Scarsdale () is a coterminous town and village in Westchester County, New York, United States, north of New York City. It is on and is located inland within the Bronx River Valley. Scarsdale includes 17 neighborhoods which are bundled into the geographic regions of Edgewood, Fox Meadow, Greenacres, Heathcote, and Quaker Ridge. It is served by the Scarsdale station of the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line. Scarsdale has six entries on the National Register of Historic Places.
In the precolonial era, the village's area was inhabited by a band of the Wappinger tribes of Native Americans. Caleb Heathcote purchased land from four Native American leaders near the end of the 17th century. The town was incorporated in 1788, yet in 1908 the town opted to use a village government following annexation threats from the neighboring city of White Plains. The population has increased from 281 people when established to 18,253 at the 2020 census.
The village is primarily residential. It has about of recreational facilities and parks, all accessible to the public. The village has fifteen houses of worship, with three rectories. Scarsdale operates under a coterminous town-village structure with an elected Mayor and six Trustees, which appoints a professional Village Manager to oversee daily administrative operations. Its municipal departments include police, fire, recreation, and public works. In the New York State Legislature, Scarsdale is in the New York State Assembly's 88th district and the New York State Senate's 37th district. In Congress, the town/village is in New York's 16th congressional district.
History Toponymy Scarsdale derives from "scars", the old Saxon word for rocky crags, and "dale", the common name for valley. The name originated from Heathcote's ancestral home in Derbyshire known as Sutton Scarsdale.
Before founding as Scarsdale The region was once inhabited by several Native American tribes, the most prominent being the Wappinger people. Westchester Native Americans formed the Wappinger Confederacy as protection against the Iroquois people.
Colonial and Antebellum eras Caleb Heathcote purchased land that would become Scarsdale from four Native American leaders named Patthunk, Beaupo, Kohawney, and Wapetuck at the end of the 17th century and had it elevated to a royal manor on March 21, 1701, after receiving a royal patent. The Manor of Scarsdale was one of the Six Manors of Westchester, and was substantially larger than Scarsdale is today. It extended over 6,000 acres and includes all of modern Scarsdale, Mamaroneck, Harrison, and parts of North Castle.
The first local census of 1712 counted twelve inhabitants, including seven African slaves. When Caleb died in 1721, his daughters inherited the property. The estate was broken up in 1774, and the town was officially founded on March 7, 1788.
The town saw fighting during the American Revolution when the Continental and British armies clashed briefly at what is now the junction of Garden Road and Mamaroneck Road, in what was called the Neutral Ground. The British commander, Sir William Howe, lodged at a farmhouse on Garden Road that remains standing.
According to first federal census in 1790, the town's population was 281. However, in the 1840 census, that number had declined to 255, due to a clerical error caused by the assistant marshal tasked with the census who did not understand Scarsdale's layout, resulting in him recording dozens of Scarsdale residents under the neighboring towns of Mamaroneck and White Plains. The true population climbed slowly from 317 in 1830 to 342 in 1850 — the vast majority farmers and farm workers.
Suburbanization In 1877, Scarsdale became an express stop on the New York and Harlem Railroad, leading to an influx of commuters which jumpstarted the suburbanization process. Scarsdale remained mostly a farming village until after the Civil War, when The Arthur Suburban Home Company noticed the population spillover from the nearby metropolitan area, and wanted to convert Scarsdale from a rural town to a residential suburb. In 1891 it purchased a farm and converted it into a subdevelopment of one-family dwellings, which ended up starting a transformation of the community from rural to suburban. Following this, civil institutions soon appeared: the Heathcote Association in 1904, the Town Club in 1904, the Scarsdale Woman's Club in 1918, and the Scarsdale League of Women Voters in 1921. Schools started opening around this time as well, and the first store in Scarsdale opened on the corner of Popham Road and Garth Road in 1912. From 1910 to 1915, the population had rose from 1,300 to almost 3,000, and by 1930, that number approached 10,000.
In 1908, the neighboring city of White Plains began considering annexing parts of Scarsdale. This ultimately resulted in the people of Scarsdale protesting the idea due to the differences between the two settlements. Following this, the Scarsdale Town Club learned that municipalities had greater protection from annexation when incorporated as villages compared to town governments, leading Scarsdale to incorporate as a village on May 24, 1915.
1945–present day Cardiologist Herman Tarnower, who began practicing in this area before the Second World War, initiated the Scarsdale Medical Center postwar. He became famous for devising and popularising the fad Scarsdale diet named for the town in the 1970s.
Scarsdale became the subject of national controversy in the 1950s when a "Committee of Ten" led by Otto Dohrenwend alleged "Communist infiltration" in the public schools. A thorough investigation by the town rejected these claims. This same group, known as the Scarsdale Citizens Committee, sued to prevent a benefit for the Freedom Riders from taking place at the public high school in 1963 because some of the performers (Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Pete Seeger) were allegedly "communist sympathizers and subversives."
