Tuxedo Park, New York

Tuxedo Park, New York
Village
Location in Orange County and the state of New York. Location in Orange County and the state of New York.
Tuxedo Park, New York Location within the state of New York
Coordinates:
Country	United States
State	New York
County	Orange
Government
• Mayor	Mary Jo Guinchard
Area
• Total	3.2 sq mi (8.4 km2)
• Land	2.7 sq mi (6.9 km2)
• Water	0.6 sq mi (1.4 km2)
Elevation	407 ft (124 m)
Population (2010)
• Total	623
Time zone	Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
• Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
ZIP code	10987
Area code(s)	845 Exchange: 351
FIPS code	36-75803
GNIS feature ID	0968011
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
Location	Tuxedo Park, New York
Built	1886
Architect	Bruce Price McKim, Mead & White Russell Sturgis
Architectural style	Tudor Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne
NRHP Reference #	80002740
Added to NRHP	March 13, 1980

Tuxedo Park is a village in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 623 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY, Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area. The name is derived from a Native American word of the Lenape language, tucsedo or p'tuxseepu, which is said to mean "crooked water" or "crooked river."

Tuxedo Park is a village within the southern part of the town of Tuxedo, near New York Route 17 and the New York State Thruway.

History

The park is located in the Ramapo Mountains. In the colonial era, it acquired a reputation for undeveloped iron deposits. In consequence, a company formed in England and headed by William Alexander, Lord Stirling, acquired a large tract in the neighborhood. The company built furnaces near Ringwood and opened mines on the Ramapo River near Sterling Lake. Pierre Lorillard II acquired the company and its land holdings in 1790. Once the iron deposits were depleted, the land was used for lumbering.

What is now the village and the areas immediately surrounding it were first developed as a private hunting-and-fishing reserve by Pierre Lorillard IV in 1885. At that time it became known as Tuxedo Park. Lorillard IV initially built small cottages, renting or selling them to his friends and family. The project grew so popular that he organized the Tuxedo Club and the Tuxedo Park Association, and surrounded the property with a high game fence. This fence fairly accurately marked the present boundaries of the area restricted to use of the residents of Tuxedo Park. In 1924 the Tuxedo Securities Corporation acquired from the Estate of Peter Lorillard, deceased, all of the stock of the Tuxedo Park Association.

William Kent cottage (1885–86), Bruce Price, architect.

W. Chanler cottage (1885–86), Bruce Price, architect.

The original clubhouse, designed by Bruce Price, was built in 1886 and was then replaced by a second clubhouse in 1928, which was designed by John Russell Pope. This building was destroyed by fire in 1943, and was partially rebuilt soon thereafter.

The shingle style cottages Price built at Tuxedo, with their compact massing and axial plans influenced Modernist architects, including Frank Lloyd Wright. Queen Anne architecture with Tudor elements became popular for residences.

Tuxedo Park enjoyed many prosperous years from 1885 until the 1920s. The "Blue Book of Etiquette" was written by Emily Post, who was the daughter of Bruce Price. She wrote the book based on what she observed inside the great stone gates of Tuxedo. Many other Tuxedo notables from that era include:

• Grenville Kane – banker, heir, and longtime resident
• Dorothy Draper – famed interior designer
• Adele Colgate – heir to the Colgate/Palmolive fortune
• Fernando Yznaga – Banker – Brother of Consuelo Yznaga, Duchess of Manchester
• George Fisher Baker – Banker
• JP Morgan – Banker
• Alfred Lee Loomis – scientist and subject of the Jennet Conant book, "Tuxedo Park".
• William Waldorf Astor
• Herbert C. Pell, and
• Augustus Juilliard
• Millicent Rogers

During the 1920s a new hospital and a high school were built through the generosity of a few Tuxedo Park residents, including John Insley Blair. In the years following the Great Depression, however, Tuxedo Park lost many of its socialites and wealthy inhabitants, but attracted a few new ones, as well. One of the new residences was built by Angier Biddle Duke, (cousin to Doris Duke), whose father-in-law, George Baker St. George, was an original resident of Tuxedo. Mr. St. George purchased and built Mr. Duke and his wife, Priscilla St George, a new estate, "Duck Hollow". Duck Hollow was the last built estate in Tuxedo Park by the old "Blue Blood Elite". While Mr. Duke & his wife were traveling abroad, as most elites did at that time, Mr. St. George had landscape architect Arthur P. Kroll landscape the elaborate property. By the time the Dukes returned from Europe, the property had been transformed and appeared to have been there for over 100 years.

The area known as Tuxedo Park separated from the Town of Tuxedo and became incorporated in 1952, adopting the village form of government. Today it comprises 2,050 acres (8.3 km²), of which 355 acres (1.44 km²) includes three lakes, and about 330 housing units in 340 structures. Other newer housing developments include the Southfields Apartments built in 1971 on the site of a former bed factory, the Mountain View Apartments near the Sloatsburg line, and the Woodlands in Eagle Valley.

