DERBY, N.Y. — Graycliff, a Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece on the shore of Lake Erie, but this Derby landmark also holds another history, a home to refugees. Graycliff Executive Director Anna Kaplan says, "The property was this cultural hub in WNY for the Hungarian community for a very long time".
It began in 1951, after the passing of the Martins, who had built the house. The property sat idle and was ultimately sold for a dollar to a Hungarian sect of priests called the Piarists, who had fled their country after WWII to escape persecution by the communists. In 1956, it became a refuge for those who fled following the Hungarian revolution.
One of those refugees was now-84 year old Eugene Hegedus. He still remembers the day he set foot on the Graycliff campus. As a teenager in Hungary, he became a Freedom Fighter against communist aggression.
On October 23, 1956, the short-lived, and ill-fated uprising began. Hegedus recalls, "On November 4, the Russians came in, and the brutality that happened in those two weeks." Then 17 years old, he saw the brutality first-hand and he knew he would soon become a target. "They would have done me in because I broke into the jail to free political prisoners, I broke into the K.G.B. headquarters, I pulled down the red star, I pushed out the propaganda." So he ultimately came to the inevitable conclusion, he had to leave. His voice wavers when he remembers what his mother told him. "I can't tell you to leave, and I'm not going to ask you to stay because she knew."
Hegedus rode his bike through the night to the border, made his way to Austria, and ultmately through refugee resettlement services, to the United States, looking over his shoulder the entire time. "Every time anyone in uniform showed up, I shuttered. you know, that they must be the secret police."
At the same time as all of this was happening, the Piarists were expanding their plans for a boarding house at Graycliff. They planned to open with a capacity of 25 boarders in September of '56, by November the plans for 25 beds became 25 bunks.
From the moment he arrived, Hegedus knew, this was his lifeline. "Just imagine how thankful I was when I arrived here. They welcomed me. There were about 14 Piarist fathers and I was in the son." He spent 6 years living at Graycliff, before carving out his own path forward in this new homeland. "When I think about what I was able to achieve, I have good life here. I have a good life here."
Hegedüs worked for 20 years as a mathematics teacher and eventually as assistant headmaster at the Calasanctius School, which was considered one of the best in Western New York. After that he worked for another 20 years as station manager for two local radio stations.
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