The Bedford Road Historic District is located along that street in the unincorporated hamlet of Armonk, New York, United States. Its contain nine contributing properties, all wood frame buildings from the mid-19th century in variations and combinations of the Federal and Greek Revival architectural styles. In 1985 the group was recognized as a historic district and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Armonk's history began with the buildings, erected in the mid-19th century when the congregants of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, the oldest building in the district, subdivided and sold the large parcel the church was on to their rector in order to give the church a solid financial footing. In selling the land for house construction, the congregation was the first to use the name Armonk for the area, and the properties have likewise been described as the hamlet's first residential subdivision.
Architecturally, the houses and church are a rare surviving group in classically inspired styles in that part of Westchester County. Some are used as professional offices today. The church's cemetery, in which many of the inhabitants of the houses and other early residents of North Castle are buried, is also part of the district.
Since its construction, the district has undergone some changes. Another, smaller house was built within it in the 1880s. The church has gone through several parsonages, one of which has been demolished, along with an additional building used as a girls' school. Highway construction and relocations following IBM's 1964 choice of Armonk for its corporate headquarters changed Bedford Road from a major through route to a dead-end street. In the early 21st century the redevelopment of the land north of the district into Armonk Square, a mixed-use shopping center and apartment complex required the construction of a street in the middle of the district to meet parking requirements, a move which was highly controversial within the community.
Geography
The roughly L-shaped district is located along the north side of the road, in the southern section of downtown Armonk. Its boundaries mostly follow land lot lines, beginning one lot east of Main Street (also New York State Route 128 (NY 128)) and taking in the next seven lots to the west, crossing Elm Street, where 44 Bedford Road, the church's former rectory, now has its frontage, in the process. At Maple Avenue, where St. Stephen's church is located, it extends further north than the other rear lot lines almost to that street's westward turn.
On these lots are 12 buildings, most located on lots. Eight of them—the six houses, one outbuilding and the church—are considered contributing properties to the district's historic character. The church's cemetery is further included as a contributing site. The remaining three buildings are all non-contributing detached modern garages.
To the south of the district, across the street, is North Castle's town hall, a mid-20th century brick Colonial Revival building. It is the center of a municipal complex that includes parking lots, baseball fields and other auxiliary government buildings between Bedford Road and New York State Route 22 (NY 22), at this point a divided four-lane highway, with IBM's corporate headquarters opposite. East of the district is the Wampus River, a tributary of the Byram, buffered on either side by public parks.
Bedford Road continues for before reaching a dead end at one of the exit ramps for the interchange of Interstate 684 and NY 22. North of the district is the Armonk Square development, a mix of retail and residential properties. The rest of downtown Armonk, a mix of residential buildings on side streets with larger institutional and commercial buildings on and near main, moderately developed with many large interspersed mature shade trees, is to the northwest. The terrain of the district, like downtown as a whole, is level, one of the few large breaks in an otherwise continuously hilly region.
Buildings
Except as noted below, the houses have a number of features in common—timber framing, two stories, side-gabled roofs, modern siding, six-over-six double-hung sash windows with louvered wooden shutters. Also, construction date is ca. 1850 unless noted otherwise.
Two buildings, both former parsonages, that were erected by the church, have since been demolished. One, built across Bedford Road from the church in the 1850s, was demolished almost a century later when the town hall was built. The other, the former home of a girls' school established by the church, was extant at the time of the Register listing but was considered non-contributing due to extensive modifications and deterioration at the time; the district's boundaries were thus drawn to exclude it. It was demolished around 1990 to clear the way for a mixed-use development on the land north of the district where it had been sited, vacant and neglected for several decades.
12 Bedford Road: Like its neighbor at 16 Bedford, the westernmost house in the district is on a lot with only of frontage. It has an asphalt-shingled roof with return eaves pierced by a central brick chimney. On the three-bay south (front) facade is a wraparound veranda with a hipped roof supported by Doric columns with entases; the paneled entrance door has sidelights. A rear addition and detached garage are of more modern construction and non-contributing. 16 Bedford Road: Also three bays wide, the next house is the only one with a front gable. At ground level a stone foundation is visible. The Doric pillars support the hipped roof of a front porch. It was moved to its present location in 1888.
