which calls out interested residents for candidacy, was created.

Briarcliff Manor celebrated its semicentennial celebration from October 10–12, 1952, publishing a book about the village and its history; that year, the Crossroads neighborhood of 84 houses was completed.

In 1953, Todd Elementary School opened to free space at the Law Park grade school. The Putnam Division of the New York Central Railroad was discontinued in 1958, and the following year the Briarcliff Manor Public Library opened in the former Briarcliff Manor train station.

The village’s first corporate facility (part of PhilipsResearch) opened in 1960. In 1964 the new Village Hall opened, replacing the Municipal Building. The present high school opened in 1971 to ease the large enrollment at the grade-school building.

In 1980, Pace University began leasing the middle-school building, and the middle school was moved to a portion of the new high-school building. The grade-school building was demolished in 1996, and a retirement home was built on its site the following year. The village celebrated its centennial in 2002, which involved celebratory events.

Geography

Briarcliff Manor is around 30 miles north of Manhattan. It is part of Westchester County and so part of the New York metropolitan area and the New York–Jersey City–White Plains, NY–NJ Metropolitan Division. It is on the Hudson River, just north of the Tappan Zee Bridge and south of Croton Point (near the widest part of the river) and just northwest of the county’s center.

According to the 2010 United States Census Briarcliff Manor covers an area of 6.7 square miles of which 5.9 square miles is land and 0.8 square miles is water.

The village is a part of the Pocantico and Saw Mill River Basin and the Lower Hudson River Drainage Basin, which leads to the Hudson west-southwest of the village. Major streams running through Briarcliff Manor include the centrally-located Caney Brook, the Pocantico River, and Sparta Brook.

Abundant rock outcroppings include dolomite, granite, gneiss, and mica schist. Copper and silver were once mined near Scarborough, and Briarcliff Manor’s geographical area has large boulders, deposited in the last glacial period.

Elevations within the village range from less than 100 feet (30 meters) above mean sea level near the Hudson River to approximately 500 feet (150 meters) above mean sea level around the center and eastern areas.

The highest natural point in Briarcliff Manor is 1,200 feet (370 m) southwest of NGS station mark LX4016, off Farm Road, at 533 feet (162 m) above sea level. The village, which covered one square mile when incorporated in 1902, has expanded primarily through annexation: of Scarborough in 1906 and acreage from the town of Mount Pleasant in 1927.

It is in telephone area code 914 and the postal ZIP code area 10510.

Briarcliff Manor’s Ossining portion takes up nearly half of the village land area, about 93 percent of its population, and 85 percent of its land parcels.

Climate

The village is in a humid continental climate zone (Köppen climate classification: Dfa), with cold, snowy winters and hot, humid summers and four distinct seasons.

The United States Department of Agriculture places Briarcliff Manor in plant hardiness zone 7a. Summer high temperatures average in the lower 80s Fahrenheit , with lows averaging in the lower 60s F. Its highest recorded temperature was 100 °F (38 °C) in 1995, and its lowest was −10 °F (−23 °C) in 1979

Neighborhoods

The village is home to neighborhoods and business and residential areas, including the central business district, the hamlets of Scarborough and Chilmark, and residential areas Central Briarcliff West, the Tree Streets and the Crossroads.

Scarborough, often called Scarborough-on-Hudson because it borders the Hudson River, is an 0.45-square-mile unincorporated district divided between Briarcliff Manor and the village of Ossining, with most of the area within Briarcliff Manor and a few streets in the village of Ossining. Briarcliff Manor’s portion of Scarborough was annexed into the village in 1906.

Scarborough is largely residential, and has some of the most expensive houses in the village, due in part to its proximity to the Hudson. Condominium complexes within Scarborough include Kemeys Cove, built in 1974, and Scarborough Manor, a 7-story, 205-unit complex built in the 1960s.

The hamlet has a post office and a station on the Metro-North Hudson Line within walking distance of most houses in the hamlet.

Unlike most of Briarcliff Manor, Scarborough is within the Ossining Union Free School District.