Another controversy enveloped the town in 1961, when the Scarsdale Golf Club, headed by Charles S. McCallister, refused to allow a young man who had converted from Judaism into the Episcopal Church, Michael Cunningham Hernstadt, to escort a young woman, Pamela Nottage, to her debut at the club. At the time, it was the club's policy to prohibit Jews from the premises. In response, the Rev. George French Kempsell of the Church of Saint James the Less announced that he would ban any supporters of the club's decision from receiving Holy Communion. The event marked a turning point toward the decline of anti-Semitism in the town. Beyond local social controversies, the town's relationship with religion also led to a landmark United States Supreme Court decision, Board of Trustees of Scarsdale v. McCreary (1985), which examined the right of local religious groups to place crèches on public property.
Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, Scarsdale covers a total area of , of which is land and is water. Scarsdale is around north of midtown Manhattan. It is part of Westchester County and so part of the New York metropolitan area and the New York–Jersey City–White Plains, NY–NJ Metropolitan Division. Scarsdale is on the Bronx, Sheldrake and Hutchinson rivers and part of the boundary between Scarsdale and White Plains is formed by the Mamaroneck River. Scarsdale Falls, an 18th century man-made mill dam waterfall is on the Bronx River. The village is a part of the Bronx and Hutchinson River Basin and the Lower Hudson River and Long Island Sound Drainage Basins. It is in telephone area code 914 and the postal ZIP code area 10583.
Neighborhoods Scarsdale is divided into 17 neighborhoods, Arthur Manor, Berkeley-in-Scarsdale, Bramlee Heights, Colonial Acres, Drake Edgewood, East Heathcote, Fox Meadow, Greenacres, Heathcote, Murray Hill, Middle Heathcote, Old Scarsdale, Overhill, Quaker Ridge, Scarsdale Meadows, Secor Farms, Sherbrooke Park, and West Quaker Ridge, however these are often bundled into five geographic zones, which are Edgewood, Fox Meadow, Greenacres, Heathcote, and Quaker Ridge, corresponding to the subsequent elementary schools.
Climate The town is in a humid continental climate zone (Köppen climate classification: Dfa), with cold, snowy winters and hot, humid summers and four distinct seasons. The United States Department of Agriculture places Scarsdale in plant hardiness zone 7a. Summer high temperatures average in the lower 80s Fahrenheit (upper 20s Celsius), with lows averaging in the lower 60s F (upper 10s C). Its highest recorded temperature was in 1966, and its lowest was in 1979.
Demographics
2020 census As of the 2020 census, there were 18,253 people and 5,510 households living in Scarsdale, which had a population density of . There were 5,747 total housing units, of which 95.9% were occupied and 4.1% were vacant or for occasional use. The racial makeup of the village was 68.5% White, 21.0% Asian, 1.3% Black or African American, 0.1% Native American, and 0.0% Pacific Islander. Residents who identified as some other race were 1.4%, while those who identified as more than one race were 7.8% of the population. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race were 5.1% of the population.
Of the 5,510 households in the city, 81.2% were married couples living together and 1.1% were cohabiting but unmarried. Households with a male householder with no spouse or partner present were 5.7% of the total, while households with a female householder with no spouse or partner present were 11.9%. Out of all households, 53.0% had individuals under the age of 18 living with them and 30.7% had residents who were 65 years of age or older. There were 5,510 occupied housing units, of which 90.5% were owner-occupied and 9.5% were occupied by renters.
The median age in the city was 41.7 years old for both sexes, 41.4 years old for males, and 42.0 years old for females. Of the total population, 31.0% of residents were under the age of 18, and 14.7% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 49.1% male and 50.9% female.
Racial and ethnic composition +Scarsdale village, New York – Racial and ethnic compositionRace / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 2000Pop 2010Pop 2020% 2000% 2010% 2020White alone (NH)14,59413,64812,24981.88%79.51%67.11%Black or African American alone (NH)2632422201.48%1.41%1.21%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)2570.01%0.03%0.04%Asian alone (NH)2,2412,2203,81612.57%12.93%20.91%Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)3400.02%0.02%0.00%Other race alone (NH)35791270.20%0.46%0.70%Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)2182979121.22%1.73%5.00%Hispanic or Latino (any race)4676719222.62%3.91%5.05%Total17,82317,16618,253100.00%100.00%100.00%
Economy Scarsdale, New YorkEmployment estimates by industry, 2024IndustryEmploymentPercentageManagement, business, and financial3,26140.80%Education, legal, community service, arts, and media1,78022.27%Healthcare practitioners and technical85310.67%Computer, engineering, and science7609.51%Sales and related7038.80%Office and administrative support2072.59%Personal care and service2332.92%Healthcare support, protective service, food prep, & maintenance881.10%Natural resources, construction, and maintenance760.95%Production, transportation, and material moving310.39%Total7,992100% As of 2024, Scarsdale has an estimated 8,365 residents in the civilian workforce, either employed or unemployed. The average one-way commute for Scarsdale workers is approximately 42.5 minutes; 24.2 percent of workers drove alone to their workplace, while 4.8 percent carpooled, 29.3 percent used public transit, and 36.4 percent worked from home. The largest industry of employment for Scarsdale workers is finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing with approximately 28.9 percent, followed by educational services and health care (26.0%), professional, scientific, management, administrative, and waste management services (23.0%), and sales and office occupations (11.4%).