The Demarest-Lyle House: Saving a Tenafly Treasure

Eva Lerner-Lam

Presentation to Tenafly Rotary ClubThe Clinton Inn

May 10, 2001

Description of the Site

• 91 West Clinton Avenue

• About ½ acre, single building (with annex)

• Original structure built around 1790

• State and National Registers of Historic Places

• 100% privately owned and operated

Historical Significance

• Six architectural episodes

• Typical of farmhouse vernacular that flourished in the Hackensack valley in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries

• Remarkable survival of much of the 1868 renovation

Duty and Inspiration

• Impasse in 1990’s• Mosley, Savastano,

Miller, Wilson, Kieronski, Ballou, Haynes, Tremble, Chillino, Thompson, Mendoza…and two special friends

The Amati Music Conservatory

• Private, non-profit music school for children

• World-class faculty

• Piano, violin, viola, cello, flute and theory

• Performances in NYC and metro area, including Carnegie Hall and John Harms Theater