BIRTH OF LAWRENCE PARK The history of the modern suburb of Bronxville begins in earnest with the 1890 purchase of Prescott farm by William Van Duzer Lawrence, a rich drug manufacturer who set the scene for the creation of what would become a vibrant, well-planned residential community. The transformation, however, was arduous. Lawrence laid out his first streets and home sites in the new Lawrence Park along cowpaths weaving among huge old trees and massive granite outcroppings. In the beginning, Lawrence built three or four houses a year, calling on the talents of his friend and fellow Michigan native, architect William A. Bates. Bates was the first of several architects active in Bronxville who set a standard for well-designed and gracefully-sited homes. Several dozen Bates-designed buildings survive today; architects Penrose Stout, Lewis Bowman and George F. Root, III, designing primarily in the 1920's, would be nearly as prolific. Lawrence Park soon gained a national reputation, both for its romantic design and the celebrity of its early inhabitants. Prominent writers moved in first, including several women: Alice Wellington Rollins, Kate Douglas Wiggin (who later wrote “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm”), Ruth McInery Stuart and Elizabeth Custer, the General’s widow. Edmond Clarence Stedman, “the poet of Wall Street” was the most prominent man of letters in the country when he settled at Wellington Circle in Lawrence Park in 1896. <<Previous • Chapter List • Next>>