Editor’s note: This press release was provided by the Preservation & Garden Society Society.

Join Pelham Preservation & Garden Society in celebrating its 20-year anniversary with an Evening on the Esplanade Fundraiser on Saturday, June 1st  beginning at 7:30 p.m with a festive new party format.  Open to the public, the Evening on the Esplanade promises a fun evening of cocktails, elegant hors d’oeuvres, and silent auction in the expansive grounds of the Begley home, culminating in dessert, a DJ and dancing at the nearby Manor Club (TMC). Funds raised support restoration and preservation efforts for the year and go directly to the restoration, beautification and preservation of the Pelhams. The June 1 fundraising event will also feature a 50/50 raffle as well as a silent auction with Berkshire resort getaway, sunset boat cruises, family fishing lessons, historic Yorktown NYC walking tour, and local sport tickets.

The garden party portion of the evening will be held, as it has in the past, at one of Pelham’s historic homes. This year it will be hosted by Courtney & Frank Begley who have graciously opened their home at 1040 Esplanade diagonally across from the Manor Club. The gorgeous Classical Revival home has a storied past, with a trailblazing journalist, author, and scriptwriter, Edith Session Tupper, residing there. Built in 1905 on land originally owned by the Black family, this Classical Revival home has a symmetrical plan, emphasized by its hip roof and equally-spaced chimneys and prominent Palladian window. Front and rear centered porticos with tuscan columns are carried through to the inside foyer where a dramatic, arched colonnade frames a grand staircase. The Crosthwaite Family made this their home from the late 1920s until 1964, hosting such community events as church bridge parties, a 1941 war relief effort to collect clothing for Great Britain and, after America entered the war, a drive to collect books for U.S. soldiers sent abroad. Edith Session Tupper, the aforementioned trailblazing journalist, author, dramatist and script writer may have written as many as a half dozen movie scripts while residing here.

Enjoy dessert and dancing across the street at the historic Manor Club, which was founded in 1882 and was incorporated the following year originally as a men’s social club. The “Tuesday Afternoon Club,” a women’s group started in 1900 to discuss literature, art, and drama evolved into The Manor Club in 1914 when Directors of the then all-male Manor Club ran into financial difficulties and asked the women of The Tuesday Afternoon Club to take over the running the club. The women did just that and, in 1922, replaced the smaller “Manor House” with the present Manor Club building that opened on the Esplanade. The reimagined Manor Club is a Tudor Revival style building with a half-timbered and stucco façade and heavily bracketed entrances designed in 1921 by the well-known architect William H. Orchard. The rambling and asymmetric plan consists of a one-story sunroom, two-story main clubhouse, and three-story theater. This 100-year strong cultural center for the Pelhams is listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places. The building is considered so well built that it was chosen for billeting and evacuation purposes during WWII. The Manor Club’s large Auditorium seats 332, and, in addition to weekly club events, has been a home to successful theater productions, charity events, concerts and recitals.

Tickets are $65 with proceeds going to fostering an understanding and appreciation of the architecture, historic structures, natural beauty and aesthetic character of the Town of Pelham and surrounding areas. PPGS does not maintain any staff members allowing more of your funds to go directly to the community projects. Tickets are available at: www.PelhamPreservationSociety.com.

About PPGS

Formed in 1999, this group of volunteer Pelhamites develops programs and funds projects aimed at protecting and enhancing the aesthetic and historic character of the Pelham community. Recent projects of the PPGS include the hanging flower baskets in our downtown, Wolfs Lane Park Spring rake out, Tree Count Census, 25 free planted shade tree program, shade and evergreens in local parklands, plantings at the train station, the stone and timber pergola in Wolfs Lane Park, the restoration of the police booth at Four Corners, new benches at Pelhamdale Avenue and Boston Post Road bus stops, the restoration of the Benedict Fountain, and the annual “Mimi Buckley” PMHS scholarship, among many other initiatives.To learn more about PPGS and its activities and to buy tickets online, donate, or become a member, visit www.PelhamPreservationSociety.com. Anyone who cannot attend the fundraiser is invited to join as a member for $25 annually. To RSVP for the fundraiser or to join the PPGS please send a check made out to Pelham Preservation & Garden Society to: P.O. Box 8129, Pelham, NY 10803.