Eleven years ago, the Village of  Ardsley obtained surplus land from Westchester County (known as Parcel Q), which straddles the area from the terminus of Old Sprain Road (off Underhill Road) to the southernmost part of Ardsley’s McDowell Park. As shown on the expandable map below, Parcel Q was divided into three sections.  Section A was deeded to Ardsley, Section B to the Town of Greenburgh, and Section C to an adjacent private property owner. [1]

In a 2010 memo written by then Ardsley Village Manager George Calvi: 

Long-term plans for the government-owned portions is for the development of an historic trail-way for when monies become available again for such things in better economic times which would be a joint effort between the Town of Greenburgh and the Village of Ardsley.

The Ardsley Village Board resolution authorizing Ardsley to acquire Section A of Parcel Q further explained that:

the Village Board of the Village of Ardsley is desirous of obtaining Parcel Q-A for historical and recreational purposes as well as for the planning and development of Greenway-designed trailways with the cooperation of the Town of Greenburgh.

In 2019, in anticipation of commemorating the 100th anniversary of the passage in 1920 of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (recognizing the right of women to vote), the idea was floated by the author that a linear park (i.e., a trail-way) be created at Parcel Q honoring the women of Ardsley. Outside of a bronze plaque inside Ardsley’s Village Hall honoring Beverly Levine (former Ardsley Village Trustee, two-term member of  Ardsley’s Board of Education, and past president of the Ardsley Historical Society), no prominent public monuments or any of Ardsley’s municipal parks honor any woman of Ardsley. Coincidentally, Levine, the consummate Ardsley volunteer, served as a Village Trustee when the Village of Ardsley obtained Parcel Q. It was further hoped this proposed new park would be ready to be enjoyed in 2021 in conjunction with Ardsley’s 125th anniversary of its 1896 incorporation as a village. Of course, the Covid-19 pandemic stymied the potential development of a Women’s Park.

Should a “Women of Ardsley'' park come to fruition, one person who deserves to be included is nearly 50 year Ardsley resident and renowned artist Frances Besner Newman.

Frances Besner Newman moved to Ardsley in 1947 with her husband, general practitioner, Dr. George Newman. Dr. Newman was a local real-life version of television’s genial family physician Marcus Welby, M.D. [2] Frances Besner Newman’s artistic skills and participation in community affairs were immediate. As reported in the Dobbs Ferry Register, in celebration of United Nations Week, ”The Broadway Arms Pharmacy window [in Dobbs Ferry] will be decorated by Mrs. Frances Besner and Miss Edith Serrell. Mrs. Newman is the wife of Dr. George Newman. She is a sculptress of modern works and was formerly art director for an advertising agency in New York City. She resides at 8 Young Place (sic)  and has a beautiful collection of modern sculpture (sic) at home where she also maintains a studio.” [3]

While living in Ardsley at 15 Mountainview Avenue, Frances was one of the most distinguished, protean, and prolific female artists in Westchester County. [4] Not only did she work in almost every artistic medium - painting, lithographs, sculpture, woodcuts, jewelry, and graphics - in artistic competitions she was usually a multi-prize winner, as demonstrated in this 1958 article in  The New York Times: [5]

Frances Besner Newman had nearly 30 one-person exhibitions while living in Ardsley, including shows at Ardsley’s mid-1960s art gallery “Exhibits Unlimited” (see below announcement in the Dobbs Ferry Sentinel) [6] at 475 Ashford Avenue in Addyman Square, various Westchester galleries, the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, the Silvermine Guild Art Center in New Canaan, the Springfield Museum in Massachusetts, and numerous public libraries including Greenburgh and Dobbs Ferry.

As part of the research for this post, it was discovered Frances Besner Newman sketched a pen and ink drawing in 1947 of Ardsley’s Addyman Square (a portion of which is shown below and depicts Ardsley’s World War II Roll of Honor in the background) providing a glimpse of what the Square looked like seventy-five years ago when the Newmans moved to then bucolic Ardsley. [7]

It is now displayed in the office of the Ardsley Historical Society (AHS) on the second floor of the Ardsley Public Library. The work was donated to the AHS by Frances Besner Newman in 1996 before she left Ardsley for Albuquerque (the Newmans became members of the AHS in 1990). A short article about the gift and Dr. and Mrs. Newman’s history in Ardsley appears in the AHS’s September 1996 newsletter. 

Her eleven-foot sculpture “Burning Bush,” made of concrete and weighing 1000 pounds on the Greenburgh Hebrew Center’s (GHC) facade, is a landmark in Dobbs Ferry. According to a profile of Frances Besner Newman in the “Ardsley Village Parade” section of the August 22, 1986, edition of the Rivertowns Enterprise, the monumental piece was commissioned by the congregation and installed and consecrated in 1959 [8] However, being on the exterior of the building, it has become a bit weathered.   Her eldest son Andrew, a skilled graphic artist who has, among other things, designed book covers for Danielle Steel, Elmore Leonard, and most significantly all of the books by John Gray, [9] explained in an email to the author that while a teenager he had helped his mother affix the tiles to the original piece and was able to “restore” it to its original condition using Photoshop (shown below).

