The Sons of the American Revolution is demanding $10 million from the town of Greenburgh for allegedly pressuring the organization to give away Odell House, a historic Revolutionary War property, by threatening to remove its tax-exempt status.
“Acts and omissions, including the manipulation of plaintiff”™s nonprofit tax exemption, were done solely to fraudulently induce plaintiff to convey the premises to the ”¦ town,” according to a March 3 complaint filed in Westchester Supreme Court by SAR”™s New York chapter.
Town Assessor Edye McCarthy responded in a telephone interview that she was required by state law to remove the tax-exempt status because the house had become dilapidated and the property was not being used for a tax-exempt purpose.
The Odell House on Ridge Road in Hartsdale is on the National Registry of Historic Places. Part of the farmhouse was built in 1732, and for 44 days in 1781 French forces under the command of the Comte de Rochambeau encamped on the site.
The Continental Army under Gen. George Washington was camped nearby in Ardsley. The armies crossed the Hudson River together, marched to Yorktown, Virginia, and defeated the British army under Lord Cornwallis, leading to peace talks that ended the war.
The Odell family lived in the farmhouse continuously until 1965, when Elizabeth Odell deeded it to the New York chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR), to be maintained as a historic site “so long as it shall stand.”
In 2017 and 2018, according to the complaint, Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner and McCarthy expressed interest in acquiring the property.
The landmark had been exempt from property taxes since its acquisition in 1965. But McCarthy allegedly notified the organization in 2018 that no application for nonprofit exemption was on file, according to the complaint sworn to by SAR chapter President Robert Stackpole of White Plains.
The organization twice submitted applications for tax-exempt status to McCarthy and once to the Board of Assessment Review. Each time, according to the complaint, the application was denied on the grounds of insufficient information.
McCarthy said she extended the tax exemption for a year, after a SAR spokesman assured her in 2018 that the farmhouse would be renovated.
“A year goes by and nothing happened to the site,” she said. “If they had proposed plans to update the property, that would have been enough for me to extend the exemption.”
SAR says the property was in poor condition. Even without the impending burden of paying property taxes, SAR could not afford to maintain or repair Odell House.
In July 2019, the group agreed to convey the property to Greenburgh for $1.
The Sons of the American Revolution “lacks the immediate funds to rehabilitate the Odell House,” the agreement states, and “the town has sufficient resources and is willing to contribute funds to ”¦ the restoration and rehabilitation of the Odell House.”
“It”™s a wonderful partnership between the state, Greenburgh and us,” Stackpole was quoted in The Journal News.
Greenburgh applied for a $1.2 million state grant, including matching funds to be raised by Friends of Odell House Rochambeau Headquarters, for restoration of the 289-year-old landmark.
In December 2019, the state Attorney General”™s office approved the deal, acknowledging that the chapter was a registered New York charity.
A year ago, SAR discovered that the town had restored its nonprofit status. It had never been officially notified, according to the complaint, and despite numerous Freedom of Information Law requests, Greenburgh has not produced any records that explain when, why and how the decision was made.
Eastchester attorney Wayne D. Esannason represents The Sons of the American Revolution.
This lawsuit is embarrassing for Mr. Stackpole. He let Odell house rot for 40 plus years and now he’s jealous I guess that another group is doing such wonderful work.