No. Castle Urges County to Honor Miller House Repair Commitment
The North Castle Town Board will ask Westchester County to repair the deteriorated Elijah Miller House and keep the landmark in its original North White Plains location rather than move it to an alternate site.
Supervisor Michael Schiliro said the board plans to approve a resolution at its July 23 meeting to formally make the request after members of the Elijah Miller House Committee made a presentation at last Wednesday’s work session pleading with town officials and county Legislator Michael Smith to quickly make the required renovations.
The town-appointed committee and the Friends of Elijah Miller House/Washington Headquarters, a separate organization dedicated to raising funds for programs at the house, have both recommended keeping the historic home on Virginia Road, where it’s been since Miller’s father built it in 1738. The house served as the headquarters for George Washington and his generals during the Battle of White Plains in October 1776 during the Revolutionary War.
Since 1917, the county has owned the property. In 1994 it entered into an agreement with the state attorney general’s office to insure maintenance of the site. For nearly a decade, there have been discussions about repairing and possibly moving the house but no permanent solution has been found.
Committee members last week charged that the county has been in violation of that agreement by failing to maintain the property.
“The Elijah Miller House has literally been talked to death,” said committee member Sharon Tomback.”It is time, it is time to step forward and live up to the responsibility and repair it.”
However, the request to have it repaired in place may not be easy. Smith told the board and the committee last week that county officials oppose spending significant money to maintain the house on such a difficult site. The adjacent property is a concrete plant and traffic in the area is also problematic, he said.
“Right now, as things currently stand, the county has no interest in really putting any substantial investment into the current site,” Smith said.
Smith mentioned that last year the county looked more favorably at an idea for the house to be moved to a portion of Fountain Park in North White Plains. The Board of Legislators had approved $1.2 million to move and repair the structure. In 2010, Kensico Dam was also considered but that was later deemed to be unsuitable.
Schiliro said some members of last year’s town board and the committee were not part of the decision-making process. Meanwhile, the committee and the Friends both concluded it should stay where it is, he said.
He asked Smith why the county wouldn’t choose to do at least minimum repairs, which would be far less expensive than the original $1.2 million.
“Let’s move forward repairing it where it is and if something happens in the next 10 or 20 or 30 years that is a (good) place to move it, that’s fine, but let’s get it repaired now,” Schiliro said.
John Diaconis, the Friends’ treasurer, said the reason the group opposed relocation to Fountain Park is because it is town-owned property the cost of maintenance of the structure would have fallen to the town.
Friends President Ed Woodyard said there is real urgency to find a solution because of the house’s precarious condition. The roof has been covered with a blue tarp and several thousand local schoolchildren who used to visit each year have not been allowed in for more than a decade.
“This is a building that represents a defining battle in the Revolutionary War,” Woodyard said. “The Battle of White Plains marked the end of any kind of northern progression by the British into New England. This is a big moment in our nation’s history.”
Smith said he agreed that the situation calls for swift action and will take the town’s request back to White Plains.
“I think the time to do something is now,” he said. “We’ve been talking about this for a long time and I ‘d like to see a solution either in one form or another.”
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
