Hiram Halle and the Community

Hiram Halle is probably Pound Ridge's biggest benefactor. A successful businessman and inventor, he helped found the University in Exile at the New School for Social Research which rescued Jewish scholars, academics and artists from Europe during the Holocaust. Halle moved to Pound Ridge in 1929. He hoped to enhance the community via his philanthropy and his work restoring homes in the community. Benny Goodman was another resident and he even composed a melody entitled "Pound Ridge". By the 1940's, Pound Ridge's population rose to almost 800, and it continued to grow slowly and steadily to 4,000 in 1980 and 4,550 in 1990.