Larchmont, New York
Larchmont, New York | |
---|---|
File:Larchmont ny emblem.jpg | |
Country | United States |
State | New York |
County | Westchester |
Area | |
• Total | 1.1 sq mi (2.8 km2) |
• Land | 1.1 sq mi (2.8 km2) |
• Water | 0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2) |
Elevation | 52 ft (16 m) |
Population (2000) | |
• Total | 6,485 |
• Density | 6,073.6/sq mi (2,345.0/km2) |
Time zone | UTC-5 (Eastern (EST)) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
ZIP code | 10538 |
Area code | 914 |
FIPS code | 36-41333 |
GNIS feature ID | 0977360 |
Larchmont is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 6,485 at the 2000 census. As a village, it is located within the town of Mamaroneck. It is located on the shore of the Long Island Sound, about eighteen miles from Midtown Manhattan. Larchmont is served by the New Haven Line of the Metro-North Railroad.
The village of Larchmont contains one of the six schools in the Mamaroneck School District, Chatsworth Avenue School, which was established in 1903. Two of the other schools are in the Village of Mamaroneck, and the other three (two elementary schools and the middle school) are in the unincorporated Town of Mamaroneck.
In July of 2005, CNN/Money and Money magazine ranked Larchmont 11th on its list of the 100 Best Places to Live in the United States.[1]
History
Originally inhabited by the Siwanoy (an Algonquian tribe), Larchmont was "discovered" by the Dutch in 1614. By 1720, few Siwanoy remained in the Larchmont area and the land had been largely bought up by British and Dutch settlers. One of Larchmont's earliest homes, the "Manor House" on Elm Avenue, was originally occupied by Peter Jay Munro[citation needed]. Munro was the nephew to John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and was later adopted by Jay. At the beginning of the 19th Century, Munro was active in the Abolitionist movement, helping to found the NY State Manumission Society, along with his uncle and Alexander Hamilton. A Quaker, Munro is also believed to have been involved in the Underground Railroad program. The basement of his house still contains tunnels connecting it to Long Island Sound, half a mile away[citation needed]. It is believed that the Railroad bypassed the bounty hunters in Manhattan in favor of landing points in Larchmont, Rye, and New Rochelle, where the escaped slaves could be transported overland to sympathetic Quakers in Scarsdale and, eventually, Tarrytown. From there, they could be loaded aboard Hudson River transport towards Canada.
Munro's house faced towards the Boston Post Road (the back is now used as the front), which tended to generate a lot of dust in summer months. To combat this, his gardener imported a Scottish species of larch trees that were known to be fast growing. These were planted along the front of the property, eventually giving the village its name. The Village of Larchmont was incorporated in 1891[citation needed].
Before the advent of the automobile, Larchmont was a resort community serving wealthy New York City residents. Many of the Victorian "cottages" and a few of the grand hotels (such as the Bevan House and Manor Inn) remain to this day, though these have been converted to other uses such as private residences. The Larchmont Yacht Club hosts an annual Race Week competition (2007 marked the 110th running of this event). It is adjacent to Manor Park, which was designed by Jeremiah Towle, an early summer resident of Larchmont Manor and an engineer. Although the park has been rumored to have been designed by famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, the only evidence of any involvement by Olmsted in Larchmont is a c. 1845 survey map (original found in Village Hall) commissioned by Edward Knight Collins, who at the time owned what later came to be called the Manor.[citation needed] The Larchmont Shore Club (a club near the Larchmont Yacht Club) hosts an annual 'Swim Across America' challenge, across Long Island Sound.
Larchmont, and to some extent, nearby parts of Rye are noted for their significant French-American populations.[citation needed]
Geography
Larchmont is located at 40°55′34″N 73°45′11″W / 40.92611°N 73.75306°WInvalid arguments have been passed to the {{#coordinates:}} function (40.926201, -73.753108)Template:GR, about eighteen miles from midtown Manhattan.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 1.1 square miles (2.8 km²), all of it land.
Demographics
As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 6,485 people, 2,418 households, and 1,709 families residing in the village. The population density was 6,073.6 people per square mile (2,340.1/km²). There were 2,470 housing units at an average density of 2,313.3/sq mi (891.3/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 92% White, 2% African American, 0.09% Native American, 2.82% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 0.77% from other races, and 1.33% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.97% of the population.
There were 2,418 households out of which 38.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.6% were married couples living together, 6.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.3% were non-families. 25.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.66 and the average family size was 3.25.
In the village the population was spread out with 29.3% under the age of 18, 3.9% from 18 to 24, 30.1% from 25 to 44, 23.7% from 45 to 64, and 12.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 90.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.5 males.
The median income for a household in the village was $123,238, and the median income for a family was $163,965. Males had a median income of $100,000 versus $49,545 for females. The per capita income for the village was $73,675. About 1.6% of families and 2.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.5% of those under age 18 and 5.1% of those age 65 or over.
Notable residents
This section needs additional citations for verification. (April 2008) |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/LarchmontTheater.jpg/220px-LarchmontTheater.jpg)
- Tommy Armour, golfer
- Maurice Barrymore, patriarch of the Barrymore family of acting [1]
- Georgiana Drew, actress [2]
- Carl Paul Jennewein, sculptor
- Douglas Fairbanks, actor [3]
- Mary Pickford, actress [4]
- Ang Lee, director of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "The Hulk", and "Brokeback Mountain"
- Marcus Camby, basketball player for the Denver Nuggets
- Jasun Martz, musician who recorded with Michael Jackson, toured with Frank Zappa, arranged the Starship #1 hit, We Built this City.[5]
- David O. Russell, movie director
- Edward Albee, playwright, best known for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"
- Moss Hart, award winning playwright and author of "Act One," his best selling biography
- D.W. Griffith, director
- Lou Gehrig, Hall Of Fame Baseball legend (know-it-alls who continue to remove this citation are referred to
"Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig," by Jonathan Eig - Simon 7 Schuster 2006)
- Jean Kerr, novelist
- Walter Kerr,Pulitzer Prize winning theater critic
- Alton Tobey, artist
- Amelia Rosselli, poet
- Joan Rivers, comedian
See also
Sources
- Contributions by Judith Doolin Spikes, Larchmont Village Historian.
- www.villageoflarchmont.org
References
- ^ query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE7D61239F937A15751C0A963948260
- ^ www.timesdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=NEWS&template=wiki&text=Larchmont,_New_Yor
- ^ query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE7D61239F937A15751C0A963948260
- ^ query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE7D61239F937A15751C0A963948260
- ^ query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02EEDC133EF93AA25755C0A9639C8B63&sec=&spon=
External links
- The Larchmont Loop real time news and information
- Sound & Town Report Newspaper Larchmont's weekly newspaper
- Larchmont official website
- Larchmont Gazette Larchmont's hometown journal
- Larchmont Historical Society
- Larchmont Mamaroneck Community Television