Dear Blabby: What is the Origin of New Rochelle’s “Hazlehurst Park?”

DEAR BLABBY: I live in the Hazlehurst Park neighborhood of New Rochelle near Emerson Avenue off East Main Street. What is the origin of “Hazlehurst Park?”

Signed
Hazelnut

Dear Hazel,

Hazelhurst Park is early 20th century residential park situated along the New Rochelle-Larchmont border but you already knew that. To really dig into the origin of Hazelhurst Park we are going to need the help of an expert. New Rochelle is fortunate to have just such an expert in New Rochelle’s City Historian Barbara Davis, a wonderful and unique community asset who is rarely at a loss when it comes to local history. I asked Barbara to dig into her endless stacks of files and see what she could find about Hazlehurst Park.

She writes back:

Blabby,

Your reader asks a great question. New Rochelle is full of many neighborhoods with rich and interesting histories. In this case, Hazelhurst Park was one of 35 planned neighborhoods developed by 1915. Today there might be more than 50 such neighborhoods in New Rochelle (not all are intact and some were added after 1915) with the first being Rochelle Park which was built in the 1880s. Like everything in New Rochelle, the history of Hazelhurst goes back much further.

The Hazelhurst Park neighborhood sits on land originally owned by Jacques Flandreau, one of original founders of the 17th century French settlement of New Rochelle. Through several generations, the family figured prominently in the community, and the only New Rochellean killed in the Civil War was John Flandreau, for whom the local Grand Army Republic Post was named. The small Flandreau family cemetery still located in the neighborhood began when the Flandreau family owned extensive acreage along Boston Post Road. Burials continued here long after the family sold the farm in 1815. The year before, on February 16, 1814, the children of Benjamin Flandreau laid out by deed “the Flandreau Burying Ground,” 28 yards by 13 yards, and a right-of-way to the Boston Road (also referred to as Turnpike Road.)

After the Civil War, Samuel Chowdrey owned the property. Following his death, Chowdrey’s “Hazelhurst Farm” was purchased in 1909-1910 by the New York & Westchester Town Site Company, headed by Jacob Leitner. This syndicate purchased extensive tracts of land in New Rochelle – from the Post Road to more northern areas, in anticipation of completion of the New York-Westchester & Boston Railway, and the resulting expanded population. They laid out the “residential park” of Hazelhurst.

Did you know the land that became Hazelhurst Park was owned by one of the original Huegenots? Or what his descendent was the only New Rochelle resident killed during the Civil War? I bet you didn’t. Neither did I which is what makes Barbara Davis such a special resource for New Rochelle.

To get answers to your questions about New Rochelle, write Dear Blabby at dearbalbby@talkofthesound.com or Talk of the Sound, Downtown Bureau, 234 North Avenue New Rochelle, NY 10801.