“Neither the Fulling Building nor Lyceum Building had enough space
So we went Running Baby, Running to our Last Place
Yeah Baby, Last Place
Running To the Last Place
Baby Last Place “ – “Last Place” By Jack Wills June 7th 2021
Back to Elmsford: Town Halls of the Past Part III
By: Riley Wentzler & Felicia Barber
with research assistance from Ryan Stuzin & Introduction By Jack Wills
A Summary of our Previous Research:
Greenburgh’s first Town Hall was The Romer- Van Tassel House located at 2121 Saw Mill River Road Elmsford, NY 10523. The building takes its name from the original family which owned the house. It was originally owned by an officer in the Westchester County Militia named Cornelius Van Tassel, and his wife, Elizabeth (Storms) Van Tassel. They originally built the house in 1684, but, had to rebuild after the British Army burned the house to the ground on November 17, 1777. The reconstruction was completed in 1793. When they died, ownership passed to their daughter, Leah Van Tassel, who married a prominent freemason named John Romer. This house served as Town Hall from 1793-1843.The Romer- Van Tassel house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
In 1916, Town Hall moved to the Fulling Building located at 17-19 North Broadway Tarrytown. This building takes its name from the developer who paid for its construction, George W. Fulling. Town Hall remained in this building until 1931, when it left because there wasn’t enough room for all of the offices. At that point it entered the Lyceum Building located at 1 Central Avenue Tarrytown.
The Lyceum Building wasn’t quite a perfect home, for the same reason the Fulling Building had not been. Like its predecessor, it still didn’t have enough space for all of the town government. Two offices, The Building Inspector and the Department of Public Works, had to share one office in the second floor of a building on the corner of West Hartsdale and Central Avenue.
Therefore in 1956, Town Hall began looking for a new home.
A New Home:
300 Tarrytown Rd, Elmsford, NY 10523 was chosen as the new location( Records & Briefs New York State Appellate Division 1970 p.337). Construction on this new home was scheduled to begin on August 1st 1956 ( Herald Statesman Feb 15 1956 ), but was delayed until January 3, 1957 ( Personal communication from Patrick Raftery). The first five offices to move to the new location were: Comptroller’s office, Tax Receivers Office, The Town Clerk, Town Attorney , and the Department of Public Works (Hastings News, Thursday December 6, 1956 p.10). Other offices soon followed.
But this location was still not perfect home because of faulty air conditioning and insufficient parking space. During the second week of October in 2003 Town Hall left this location for its current address (Whitaker, 2003 p. 3).
Although the building 177 Hillside Ave was built in 1990 (Town of Greenburgh Assessor’s Office- Greenburgh Town Hall Property Card) Until 2003, the current building was home to General Accident Insurance Company (Personal Communication from Greenburgh Town Clerk Judith Beville).
In conclusion, Town Hall has endured a lot of growing pains from: being burned down, to not having enough office space for town government, to inadequate parking. But, after a long hard journey, it has finally found its forever home.
Previous Slices of History include:
- Hastings’ Best and Brightest: Nobel Laureates of Hastings
- Moving to Tarrytown, But Running Out of Room: Town Halls of the Past Part II (5/29/2021) https://www.greenburghny.com/DocumentCenter/View/7977/Town-Halls-of-the-Past-Part-II
About the Authors:
We are both Assistant Town Historians at Greenburgh Town Hall and we are engaged to be married and are currently looking for permanent employment.
Riley Wentzler:
I was born and raised in a small rural town in central Pennsylvania. In high school, I took every honors course available including four years of Spanish. I received A’s in all of them. I graduated third in my class of 146 students. This brought me to Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. Once there, I continued my trend of academic excellence. I graduated summa cum laude in Political Science with a minor in Spanish and a Master’s in Communication Studies, with a G.P.A of 3.94. It was also there that I met my lovely fiancée, Felicia Barber. My Master’s in Communication has promoted public speaking, teamwork, and customer service. My Political Science degree has developed my research skills using computer-based tools and provided me with experience using the Microsoft Office products. My minor in Spanish has facilitated my bilingual capabilities. During my internship at Greenburgh, I created the petition for the State Roads project using website tools. My diverse education and areas of interest have provided me with a wide range of skills. I look forward to finding a career opportunity in business or government. To suggest a topic for next week’s article, you can contact me at assistanthistorian@greenburghny.com, or to help me find employment, you can contact me at rjwentzler413@gmail.com
Felicia Barber:
I was born in New York City and raised in Hartsdale, New York. I graduated from Ardsley High School. I recently earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. It was here that I met my fiancé, Riley Wentzler. As a result of my academic excellence, I won a scholarship every year. I learned and applied many graphic design skills to projects during my summer internships and at school. I am proficient in using Adobe graphic design applications including Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. For my Identity/branding course at Edinboro, I created logos to appear on the tee-shirts of Physical Education majors. For a veteran’s upcoming event, I used a typeface to focus the reader to the soldier in the poster. For the State Roads Legislative Campaign project, I created the embedded graphic-photo that accompanied the petition I am looking for a job to utilize my skills as a Graphic Designer in an agency, print shop, company or government To suggest a topic for next week’s article, you can contact me at assistanthistorian@greenburghny.com. To learn more about my artwork or to help me find employment you can contact me at feliciadbarber@gmail.com.
Volunteer - Research Assistant - Ryan Stuzin:
I was born and raised in Scarsdale, New York. I am a senior at Edgemont High School, where I am captain of the varsity ski and golf teams. I also cover the ski team for the Scarsdale Inquirer. I have been a volunteer junior ski patroller at Stratton Mountain in Vermont and founded the Red Cross Club at my high school. I will be attending Colgate University in the fall, with a plan to study political science and/or history and eventually go to law school. I participated in the Town of Greenburgh internship program last summer, which inspired me to learn more about our town and its government. That, coupled with my love of history, is what prompted me to reach out to Riley and Felicia to help them with their articles about the history of Greenburgh.
Two Interviews with the authors:
https://riverjournalonline.com/around-town/a-love-of-history-and-each-other/13708/
https://wcbs880.radio.com/articles/news/stories-main-street-couple-cerebral-palsy-brings-manytalents-town-greenburgh
References
Barbara, W. (2003, October 19). In Business: New Home For Town Greenburgh. New York Times, p. ?
New York State Appellate Court. (1970). Records & Briefs New York State Appellate Division. Elmsford: Library Of The New York Law Institute .
Unknown. (1956, February 15). Greenburgh Completes Town Hal First in 168 Years. Herald Statesman, pp. 26-A.
Unknown. (1956, December 6). Town Offices Leave Tarrytown . Hastings News, p. 10.