 Detail
of property map of Riverdale, City of New York, 1876
For years, the only transportation to the area was from the dock
at the site of the present Riverdale Yacht Club, and settlement
in the area was light. When the train station opened near the dock
in 1849, development in
Riverdale accelerated. Coinciding with the influx of new development
were new attitudes in American architecture and planning that reflected
the popular transcendentalist philosophies of Henry David Thoreau
and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Residences were designed to nestle into the landscape, and carriage
roads were kept narrow and curved with the topography. Thus, the
natural beauty of Riverdale was incorporated into the first wave
of development through residents' embrace of the "romantic
suburb" aesthetic.
The twentieth century brought forth many changes that threatened
the natural qualities of this rustic community. On the eve of this
new century, in 1895, New York City approved plans for the extension
of the Manhattan street grid system into the area.
Concerned residents responded by resisting development of the streets.
In the early 1900's for example, George W. Perkins, an early environmentalist
and then owner of Wave Hill, constructed substantial buildings on
the sites of several planned streets. The Delafield family began
construction of Fieldston
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automobile at the beginning of the twentieth century further
increased access to Riverdale, prompting several local residents
to form the Park District Protective League. The League argued
against designs and plans that it considered intrusive, and convinced
landowners to contribute land along the river to what is now Riverdale
Park.
Development pressure skyrocketed with the opening of the Henry
Hudson Parkway in 1936 and the Henry Hudson Bridge in 1938, and
with the end of World War II.
High rise apartments began to appear along the Parkway and could
have replaced all the existing neighborhoods under the area's
old zoning regulations. To address this threat, in the mid 1950's
the League merged with a loose association of Riverdale's homeowners
to create the Riverdale Community Planning Association. This new
association went on to draw up a new zoning scheme for Riverdale
that would balance new development in Riverdale with preservation
of some of its existing neighborhoods.
The story of the Association's rezoning efforts will be told in
our next issue. For more information, the report "The Architectural
and Historical Resources of Riverdale, The Bronx, New York: A
Preliminary Survey," Commissioned by The Riverdale Nature
Preservancy in 1998, is available for viewing at the Riverdale
and Spuyten Duyvil Branch Libraries.
Spuyten Dayvil Creek and Peninsula, ca. 1865
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