=== Upcoming Events ===
We are now considering our schedule of presentations for 2025. If there are any topics that you would particularly like to see us cover, please let us know. Please leave a comment on this post, drop by, give us a call at 914.941.4393, or send us an email at mail@briarcliffhistory.org with your ideas/suggestions. We’ll do our best to incorporate them into our schedule.
The BMSHS is pleased to announce its 2nd presentation of 2025. The topic will be :
BUILDING THE NEW CROTON DAM
By any measure, the New Croton Dam is an engineering marvel. For 14 years (from 1892 to 1906) as many as 1,000 workers used more than 500 pieces of heavy machinery, 745,000 barrels of cement, 100,000 tons of coal and an incalculable quantity of locally quarried stone to build the dam. It is said to be the third largest hand-hewn structure in the world after the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Great Wall of China. Croton Village Historian Marc Cheshire will describe the construction process and the lasting impact the project had on the village.
The presentation will take place at the Vescio Community Center at 1 Library Road, Briarcliff Manor (i.e. in the library building) on Sunday, March 30, at 2:00pm.
=== Past Events ===
Briarcliff History in the News
PBS Documentary Celebrates the Story of Former Briarcliff Resident Carrie Chapman Catt
Carrie Chapman Catt: Warrior for Women tells the story of Carrie Chapman Catt and her role in the fight for women’s suffrage. She devoted most of her life to the expansion of women’s rights and is recognized as one of the key leaders of the American women’s suffrage movement. Using her political and organizational skills, she was a major force behind the ratification of the nineteenth amendment to the U. S. Constitution 100 years ago on August 18, 1920.
The documentary was produced by PBS Iowa and you can view it by clicking on the play button to the left.
For nine years Catt lived in Briarcliff Manor on a 16-acre property that she named Juniper Ledge. During that time she not only celebrated the passage of the nineteenth amendment but also helped organize the League of Women Voters and founded the National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War. To find out more about Carrie Chapman Catt as well as other key figures in the suffragette movement who lived in this area, see our Notebook article on "Local Suffragetes" by clicking on this link.
Writer David Propper reviews the role and activities of the Historical Society over the past 45 years through interviews with Board members and a discussion with Executive Director Karen Smith. Article also highlights some of the historic moments in village history and points to the goal of the Society to achieve permanent charter status from the State of New York.