Roger Ravel protected his 26-acre Wendanbrook homestead on Bedford's Guard Hill Road last year because of his deep feeling for the look of the local landscape.
It's not just the land itself that concerns him, but the way the
land fits in with the buildings on his stretch of one of Bedford's
- and Westchester County's - most beautiful roads.
"It helps to preserve the character of that part of Bedford,"
Mr. Ravel said. "Once it's gone, it's gone."
Mr. Ravel donated a 26-acre conservation easement to Westchester Land
Trust, preserving the pastures and orchards that flank his house; the
easement also preserves the façade of his distinctive house.
He dedicated the easement to the memory of his late wife, Caroline.
The easement means that the land will be protected in perpetuity, and
that the look and feel of that part of Bedford will be protected with
it.
Mr. Ravel said that he had been considering ways to protect his land
for some time before becoming aware last year that neighbors of his
- the Raymond family - had protected their historic 37-acre
farm.
"I had thought about it before, but the fact that the Raymond
property was protected, and its location, pushed me to do something
about it," he said.
With the Raymond and Ravel easements, the Land Trust has protected 253
acres in and around Guard Hill Road, which maintains much of the look
and feel it had 80 to 100 years ago when the area was the home to gentleman
farmers looking for an alternative to New York City for a place to live.
The Ravels moved into Wendanbrook in 1970. The house was designed by
Mott B. Schmidt, an architect who designed dwellings for the Rockefellers
and other wealthy clients, as well as municipal buildings such as Mount
Kisco Village Hall and the former post office building next door. But
Wendanbrook wasn't for a client - Schmidt designed and built
it in 1926-27 as his own home, which Mr. Ravel says is part of its charm
now.
Its provenance was unknown to Mr. Ravel back in 1970, however, when
a real estate broker drove him and his wife to the property for the
first time.
"We drove in and I took one look, without even getting out of
the car, and that did it," he recalled. "It was the whole
thing - the setting of the buildings within the property, the
gatehouse and the drive going through the tall trees. It was beautiful."
Just as the conservation easement donated by the Raymond family prompted
Mr. Ravel to decide to protect his land, Mr. Ravel is hoping others
on Guard Hill Road are inspired by his conservation easement.
"It preserves the setting of my house," he said, "but more importantly, there's more beyond my place. It would break my heart to see any over-building there."