Planning Board approves modified plan for summer camp at Carpenter Cemetery site
At a hearing on Tuesday, March 28th, the New Rochelle Planning Board partially approved a request from The Westchester Torah Academy (WTA) for permission to lease land on or near the site of Carpenter Cemetery to a third-party summer camp operator. The camp wished to serve up to 800 campers and place several above-ground pools (which would need to drain somewhere) on the land, further desecrating the burial ground of several hundred African Americans, some enslaved, some free, including several members of the Pugsley family of Pugsley Hollow.
According to Anne Zahner, who has provided the City Development Department and the Planning Board with supporting documents describing the history of Carpenter Cemetery, the proposed use of the site for a summer camp would “further obscure the sacred and historic burial grounds that may be part of this land, and certainly is adjacent to it.”
In a written statement to the Planning Board, Erica Itzkowitz wrote, “I would remind everyone that a few years ago, I and many others attended a Planning Board meeting when Westchester Academy promised the city that they would maintain the sacred land, clear it with archaeological sensitivity, and even use the Carpenter Cemetery as a teaching tool. You were going to work with the NAACP. In the several years since the Westchester Hebrew Academy promised to maintain the property, there has been no discernible attention paid to the Carpenter Cemetery, other than to scrape as much of the landscape and graveyard for access, and build a children’s playground.”
At the meeting, the WTA explained that, although a third party had posted information on their website about a summer camp at the site, WTA had not contracted with that party to run the camp. After hearing from the WTA and concerned citizens, the Planning Board voted to prohibit above ground pools, limit the number of campers to 200, and restrict the hours of operation.
At the request of Sarah Dodds-Brown, chair of the Planning Board, the Development Department confirmed that WTA had met the requirements of the site plans approved in 2016 and 2018.
The Deputy Corporation Counsel reported that the City is waiting for the state to approve its plan to purchase the cemetery and is working with Barbara Davis, the City Historian, who filed an application with the Historical and Landmarks Review Board in July 2020 to designate Carpenter Cemetery as a local landmark. The City Council’s November 2020 resolution approving the landmark designation and Ms. Davis’s original application can be viewed here (pages 17-30).
