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| Mayor Seth Low |
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A block from my house, along a dirt country road called Broad Brook, some lots are several to fifteen acres or more in size, but most are just the four-acre minimum. However, 100 years ago, sixty dairy cows ranged over 200 acres bordered by Broad Brook Road on the south and straddling both sides of Bedford Center Road to the north. On the east the property bordered Succabone Road, and it went half way to Springhurst on the west. This was Broad Brook Farm, with the waters of Broad Brook babbling.
Broad Brook Farm was assembled and built by Seth Low beginning in 1904, when he was 54 years old. Low’s career up until that time had been legendary. He was born in Brooklyn, in 1850, the son and grandson of China clipper ship owners. Seth entered the family business in 1875 and traded in tea, silks and porcelains. The firm’s ships docked at the present site of the South Street Seaport, and the former offices of A.A. Low & Brothers are now incorporated into the South Street Seaport Museum. Low's town-house at the corner of 64th Street and Madison Avenue has been replaced by the Chase Private Banking office, an elegantly appointed Federal-style building well worth seeing.
At age 39 Low was elected to succeed Frederick Barnard as President of Columbia College. He moved the college to Morningside Heights, expanded it to become the largest university and renamed it Columbia University. Low served from 1890 to 1901. At age 32 Low was elected Mayor of the City of Brooklyn and served from January 1, 1882 until December 31, 1885. He was elected Mayor of Greater New York (including the present five boroughs) in 1901. He fought Tammany Hall and became a national figure during his two-year term.
Low was friend to Teddy Roosevelt, Mark Twain and Booker T. Washington. Low served as delegate to the Hague Peace Conference and as Chairman of the Board of Tuskegee Institute. In 1887 the A.A. Low firm was disbanded. We believe the clipper ship models and paintings may have been recklessly abandoned.
Low was modest, honest and above all a reformer. He introduced Civil Service to New York government. Seth Low was apparently without prejudice and worked with all minorities. He fought against Chinese exclusion. Seth Low knew the luxury of a Newport home and worldwide travel, but it was Bedford Station, now known as Bedford Hills, where he chose to make his home and build his dairy farm. Low’s sturdy stone barns can still be seen from Bedford Center Road, opposite the Bedford Community Church located at the corner Buxton and Bedford Center Roads. His main residence and the gardens, laid-out by Frederick Law Olmsted, can be seen from Broad Brook Road, just west of Route 684. Low organized the Bedford Farmers Cooperative and served as its president. Low died at his home in Bedford Hills in September of 1916, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, under a simple unpolished and unmarked granite slab. Low did not have children.
As an educator Low knew the value of preserving his personal papers, and save he did. One hundred and forty-five boxes of his correspondence, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, campaign posters and family pictures are preserved at the magnificent Low Library, which he funded and built at Columbia University. These boxes are now in storage but are available to researchers. I have begun reading through the material for an upcoming Dairy Farm Exhibit at the Bedford Hills Historical Museum. Banker James Wood, the last of the Bedford Hills Dairy , will play a key role in developing this presentation. Other trustees and friends of the Museum are looking through attics and artifacts so that we can present the best possible exhibit. Our Town of Bedford Historian, John J. Stockbridge, and Christina Rae found the original blueprints of Low’s house and gardens in the attic of the Bedford Town House. Professor Stanley Telega has located maps and pictures of Broad Brook Farm. Anyone interested in providing additional material for this exhibit, including farm artifacts, should phone 914-381-3356.
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