European Health Spa & Central Ave. Real Estate

Today, I took photos of a property that's been abandoned since I was a kid. It sits on Central Ave in Greenburgh, passed by by thousands each day going between White Plains, Hartsdale, Scarsdale and Yonkers. It used to be a health club and spa, a thriving one opened in the 1960's with this unique architecture. The statue out front is Atlas, but the globe he held up seems to have disappeared within the very recent past. One cool thing I always remember my grandmother and her freinds telling us about this place is that, at one time, they had a cage with a live tiger inside as a publicity thing. Eventually, animal rights activists made them remove it. For those familiar with the area, this is right across the street from the Candlelight Inn, next door to Burger King.

It suprises me that this property has sat vacant for so long. Then again, it's hard to get business built in Greenburgh, nearly impossible. I guess that explains the lack of diversity in retail on Central Ave, which is predominantly banks, furniture stores, standard chains like Staples, and other boring retail outlets, with hardly ANY down-to-earth resturants. I fault the town board and the NIMBY residents who seemingly enjoy paying high taxes and want churches, McMansions, and parks, but no businesses.

It would be nice to see this property restored and become a nice resturant or something like that, but I have a feeling it will be demolished and become yet another high-end furniture store.

A great site to check out abandoned Hudson Valley Ruins is:http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/yasinsac/links1.html

Anyways, here are the photos. As you can see, it is quite a large piece of property in the middle of prime real estate. It's its been sitting vacant for at least 25 years, if not more.