Christmas Came Early!
We’re thrilled to announce two wonderful awards!
The Town of Greenburgh was awarded $500,000 in New York State Environmental Protection Funds for another phase of restoration for OHRH. The Town will match this grant, providing a total of $1,000,000 for the physical restoration of the house. This is the second successful Consolidated Funding Award the Town has received from NYS. The first award was for $600,000 which was matched by the Town. Some of these funds were used for temporary shoring and the current roof restoration. There are two more grants pending, each for $500,000. If they come through there will be enough money to completely restore the house. Raising the funds to make the restored house into a museum—with modern, interactive exhibits—is still ahead of us.
The second happy announcement is a new grant from the Scarsdale Historical Society. SHS—an early and generous supporter of OHRH—has agreed to fund the creation of an audio tour for Follow the French, an event we’re organizing for May 20, 2023. The event will cover three major stops the French forces made in 1781 as they came to the aid of George Washington, Smith’s Tavern in North Castle/Armonk, Odell House in Hartsdale, and their final encampment in Yorktown. As people travel from place to place and visit each stop the audio tour will allow everyone to listen to the stories of the arrival, encampment, and departure of the French troops as they marched with the continental army. The audio tour will be used to build other audio tours for Revolutionary War sites in Westchester. This continues our work to educate the public on the French/American alliance and the important role Westchester played in the creation of the independence and democracy we celebrate today.
One of the projects we have funded, the Cultural Landscape Plan, is underway with the firm of Aspect 120. They are developing plans for exciting spaces on the grounds, including an outdoor classroom and lecture areas, a kitchen garden and handicap accessible pathways. Incorporated into the landscape will be a monument to the French soldiers who died while Rochambeau’s troops camped in the fields around OHRH. The monument will be made possible by a generous grant from the American Society of Le Souvenir Français, an organization dedicated to preserving the memory of French soldiers, sailors and airmen who gave their lives for freedom.
We want to end the year with a huge THANK YOU to everyone. We could not have come this far without your donations, the work of our Board and many other volunteers, and your loyal support. You are all marching along beside us, sharing the excitement of creating a museum to be proud of.
Make a Year-End Donation!
For those of you who would like to contribute this year, please use this link or mail your check to Friends of OHRH, 14 Rochambeau Drive, Hartsdale, NY 10530.
The holiday card above is one of the exciting finds in the moldy boxes of documents we rescued in the house. It’s part of a collection of Victorian Louis Prang cards that were saved by one of the Odell family members, now safely stored in the archives of the Westchester County Historical Society. Prang was a 19th century Boston-based printer, considered the father of the American Christmas Card. His cards are prized for their beauty and history, and we are proud to have several of them on display at the Greenburgh Public Library until after the holidays.