During the 17th century, Scarborough became one of the first trading posts for the Dutch on the Hudson. During the early 20th century, the Astor, Rockefeller, and Vanderbilt families entertained guests on their river-view country estates in the Scarborough area.

The Scarborough Historic District, including the Scarborough Presbyterian Church, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Across the street from the church is Sparta Cemetery, containing graves of local Revolutionary War veterans and the Leatherman. A notable building on the register is Beechwood, built in 1780 and considered one of the finest examples of Federal architecture in Westchester County.

Beechwood was later purchased by Frank A. Vanderlip, who constructed the Scarborough School on the estate. The school was founded in 1913, and closed in 1978. Holly Hill is a notable house nearby. Hubert Rogers, a New York City attorney, had the house designed around 1927 by William Adams Delano; Rogers named it Weskora. After his death Brooke Astor purchased the estate, renaming it Holly Hill for its holly trees.

Directly across from Holly Hill is the site used from 1965 for the U.S. headquarters of Philips Research, built on part of Waldheim, the former 130-acre (53 ha) estate of James Speyer; Philips plans to relocate to Cambridge, Massachusetts by 2016.

Chilmark (also known as Chilmark Park) is an unincorporated residential community of about 300 acres (120 ha), established in 1925, in northern Briarcliff Manor. The neighborhood was designed with Underhill Road as its main thoroughfare, running north-south. It was named after the village of Chilmark, England, located near the home of Thomas Macy (an ancestor of Valentine Everit Macy), who arrived in the colonies in 1635.

The area is culturally significant for its association with the Macy family, whose members were active in New York and Westchester County during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Valentine Everit Macy and his wife, Edith Carpenter Macy, founded the community and aided in its development; Macy purchased several small family farms in present Chilmark in 1897.

In 1925, Macy donated 265 acres on Old Chappaqua Road for the first national Girl Scout camp, which later became the Edith Macy Conference Center, a conference and training facility owned and operated by the Girl Scouts of the USA.

The Briarcliff Recreation Center was formerly the private Chilmark Club until the 1970s, when the village purchased the land for a recreation center and adjoining park. Macy’s residence in the area was the Chilmark estate, a Tudor-style stone and stucco mansion built in 1896 with a nine-hole golf course.

The neighborhood hosts Briarcliff Manor’s Conservative temple Congregation Sons of Israel.

Chilmark features landscaped, winding roads designed to blend with the topography, access to transportation (including a commuter rail line and a highway and homes built in revival styles echoing Tudor and Gothic architecture; it is architecturally significant as an example of early-20th-century suburban design.

During the 1920s Macy’s son, V.E. Macy Jr., founded the Chilmark Park Realty Corporation to sell land parcels. When he began marketing the area, he renovated or demolished existing homes to lend an air of development and built a private 8.3-acre (3.4 ha) country club for use by Chilmark residents.

The village of Briarcliff Manor later purchased the site, and operates it as Chilmark Park. To denote its development as an exclusive neighborhood, Macy planted distinctive shade trees along Underhill Road. Since its founding, additional homes have been built in Chilmark, most between 1955 and 1960.

The developments expanded the area beyond its original 300 acres; it presently comprises Underhill Road and the streets immediately adjacent to it.

The central business district, also known as the Village Center, is located on Briarcliff Manor’s main street on Pleasantville Road and continues on North State Road.

The area has numerous businesses lining Pleasantville Road, a large expansion from the three stores that existed there in 1906.

The business district is home to the village hall and a pocket park, and has brick sidewalks, period street lighting, and free parking.

Farther south along the road is the Walter W. Law Memorial Park, and further east along the road are the three schools of the Briarcliff Manor Union Free School District.

The Village Center contains a number of pre-Revolutionary War houses, including the Whitson House, built during the 1770s and the former home of Richard Whitson (one of the Whitson brothers, after whom Whitson’s Corners was named); Buckhout House, also dating to the 1770s and named for the family who lived there for over a century and the oldest, Century Homestead, dating to about 1767 and first owned by Reuben Whitson.

