Ridgewood was the last neighborhood to be designed by Olmsted Brothers in the Utica area. Like most of the other local Olmsted-designed neighborhoods, it is home to a range of architectural styles, as many lots were purchased but left undeveloped until after the Great Depression, which began only a few years after Ridgewood’s launch; much of it is covered by homes built between 1928 and the early 1960s, with a significant sprinkling of houses from the late 1960s and 1970s.
Ridgewood is located principally on a bell-shaped plateau, originally part of the 150-acre Benton Farm, part of which local developer Hugh R. Jones Jones purchased in 1925; the farm was largely located in the Town of New Hartford but was annexed by the City of Utica in 1925 to accommodate the requirements of its transformation into a residential neighborhood (notably, giving it access to Utica fire and police protection). Sitting 100 feet above the region’s main north-south thoroughfare, Genesee Street, it is organized around gently curving roads that connect with Oneida Street and Higby Road, two older streets linking present-day Utica to New Hartford and other communities to the south.
Ridgewood contains several common green areas, most notably the crest-shaped park located in the road fittingly called “Crestway,” a focal point of the development. Another focal point is the school opened in 1934 and named for Hugh R. Jones, who did not live to see the completion of this, his last major land development project. Lots were available for purchase beginning in 1926.
By the time Hugh R. Jones began planning for Ridgewood with Olmsted Brothers, he had become quite accomplished at marketing such developments. In addition to the usual press releases and aggressive newspaper advertising, he sought to increase the ballyhoo and public attention by sponsoring a contest to name the streets in the development and even the development itself, a publicity stunt that inspired considerable public engagement.
One contestant even suggested a slogan for Ridgewood, for which she was granted a special prize: “Where City and Country Meet.” Although all of these developments were created in the expectation (on Olmsted’s part as well as that of local boosters) that Utica would become a sprawling metropolitan titan of 200,000-300,000 people by gobbling up suburban communities like New Hartford, that never came to be. To this day, Ridgewood’s slogan continues to offer a fitting description, as the neighborhood marks much of the southwestern boundary of the city of Utica and is still not far from farmland.
On the east side of Oneida Street, and also running along Higby Road on the south, is a similar development known as Benton Hills, which connects seamlessly into Ridgewood. Although it was not designed by Olmsted Brothers, the design of Benton Hills is consistent with the general Olmsted style; it is similar in this respect to Blaikie Heights, the neighborhood that was not designed by Olmsted Brothers but adjoins and complements Olmsted-designed Proctor Boulevard so admirably well. Indeed, before Benton Hills was fully launched, it was acquired by the Hugh R. Jones Company and amalgamated, for marketing purposes, with Ridgewood in the early 1930s. Like Ridgewood, it also contains many fine homes built before and soon after the Second World War.
The Utica Daily Press announcing the launch of Ridgewood (1927), as designed by Olmsted Brothers.
Aerial view of the Ridgewood development in 1929, shortly after the first few homes had been constructed in it (center right, off Higby and Arlington roads) and before the Stock Market Crash slowed construction. More homes would be built during the early 1930s, but the pace of construction diminished considerably until after the Second World War.
Newspaper advertisement announcing the winners of the contest to name the streets in Ridgewood and even the development itself (1927)
Newspaper ad regarding the sale of building lots in Ridgewood, published November 19, 1929, only two weeks after the Stock Market Crash that brought an end to Utica’s Olmsted-era. Although Olmsted Brothers did landscape designs for individual homeowners in the Utica area thereafter, they never again designed a neighborhood or any other institutional development in this community.