Irvington: What's it like?

[tomverlaine]

Originally Posted by Joe63

I went for a walk around Main Street, Irvington, yesterday and was much impressed. We arrived to see many elementary school children walking from the Main St. School to religious ed classes at Immaculate Conception parish. At the same time, many students were walking home downhill from the high school and middle school. Others seemed headed for pizza. The crossing guards on Broadway helped protect all pedestrians amid the private drivers and school buses.
---
I was glad to see that the scenic riverfront park had no sign barring non-residents. It is great that each community shares its delightful parks, rather than treating non-residents as aliens.
---
East of the south end of the Metro-North Irvington platforms is a large, old, grandiose building. Is it an office building or a former school? I have been unable to learn its history from other Irvington websites.
---
Next trip, we will have to stop for an afternoon coffee at The Black Cat.
Joe

It's the Cosmopolitan Building. From Wikipedia:

Cosmopolitan Building (1895) - This three-story stone neo-Classical revival building topped by three small domes was designed by Stanford White as the headquarters for Cosmopolitan when the magazine moved from New York to Irvington. John Brisben Walker, who had bought the general interest magazine in 1889, had a mansion in Irvington only a short walk away. In 1897 Walker started a free correspondence school, the Cosmopolitan Educational University Extension. When 20,000 people enrolled, Walker was unable to keep to its offer of a no-cost education for all, and had to ask the students to pay $20 per year. Nevertheless, the venture attracted well-known academics to its staff, and public lectures and other events associated with the school were held in the headquarters building. The magazine also sponsored several automobile races from New York to Irvington to promote the automobile. Cosmopolitan left Irvington shortly after William Randolph Hearst bought the magazine in 1905 and moved it back to New York. Afterwards, the building was used as a silent movie studio for some period of time, but for most of its subsequent history has primarily housed manufacturing concerns of various types, including one that made radio oscillators used by the U.S. Army in World War II, and a company that made looseleaf binders and other paper products.

The Cosmopolitan Building still stands, although it is known as the "Trent Building" after the family that owns it, but it is quite run down, and its visage has suffered from pedestrian industrial buildings which were stuck onto its rear, obscuring the eastern facade. The building houses manufacturers, offices, a video production facility, a publisher of art books, interior design firms, a yoga studio, a chapel, photographers, a spa, a florist and event space and at least one restaurant.[8][65][66][67] (50 South Buckhout Street)

[onefeather]

Unfortunately, one of Irvingtons riverside parks, is in fact, barred to non-residents, with a sign and everything.