Scarsdale, New York
Scarsdale is both a town and village in Westchester County, New York, USA postal code 10583. It is a northern suburb of New York City. As of the 2000 census, its population was 17,823.
Scarsdale has elected to operate as a village government even though the 'Village of Scarsdale' is coterminous with the 'Town of Scarsdale.' It is one of several villages in the state that have a similar governmental situation (see: description of town in N.Y. State).
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 17.2 km² (6.6 mi²). 17.2 km² (6.6 mi²) of it is land and 0.15% is water.
Neighborhoods

The neighborhoods in Scarsdale (and the names of its elementary schools) include:
- Edgewood
- Fox Meadow
- Greenacres
- Heathcote
- Quaker Ridge
Demographics
As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 17,823 people, 5,662 households, and 4,993 families residing in the village. The population density was 1,036.4/km² (2,685.7/mi²). There were 5,795 housing units at an average density of 337.0/km² (873.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the village was 84.10% White, 1.52% Black or African American, 0.02% Native American, 12.58% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.40% from other races, and 1.37% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.62% of the population.
There were 5,662 households out of which 51.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 81.8% were married couples living together, 5.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 11.8% were non-families. 10.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.14 and the average family size was 3.35.
In the village the population was spread out with 32.8% under the age of 18, 4.0% from 18 to 24, 22.8% from 25 to 44, 28.7% from 45 to 64, and 11.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 94.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.2 males.
The median income for a household in the village was $182,792, and the median income for a family was $200,000. Males had a median income of $100,000 versus $62,319 for females. The per capita income for the village was $89,907. About 1.7% of families and 2.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.2% of those under age 18 and 2.3% of those age 65 or over.
Scarsdale Post Office and postal zone
The Scarsdale Post Office on Chase Road is #88002428 on the National Register of Historic Places.
Neighborhoods outside the Village of Scarsdale but still wholly or partially in the Scarsdale ZIP code (10583), and thus include residences and businesses with a "Scarsdale, NY 10583" mailing address, include:
- Beech Hill (City of Yonkers)
- Edgemont (Town of Greenburgh)
- Garth Road (mostly in the Town of Eastchester)
- Green Knolls (Town of Eastchester)
- Greenvale (Town of Eastchester)
- North End of Eastchester
- Wilmot (City of New Rochelle)
- Wilmot Woods (City of New Rochelle)
The population of the Scarsdale ZIP code is more than twice that of Scarsdale proper.
A 2002 Forbes article includes 10583 on a list of about 200 "ZIP codes where the 2002 median home price was above $500,000 and where there were more than 10 homes sold during the year." The median home in 10583 sold for $717,500. It thus ranked 71st, slightly outranking the Beverly Hills 90211 and 90212. However, the famous Beverly Hills 90210 ZIP code ranked 24th, with a median home sale price of $1,042,500.
Notable People
People associated with Scarsdale include:
TELEVISION, FILM, MUSIC, RADIO:
- Liza Minnelli, singer and actress, lived in Scarsdale with her mother, Judy Garland and attended Scarsdale High School. She also toured Europe and Israel in an SHS production of The Diary of Anne Frank.[citation needed]
- Susan Lucci, born in Scarsdale and the star of soap tv series All My Children as well as many other notable films and television shows.[citation needed]
- Aaron Sorkin, writer and creator of the TV series Sports Night and The West Wing. Raised in Scarsdale.[citation needed]
- Yoko Ono, singer. Her family moved to Scarsdale in the early 1950s; she later joined them from Japan.[citation needed]
- Linda McCartney (Linda Eastman), actress, writer, cinematographer, producer, photographer, and wife of Beattles star Paul McCartney, graduated from Scarsdale High School.[citation needed]
- Bruce Beck, television sportscaster for WNBC-TV.[citation needed]
- David Stern, commissioner of NBA.[citation needed]
- Aaron Brown, former host of NewsNight with Aaron Brown on the television network CNN [citation needed]
- Will Hawkins, singer-songwriter and playwright attended SHS from 1981 until 1985.[citation needed]
- Nina Totenberg, NPR legal correspondent. (SHS graduate)
- Eve Ensler, dramatist. Raised in Scarsdale, attended SHS.
- L B Fisher, born in Scarsdale and acted on popular shows such as Felecity, ER, Boston Public.[citation needed]
- Rupert Holmes, successful composer and writer resides in Scarsdale.[citation needed]
- Dorothy Dalton, silent-film actress.[citation needed]
- Bill Pankow, film editor of "The Black Dahlia," "Assault of Precinct 13," "Paid In Full," etc.[citation needed]
BUSINESS PEOPLE:
- Earl Graves, founder of Black Enterprise magazine; his son "Butch Graves", a graduate of Scarsdale High School, is now CEO of the company.[citation needed]
WRITERS:
- Nicholas Kristoff [Journalist] and [Columnist]for The New York Times, and twice the winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Most recent Pulitzer Prize was in 2006 for his columns regarding the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.[citation needed]
- Sheryl WuDunn, Journalist and Columnist for The New York Times.[citation needed]
- James Fenimore Cooper, writer with one extremely popular book, Last of the Mohicans. He has a home on Mamaroneck Rd., and has a Street named after him, Fenimore Rd.
