After retiring as vice president of W. & J. Sloane, Walter Law moved with his family to the present Briarcliff Manor. He bought his first 236 acres (96 ha) in 1890,[1] and then quickly expanded his property, buying about forty parcels in less than ten years; by 1900, he owned more than 5,000 acres (7.8 sq mi) of Westchester County.[17][18] Law developed the village, establishing schools, churches, parks and the Briarcliff Lodge. His employees at Briarcliff Farms moved into the village, and the population grew to encourage Law to establish the area as a village. A proposition was presented to the supervisors of Mount Pleasant and Ossining on October 8, 1902 that the area of 640 acres with a population of 331 be incorporated as the Village of Briarcliff Manor,[4](p14) and the village was incorporated on November 21.[5](p43)[14]
The Tudor Revival-style Briarcliff Lodge was opened in 1902 as a premier resort hotel. It was surrounded by Walter Law's dairy barns and greenhouses, and hosted numerous distinguished guests, including Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. The lodge held the Edgewood Park School (1936–1954) and The King's College (1955–1994)[19] before it burned to the ground on September 20, 2003.[20]
The Briarcliff Manor Fire Department was founded on February 10, 1903 from Briarcliff Manor's first fire company, the 1901 Briarcliff Steamer Company No. 1.[1] Scarborough was incorporated into Briarcliff Manor in 1906, and the Police Department was organized two years later. The Village Municipal Building was built in 1913 and was opened on July 4, 1914. The high school opened in 1928, and in 1946, the People's Caucus party, an organization which calls out interested residents for candidacy, was created.[3](p88)[21] Briarcliff Manor celebrated its semicentennial celebration from October 10–12, 1952, publishing a book about the village and its history; that year, the Crossroads neighborhood of 84 houses was completed.[4](pi)
In 1953, Todd Elementary School opened to free space at the Law Park grade school.[5](p153) The Putnam Division of the New York Central Railroad was discontinued in 1958,[22] and the following year the village library opened in the former Briarcliff Manor train station. The village's first corporate facility (part of Philips Research) opened in 1960. In 1964 the new Village Hall opened, replacing the Municipal Building. The present high school opened in 1971 to ease the large enrollment at the grade-school building.[5](pp153–4) Pace University bought Briarcliff College in 1977 as a satellite of the school's Pleasantville campus. The following year, the Scarborough School closed. In 1980, Pace University began leasing the middle-school building, and the middle school was moved to a portion of the new high-school building. The grade-school building was demolished in 1996, and a retirement home was built on its site the following year. The village celebrated its centennial in 2002, which involved celebratory events.[21]
