Arthur Manor: Scarsdale’s First Suburban Community

By Jordan Copeland

The Arthur Manor section of Edgewood was Scarsdale’s first suburban development, initiating Scarsdale’s transition from a rural community of farms and estates to the modern village it is today.

For two centuries after Caleb Heathcote first consolidated his manor in the late 1600s, Scarsdale was a sleepy agrarian area. The arrival of the railroad in the mid-1800s made Scarsdale more accessible, but Scarsdale didn’t start to resemble a commuting village until after 1890, when Frank Swartwout, one of the directors of the Arthur Suburban Home Company, bought the 150 acre Arthur farm on Post Road in Scarsdale.

The developers of Arthur Manor promised relief from the crowds, poverty, and pollution of Manhattan, with a pastoral location and restrictive covenants that forbade commerce and industry in the development. A strong sense of community soon emerged from the volunteer firehouse, which doubled as a meeting hall and Sunday school. Over the coming decades, detached homes were constructed throughout the southern-most third of what would become the Edgewood neighborhood.

As more families moved in, and the farms in the northern part of Edgewood started to be sold off and developed, Edgewood School was constructed for the neighborhood’s children in 1918. The Village also responded to the growing needs of the community by creating Davis Park, as well as additional roads to connect Arthur Manor with the rest of Edgewood. Homebuilding boomed in the late 1920s, creating a tightly-knit neighborhood that would be easily recognized by current residents.