Conversations Continue On Fate Of Cudner-Hyatt House

To preserve or not to preserve? That is the question Village of Scarsdale residents have been discussing for the past several months. At the heart of the talks is the fate of the pre-Revolutionary War

Currently, the Scarsdale Arts Council, the  and the have all taken on the issue. Next up is the Board of Appeals, which has the item on their upcoming April 11 meeting agenda.

The agenda states, "The application of the Scarsdale Historical Society for an amendment to a variance granted in 1974 to operate the property as a museum which would remove the variance and allow the property to revert to single family residence use at 937 Post Road, identified on the Village tax map as Sec. 8, Blk. 2, Lot 1D" will be discussed on Wednesday, April 11 at 8:00 p.m.

The New York Attorney General's Office is reviewing the matter, according to information provided by Arts Council President Ed Morgan today.

Yesterday, the Scarsdale Arts Council submitted an update to the Scarsdale Board of Appeals, Morgan said.

"In it, on page 2, we report the request of the Attorney General’s office that the Scarsdale Board of Appeals not act on the Scarsdale Historical Society application until both the Attorney General and the New York State Education Department have been able to complete their reviews and have the opportunity to weigh in," Morgan said.

Another update on the process is that the Historical Society has also requested a deferral of the Board of Appeals in order to allow further review, Morgan said.

"We support that request, and hope that the additional time will lead to the kind of open and cooperative dialogue including the public (as well as governmental agencies) which we have been seeking," Morgan said.

"I'm hopeful of what comes out of this in the end," the Arts Council president said.

The Scarsdale Forum previously released a statement on the issue, which included the following:

The Forum urges the Society, for so long as the proceedings indicated by the first recommendation are pending, give priority to the care and maintenance of Cudner-Hyatt and making it available for use by the public in Scarsdale and nearby communities.

After the Scarsdale Forum, the Arts Council and the Historical Commission have made the public aware of the situation with the over the past four months, Morgan said he is hopeful the groups and the public can come to an appropriate solution.

"We did it 40 years ago and we hope to do it again," Morgan said of preserving the home.

For more information, view the PDF files to the right of this story.