The owner of Claremont Riding Academy closed the business on April 30, 2007, telling the New York Times that the cause included rising costs as well as a decreasing numbers of riders, caused in part by the difficulty of using bridle paths in Central Park that are crowded with other uses.
Originally, Claremont was one of a concentration of stables on west 89th Street, located (together with some of the neighborhood's light industry) at an odor-diffusing distance from most residences. Over the years many of the street's stables were gradually converted to garages as cars eliminated horse traffic. Still housed in its original 1892 Romanesque Revival building, the Claremont Stables is now known as the Claremont Riding Academy. As of 2004, it is one of only eight stables remaining in Manhattan, and is the only one that is open to the public. It is both a designated New York City landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Claremont Stables' first owner was Edward W. Bedell, who commissioned architect Frank Rooke to design a public commercial stable covering three 25" x 100" lots on west 89th Street. At the time, the Upper West Side, still in its early years of being developed for housing, had one of the city's high concentrations of stables. In 1902, there were roughly 117 stables between 64th and 97th Streets, Central Park West and the Hudson River. West 89th Street alone had seven.
Horses played a major role in New York City throughout the 19th- and into the early 20th century. Not only did they draw private carriages, they were also the power behind various forms of public transportation: double-decker stagecoaches, hansom cabs, even horse-drawn railways--the New York and Harlem lines had tracks on Fourth Avenue, and horses pulled railcars to Jamaica on the Long Island Railroad. Horses were also integral to the fire engines of the day, and worked in the city's industrial sections, particularly at breweries.
The horses originally housed at Claremont Stables were used for private and commercial transportation as well as for riding. Horse owners might pick up their carriages on market days to take merchandise to and from market, or ride through Central Park or into the Bronx. The top two floors of the four-story building held carriages, which were lowered by elevator. Horses lived on the second floor, and could climb to their stalls via two wooden ramps that still exist today. The stable's big Romanesque arched doorway was a functional as well as a design element, roomy enough for horses to pass through.
The original stable had a blacksmith shop for shoeing and a machine to crush its own grain. The stalls were drained through pipes going through the floors, and the floors were made of coursed concrete, a development that made for a cleaner and less slippery surface for the horses to walk on than wood. There was also a manure shoot, still in use, to remove barrels of manure from the second floor (these days, mushroom farms truck the manure out and make use of it). It is also still possible to see the words of an old ad, "Boarding and Livery," painted on the east façade of the building.
Architect Rooke had the word "Claremont" chiseled into the building's frieze, so despite a succession of owners and leasers, the operation has maintained its original name. In 1898, Bedell sold the stable to Charles Havemeyer. Leasing the operation from him, the brothers Tallman called the establishment "Tallman's Claremont Stables." They only leased it for five years, and a succession of several more leasers and owners took the reins of the business for brief stints until 1927.
By 1926, the stable's business was floundering, as automobiles had taken the place of horse-drawn conveyances on the city streets. Though the city had banned cars for a short period after 1900 because they made the horses nervous, cars quickly asserted their predominance. Now that people needed a place to keep their cars, there was competition for the stables' territory. The Monterey Automobile Garage was constructed at 139 West 89th Street in 1907, and many stables took the cue to convert to garages. The Claremont Stables resisted the temptation to make the switch, enacting a business-saving transformation into a riding academy in 1927.
In 1927, Polish immigrant Irwin Novograd came to manage the new Claremont Riding Academy. Irwin, the father of Paul Novograd, who owns the family-managed academy today, was able to buy the building in 1943. As a recreational resource for horse-loving New Yorkers, bordering on Central Park, Claremont weathered the transition to an automobile-driven culture. But in 1961, the stables fell within the 20 blocks that the city took over as part of an urban renewal plan for the Upper West Side and the city acquired the property from Novograd. Public support helped rescue the stables from demolition, and the Novograds began leasing the Riding Academy back from the city by the month. However, the building fell into disrepair under city ownership. Paul Novograd called it "the story of my life" to try to win back the building, which he finally did in 1998, after over 30 years.
Hesitant to renovate while the city owned the building, Novograd initiated a major renovation after he acquired the building. Finally family-owned as well as operated, the Riding Academy continues its long traditions. It is open every day from 6:30 in the morning until early evening, and as of 2004 has 51 staff members and over 1,200 customers a week, many of whom rent horses for rides on the Central Park bridle paths. Fifty horses are still kept on the second floor. Without carriages, the third and fourth floors are vacant, and Novograd is looking for tenants.
The Claremont Riding Academy also conducts a "New York Therapeutic Riding Center" for disabled students, and an outreach program for children in the neighborhood. As the only public riding stable in Manhattan, Claremont is both a valuable community resource and a strong reminder of an era when the horse dominated the streets of New York.
Sources:
Landmarks Preservation Commission: Claremont Stables (Now Claremont Riding Academy). New York City, August 14, 1990. Designation List 226 LP-1658.
Toman, Caroline. "Claremonth Rides High With Future Plans." Westsider, August 22, 1985.
Westsider. "City Stops Horsing Around: Stables are Sold but Kept in the Family." June 18-24, 1998.
