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