Fairview in the 1950s: An African American Neighborhood Endures Urban Renewal

Reading through newspaper accounts of Greenburgh in the 1940s through 1970s is startling. Unlike the Greenburgh of the 2000s when we complain about taxes, and argue over whether or not to build access roads to shopping plazas or battle against the location of assisted living complexes, the Greenburgh of previous decades confronted profound questions of planning and race.  The issues that most energized residents were (1) proposals to merge school districts amid rapid population growth and the urgent need to build new school facilities; (2)( plans for urban renewal ("slum clearance") of parts of historically African-American neighborhoods in Fairview,  and the concomitant zoning and placement of public housing,; and (3) the impact of construction of the Cross-Westchester Expressway (Rt. 287).  Decisions made in the 1950s profoundly shape the Town of Greenburgh today.

To illustrate the impact of just one of these many issues - which appear to me to dwarf in import, drama, and real impact on individual lives anything the town has confronted in recent years - here are maps showing the consequences of urban renewal on the historically African American central neighborhoods of Fairview.


1.  1930 Map of Central Fairview

In the 1950s, the grey area on bottom left of the map was deemed by the Town as "substandard" housing and leveled as part of urban renewal effort in cooperation with federal and state authorities and approved by the Town Council amid litigation and dispute.  This centrally located neighborhood, between the major thoroughfares of Tarrytown Road and Dobbs Ferry Road, however, was not replaced with new housing at the same location.  Instead, the African American residents of this area could find 131 units of new public housing built on the Heyer Farm property one-half mile to the north-east beyond the barrier of the Cross Westchester Expressway (now 287) that was also completed in 1960. At the same time, the Heyer Farm property (pink area in upper right of map) was zoned for multi family units stretching north-south from Old Tarrytown Road (northernmost road on map down along the west margin of the Heyer property).   The lettering across the north-central portion of the map "White Plains Parkway" is the current day route of Rt. 287.


2.  Central Fairview Today

Central Fairview today (googlemaps.com).  Note: 1. Rt. 287 bifurcates and dominates the neighborhood; 2.  the clearance (i.e., leveling) of neighborhoods between Tarrytown Rd. and Dobbs Ferry Rd. pursuant to "urban renewal" and replacement by a shopping plaza and parking lots; 3.  The placement of Greenburgh's largest public housing development - the 131 unit state site along the west edge of the old Heyer Farm property between Old Tarrytown Road and the highway 287 (where the "Greenburgh Housing Authority" marker appears).  An additional 30 low rise "senior" federal public units at Manhattan and Florence Ave. on the south side of the highway were also built in 1960.  Notably, the designers of Greenburgh's public housing appear to have pioneered low-rise in place of the infamous high-rise "projects" typically built in the mid-20th century. 

3.  Close up African American neighborhood between Tarrytown Rd. and Dobbs Ferry Rd. cleared (i.e., destroyed under the Greenburgh "urban renewal" program) in late 1950s.  1930 map:

Grey neighborhood on left side (Columba, Vanderbilt, Roosevelt and Lincoln Aves). were first leveled as part of urban renewal.  The rest of the Tarrytown/Dobbs Ferry road angle neighborhood (Meadow St., Spring St. and Warren Ave south of Tarrytown Road) was later eliminated to make room for the current shopping plaza.

4. Current appearance of same area:

The 1950s African American neighborhood south of Tarrytown Road has been replaced by a shopping plaza  (K-mart, DSW, Home Goods, Modells) and parking lots.  Housing that may have been "substandard," but centrally located, has been replaced by public housing units well out of the sight and mind of the general public.

It is convenient and maybe a bit too easy to draw conclusions when confronted by these maps. Urban renewal, or "slum clearance" as it was commonly referred to in the 1950s, may have indeed been inspired by sincere, progressive motives. The implementation, however, of this possibly idealistic plan included leveling of a highly visible African American neighborhood located along the central artery of Tarrytown Road concomitant with the establishment of public housing  in an undesirable area flanking the newly constructed highway and out of sight of the main local thoroughfare.  Considering that in the late 1950s and early 1960s, African Americans had very limited housing options in Greenburgh, New York (e.g., fewer than a total of 10 African American children attended the Town's Edgemont, Ardsley and Hartsdale School Districts in the early 1960s), it may also be inferred that the Town had devised a plan to permanently relegate African American to the margins of the highway in a perpetual "urban ghetto,"  that was well removed from the major local roadways.