Times change, and so does architecture.
This topic fascinated young Michael Feist, an 18-year-old student at Briarcliff High School in 2014, tasked in a school project to intern locally. Michael’s grandfather, composer Carmino Ravosa, was not only a popular songwriter for children but also on the Board of Trustees of the Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society and it was under his grandfather’s influence that Michael decided to approach the BMSHS. There he discovered a trove of village photos and developed the idea of pairing images of local buildings from the past with perfectly aligned photos of them in the present.
The result was a large-format book, Briarcliff Manor Then and Now, first published by BMSHS in 2014 and then reissued in paperback for a fund-raising function at Sleepy Hollow Country Club.
“The students were told they had to do a poster at the end of their internships, to show what they had learned and what their internship was, and Michael said, ‘Well I’ve published this book and it’s in the Library of Congress,’ so he didn’t have to do the poster,” Michael’s father, Arnold Feist, happily recalls.
Feist senior acted as editor for the book, and together with Michael is now working on the third edition, expanded to include new images, additional photos and an illustrated table of contents.
It was the BMSHS that triggered the idea of reprinting the book. But Michael wanted to bring it up to date and add some more material. “I didn’t necessarily think what I had was quite up to snuff, especially since I’ve learned more about architecture and investigating what might have happened based on clues and old images and also a few more resources like newspaper archives and things like that to connect the dots.”
“Even some of the things in the past few years have changed, which is a little bit wild to me because when I grew up in Briarcliff almost nothing changed. It very much stayed the same, the physical environment stayed very intact.”
“One of the places I highlighted in the book was a cute little house that was a café called Moonbean Café, so that was interesting to look at the before and after. Unfortunately, that entire building has gone now. So that will be an interesting update to talk about. Same with the mid-century bank across the street.”
The Feists hope the new edition will be available by the end of the year. Briarcliff’s history seems in safe hands.
- briarcliffhistory.org