Inside an alcove in the main corridor of the GHC is her powerfully evocative 1970 bronze sculpture (shown below) entitled “Out of the Depths,” which is dedicated to the six million Jewish victims of the Nazi genocide. [10] The sculpture (which used five models) was unveiled at the beginning of religious services marking Yom Kippur.

GHC’s Rabbi Emeritus Barry Kenter explained that: 

“Frances was a much-beloved member of GHC. Annually she would bring steel wool to accent the statue in the hall. She was humble, modest, and enormously talented. Historically each past president received a miniature of the statue upon leaving office. So pleased she is getting her due.” [11]

Newspaper accounts beginning in the 1960s and thereafter report on Mrs. Newman’s frequently donating her works of art to local charities or giving demonstrations and lectures to support philanthropic organizations such as the Saw Mill Chapter of the Women’s Division of ORT (Organization for Rehabilitation through Training) as indicated in the below notice appearing in the Scarsdale Inquirer: [12]

Similarly, a 2020 Facebook post by the Hastings Historical Society contained the following:

“In 1965, seven Jewish families decided to create a temple in Hastings. To raise funds for the building of a new home, in 1968 the Beth Shalom community created a portfolio of limited-edition prints, representing the work of seven local artists. Artists participating in the Temple Portfolio were Maurice Freedman, K.M. Plowitz, Lousie A. Freedman, Miriam Begg, John Begg, Arlé Sklar-Weinstein, and Frances Besner-Newman.”  (italics added)

The original print is now held in the print collection in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (the New York Pulbic Library’s flagship location on 5th Avenue in midtown Manhattan).

As noted above, Frances had studied with pioneering Japanese-American sculptor Leo Amino. [13] According to Amino’s widow Julie, in the 1940s, upon seeing a New York City exhibition of Amino’s work, Frances asked to become his first pupil (“classes” were held in his basement apartment at the rear of the main house at 106 Perry Street in Greenwich Village). Frances and Leo remained lifelong friends until he died in 1989. Amino subsequently taught at both the experimental Black Mountain College in Asheville, North Carolina and Cooper Union. Beginning in the 1950s, the Newmans and the Aminos spent time at a cabin on a rural patch of farm land in New Jersey land partially owned by the Aminos. Frances, who Julie recalls was always sketching, remarked to Julie how the branches of a particular tree on the property came together like a pair of lovers. [14] Reproductions of Frances’s enchanting early 1960s figurine entitled “The Lovers” (shown below) are actively sold on various online auction sites, and her other works can be found on Etsy and eBay.

Amino’s “Lamentation” (shown below), which was featured in a 1940 showcase for young American sculptors at the New School for Social Research, [15] is an evident influence on Newman’s “Out of the Depths” bronze fabricated thirty years later.

Throughout the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and until 1996, Newman continued to exhibit her expanding art to near-universal praise. Here is a review from 1968: [16]

In connection with an article about an upcoming exhibition of her watercolors and graphics at the YM-YWHA of Mid Westchester (now the JCC), the Scarsdale Inquirer noted that Frances Besner Newman was “A well known figure in Westchester art circles, had participated in many gallery and museum exhibitions in this United States and abroad and had taught at Mercy College, County Workshop in White Plains, and the Adult Education program in Ardsley. [17]

Newman’s artistic versatility can be seen in two intriguing covers (shown below) she designed for a series of pamphlets issued by Americans For A Safe Israel criticizing NBC’s television coverage of Israel’s 1982’s War in Lebanon and questioning the peace overtures of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

In what was likely her final show in our area, a display of her watercolors was featured in the below Westchester section of The New York Times: [18]

In 1996, the Newmans sold 15 Mountainview to John and Patricia van Essche. Preternaturally, Patricia is an established local artist who opens her home studio to the public during the annual RivertownsArts Studio Tours. In a conversation with the author, van Essche explained that when she and her husband bought the house from the Newmans, Frances offered them her two kilns. However, having three-year-old twins, she declined the offer. The Newmans then donated them to Ardsley High School. [19] As the closing of the Mountainview house approached, Mrs. Newman told van Essche she had purchased a light fixture designed by Finnish lighting pioneer Paavo Tynell which hung in the combined dining/living room. The fixture was likely bought at Finland House at 540 Madison Avenue (East 55th Street) in Manhattan which initially had a design atelier on the ground floor showcasing Finnish designers. Although not in love with the piece, van Essche agreed to let them leave it. Over time, the value of Tynell’s pieces appreciated substantially and van Essche ultimately posted it for sale on her PVE Design blog https://pvedesign.com Several years later, an inquiry was made by a Finnish collector who purchased it. In addition to being gratified it was returned “home,” van Essche was able to use a part of the proceeds to build her own art studio at 15 Mountainview.

