Help Save the Gazebo
In 2021, the Millbrook School District, on whose land the Elm Drive Gazebo is located, sent a mailer with the possibility of demolishing this historical landmark. In true Millbrook spirit, a group of concerned community members formed the "Friends of the Gazebo" under the auspices of the Millbrook Historical Society. Rallying together, the group's goal is to save the gazebo through fundraising, spreading awareness, and uniting our community around a worthy cause to preserve what many Millbrook natives consider an iconic village landmark.
Join the
Friends of the Gazebo
Join the community in coming together to preserve this piece of Millbrook History. If you're interested in being part of the effort, sign up for updates & emails here:
HISTORY
Millbrook's Gazebo at Elm Drive was built in the 1890's. It decorated the lawns of the properties of the Merritt family that were being parceled off by the Millbrook Land & Improvement Co. as the vicinity became the focus of residential development. The Gazebo was designed by the prolific New York City architect James E. Ware, famous for his remedial model tenement work, as well as regal masterpieces such as West 57th St.'s Osborne Apartments, considered one of the earliest and grandest luxury apartment buildings in New York.
Also acclaimed for the Mohonk Mountain House in nearby New Paltz, Ware had earlier designed Millbrook's Halcyon Hotel [later Bennett College] as well as the multitude of elaborate country estates and mansions that encase the village. As essentially Millbrook's "court architect", Ware was responsible for the majority of what defines the village's architectural identity; dozens of shops, civic buildings, church halls, and residences, including two for the Merritt family at either end of Merritt Ave. with their burgeoning real estate holdings between them, and their Gazebo as an inviting decorative focal point.
Echoing the detailing of his estate architecture, with its latticed timbers, conical roof, and metal finial, Ware's Gazebo epitomizes authentic Victorian style. Beloved by generations through the decades, it is a neighborhood fixture that is as iconic of Millbrook as the rest of the architect's wonders from the Gilded Age. An historic structure connected to the village's earliest origins, it is worthy and deserving of preservation for future generations.
"To many Millbrook natives, the Gazebo is almost as iconic in its own way as any of Millbrook's other landmarks."
Patrick D. Wing
Author of Town & Country: The Architecture of James E. Ware & Sons
The Gazebo: Present Day
The gazebo is an integral part of Millbrook's history and should be saved or rebuilt at all costs. The Millbrook most of us grew up in was a close, safe "family" community where everyone knew everyone and we all looked out for one another. Though change seems to be inevitable, it's been difficult for those of us who were born and raised here to adapt. We miss our intimate, untouched, little Millbrook village that we once knew and loved, from a time when the simplicity of life was so very precious to all of us. Please don't take this treasured icon of our childhood away....it's not JUST a gazebo, it's a part of all of our childhood's. There is always "a way"....let's find it and stop erasing everything from our dearly loved village of year's ago.
Lucy Setaro
Third Generation Millbrook Resident