24 Bedford Road: A driveway separates 16 Bedford from the next house over, a more sophisticated four-by-three-bay structure with a side gable and two brick end chimneys piercing its roof. It has no porch or veranda; however, on the east of the front facade is a two-story bay window with two-over-two double-hung sash, added in 1880. The main entrance, immediately adjacent on the west, has a Greek Revival door surround, sidelights, Doric pilasters and a full Doric entablature. In the house's rear is another modern non-contributing detached garage. Although a historic map shows this lot as 24 Bedford Road, the address in the year 2020 is 20 Bedford Road. 30 Bedford Road: Also known as the Nehemiah Searles House, this four-by-three structure retains its original clapboard siding. Its roof is pierced by a single brick chimney at the east end; at the roofline are Yankee gutters and return eaves. Among its windows are some six-light casement windows; all have molded surrounds. The main entrance is on the west side with an enclosed vestibule. Another non-contributing detached modern garage is in the rear.
40 Bedford Road: At two and a half stories this is the tallest of the houses. Two brick end chimneys pierce its roof, which is distinguished by wide fasciae at the roofline above a row of three-light casement eyebrow windows. The centrally located main entrance on the five-bay facade has a semi-circular Colonial Revival porch supported by two pillars with a conical roof. It has a similar door treatment to 24 Bedford, with a transom taking the place of the entablature.
In the rear, north of a parking lot, is the only contributing outbuilding in the district. It is a small timber-frame structure with clapboard siding and a gabled roof on a stone foundation. In the front a small entrance ramp provides access to one of two vertical board doors; there is another one at the west end of the south facade. 44 Bedford Road. At the time of the National Register listing, the former rectory for St. Stephen's Church was located at the end of a short driveway. That has since become part of an extended Elm Street; however, the building's address has not been changed and the building's three-bay south (front) facade still faces Bedford Road. It was built in 1880, making it the newest of the district's houses.
This one-and-a-half-story frame structure on a concrete-covered foundation, sided in clapboard and wood shingle with a front-gabled roof, is the smallest of the district's houses. Most of the windows are the same six-over-six double-hung sash as that seen on the other houses; there is one six-light casement on the south. The foundation windows are all three-light casement.
The south facade also has a hip-roofed veranda with exposed rafters. It is supported by turned posts rising from a millwork balustrade. The main entrance, on the west, has a paneled door. On the north side there is a one-story two-by-one-bay shed-roofed addition. It has a secondary entrance.
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church
Built in 1842, this Greek Revival church at 50 Bedford Road is the oldest building in the district. Its clapboard-clad facades rise to a front-gabled roof topped by a two-stage tower with belfry. On its north (rear) is a non-contributing mid-20th century Sunday school wing.
The main entrances, on the south facade, are on either side of a recessed porch. Two round fluted Doric columns in antis are in the center, flanked by square Doric pilasters. The porch is topped by a full entablature and pediment.
The tall, narrow rectangular stained glass windows on the east and west sides are set in decorative surrounds. Inside the church has been remodeled in the Gothic Revival style; the pews are arranged so that there is no center aisle. Both stages of the tower have corner pilasters topped by molded cornices with broad overhanging eaves; the second stage has louvered vents. Atop are four narrow wooden steeples connected by a balustrade.
To the rear and west of the church, filling out most of the remainder of its two-acre () lot, is its cemetery, considered a contributing site to the district. It contains approximately 450 marked graves, dating to 1844 at the earliest. To its south it is bordered by a wood post and rail fence, with a more modern stone fence topped with a wooden rail on the west, parallel to Elm Street. A wire fence sets it off on the east, leaving the north open.
History
The development of the district has until the late 20th century largely been driven by St. Stephen's Church.
1700s–1830: North Castle before the church
What is now the Town of North Castle was first settled by Europeans at the beginning of the 18th century. The colonial governor gave the town its name around 1721, when it was first used in records. Pound Ridge was split off from it in 1745. Even so, it still rivaled nearby Bedford as the most populous town in Westchester County as of the first U.S. census in 1790, the year before New Castle was created from the town's former northern portion.
Most of the land in North Castle was ideal for agriculture, and thus the town was primarily known for its large farms. Over the century, a few small settlements had sprung up, such as Banksville, Kensico and Mile Square, the beginnings of today's Armonk. But despite the large and prosperous population, most of whom were of English descent and members of what had, after American independence, become the Episcopal Church, there was as of the early 19th century no house of worship in North Castle. Congregants had to go to Bedford, or other nearby towns such as Mount Kisco or White Plains, for services. A plan that had supposedly in the works in the early 1740s to build a church near the present St. Stephen's location was abandoned. Instead, one was built in 1761 at what is now North Castle Corners.
1831–1842: Establishment and construction of the church