In the garden of van Essche’s Mountainview Avenue home is a modernist birdbath (shown below) created by Frances that retains its beauty and intimacy, despite being significantly eroded by the elements.

Upon her death in 2016, her daughter in law Sue Newman wrote the following tribute to Frances (which was accompanied by a visual display by her son Andrew of Frances’s work and graciously shared with the author) [20] for family members, which confirms to this writer of her deserved place in a future “Women of Ardsley” trail-blazer park at Parcel Q:

Frances (Fran) Besner Newman, age 93, died in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on February 17th, 2011. Born April 15th, 1917, in New York City to Joseph and Ernestine Besner, she was one of four children. Fran attended the Parsons School of Fine and Applied Art. On June 23rd, 1946 she married Dr. George J. Newman. They moved to Ardsley, NY, where they raised their three sons, while he practiced medicine in Ardsley. Frances was a skilled artist in many media including sculpture, print-making, watercolor, and jewelry. Her artwork has received acclaim and has been exhibited throughout the world in museums, group and one-man shows. Fran was an avid reader, a passionate gardener, a remarkable cook, a gracious hostess, a great world traveler, and a truly devoted wife, mother, and friend. While still living in Ardsley, she would cook chicken soup every Friday and deliver it to a homeless kitchen. She was generous with her time, teaching her granddaughters and children of friends how to draw, paint, sculpt, or learn printmaking. While her artwork was her most distinguishing achievement, Fran also will be remembered for her warmth, kindness, sense of humor, generosity, love of her family, and her beautiful smile and sparkling eyes. [21]

Endnotes:

[1] The map also references a monument of the Westchester County Park Commission (WCPC) which is noted as missing. In an email to the author, Dave Delucia, Westchester County’s Director of Park Facilities, explained that the Westchester County Park Commission installed special bronze markers to designate WCPC properties. He further observed the markers get buried under leaves or fallen trees and are hard to find.

[2] Dr. Newman practiced in an earlier era of house calls or more often, night calls (often more than one and rarely refused by Dr. Newman) and delivering babies at home. The word “deductible” was unknown. A quarter century after Dr. Newman had moved from Ardsley to Albuquerque, New Mexico to be closer to two of his three sons, the mention of his name to a current senior resident in Ardsley in 2021 brought an effusive: “He was my doctor.” An oral history interview of the Newman’s years in Ardsley (with wonderful sketches by Frances including the placing of a shingle for his first office and stories of the hospitality of Ardsleyans to the newcomers) can be viewed on the Ardsley Historical Society’s archives/videos section of its website following the interview with revered pharmacist Irwin “Doc” Engleman. The second floor apartment of the building on Elm Street where the Ardsley Chemist Shoppe (est. 1931 by Irwin’s father Dr. Charles Engleman) was then located served as Dr. Newman’s first medical office in Ardsley. In the year the Newmans arrived, Ardsley had no local physician. Marcus Welby, M.D. was an American medical drama television program that aired Tuesdays at 10:00–11:00 pm (EST) on ABC from September 23, 1969, to July 29, 1976. It starred Robert Young as the title character, a family practitioner with a kind bedside manner, who was on a first-name basis with many of his patients (and who also made house calls).https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Welby,_M.D.

[3] October 7, 1949, p 5. The correct name of the road is Young Street which is just off Ashford Avenue near the border of the Dobbs Ferry and Ardsley School Districts and close to the former Dobbs Ferry Hospital (now part of St. John’s Riverside Hospital) on Ashford Avenue which Dr. Newman was long affiliated. After Dr. Newman moved his office above the then hardware store in Addyman Square, the family rented the apartment on Young Street until they moved into the home they were building on Mountainview Avenue in Ardsley. Not surprisingly, in 1956, Frances was appointed to Ardsley’s Board of Architectural Review (Herald Statesman, April 3, 1956).