The Washburn House, another pre-Revolutionary house, was sold by the New York State Commission on Forfeiture to Joseph Washburn in 1775.

Central Briarcliff West is a neighborhood which has a number of mansions built by 20th-century millionaires who stayed at the Briarcliff Lodge and later built estates in the area. The lodge stood in the area and on the highest point of Walter Law’s estate from its construction in 1902 until it burned down in 2003.

Other historic estates in the neighborhood include the Law family homes (built in 1902 for Walter Law’s children) and Law’s estate, the Manor House, all on Scarborough Road. The three estates for his children are Six Gables, Mt. Vernon, and Hillcrest.

The modernistVanderlip-Street house, designed by Wallace Harrison for Frank A. Vanderlip (who built it for his daughter and son-in-law) was one of the first contemporary-style homes in Westchester.

Ashridge, a large Greek Revival estate, was built around 1825.

The Tree Streets is a network of streets in the Mount Pleasant portion of the village. Several of the streets are named after regional trees, including Satinwood Lane, Larch Road, and Oak Road. A number of houses in the neighborhood were constructed during a 1930s building boom, circling Jackson Park and near Todd Elementary School.

The Crossroads is a group of 84 houses on streets named after local World War II veterans, including Schrade Road, Hazelton Circle, Matthes Road, and Dunn Lane. It was constructed at the end of World War II to provide affordable housing to returning veterans, and was completed in 1952.

Demographics

Historical

Historically, Briarcliff Manor’s racial composition has not changed significantly. The village has seen a decrease in its non-Hispanic white population to 86 percent, down from 92 percent in 1990. The mid- to late-20th century saw an increase in the African-American population from 2.1 to 3.4 percent.

The village has experienced significant population growth, with it and neighboring communities undergoing more rapid growth than Westchester County overall. The period from 1950 to 1970 saw the greatest increase in population, with growth leveling off since then.

Modern

Briarcliff Manor is primarily non-commercial, with over 80 percent of village land residential. Approximately 99% of the buildings are residential; of these, 85.3% are single-family units. In the 2010 United States Census there were 7,867 people, 2,647 households, and 2,037 families living in 2,753 housing units. Hispanic and Latino Americans made up 5.3 percent of the population.

Of the 2,647 households, 39.7 percent had children under age 18 living with them; 68.5 percent were married couples living together, 6.6 percent were headed by women, 1.9 percent were single males and 23 percent were non-families. Twenty-one percent of all households were individuals, with 14.1 percent age 65 or older. Average household size was 2.71; average family size was 3.16, with a median age of 43.4 years.

The village’s population density was 1,319.5 inhabitants per square mile (509.5/km²). In 2010, its racial composition was 86.4 percent white, 3.4 percent African American, 0.1 percent Native American, 6.9 percent Asian American, and 2.0 percent from two (or more) races; 25.6 percent of the population was under age 18.

Median household income was $169,310, and median family income was $219,063. Males had a median income of $169,118, with $100,039 for females; per capita income was $81,465. About 4.3 percent of families and 4.8 percent of the overall population were below the poverty line, with the percentages rising to 5.6 percent for those under 18 and 6.4 percent for those 65 or over.

English is the primary language spoken at home, spoken by 87.2 percent, followed by Spanish at 3.3 percent, and 9.5 percent primarily speaking other languages. Ancestry is primarily Italian and Irish, at 20.8 and 18.1 percents respectively, followed by Russian at 10.3 and German at 10 percent.

Exact numbers on religious denominations in Briarcliff Manor are not readily available. Demographic statistics in the United States depend heavily on the United States Census Bureau, which cannot ask about religious affiliation as part of its decennial census.

It does compile some national and statewide religious statistics, but these are not representative of a municipality the size of Briarcliff Manor. One report from 2010 offers religious affiliations for Westchester County.