- Gish Jen (pseudonym of Lillian Jen), novelist. Born in Scarsdale, 1956. A thinly disguised version of Scarsdale is a subject of some of her works.[citation needed]
- Harold Krents (1944-1987), lawyer, whose life story inspired the drama Butterflies Are Free. Author of To Race the Wind. (SHS graduate)[citation needed]
- Carl Schorske, Historian and author of Fin-De-Siecle Vienna: Politics and Culture[1] with his sister, Florence Wald, former Dean of Yale Nursing school and Founder of American Hospice
DOCTORS:
- Gerald B. Appel, leading authority on nephrology, known for his celebrity patients and his television appearances.[citation needed]
- Emily Barringer (1876–1961), the world's first female ambulance surgeon and the first woman to secure a surgical residency, was born in town.[2]
- Anthony Avellino, professor of Neuro Science Univ. of Washington. World acclaimed pediatric neurosurgeon studied under Ben Carson at John Hopkins in Baltimore and was involved with the separation of several sets of conjoined twins in the 1990s grew up on Garth Road.[citation needed]
SPORTS:
- James Cogswell and Fessenden Blanchard invented platform tennis in Scarsdale.[citation needed]
- David Stern, Current Commissioner of the National Basketball Association.[citation needed]
- Marcus Camby, originally with the New York Knicks, now with the Denver Nuggets, resided in Scarsdale off of Grand Park road during his stint with the Knicks.[citation needed]
- Paul Heyman, professional wrestling manager, on-air talent, and former promoter, best known for his role in Extreme Championship Wrestling.[citation needed]
- Joe Garagiola (1926- ) is a former major league catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs and New York Giants. He later became a popular broadcaster. He and his wife raised their children in Scarsdale.[citation needed]
POLTICAL FIGURES:
- Daniel Tompkins, 7th Vice President of the United States. Vice President Tompkins was born in Scarsdale.[citation needed]
GANGSTERS AND SPIES:
- Benjamin Siegel, gangster and Las Vegas resort builder. He owned a house in Scarsdale from 1929 on; he was increasingly absent in later years but his family continued to live there.[citation needed]
- Robert Hanssen, alleged Soviet spy, lived at 150 Webster Road in Scarsdale from 1978 until 1981; his children attended IHM. His wife told the FBI that he had had dealings with Moscow during that time; all according to Adrian Havill, 2002, The Spy Who Stayed Out in the Cold: The Secret Life of FBI Double Agent Robert Hanssen, p. 56. St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0-312-98629-7.
SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY:
- Jeffrey A. Hoffman Ph.D., astronaut. Born in Brooklyn but "considers Scarsdale to be his hometown", see bio at NASA website. (SHS graduate)
- Joseph Capecci, Scientist, Architect,Dean-CCNY, holder of several US patents critical in the evolution of nuclear weapons, NASA consultant during the space race has resided in Scarsdale since 1970.[citation needed]
- Ivan Sutherland, computer graphics pioneer. (SHS graduate)[citation needed]
RELIGIOUS FIGURES:
- Iakovos, Archbishop of America (1911-2005), Primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America from 1959 to 1997. [citation needed]
- Silas, Metropolitan of New Jersey (1909-2000), Bishop of New Jersey's Greek Orthodox Metropolis[citation needed]
ARTISTS:
- Navina Capecci, greeting card artist and flower/still life painter, as well the creative pioneer of the Norcross Card Company lived in Scarsdale from the late 1960s to the early 1970s.[citation needed]
- Salih Memecan, Turkish cartoonist.[citation needed]
Scarsdale in popular culture
The Scarsdale diet
The name "Scarsdale" became more familiar in 1979 with the publication of The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet by Scarsdale physician Dr. Herman Tarnower and Samm Baker. The book became a bestseller, and the "Scarsdale Diet," a low-carbohydrate, high-protein weight-loss diet, is still popular today. "Scarsdale" again appeared in headlines in 1980 when "the Scarsdale Diet doctor" was murdered by his long-time lover, Jean Harris.
In the arts
FILMS:
- MRS. HARRIS - Jean Harris (Annette Bening), a woman is accused of murdering famed Scarsdale Diet Dr. Herman (Hi) Tarnower (Ben Kingsley) after being in a relationship with him for 14 years at their Scarsdale home.
- CRUEL INTENTIONS 2 - A character make a joke about luring in a jewish girl from Scarsdale. "Or worse, Scarsdale. The ladies there make me crazy! All the time sending me to the market looking for gefilte. My father was a fisherman for over 20 years and he never caught one gefilte. And, what is a gefilte?"
- WHO'S THAT GIRL - In a film starring Madonna, Cabbie #1 says, "Sure. Wendy from Scarsdale. I had her in the cab once."
- DOWN TO EARTH - The butler says he grew up in the town.