[4] The Town of Greenburgh’s Assessor’s Old Property Card for 15 Mountainview shows the land (.63 acres) was purchased for $1000 in 1951. The Newman’s Ardsley home on the lot (built in 1952) was designed by noted local architect Martin Lowenfish who was a family friend. In an email to the author, Dr. Newman’s son Andrew (Ardsley High School Class of 1965) related that ”(Lowenfish) also redesigned the front and inside of the first floor of a house on [415] Ashford Avenue that [Dr. Newman] converted into his office.” Lowenfish’s modernist style (which is mentioned in contemporary real estate ads as a selling point) can be seen at 168 Warburton in Hastings, which was the home he designed for internationally renowned sculptor Jacques Lipchitz Listing for 168 Warburton as well as at 15 Mountainview which despite a full renovation, remains a Lowenfish. 15 Mountainview Avenue

[5] November 10, 1958, p. 31

[6] October 20, 1964

[7] Ardsley’s World War II Roll of Honor is discussed in the dropdown menu of the Archives section on the Ardsley Historical Society website. As related in Frances’s oral history, while driving around Westchester, the sight of a magnolia tree in Ardsley convinced her this was the place she and her husband should settle.

[8] In an email to the author, Jeanie (Rosaler) Schram (AHS Class of 1966) who lived on Kensington Road recalls: “I knew Frances and George Newman very well – he was our family doctor. My mother Shirley was (GHC) Sisterhood president, and cultivated wonderful relationships with people she was kind of in awe of, like Frances Newman.” GHC was organized in 1947 at a meeting of residents of Hastings, Dobbs Ferry, Ardsley and Irvington (Herald Statesman (January 30, 1947)). Irwin Engleman was one of its first executive officers.

[9] Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus

[10] The source is the first line of Psalm 130: “A Song of Ascents. Out of the depths have I called Thee, O Lord” and is recited in terms of communal distress. The Hebrew words accompanying the sculpture transliterate to ‘mimma`amaqqiym’ or “Out of the depths.”

[11] June 29, 2021 email from Rabbi Kenter.

[12] October 17, 1963

[13] Although born in Japanese controlled Taiwan in 1911 and growing up in Tokyo, Amino immigrated to the United States as a teenager in 1929 and never returned to Japan over the ensuing 60 years he spent in America. (Interview with Julie Amino). In 2020, Amino’s grandchild Genji Amino curated a major exhibit of Amino, “The Visible and the Invisible,” at the prestigious Zwirner Gallery in Chelsea. Amino’s towering impact on modern American sculpture can be explored at Leo Amino's Experiments in Polymorphic Sculpture at the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University (2018-2020) http://www.zimmerlimuseum.rutgers.edu/littman-gallery/polymorphic-sculpture-leo-aminos-experiments-three-dimensions#.YQHERi1h0_U as well as in John Yau’s article “The Art World’s Erasure of a Revolutionary Japanese Artist” On December 12, 1941, Amino and a number of Japanese-American artists living in New York City issued a declaration denouncing the attack on Pearl Harbor and offering to take up arms in defense of the United States. Declaration by Japanese-American artists against Fascism

[14] Telephone interview with Julie Amino. A New York Times (October 30, 1949) review of Amino’s sculpture described his works as “relentlessly inventive,” a label easily applied to Newman as she created art in an expanding variety of mediums. However, unlike Amino, whose pieces were more intimate in scale, Newman created a number of monumental works.

[15] The New York Times (March 10, 1940) (“Sculptors and Others”)

[16] Herald Statesman (November 13, 1968)

[17] October 2, 1975. For example, she had exhibited in the Gallery Dagush in Jerusalem (Scarsdale Inquirer, December 4, 1975)

[18] April 7, 1996 (WC 12)

[19] In 1951, Dr. Newman was appointed one of the School District’s physicians, a position he maintained for many years. All three of the Newmans’ sons attended Ardsley’s schools from kindergarten through high school. [20] The photo of Frances at the beginning of this post (which was part of the tribute) was taken by Ardsley artist and family friend Mickie Fisher inside 15 Mountainview. Mickie was married to Dr. Saul Fisher, a psychiatrist, lived on Park Avenue (in 21 Acres) in Ardsley for 55 years. They had one daughter, Rachel, who started kindergarten with Andrew Newman in the original Ardsley Municipal Building (as Concord Road Elementary School had not been built and the Ashford Avenue School (built in1912) was bursting with the onset of the baby boom). Ironically, the Municipal Building was the School District’s original school house but was abandoned when the Ashford Avenue School was built.

[21] Proverbs 31:10-31 (‘Woman of Valor’) superbly describes the Passionate Artist, Loving Wife and Mother that was Frances Besner Newman: 

A woman of valor, who can find? Her worth is far above jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and nothing shall he lack. She renders him good and not evil all the days of her life. She opens her hand to the needy, and extends her hand to the poor. She is robed in strength and dignity, and cheerfully faces whatever may come. She opens her mouth with wisdom. Her tongue is guided by kindness. She tends to the affairs of her household, and eats not the bread of idleness. Her children come forward and bless her. Her husband too, and he praises her. Many women have done superbly, but you surpass them all. Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a God-fearing woman is much to be praised. Place before her the fruit of her hands. Wherever people gather, her deeds speak her praise.