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2016 Heritage Award Properties
Former Home of Author E.L. Doctorow (c. 1908)
170 Broadview Avenue
“In 1902 Father built a house at the
crest of the Broadview Avenue Hill in New Rochelle, New York. It was a
three-story brown shingle with dormers, bay windows and a screened porch.
Striped awnings shaded the windows…The family took possession of the stout
manse on a sunny day in June and it seemed for some years thereafter that all
their days would be warm and fair.” So begins the sweeping portrayal of early
20th century America, Ragtime.
The novel was written by E.L. Doctorow from the attic of his New Rochelle home,
at 170 Broadview, in 1975. The book
would win the 1975 National
Book Critics Circle Award. It would later
be named one of the 100 Best Books of the 20th Century. The award-winning
author, whom President Obama cited as “one of America's greatest novelists,” received
numerous awards for his work over his long and notable career. The 1998 National Humanities Medal from the
National Endowment for the Humanities, the 2013 Medal for Distinguished
Contribution to American letters, the 2013 American Academy of Arts and Letters
Gold Medal for Fiction, and the 2014 Library of Congress Prize for American
Fiction are among them.
E.L. Doctorow and his wife, Helen,
moved to the 170 Broadview Avenue home in 1964. He was a great friend of the
New Rochelle Public Library where he did research for Ragtime in the library’s history room that is now named for him.
Doctorow was inducted into the New Rochelle Walk of Fame in 2013.
This Heritage Award recognizes
that that 170 Broadview Avenue house was both the home of a nationally
prominent individual and the inspiration for a major novel, Ragtime. In addition, the 1908 structure
exemplifies the Victorian-style architecture of the period.
Former Thanhouser Film Corporation Studio (1914)
320 Main Street
In
1909, Edwin and Gertrude Thanhouser started the Thanhouser Film Corporation in
a former roller skating rink located at the intersection of Centre Avenue and
Grove and Warren Streets. The company grew to be one of the earliest and most
successful silent movie companies. After a fire destroyed the studio building
on January 13, 1913, the Thanhousers quickly located another New Rochelle
location. An entire complex, including the main studio building at 320 Main
Street, now Tedesco Autobody, was completed by the summer of 1914.
When
dedicated on July 7, 1914, the 10-acre site was touted as one of the largest
film complexes in the country. The main studio was christened the "Glass
Palace," as the 6,500 square foot building was crowned in glass to allow
for maximum sunlight. Workrooms comprised another 4,800 square feet and
executive offices were housed in yet another building. A
number of outdoor stages were erected in the studio area, and on nice days it
was not unusual for several film crews to be active under the sunlight.
For
many years, the company released three movies a week - ranging from one-reel
films to full "big movie" productions that played in theaters around
the nation. Always striving for realism, the Thanhouser producers did not limit
themselves to the confines of their state-of-the-art, palatial studios. New
Rochelle was, for the company, one enormous set.
In 1917 the film industry
underwent a depression. Studios laid off people, the quantity of films produced
declined, a number of theatres closed their doors, and in general there were
hard times. Gradually the Thanhouser Film Corporation phased-out its
activities, and by the end of the summer of 1917, the studio had been leased to
another company, the Clara Kimball Young Film Corporation. The Thanhouser Film
Corporation left a rich legacy, amounting to over 1,000 different films. Today, the main
studio building is the home of Tedesco Auto Body. The rock-faced concrete stone structure
continues to feature the fanciful curvilinear parapet of the Spanish Colonial
Revival style that was the hallmark of Thanhouser studios.