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Armonk, N.Y., a Hamlet Surrounded by Nature
Living In Armonk, N.Y.
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A light rain didn’t stop residents from turning out late last month in Armonk for an annual event in celebration of Frosty the Snowman, who has close ties to the Westchester hamlet. Steve Nelson, who wrote the 1950 holiday song about the jolly snowman with Walter “Jack” Rollins, often visited the area and later moved there.
Among those enjoying the music and games along Main Street was Michael Sokoloff, an orthodontist who works in White Plains. He moved to Armonk from nearby Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., a year and a half ago with his wife and three children, settling into a colonial near the center of town.
“It’s a great community,” he said, as his son and daughter, ages 5 and 6, dipped into a grab bag of prizes at Framings, a shop that had organized a game for the event.
Judy Willsey, who has run the framing store with her husband, Carter, for 26 years, said the opening two years ago of nearby Armonk Square, a development with a mix of specialty shops, places to eat and apartments — anchored by a DeCicco and Sons market — ended a down period for merchants brought by the closing of an A & P in the area. “People are back big time,” she said.
Jaimme B. Pudalov, an associate broker with the Main Street office of Houlihan Lawrence who has lived in Armonk for more than 25 years, said new restaurants have especially drawn young buyers who want customized houses. “We’ve had bidding wars over houses to be torn down for new construction,” she said.
Stacey Sporn, an associate broker in the Armonk office of William Raveis Real Estate who grew up in the area, said these younger buyers moving from Manhattan have made the hamlet “less country bumpkin.”
“They get value, the schools have great ratings and the town has regenerated,” she said, adding that buyers also appreciate the proximity to shopping in White Plains and Greenwich, Conn.
Armonk’s walkable business district is another big draw of the unincorporated hamlet, one of three in the town of North Castle. (The others are North White Plains and Banksville.) Michael J. Schiliro, North Castle’s town supervisor, who has lived in Armonk with his family for 17 years, said, “You can pretty much walk to everything.”
Armonk is also popular with businesses. IBM and Swiss Re, the reinsurance company, both maintain corporate headquarters there.
Molly Burba, a 38-year-old investment analyst, and her 42-year-old husband, Andre, a partner in a private equity firm, were attracted to the area’s setting. They moved three years ago with their daughter, who is now almost 5, from a three-bedroom condominium in Hoboken, N.J., to a new five-bedroom home in the hamlet’s Thomas Wright Estates. The couple also have a 2 ½-year-old son and a third child due next month.
Ms. Burba, who is from Ohio, said she and her husband had looked at other Westchester and Connecticut towns before the hamlet’s beauty — and its school system — won them over.
“I’m a small-town girl,” she said, “and it’s comforting to see that you can be in the metropolitan area and have a home surrounded by nature.”
What You’ll Find
The hamlet of Armonk has about 4,800 residents within its 6.1 square miles of rolling hills, roughly 39 miles from Manhattan.
A large blue eagle at the intersection of Routes 22 and 128, erected as a bicentennial tribute in 1976, directs visitors to the retail hub of Main Street, with stores like Hickory and Tweed, a ski and bicycle shop; Schriefer’s Delicatessen, where photographs of old Armonk line a wall; and Beascakes Bakery, a local favorite for doughnuts. Close to Main Street are several gated communities of single and attached homes as well as single-family homes on lots of a quarter- to a half-acre. Just off Main Street is Whippoorwill Commons, a 22-unit condominium development in a former schoolhouse. Mansions on two or more acres can be found farther from the town center.
In the planning stages are a 73-unit golf community on Route 22; an 18-unit condo development on Old Mount Kisco Road; and a multifamily building on Maple Avenue, said Adam Kaufman, the director of planning for North Castle. Each would contain some affordable housing. Mr. Kaufman also said a building of 36 housing units had been approved for Bedford Road. Currently under construction is a 10-unit townhouse development on Old Route 22, part of a Westchester County affordable housing initiative.
What You’ll Pay
Data from the Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service provided by Barry T. Graziano, the brokerage manager of the Armonk office of Houlihan Lawrence, showed 74 single-family homes on the market as of Dec. 2. They ranged from a three-bedroom 1969 contemporary listed at $550,000, to a six-bedroom 2006 mansion on 10.2 acres with a price of $19.9 million. The median sales price for a single-family home for the 12-month period ending Dec. 2 was $1.13 million, flat from the same period a year earlier, Mr. Graziano said.
Three-bedroom split-levels from the 1960s and ’70s start at around $650,000, said Ms. Sporn of William Raveis Real Estate, while new colonials begin at about $1.6 million and mansions start around $2.2 million.
Condominiums go for about $350,000 to $675,000, said Ms. Pudalov of Houlihan Lawrence. Rentals are about $2,600 a month for a one-bedroom in Armonk Square, $4,500 for a single-family home and up to $20,000 for an estate, according to agents.
What to Do
Armonk Square off Main Street is an inviting place to stroll, with options for a snack or a meal including Peachwave Yogurt, Tazza Café and Bowls Handcrafted Salads and Soups. New restaurants beyond the square include Armonk House, which opened last month on Bedford Road; and Zero Otto Nove, an outpost of a popular place in the Bronx that opened last year on Old Route 22.
The Friends of the North Castle Public Library sponsor free productions by the Armonk Players, a community theater group, as well as the annual Armonk Outdoor Art Show.
Playing fields, tennis courts and playgrounds can be found at North Castle Community Park off Business Park Drive and at John A. Lombardi Park, on Cox Avenue. Summer concerts take place at Wampus Brook Park, at Maple Avenue and Bedford Road. There are also community programs at the John and Goldie Hergenhan Recreation Center on Maple Avenue. The Anita Louise Ehrman Pool, open seasonally, is operated by the town on Greenway Road; fees apply.
Smith’s Tavern, partly a pre-Revolutionary War structure, is part of the Historic Smith Tavern Educational Complex on Route 22, operated by the North Castle Historical Society.
The Schools
The Byram Hills Central School District serves Armonk students as well as those from some areas of Bedford, Chappaqua and Pleasantville. Coman Hill Elementary School has 487 kindergartners to second-graders; Wampus Elementary School, 518 third- to fifth-graders; H. C. Crittenden Middle School, 588 sixth- to eighth-graders; and Byram Hills High School, 875 students.
Average 2015 SAT scores at the high school were 602 in reading, 623 in math and 608 in writing, compared with state scores of 489, 502 and 478.
The Commute
With no Metro-North Railroad station in Armonk, many residents use the North White Plains station on the Harlem Line, about a 10-minute drive, for the trip to Grand Central Terminal, which can range from about 38 to 60 minutes. Monthly passes are $259.
The History
The hamlet became Armonk in the mid-1800s, after the name given it by the Siwanoy Native Americans of the Wappinger Confederacy. It had previously been called Mile Square. A local barn served as a temporary holding pen for Major John André, the notorious spy and co-conspirator of Benedict Arnold, before his hanging in 1780 in Tappan, N.Y.
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