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1 Helena Avenue is known as the Gingerbread Cottage. It was built in 1872 by the Larchmont Manor Company as one of the first six summer cottages in the subdivision. It was purchased by Frank Ellingwood Towle, a civil engineer employed by the City of New York, whose father had been associated with Frederick Law Olmsted in laying out Central Park. Towle was engaged as engineer by the Manor Company and was responsible for Map 610, according to which Manor Park and the rest of the Manor were laid out. This was the Towle family’s summer home for over 50 years.

Adapted from "Larchmont Then & Now: A Photo History" copyright Anne Marie Leone and Judith Doolin Spikes 2002; used by permission.

Adapted from "Larchmont Then & Now: A Photo History" copyright Anne Marie Leone and Judith Doolin Spikes 2002; used by permission.

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On the north side of the Boston Post Road between Larchmont and Chatsworth avenues, notice the noble elm at the corner, above. The four-story brick-and-granite building was constructed in 1904. The two-story Bull Building to its left housed a succession of pharmacies from its erection in 1890 up into the late 1990s. The one-story white building has remained essentially unchanged.

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Ardsley Casino, clubhouse of the Ardsley club, was constructed in 1896 by a syndicate headed by Amzi Barber, who was concurrently engaged in developing much of Cyrus Field’s former estate as Ardsley Park. One of the first country clubs in the U.S., the Ardsley Club served as a playground for the socially and financially prominent throughout the East. The club was reorganized as the Ardsley Country club in 1927, and the Casino was torn down in 1936. The club’s stables (now a two-family residence at 61-63 Ardsley Avenue), then served as a clubhouse until 1966, when the club moved to its present site in the Ward-Gould mansion east of Broadway. Following demolition of the Casino, the Hudson House, seen to the right, was erected on its site. The apartment complex was developed by Shreve Lamb and Harmon, architects of the Empire State Building, and developed by Frank Gould, son of financier and railroad magnate Jay Gould of Lyndhurst. It was converted to cooperative ownership in 1963.

Adapted from "Irvington Then & Now: A Photo History" copyright Anne Marie Leone and Judith Doolin Spikes 2002; used by permission.

Now the New Rochelle Marina, this waterway and surrounding land were purchased from Jacob Leisler in 1690 by Jean Machet, a shipbuilder and West Indian trader. In 1694, Machet sold to Joshua Ferris, who named it Ferris Creek and ran a tavern on the property that became a popular hangout for Skinners (lawless bands of raiders) during the Revolutionary War. Ferris’ Black Walnut Tavern, located at the corner of Old Town Dock and Pelham roads, is also said to have been visited by the famous American spy Enoch Crosby. A later owner, David Harrison, built a dock here in 1827, and Charles Hoffmeister founded the New Rochelle Coal and Lumber Company (the largest woodworking mill in Westchester) here about 1865. By the turn of the century, this was also the site of Neptune Storage Overseas Packing Department.

In 1945, the City of New Rochelle bought the property and developed the Municipal Marina in 1955. The Neptune Storage Building now houses the City of New Rochelle Bureau of Traffic Services, at 40 Pelham Road.

Adapted from "New Rochelle Then & Now: A Photo History" copyright Anne Marie Leone and Judith Doolin Spikes 2002; used by permission.

Designed by Kish Melwani.