Two Riverdale homes are back on landmark list

Local advocates are declaring victory after the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) reversed a November decision to cancel proceedings to give protected status to Riverdale’s Samuel D. Babcock House and a picturesque cottage on Ploughman’s Bush, along with dozens of other sites throughout the city.

The Riverdale buildings were among a backlog of 94 total sites that had been on LPC’s calendar to review for landmark status for at least five years.

Last month, LPC said it would “de-calendar” those sites in order to make more time for new priorities.

But elected officials and groups including the Historic Districts Council, which does advocacy for historic buildings, called on LPC to hold public hearings for the landmarks and allow more time for consideration.

“At the very least, we feel the commissioners should discuss the findings in a public meeting so the public has some sense of why they were making decisions on each individual item,” the council’s Executive Director Simeon Bankoff said after the initial announcement to de-calendar the 94 sites.

The Samuel D. Babcock House at 5525 Independence Ave. is one of the first houses to be built in the district of riverfront estates that gave Riverdale its name.

The Ploughman’s Bush cottage, located at 6 Ploughman’s Bush near the Riverdale Temple, was built before the Civil War. Tradition holds that the prominent Delafield family once used the site as a hunting lodge, though Community Board (CB) 8 voted against landmarking the private home in 2006 when no evidence was presented to verify that claim.

Riverdale-based architect Sherida Paulsen, who served as the chair of the LPC in 2001 and 2002, embraced the commission’s Dec. 5 decision to change course.

“It’s a very good thing to have an opportunity for the public to weigh in on some of the structures that have been real community landmarks,” she said.

Among the 94 sites originally slated for de-calendaring were the Bergdorf Goodman building on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, Union Square Park and the Pepsi-Cola Sign in Queens along the East River.