According to the data, 59.3% of county residents identified as Christian: 50.9% are Roman Catholic, 5.9% are mainline Protestants, 2% are Evangelical Protestants, and .5% are Eastern or Oriental Orthodox Christians. Residents who practice Judaism make up 10.1% of the population and practitioners of other faiths represent .9%.

Note that these values are county-wide; municipal values could be significantly different.

Population growth in Briarcliff Manor since 1902
Year	1902	1910	1920	1930	1940	1950	1960	1970	1980	1990	2000	2010
Population	331	950	1,027	1,794	1,830	2,494	5,105	6,521	7,115	7,070	7,696	7,867

Economy

Employment by industry, 2000
Industry	Employment	% of Total
Education, Health, Social Services	832	24.9%
Professional, Scientific, Mgmt., Admin., Waste Mgmt.	716	21.4%
Finance, Real Estate, Rental/Leasing	590	17.7%
Trade	333	9.9%
Manufacturing	206	6.2%
Information	199	6.0%
Other services	176	5.3%
Construction	124	3.7%
Arts, Entertainment, Recreation, Food Services	116	3.5%
Transportation, utilities	40	1.2%
Agriculture and resource-based	8	0.2%
Total	3,340	100%

About five percent of Briarcliff Manor’s land is occupied by businesses. The village has three retail business areas, a general (non-retail) business area and scattered office buildings and laboratories. The village’s principal retail district is along Pleasantville and North State Roads.

The central business district primarily has retailers such as restaurants, cafes, small food markets, and specialty shops. The North State Road business district has a supermarket, a bank, a gas station, and a mixture of retail stores, and the other retail areas have national and local stores. The village has small offices and larger offices for the regional (or national) market, including Sony Electronics, Wüsthof, and Philips Research North America; the latter is headquartered in Briarcliff Manor.

The village economy depends on education, health care and social services. Of the population aged 16 and older, 63 percent are in the labor force; 33 percent of those employed work outside Westchester County. About 13 percent of workers live and work in the village, and the average commute is 37.1 minutes.

Briarcliff Manor has a number of wealthy residents, and was rated 19th on CNNMoney‘s 25 Top-Earning Towns in the U.S.

An assessment by financial news corporation 24/7 Wall St., using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey from 2006 to 2010, rated the village’s school district the fifth-wealthiest in the United States and the third-wealthiest in New York.

In 2004, the top five employers in Briarcliff Manor were the Briarcliff Manor Union Free School District, Philips Research, Trump National Golf Club, The Clear View School, and engineering firm Charles H. Sells.

Other large employers are USI Holdings (a publicly traded insurer headquartered in the village), Atria Briarcliff Manor, Pace University, and the village (which employs 81 people).

Arts and culture

The village symbol is the Briarcliff Rose, a more brightly colored offshoot of the American Beauty rose.

Since 2006, the Briarcliff Rose has been used on village street signs. The Briarcliff Manor Garden Club, which also uses the Briarcliff rose as their symbol, was established in 1956. One of its primary functions is in planting, maintaining, and improving public gardens and grounds.

Briarcliff Manor has groups in several Scouting organizations, including Cub Scout Pack 6 and Boy Scout Troop 18. Pack 6 became the first Cub Scout pack in the village at its establishment in 1968; by 2002 it had over 70 cubs in 12 dens. The village’s first Boy Scout troop was Troop 1 Briarcliff, founded before 1919.

Sources cite Bill Buffman as the first Scoutmaster and John Hersey as the troop’s first Eagle Scout. The first Girl Scout troop in the village was founded in 1917 by Louise Miller and Mrs. Alfred Jones, and the first Brownie troop was founded in 1929.

The Briarcliff Manor Community Bonfire is a winter holiday event at Law Park, hosted by the village and the Briarcliff Friends of the Arts, involving live music (primarily seasonal and holiday songs), refreshments, and craft projects for children.

Another annual community event is the Memorial Day parade, a tradition in Briarcliff Manor for more than fifty years. Before the parade begins, the Municipal Building’s bell is rung to commemorate firefighters who have died in the previous year.