Underhill House
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
The Underhill House is the oldest existing farmhouse in Scarsdale, likely predating the formation of the Manor of Scarsdale in 1701. The house was built by an unknown tenant farmer next to a deep spring, just off the Native American trail that became the Post Road. It was owned in the second quarter of the 18th century by Thomas Hadden. In the late 18th century Benjamin Underhill bought the farm, and in 1790 joined the 1730 springhouse to the main house to accommodate his large family of ten children. The Scarsdale Estates Company bought the house and its 127-acre farm in 1900 and it is a private home today.
Images
Underhill House and Pond
A rear view of the Underhill House, c. 1900s. Note the trolley car rails at the end of the driveway on Post Road.
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
In the last quarter of the 17" century, a tenant farmer built a small two-story house, possibly the first in Scarsdale, near the Indian trail leading from New York to Canada, now known as the Post Road. The site had a deep freshwater spring in the front yard.
Caleb Heathcote became the owner of the Dutch house in 1701 when he acquired the Manor of Scarsdale. In 1717, Heathcote sold a 124-acre parcel of land including the house to three Fowler brothers. In 1729, Thomas Hadden bought 40 acres on the east side of Post Road from William Fowler of Rye, likely including the Dutch house.
After Thomas’s death in 1761, his son, John Hadden of New York, sold the holdings in 1762 for £1200. In April of 1764, the Varian family bought the property. It is not recorded when or from whom Benjamin Underhill bought the Dutch house, but he is listed as the owner of the house on the 1774 Charles Webb map. He tripled the size of the little cottage by adding a wing, and some years later after the Revolution, attached a springhouse that was on the property.
Sources
MacDonald, Barbara Shea, Early History of the Underhill House. Accessed Feb 29, 2024. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j7xQ94oUS-lr6dg2AZ3sv9QNsQk-KNCe/view
Topping, L., MacDonald, B.S., and Cheshire, M., Scarsdale’s 18th and 19th Century Heritage Homes. Accessed Feb 29, 2024. https://www.scarsdalehistoricalsociety.org/scarsdales-18th-and-19th-century-heritage-homes#underhill
https://www.scarsdalehistoricalsociety.org/scarsdales-18th-and-19th-century-heritage-homes#underhill
https://www.scarsdalehistoricalsociety.org/scarsdales-18th-and-19th-century-heritage-homes#underhill