I was walking back along Route 9 towards Irvington when I passed this building. It looked quite old, and it seemed to me that it might have and some interesting history. After searching the internet for a while after I came home, I discovered that it did.

It’s Odell’s tavern (not to be confused with the perhaps better-known Odell House in Hartsdale, where the French general, le Comte de Rochambeau, stayed for six weeks in the summer of 1781, surrounded by his army of 5,000 men, while General George Washington and the Continental Army camped nearby in Ardsley).

According to the Irvington Historical Society:

The structure commonly known as the “Odell Tavern” sits in the northeast corner of a 10-½-acre, privately-owned parcel, located at 100 South Broadway (Route 9) in Irvington, New York. Its name derives from the Odell family who occupied it from the 1750s to the 1820s and used it as a farmhouse and roadside tavern.

The Odell Tavern is the oldest, extant building in Irvington, with parts of its existing stone structure dating from the late 17th century and its later, wooden additions dating from the mid-18th century. The original section of the house exemplifies architectural trends of the 17th-century Dutch colonial period, when the eastern shore of the Hudson River just north of New York City consisted of the vast tenant farms of Philipsburg Manor. A rare surviving example of a Dutch farmhouse, the Odell Tavern is possibly only one of the two remaining tenant farmhouses – the other being the Sherwood House in Yonkers, built circa 1740 by Thomas Sherwood – constructed at Philipsburg Manor.

The Odell Tavern is also a living testament to important historic, economic and architectural developments in the region. These developments include: (i) early settlement patterns during the colonial period of Westchester County, (ii) the operations of the manor system at Philipsburg Manor, (iii) the practice of slavery in the Hudson Valley, (iv) the experience of the Revolutionary War in the no-man’s land between the lines, (v) regional development during the period of the New Republic and Market Revolution, (vi) the gentrification of the Hudson River Valley in the early nineteenth century, and (vii) Irvington’s rise to prominence in the twentieth century as a suburban retreat for wealthy New Yorkers. Because the Odell Tavern’s structure was modified several times to meet the changing needs of its residents, it stands as a record of evolving architectural styles that reflected shifting settlement and economic patterns in Westchester County.

The Odell Tavern is an essential and unique “living museum” right in our midst, and its historical resonance is amplified by its position within the larger network of historic structures in the region. The Odell Tavern stands today with other, well-known extant historic sites in Westchester, including Philipse Manor Hall and the Sherwood House in Yonkers, Philipsburgh Manor Upper Mills and the Old Dutch Church and Burying Ground in Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving’s Sunnyside in Tarrytown, and the Odell House Rochambeau Headquarters in Hartsdale. Together, these historic structures speak to the experiences of life in the lower Hudson Valley and the social, political and cultural changes during several important eras in the history of the Village, County, State, and Nation.

For more information on the Odell’s see: Revolutionary Westchester: John Odell, General Washington’s Westchester Guide, Part I and Part 2

Taken with a Sony RX10 IV

Before I could take the road (Hamilton Road) up to the park I had to walk along Route 9. Route 9 changes its name lot, depending on which locality it goes through. But it’s essentially the old Albany Post Road, a road used for mail delivery. It connects New York City and Albany along the east side of the Hudson River. It was first designated in 1669.

During this part of my walk, I came across these two barn like buildings. I have no idea what they are, but I thought they looked suitably rustic and would make a somewhat interesting picture.

Taken with a Sony RX10 IV

It was only a short trip (about 16 minutes) from Ossining to Ardsley-on-Hudson, but it turned out to be more eventful than I thought. I sat through the entire ride holding my ticket, but nobody came to collect it. As the train pulled into Ardsley station, I put the ticket into my bag and started to leave. I was halfway through the door, when a young, uniformed woman turned up. She didn’t say anything, but it was clear that she was there to collect my ticket. Now I had a bit of a problem. Do I step back into the train, search my bag for the ticket, give it to her and risk the door closing and me being taken to someplace I didn’t want to go to? Or do I step onto the platform, turn back to her, and if the door is still open, give her the ticket? I decided on the latter option. But I was a bit flustered and didn’t notice that there was a gap of a couple of inches between the level of the train, and the level of the platform. Well, as I stepped out of the train my foot clipped the platform and down I went onto the platform. I was immediately surrounded a number of the train crew asking me if I needed medical attention. After a brief period while I recovered from the shock, they helped me get up. This was just as well as it seemed that at some point salt had been sprinkled on the platform and over time this had turned into a fine powder. I didn’t fancy my chances of getting up unassisted without slipping. I checked myself out and found that, apart from a few slight grazes on the hands and feet, I was fine. I was actually more concerned about damage to my camera, but it was fine. So, I told them I was fine, and the train departed. The female ticket collector didn’t ask me for the ticket.

Now I had to decide whether to continue my walk or wait for the next train back to Ossining and home. I decided that I was in good enough shape to continue with the walk, so off I went.

But before I continue a few words about Ardsley Station.

According to Wikipedia:

The station was originally part of the Ardsley Casino Clubhouse, a country club created through the support of some of the most notable and successful men in the US including Jay Gould, Cornelius Vanderbilt (New York Central entrepreneur) and John Pierpont Morgan. The Casino was built overlooking the Hudson River and besides the station, had a private dock to accommodate the yachts of members. The Ardsley Racquet and Swim Club, an offshoot established in 1927, inherited the property in 1935, and the casino was closed in 1936. The site was replaced by the Hudson House Apartments. Even with all the changes, the original mid-1890s New York Central Railroad depot remained intact. As with many stations along the Hudson Division, the New York Central merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1968 to form Penn Central Railroad. The 1970 bankruptcy of Penn Central forced it to turn service over to the Metropolitan Transit Authority ()MTA, which continued through the time it was taken over by Conrail in 1976, and then by Metro-North Railroad in 1983. While there is no official station house, Metro-North does maintain a small two-story brick depot, housing the northbound waiting room, ticket machines, and the United States Post Office for ZIP Code 10503.

The crossover ramp to southbound or New York City-bound trains was inside the depot until 2006, when Metro-North razed the ramp and built one a few steps to the south, with a higher clearance for projected double-deck trains. At that time new, longer platforms were installed on both sides of the tracks. On February 1, 2010, a sanitation truck smashed into the historic pedestrian bridge leading from the station house to the Hudson House Apartments. The bridge was never rebuilt.

In December 2017, the Village Board of Irvington, which has jurisdiction over the station, passed local legislation which expanded the types of business which would be allowed to be situated in the station’s building, while still prohibiting fast-food restaurants, drive-through type businesses and businesses which produced “odor, dust, noise, smoke, gas, fumes or radiation”.

The station was used as a location for the 2002 film Unfaithful, starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane. It also figured in the setting of the 1984 film Falling in Love. Emily Blunt’s character Rachel takes the train out of Ardsley-on-Hudson in the 2016 film The Girl on the Train.

Here’s how the station looked in its heyday – with the casino in the background.

Taken with a Sony RX10 IV