Greenburgh to name park in Hartsdale in honor of the Driscoll family

WHY A SMALL PARK NEAR THE HARTSDALE TRAIN STATION WILL BE NAMED IN HONOR OF GRAHAM AND JOAN DRISCOLL ON WEDNESDAY APRIL 16 AT 6 PM

On Wednesday, April 16th we will honor the hard work and dedication of Joan Driscoll and her late husband Graham. In recent years the Driscoll family and volunteers have treated the small garden with loving care—weeding, watering, taking care of the garden. If you read the following you probably will smile and wonder why it took so long to honor this very special family who has done so much good for our community. Their story is inspiring.

Before they started caring for The parklet that will soon have their name on it – they spent some time caring for the Bob Gold Parklet – across from 100 E Hartsdale Ave. It all began when invasive species, i.e., Wild Grape and Porcelain Berry, started to take over the large trees in Bob Gold Parklet. Graham offered to remove all those vines and the Town was very happy to have him do so. He cleaned it every year after and, in the process ,he and Joan found the remnants of an old garden along the fence of the Parklet. They were able to salvage a large growth of lilies that must have been put there by some unknown hand ages ago. They bloomed prolifically the first year after they were uncovered and have done so ever since. They are now to backbone of that little garden to which they have gradually added more perennials and which is now almost self-sustaining.

Then, with the help of Mike Nestler of Parks and Rec, they placed planters, eventually 20 in all, in front of the shops along East Hartsdale Avenue. They obtained some good dirt and filled the planters with showy annual. The residents, merchants, and commuters were all delighted.

They also cleaned up the street itself, removing old advertising containers, mulching trees, getting rid of weeds and leaves. They removed no longer operative phone booths; they removed old campaign posters, some more than ten years old, from the trees and poles; they even cleaned the drains along the street, clearing them of leaves and other debris.

Then the Driscoll family began their biggest project: making a garden at the small piece of property next to the train station. They felt privileged to be able to make a garden next to such an important train station.

The Hartsdale Train station was built in 1913 by the famous architects, Warren and Wetmore, who were also architects for Grand Central Terminal. Most of their work was done in the Beaux Arts style, like Grand Central, but this station was different as it was their only important work done in the Gothic Revival Style and it was their only station on the Harlem line. The Hartsdale train station was located at that particular spot so that one could leave the train and have the very shortest possible walk from the station to the Scarsdale Golf Club. which had opened for golf, tennis, squash, etc., in 1898.

In 2007 Graham and Joan noticed a small, barren outdoor area, with one single tree, and lots and lots of rock.. .

Graham and Joan discussed the condition of the parklet. Joan frequently said to Graham , “What a mess.” Or, “This is awful.” And she remember his finally saying to her, “Why don’t you do something about it?” She asked the Town if they could try to establish a garden there, and they said, “Yes.” And that was the beginning of the project that became such an important part of both their lives.

With the help of Parks and Rec, they started cleaning debris from the area, which they eventually called the “Station Garden.” They found cans, glass, stones, lots of cement, and lots and lots of black paper left over from a long ago attempt at a garden, from, probably, about 1985, when the station had a big overhaul. All of this junk needed to be removed and that part of the project took two years.

The quality of the soil was very uneven, ranging from terrible to not too bad. They did a little to improve it. They emended it with a load or two of dirt and chips and some bags of top soil, and then worked with it as it was. They did not add fertilizer and they never, never sprayed for any reason. Their idea was that the plantings which would grow there would have to be tough and resilient and that the garden would be eventually be self-sustaining.

Of course, that would never be entirely possible, for in our climate there is just not enough rain for any garden to be self-sustaining. So, hand watering was a necessity. Water was always their prime concern. For many years they carried water down from their apartment. Four gallons a trip was the most the buggy would allow, so several trips a day were often needed, especially during the hottest months when the garden often needed watering every day. About ten years in they had a breakthrough on the water: Metro-North, who always encouraged the help and often helped make the initiative successful , said they could use their outdoor faucet. What a help that was. Graham, who had taken over the watering, needed two hours to do an adequate job on the whole garden and folks who stop by the garden nowadays sometimes says that that is how they remember him, holding a hose and patiently doing every section.

Graham loved his hours in the garden. He loved seeing and hearing the trains come in and out and watching the people hustling to board. Although he had taken Metro-North endless times in over 40 years, working in the city for some years, going to concerts and museums numberless times, and taking long distance trip all over the country, some for work and more just for enjoyment, I think he still wished he were boarding the train himself, whenever he saw others doing so.

With help from the Town, they planted trees and flowers. They had many ups and downs and many learning experiences. One setback occurred when a backhoe appeared one day and the whole garden was bulldozed. However, although they lost all our plantings, they had a chance to start over with a new garden configuration and beautiful paving stones and Belgian block.

Although Joan and Graham were not neophytes to gardening, they had never faced so many challenges. The garden was torn up once and reconfigured; there were two whole years when they couldn’t garden adequately because the Station was being restored and two years because of the installation of the elevator. One year Metro-North placed a dumpster right in the middle of the side garden. They had several years of extreme drought. Covid affected themgreatly. They had other problems, too. Some people walked through the garden, damaging a great many plantings; some people allowed their dogs in; at times rhwy needed to explain to children that the flowers were for everyone and shouldn’t be picked. The Driscoll’s regularly cleaned up papers, cigarette butts, masks, and other unpleasantries. And on occasion they have had to deal with vandalism and theft. But these were just challenges. They worked things out. They waited, adjusted, did things over. The garden survived and flourished.

Meeting people at the garden and having them stop, sometimes only to say, “Thank you for the garden,” and other times to chat for a longer time, was one of the unexpected great pleasures of working there, according to the Joan. They stop tell Mr. & Mrs Driscoll how much they love the garden, how beautiful it is, how much pleasure it gives them. Or they talk about their own gardens, about their successes and failures; or we commiserate about the heat or lack of rain or to ask each other for advice about shade gardening. They often say that they feel that the garden is their own

One person said that she had a very high-powered job in the city and that she came every morning, a little early for her train, so that she could stop at the garden to recollect herself before her difficult day ahead. Others stop, look at the garden for a few minutes, say nothing, and move on.

Judie Meisels and her husband, Manfred, and Graham and Joan had been next-door neighbors and good friends in Manor Woods for 28 years, and remained so even after both families , she to White Plains and the Driscolls to East Hartsdale Avenue. Although Mrs. Meisel no longer lives in Hartsdale she still has a fierce loyalty to it and every year she fills all the planters on East Hartsdale Avenue, and even other areas of the downtown area, with gorgeous tulips. They fill the street with a riot of color for six weeks, before any other flowers began to bloom. With weeks of planning, and considerable expense to herself, she provides residents, merchants, and commuters something unbelievably exciting to look forward to every winter.

The current team consists of Kathy Evers, who does all the planters and works in the Station Garden and is also an enthusiastic member of the Ardsley Pollinator Pathway; Tony Fico, who digs fantastic holes and also does a great deal of heavy work; Julie Meisels, who reliably plans and plants all the tulips every year. Joan works mainly in the Station Garden and Bob Gold Parklet.

PAUL FEINER

Greenburgh Town Supervisor