Saddle Rock

11/12/21 • 35 min

6 Listeners

In 1910, Roswell Eldridge had it all: cars, yachts, money, and a beautiful beachside mansion. There was just one problem...
In New York, villages are a type of municipality. They were intended to be densely-populated places where officials could tax residents and provide infrastructure, like running water or sewers, with the proceeds. But in 1910, wealthy suburbanites like Roswell Eldridge managed to change Village Law so that they could incorporate their private estates into villages. They did that to exercise more control over their land, and also avoid paying property taxes for public works projects that they disapproved of.
This is the story of one of the first estate villages: Saddle Rock, which was almost exclusively composed of Roswell Eldridge's enormous private home.
Find notes here, including sources for all quotes read during the episode: https://www.aneyesoreandaplague.com/saddle-rock

Previous Episode

Introducing An Eyesore and a Plague, a podcast about the creation of the NYC suburbs

In 1910, a group of rich people who owned massive homes in Long Island were tired of middle-class people moving to the neighborhood. The middle-class people wanted public schools, police departments, municipal water and public parks, but the millionaires didn't need any of this. They had private security, they sent their kids to private schools, and they enjoyed private infrastructure. And they didn't want their property taxes contributing to infrastructure that they did not approve of.
Fortunately for the millionaires, there was a loophole. If they incorporated their properties as villages, they could escape the majority of property taxes. They would only have to pay for services that benefited their own estates.
An Eyesore and a Plague is a limited-run narrative podcast about the creation of the NYC suburbs. It's the story of how New York's turn-of-the-century millionaires incorporated their private homes as legal municipalities (municipalities that still exist today!). They used their new power to exclude outsiders, dodge local taxes, and attempt to recreate feudal Europe in the New York. The first episode will be released on November 12. In the meantime, follow us @eyesoreplague on Instagram and Twitter!

Next Episode

Bonus: Recording Saddle Rock

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Welcome to the Saddle Rock Bonus Episode! (If you haven’t listened to Episode 1 of this podcast, you may want to do that first, since we talk about how we made the episode here.)
Jon and Paulina talk about recording the music for Episode 1 of this podcast:

How to play drums when you’re not a drummer (step 1: never think about how awesome you sound)
Using VST (virtual) instruments, and why Mellotron presets sound like new money
Why they did not put Wurlitzer electronic piano on every single song even though they kind of wanted to

Also! How to tell if you’re micing a speaker and not a shelf(?), on writing happy music instead of sad music, and a preview of Episode 2: Sands Point!
Notes and transcripts to the Saddle Rock episodes: https://www.aneyesoreandaplague.com/saddle-rock