CHP Denies Application to Raze 17 Dolma Road

Overriding a lukewarm appraisal by the Village’s consultant, the Committee for Historic Preservation voted 6-1 to deny an application to raze a Tudor style home at 17 Dolma Road in Scarsdale at their meeting on January 21, 2025.

In his report, Architectural Historian Andrew Dolkart noted that the home was built by Walter Collett. He called Dolma Road “one of Scarsdale’s finest and most cohesive subdivisions in the Village.” Dubbed the “Webster House,” for its first owner Dr. Leslie Tillotson Webster, the house was designed by the architectural firm of Thompson and Churchill, and unlike some other older homes, it was the work of named architects of the day. The house was one of the more modest on the street and was expanded in 1981 by Rivkin-Weisman architects.

In Dolkart’s reports he says that the house appears to meet one of the criteria for preservation, in that it is representative of the broad pattern of Scarsdale history and built during the peak period of suburban development in the village. However, he didn’t feel that it was one of the strongest candidates for preservation.

Therefore, the CHP’s 6-1 vote to deny the application came as a surprise.

Speaking in defense of the application, architect Miguel Sostre called the house a “bad example” of an English manor style home and later said it was “barely a Tudor.” He claimed that the additions made it unworthy of preservation and said it was too small, had only 8-foot-high ceilings and was not visible from the street. Representing the developer, Alissa Kirk said the 3,500 square foot home was not conducive to expansion and said they planned to build a “stately replacement.”

However, board members felt that some of these same attributes made the house more worthy of preservation.

Amy Lawrence felt that a skillful architect would be able to design an addition that would work with the current home.

Lauren Bender noted that architects who renovated the house, Rivkin-Weisman, were renowned and had designed the Gramercy Park Hotel. She contended that the home met the criteria for preservation in that it is “representative of the broad pattern of Scarsdale history.”

Jonathan Lerner said that a neighborhood’s small homes can be “more important” and said that some of the details in the architecture of the house were similar to the style of Collett’s own home.

Sheri Geer discussed the siting of the home and mentioned that the front yard placement of the large trees worked well with the home.

Meredith Kent agreed with many of the Board members comments and added that 17 Dolma added to the context of the neighborhood.

CHP Chair Kevin Reed asked Sostre about his qualifications in his responses to Dolkart’s report, and said that he too thought the house met the “broad pattern of development” criteria for preservation.

The lone dissenter was Jack Miller. He said, “The fact that we are discussing this says that this home has so much more going for it than 9 out of 10 of the houses that we review.” However, he felt that the neighborhood already has a mix of new homes, and both restored and hopefully to be restored older homes.

The final vote was 6-1 against the application to demolish the home. Applicants indicated that they may explore other options, even returning to the CHP or the BAR with revised plans to preserve some of the home and siting of the house as allowed by the current code.

Since this home was purchased directly by the developer from the owner and never put on the market, we will never know if a buyer might have been enthusiastic about purchasing the home and doing an interior renovation.

The surprising outcome may be a sign that the Committee for Historic Preservation is more willing than they were before to defend Scarsdale’s historic homes and preserve the tree canopy for future generations. This denial may also send a signal to developers that razing historic homes can be problematic and may give them cause to pause before assuming that applications to demolish these homes will be approved.

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