RSS Seniors Explore Riverdale’s Rich History

More than 80 older adults took part in a virtual tour of the neighborhood at Riverdale Senior Services, RSS, viewing historic sites like the Hadley House, Wave Hill and the William Dodge House, among many others.

Public speaker and real estate consultant David Griffin led the presentation, offering a deeper look into Riverdale and Spuyten Duyvil.

He opened with an image of the fictional Anthony Van Corlaer, the New Amsterdam trumpeter. Corlear tried to cross the Spuyten Duyvil Creek in 1664, when, according to legend, Satan reached up from the water and dragged him to his death. At that point, he blew his trumpet in “spite of the devil.”

Griffin also offered a more likely explanation behind the area’s name, which is a translation of a Dutch phrase meaning “the devil’s spout,” a way to say the waters were especially dangerous.

Attendees sat at tables decorated with an autumn theme and listened intently. Placed over a gingham cloth and fabric cutouts of bright red, yellow and orange leaves, were individual boxes filled with meats, cheeses and other charcuterie foods. RSS staffers circulated the room and served wine and soda to members.

The nonprofit hosted the event to better engage members with their community and provide a space to socialize, said Executive Director, Tina Cardoza-Izquierdo.

The speaker then touched on Frederick Philipse, the first lord of the manor of Philipseborough in Westchester County. In the late 1600s, the Dutch immigrant bought an array of land in the area and eventually built King’s Bridge — from which the Kingsbridge neighborhood derives its name — connecting the Bronx to Manhattan.

Riverdale was not developed for many years due to the high number of hills. But, the Hadley House, found on Post Road between West 251st Street and 252nd Street, may be an exception. It could date to before 1748, making it the oldest house in the neighborhood and possibly the Bronx.

The land originally belonged to Philipse, whose grandson split the property into sections to be sold. Local farmer William Hadley bought the 92-acre plot in 1786 and expanded on a farmhouse built prior to the purchase, adding a north wing in the early 1800s.

Architect Dwight James Baum is credited with several other additions to the house made about a century later.

On the other side of the Henry Hudson Parkway is the historic Wave Hill estate. William Lewis Morris built the house in the early 1840s and known publisher William Henry Appleton bought it in 1866. 

“The house was built by a Will and then acquired by another Will,” Griffin said. “Because where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

Appleton’s firm, D. Appleton and Company, published works by notable figures like Charles Darwin, Lewis Carroll and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

The neighborhood’s connection to influential people continued. Once the Perkins family bought Wave Hill in 1903, they began leasing it to Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain and even Queen Mother Elizabeth.

Another prominent spot, the Greystone Gatehouse on Independence Avenue, was home to William Dodge and his wife, Sarah. It was built by James Renwick, Jr., an architect who also designed St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Midtown, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and the Riverdale Presbyterian Church on Henry Hudson Parkway.

After the presentation, Griffin opened the floor to questions and RSS members eagerly raised their hands. They asked the speaker about other historic figures and sites that shaped Riverdale — urban planner and city official Robert Moses, Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini, and the Villa Rosa Bonheur, later demolished for a luxury apartment building.

Rosemary Pierce, a Riverdale resident of 40 years, told The Press her brother-in-law lived in the Villa Rosa Bonheur at one point. Pierce and her sister, Helen Corchado, a 10-year resident, are both members at RSS.

“I’ve seen these [buildings], but I didn’t quite know them,” Corchado said. “[Griffin] identified them and gave history, and that was nice.”

Other older adults shared an interest in the past as their reason for attending.

“I love history,” said Ruth Coffey, who has lived in Marble Hill for nearly 50 years. “I love the castles and villas and stuff like that.”

Members like Coffey have watched Riverdale evolve over the years, making the chance to learn more about an area close to their hearts especially meaningful.

“They were talking to one another and bringing up their own memories and reminiscing,” Griffin told The Press. “I’m coming to their neighborhood … So getting that level of ‘I remember growing up here’, ‘I remember what it was like,’ ‘I remember the people who lived here,’ — I think that’s a missing piece of the puzzle.”