In the late 19 th century, artists’ colonies contrasted sharply with crowded urban life. A “planned community for people of all professions,” Lawrence’s imagined village would end up blending full-time artists’ colony and weekend retreat. So, in 1890, Lawrence purchased and began developing the land. Upon laying eyes on Prescott farm, a vast collage of undeveloped hilly forest and farmland near a newly built railroad in Eastchester, Lawrence envisioned a town where society patrons and artists lived side-by-side. (You may recall a line from Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer referring to the concoction as “simply fire in a liquid form.”) At the behest of his brother-in-law, Lawrence made his way to Bronxville to check out a piece of land that had come up for sale. With drooping eyes and a warm smile, Lawrence had made millions on a drug called “Pain Killer,” a cocktail most likely containing alcohol and opium. For a newly emerging Westchester, though, pharmaceutical tycoon William Van Duzer Lawrence had a different vision. Suburbia: stale prefab houses, pale eggshell paint, nuclear green grass, and a two-car garage.
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