The Great Katonah Move of 1897
April 24th, 2009
As a Real Estate Broker, one of my favorite things to do is to tell newcomers to the area the story of both The Old & The New Katonah.
In the 1890's New York City had a need to create a reservoir system to provide a larger fresh water supply to fulfill its increasing needs. They decided to build a new dam and holding area for the water. They declared its right of eminent domain over the original Katonah and an area known as Whitlockville and intended to flood the town with the Croton River. The headlines of 1893 asked "Will Katonah Be Deserted?", "The New York Times" declared "Destruction to Katonah".
Well, the proud people of Katonah were not interested in accepting a buy out (my modern choice of words) for their property and instead contacted the Landscape Design Firm of Frederick Law Olmstead of Massachusetts ( Central Park in NYC being one of their many projects in th
e Country) to design a new town for them. The plan included his trademark use of green space "with center strips devoted to flowers". The Katonah Land Company syndicate bought a farm a mile south. They then lifted the homes, put them on tracks made from shaved pine trees that were rubbed down with simple yellow laundry soap. Once the horse team pulled the house the length of the rails they then had to pick them up to move them ahead and had to relubricate them with the soap.
People were living in many of the houses as they were being moved. School children would return at the end of the day and the house had moved once again! There is even a report of a wedding taking place while they were being moved. This explains the photograph with the laundry still hung on the porch! There is a wonderful display of memorabilia on the lower level of the Katonah Library. Over 55 homes, businesses and St. Mary's Church made the big move and are still in use today. When we celebrated the Centennial in 1997, there were parades with floats, a grand ball held at The John Jay Homestead and fireworks.
There is a wonderful new "Katonah Walking Tour Guide" that has just been
written by the Katonah Village Improvement Society (KVIS). I learned that Katonah had a milliner's shop, a 5& 10 cent store, the Twin Porches Cafe - housed in one of the Victorians and even a movie theater that was very popular until Mt. Kisco (always the Big Town) opened a new theater that featured the "talkies."
If you are interested I would be happy to mail one to you - or just let me know when you are available to visit Katonah and I will be happy to give you the tour myself!
Posted by:
Karen Benvin Ransom
In the 1890's New York City had a need to create a reservoir system to provide a larger fresh water supply to fulfill its increasing needs. They decided to build a new dam and holding area for the water. They declared its right of eminent domain over the original Katonah and an area known as Whitlockville and intended to flood the town with the Croton River. The headlines of 1893 asked "Will Katonah Be Deserted?", "The New York Times" declared "Destruction to Katonah".Well, the proud people of Katonah were not interested in accepting a buy out (my modern choice of words) for their property and instead contacted the Landscape Design Firm of Frederick Law Olmstead of Massachusetts ( Central Park in NYC being one of their many projects in th
e Country) to design a new town for them. The plan included his trademark use of green space "with center strips devoted to flowers". The Katonah Land Company syndicate bought a farm a mile south. They then lifted the homes, put them on tracks made from shaved pine trees that were rubbed down with simple yellow laundry soap. Once the horse team pulled the house the length of the rails they then had to pick them up to move them ahead and had to relubricate them with the soap.People were living in many of the houses as they were being moved. School children would return at the end of the day and the house had moved once again! There is even a report of a wedding taking place while they were being moved. This explains the photograph with the laundry still hung on the porch! There is a wonderful display of memorabilia on the lower level of the Katonah Library. Over 55 homes, businesses and St. Mary's Church made the big move and are still in use today. When we celebrated the Centennial in 1997, there were parades with floats, a grand ball held at The John Jay Homestead and fireworks.There is a wonderful new "Katonah Walking Tour Guide" that has just been
written by the Katonah Village Improvement Society (KVIS). I learned that Katonah had a milliner's shop, a 5& 10 cent store, the Twin Porches Cafe - housed in one of the Victorians and even a movie theater that was very popular until Mt. Kisco (always the Big Town) opened a new theater that featured the "talkies."If you are interested I would be happy to mail one to you - or just let me know when you are available to visit Katonah and I will be happy to give you the tour myself!
Posted by:
Karen Benvin Ransom
1 Response to “The Great Katonah Move of 1897”
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May 7th, 2009 at 05:42 PM
Hi Karen, Nice blog…Barbara