THE CROTON ON HUDSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY LETTER ON THE HARMON RE-ZONING

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The following letter appears in the 2/2/12 edition of THE GAZETTE; it is reprinted here with permission:

January 25, 2012

To the Editor,

Harmon was one of the first planned suburbs in our nation. 

In 1906 Clifford Harmon, a member of the realty firm of Wood-Harmon of New York City, decided that he would like to found a community where artists, writers, musicians and singers could gather to share their arts in a relaxed country setting. To this end he purchased 500 acres of land known as the Van Cortlandt Farm and proceeded to lay out lots, pave streets, and put in water, sewage and electrical service. Harmon's project was an ambitious one. He persuaded the New York Central Railroad to put up a new station and repair shops on part of the land he had bought guaranteeing excellent train service from New York City. He then set about creating a brand new village called Harmon, up the hill from the station. To publicize this venture he enlisted the support of Madame Lillian Nordica, the first American born opera star to gain international renown. She hoped to fulfill her dream of building a Lillian Nordica festival house; it was to be both a music school and opera house that she envisioned as the "American Bayreuth".

A recent issue of THE GAZETTE reported that the village board is once again about to rezone portions of Harmon. The Croton Historical Society believes strongly that Clifford Harmon's original sales office on Benedict Boulevard should not be a part of the rezoning, and thus put at risk for demolition. Our village has already lost most of old Croton Landing after the state demolished virtually all of South Riverside Avenue to construct the new Route 9. Depot Square, once the very center of the community, is just a memory. The area that was commercial Croton is no more. Now our own village fathers wish to remove the most important piece of the history of Harmon.

The very FIRST structure Clifford Harmon raised on this large project was his sales office, built in the area he had reserved for business development. This is the building that is in jeopardy if the new zoning for Harmon is approved as it is currently written. And although the Wood-Harmon Sales Office, currently a nail salon, has had a number of renovations over the years, it is still the one concrete Harmon-built structure that nobly attests to the founding of one of our country's first planned suburbs. It still contains the beautiful fieldstone fireplace that gave it such warmth in its early days.

The Croton Historical Society believes that the building deserves preservation and could some day be turned into a History/Tourist Information Center for the community. We have many things of interest here in our village. Croton Point, Van Cortlandt Manor, River Walk and The New Croton Dam make our village a destination. We should begin to try to capitalize on these assets.

New York foolishly lost the original grand Penn Station to the avarice of developers. Must Harmon's history also be relegated to a developer's wrecking ball? We urge the community to join with us in asking the Village Board to remove this building from the current rezoning proposal.

Sincerely,

Piet Boonstra, President Croton Historical Society