No better place could have been selected for a benefit for HRTW than the $30 million Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture. It is part of Pocantico, the 4,000-acre country estate in Tarrytown established by John D. Rockefeller between 1891 and the early 1920s. When John D. Rockefeller, Jr. purchased the estate from his father at that point, he made many changes including modernizing the estate's farming operation.

He commissioned Grosvenor Atterbury to design the Stone Barns in the style of the Normandy region of France. They were completed by the mid 1930s.

Farming wound down in the 1950s and it wasn't until Peggy Rockefeller introduced Simmental beef cattle in 1976 that it became a farm again. After Peggy Rockefeller's death in 1996, her husband, David, and daughter Peggy Dulany decided to convert the barns and the farm into a not-for-profit facility to promote agriculture - Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture.

Horne Rose LLC was chosen to direct the construction using "green" building technology. The architect firms of Machado & Silvett and Asfour Guzy, landscape architect Richard Burke and Associates, and builder Turner Construction were added to the team.

In addition to preserving 80 acres of open space, the Stone Barns were remade into environmentally sound buildings containing offices, educational facilities, exhibit space, a restaurant, commercial kitchen, greenhouse and shell for a future event hall.

Stone Barns was recognized by New York Construction for the 2003 Award of Merit. In the announcement it notes "...the project team restored historically significant fixtures for future use. Throughout the construction, debris was separated and recycled, with more than 50 percent of the debris diverted from the landfill."

Blue Hill at Stone Barns is the second restaurant of the Barber family who opened the original Blue Hill in Greenwich Village in 2000. It is their goal to celebrate the seasons using the best New York region's farms have to offer. Blue Hill will feature a 12,000 square feet for outdoor terrace dining and an 85 seat dining room with an acoustical plaster vaulted ceiling. The menu will remind guests that, in choosing what to eat, they become active participants in agriculture.

The outdoor terrace will offer snacks and drinks throughout the day to visitors who come to tour Stone Barns or hike Rockefeller State Park. The restaurant will be open for dining Wednesday - Sunday from 5:45 p.m. Reservations are strongly recommended.

The 22,000 square foot greenhouse, located down the hill from the main buildings to maintain the existing site contours, will provide produce for Blue Hill year round. During the growing season, organic vegetables will be grown in three and a half acres of fields.

During the first year, the farm will raise 150 Lang hens for eggs in a mobile hen house; up to 1,000 broilers that will feed in the pastures; Bourbon Red turkeys; sheep for wool and for breeding; pigs; cattle and Holstein bull calves, which will be raised for veal.

Stone Barns will offer a variety of programs from casual wine-tastings to symposiums on the nation's food supply. Schoolchildren will visit on day trips, and groups can hire space for events.

The Stone Barns will soon be included in two new tours led by the Historic Hudson Valley: a "Rockefeller Estate Life Tour", which will include a visit to Kykuit, the Rockefeller house and gardens and a "Farm-to-Table Tour," which will take visitors to the 18th century farm of Philipsburg Manor before seeing the progressive 21st century agricultural operation at the Stone Barns Center.

HRTW is a consortium of 13 Hudson River municipalities including Cortlandt, Peekskill, Buchanan, Croton-on-Hudson, the Town and Village of Ossining, Briarcliff Manor, Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, Irvington, Dobbs Ferry, Hastings-on-Hudson and Yonkers. It was the brain-child of Croton-on-Hudson Mayor Robert Elliott, who held the inaugural meeting of municipal officials at Van Cortlandt Manor House ten years ago.

The mission of HRTW mission is to increase public awareness of the river towns area as a tourism destination, enhancing the economic development of the communities while preserving their historic and environmental resources. To this end, HRTW publishes three free calendars of events with a list of attractions in the area, each year. It also developed a popular restaurant and attraction guide to the area.

Anyone interested in attending the 10th anniversary celebration for Historic River Towns of Westchester at the Stone Barns on June 13 should call (914) 232-6583 for reservations.