Scarsdale Historical Society Seeking Creative Ideas

Calling all creative, business-minded, finance-driven, history-loving residents and advocates.

The is seeking great ideas from the community on how to maintain the society's two historical properties in the village.

"Anything is on the table," Scarsdale Historical Society President Adam Krajchir said at a community forum this week. "What we are looking for is your ideas."

Krajchir said the society is meeting with the attorney general next week, has reached out to historical preservation groups and is connecting with several contacts about possible use of the spaces.

About 30 residents attended the forum on Wednesday night at the Historical Society's Post Road "Old Quaker Meeting House" building.

After months of discussions and debates amongst Scarsdale groups, forums, councils and residents, the Historical Society is seeking the community's input on what to do with theproperties it currently operates.

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The heart of the issue: the Historical Society cannot afford to maintain the $60,000 annually in routine maintenance and upkeep costs, along with the $200,000 needed in repairs on the two properties, according to the president.

The $200,000 in repairs would make it "useful" but not "habitable to live in," one society board member noted.

served as a museum and education center in the village, and until a few years ago, had two full-time and two part-time staffers.

Since that time, the Historical Society has been using a volunteer, eight-member board to run the society and two properties.

Krajchir said the society is looking for an organization that has the financial means to step in, preserve the buildings in some way, and make use of the properties.

The attendees at Wednesday's meeting came up with several ideas for the historical society including: using the houses as event space; rent it as a bed and breakfast; using the houses as classrooms for local colleges, adult schools or other schools; using the space for recitals and performances; keeping the space as a museum; selling the space to a museum; use the houses as decorator homes; calling Bravo to do a reality-TV makeover; having the Village run and pay for the space; and renting the space to art auctions or art galleries.

Any resident, organization, nonprofit or business seeking to propose ideas or make donations, contact the

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