- LAWS OF ATTRACTION - Judge wants to get home to her kids "in Scarsdale."
TELEVISION:
- SEINFELD - Kramer is accidentally rewarded with a Tony Award for the fictional musical "Scarsdale Surprise", supposedly based on the Scarsdale Diet doctor murder.[2]
- FRIENDS - Ross mentions having children with Rachel and moving to Scarsdale because the schools are good.
- WILL & GRACE - In the the episode, "Secrets and Lays," Karen Walker says: "Stan had to take his kids to Scarsdale to see their real mother. What was her name? Wait a minute it'll come to me... 'Stan, take the kids to see that bitch ... Cathy!' Cathy."
- GOSSIP GIRL - Aaron's hometown.
- TAXI - Tony Danza's character, Tony Banta, attempts to adopt a young boy from a wealthy foster family in Scarsdale in several episodes.
- CLARISSA EXPLAINS IT ALL - School set and school exterior in opening credits of teen comedy series, starring Melissa Joan Heart, is based on Scarsdale High School.
- STAR TREK - Mentioned in the episode "Death Wish."
- LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN - On the thirteenth anniversary of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien", the show is "Bar Mitzvahed" and Scarsdale is cited as the home of Temple Emanuel, the fictional temple of the fictional Rabbi Grossman, who performs the Bar Mitzvah ceremony.
- ENTOURAGE - The Director of Queens Boulevard grew up in Scarsdale.
BROADWAY:
- RENT - The main character, Mark, makes reference to Scarsdale as his hometown. Scarsdale is mentioned within the song "Tango: Maureen," the following exchange takes place (included in the movie soundtrack recording)
- MARK: Where'd you learn to tango?
- JOANNE: With the French Ambassador's daughter in her dorm room at Miss Porter's. And you?
- MARK: With Nanette Himmelfarb, the Rabbi's daughter, at the Scarsdale Jewish Community Center.
- GUYS AND DOLLS - A Broadway man chides a woman's marital aspirations by saying "You have wished yourself a Scarsdale Galahad, a breakfast-eating, Brooks Brothers, type." The lyric is reportedly a reference to Lee Eastman (father of Linda Eastman), who was an attorney who represented the show's producer, Loesser, and other people in show business.
- HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT EVEN TRYING - Mentioned as the town where the main character's girlfriend wishes to live.
LITERATURE:
- SLEEPLESS IN SCARSDALE - John Updike uses Scarsdale as the setting for his poem.
- SEE HOW THEY RUN - James Paterson uses Scarsdale as the setting in his novel.
- NEXT - Michael Crichton uses Scarsdale in parts of his novel as the residence of an overspending eldery couple
- INCA GOLD - Clive Cussler briefly mentions Scarsdale.
- AGAINST THE DAY - Thomas Pynchon names a major character in the novel "Scarsdale Vibe".
MUSIC:
- HEY NINETEEN - Steely Dan mentions Scarsdale in this song.
Notable Locations
- The Duck Pond-located near Scarsdale High School, this pond freezes over in the winter, allowing for residents to skate on the ice.
- The World War Two Memorial-located in the center of the village, this memorial honors residents of Scarsdale who lost their lives during WWII. Its natural acoustics make it a popular performance spot for local music groups.
- Scarsdale Teen Center Incorporated (STCI) - located on 862 Scarsdale Ave
- Butler Woods-a stretch of woods wedged between Fox Meadow Road and the Bronx River Parkway, the Butler Woods are a popular spot for joggers, dog walkers, and local children.
- Red Maple Swamp-another popular spot for dog walkers and joggers, the Red Maple Swamp is an impressive piece of swampland nestled on the border between Scarsdale and Harstsdale.
- The Scarsdale Platform Tennis Club. Scarsdale is the birthplace of platform tennis, and this club is the first of its type in the world.
- Dinosaur Rock. A smooth rock embedded in the ground at the corner of Popham Road and School Lane. Elementary School children believe the rock is actually a dinosaur bone. This is a long-standing myth.
Events
Scarsdale town pool is home to the Westchester county swim conference championships in early August.
Scarsdale is home to the Scarsdale Concours, an annual auto show for charity.
What the New York Times termed a "homecoming bacchanal" made regional news in 2002 and sent five students to the hospital with acute alcohol poisoning. Reportedly scores of students arrived drunk at the dance, some so drunk that they vomited in the principal's wastebasket and passed out on his floor. Twenty-eight of them received suspensions. The Times said the incident evoked "soul-searching" in "this iconic suburb, which prides itself on giving children every advantage." A student was quoted as saying "We are supposed to be Scarsdale, the rich people, the good people, the studious." Principal John Klemme told student government leaders that "the world is taking a perverse pleasure in Scarsdale's humiliation" and challenged them to "reclaim your school."[3][4]
See also
References
- "Scarsdale School Suspends 28 Students for Drunkenness". The New York Times. September 27 2002. p. 6.
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- ^ Fin-De-Siecle Vienna : Politics and Culture. 1980. ISBN 0-394-74478-0.
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