Non-residential facilities located within the community include the former International Paper Research Center, the "Loomis Laboratory" of Alfred Lee Loomis, the Red Apple Rest, and the Sterling Forest Ski Area, now known as the Tuxedo Ridge Ski Resort.

The evening dress for men now popularly known as a tuxedo (sometimes formally termed black tie attire), takes its name from Tuxedo Park, where it was said to have been worn for the first time in the United States, by Griswold Lorillard at the annual Autumn Ball of the Tuxedo Club founded by Pierre Lorillard IV, and thereafter became popular for formal dress in America. It became known as the tuxedo when a fellow asked another at the Autumn Ball, "Why does that man's jacket not have coattails on it?" The other answered, "He is from Tuxedo." The first gentleman misinterpreted and told all of his friends that he saw a man wearing a jacket without coattails called a tuxedo, not from Tuxedo. This all took place at The Autumn ball, which still exists today.

In recognition of its historical and architectural significance, the historic district was listed as Tuxedo Park on the National Register of Historic Places on March 13, 1980. In 1982 the designation was officially presented to Mrs. Joan Richardsson Alleman, Co-Chairman of the Tuxedo Conservation and Taxpayers Association, at the Washington's Headquarters State Historic Site in nearby Newburgh, NY. The designation was presented by Mr. Oren Lehman, Commissioner of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation and is proudly displayed at the Tuxedo Park Village Office.

Geography

Tuxedo Park is located at (41.201461, -74.201668).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 3.2 square miles (8.3 km²), of which, 2.7 square miles (7.0 km²) is land and 0.6 square miles (1.6 km²) (17.03%) is water.

The village is located in Orange County near its border with Rockland County, New York and is in the Ramapo Mountains.

The New York State Thruway (Interstate 87) and New York State Route 17 pass the east of the village, which is north of Sloatsburg, New York.

Sterling Forest State Park is located west of the village, and Harriman State Park is located to the east.

Located within the confines of the village are 3 lakes; Tuxedo Lake is the largest by far of the three and serves as the reservoir for the village's water needs, while the smaller Weewah Lake and Pond #2 serve as purely recreational bodies of water. No swimming or power-boating is allowed in Tuxedo Lake in order to retain optimal water quality.

Demographics

Historical population
Census	Pop.		%±
1960	723		—
1970	861		19.1%
1980	809		−6.0%
1990	706		−12.7%
2000	731		3.5%
2010	623		−14.8%
Est. 2014	610		−2.1%
U.S. Decennial Census

As of the census of 2000, there were 731 people, 291 households, and 215 families residing in the village. The population density was 272.9 people per square mile (105.3/km²). There were 363 housing units at an average density of 135.5 per square mile (52.3/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 94.37% White, 0.69% African American, 0.14% Native American, 2.19% Asian, 0.27% from other races, and 2.33% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5.07% of the population.

There were 291 households out of which 29.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 63.9% were married couples living together, 8.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.1% were non-families. 21.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.51 and the average family size was 2.88.

In the village the population was spread out with 22.2% under the age of 18, 5.1% from 18 to 24, 23.3% from 25 to 44, 37.3% from 45 to 64, and 12.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 45 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.9 males.

The median income for a household in the village was $91,820, and the median income for a family was $102,056. Males had a median income of $70,536 versus $46,250 for females. The per capita income for the village was $63,538. About 1.9% of families and 4.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.7% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.

• 

  Mansion of Henry W. Poor (of Standard & Poor's), 1903.

• 

  Mark Twain at the Voss cottage, 1908.

Notable people

• Katharine St. George, former US Congressman
• Richard Kiley, Actor
• Robert Duvall, Actor, director
• Howard Shore, Composer
• Whoopie Goldberg, Actor
• Fred Gwynne, Actor
• Thomas E. Dewey, Governor
• Mark Twain, Author
• Alfred Lee Loomis, American attorney, investment banker, philanthropist, scientist/physicist

See also

• St. Mary's in Tuxedo
• Tuxedo Park School
• Tuxedo, New York
• Tuxedo Park: The Gift of Nature (book)

Further reading

• Rushmore, George M., The world with a fence around it : Tuxedo Park, the early days, New York : Pageant Press, 1957.
• Sonne, Christian R.; Hempel, Chiu Yin, (editors); James Bleecker (photographer), Tuxedo park : the historic houses, Tuxedo Park, NY : Tuxedo Historical Society, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9789452-0-6
• Winslow, Albert Foster, Tuxedo Park : a journal of recollections, Tuxedo Park, N.Y. : Tuxedo Historical Society, 1992. ISBN 0-9634696-0-6

External links

• Tuxedo Park Fire Department
• Village of Tuxedo Park
• Tuxedo Historical Society
• Tuxedo Park FYI
• Tuxedo Park Fine Homes