HomeMy WebLinkAbout01 Chapter pg 1-44 Govt., RSS, Town, VRB 2026-06-01 ...1004AMThe Development History of the Blind Brook School District, Village of Rye Brook
... and surrounding portions of the Towns of Rye, Harrison and Greenwich
King Street School (1868-1936)
Upper Ridge Street School (1936-1951) Lower Ridge Street School (1946-1951)
1950 Ridge Street School (opened September 1951) 1966 rendering of 1950, 1955, 1962 & 1966 RSS wings
Blind Brook High School/Middle School BMPRSS (with 2021 Main Office/ K-1/ Cafetorium addition)
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DEDICATION
Dedicated to my parents, Deborah Louise Camps Santon and Peter Santon, who purchased that new house
at 1 Pine Ridge Road in 1957 ... and to all the other parents, who also chose homes in school District No. 5
of the Town of Rye (now Blind Brook-Rye Union Free School District) that brought us kids together at the
Ridge Street School in 1962-1972, and allowed us to grow up in the Town of Rye and surrounding suburbs.
Pine Ridge brochure excerpts and Map of Pine Ridge, Section One, filed April 8, 1957, as Map 10964. Lot 4 highlighted.
1 Pine Ridge Road at Lincoln Avenue corner (Pine Ridge, Section One) in August 1957 (left) & November 1958 (right)
Me in Spring 1959 … March 1961 (my brother Mark, Tommy Byrnes, me, Sue Smith) … July 1974 (me, Mark & Paul)
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PREFACE
To commemorate the 20th reunion of my RSS Class of 1972 (grades K-9) on November 28, 1992, I prepared a 20-
page history of: (i) the Blind Brook-Rye Union Free School District (“BBRUFSD”), known as District No. 5 of
the Town of Rye prior to August 22, 1973; and (ii) our beloved Ridge Street School (“RSS”), which was renamed
as the Bruno M. Ponterio Ridge Street School (“BMPRSS”) on December 2, 1995, to honor our Principal.
As the Village of Rye Brook celebrated its 40th birthday in June 2022 and my RSS Class of 72 held its 50th reunion
at the school on June 25, 2022, I embarked on this expanded history paper, featuring content and visual aids not
readily available in 1992, without the resources of today’s internet and the time for additional research.
The RSS Class of 1972 had ~160 total members, who came and went over the 10 years that we attended RSS from
September 1962 through June 1972. We had 89 graduate the 9th grade on June 24, 1972, including 46 of us who
went all the way: Kindergarten through Ninth Grade. Ten years at the same bucolic, 15-acre, 390 N. Ridge Street
campus. Six classmates came to RSS only for ninth grade in 1971-1972, after attending K-8 parochial schools.
Our tenure at RSS was indeed special, with memorable educational and social experiences in an era of relative
prosperity. Most of us Baby Boomers lived in brand new or young housing stock, as large Ridge Street farms and
country estates were developed into 931 new homes between 1950-1966 alone.
Living in a bedroom community of predominantly new subdivisions (neighborhoods), we experienced life and the
coming of age in the suburbs on the New York/ Connecticut border, amidst groundbreaking 1960s & 1970s music,
fashion, culture, the Vietnam War ... and we did it together. It was our own version of The Wonder Years tv show.
It seemed as if our class kept expanding the RSS footprint. We watched the completion of the 1962 Primary Wing
(pre-fab, Butler building) from our 1962-63 kindergarten windows, as Bruno M. Ponterio arrived mid-year on
February 1, 1963, at age 31, as Assistant Principal, to start his own RSS journey. We grew up with Bruno, and he
with us. Bruno matured into the position of Principal on our watch, appointed at age 37 on July 1, 1970, as we
finished 7th grade. The school was named after him on December 2, 1995, as Bruno retired in January 1996 ...
a month shy of his 33 years spent at RSS. We were there for his first ten years. Our bond was undeniable.
We watched the 1966 “New Wing” and “New Cafeteria” being built in February 1965 to September 1966, while in 2nd
grade in the 1962 Primary Wing and in 3rd grade in the original 1950 RSS building. We were the initial fourth
graders to occupy that New Wing in September 1966. 60 years later in 2026 as we turn 69 years old, we still call it the
New Wing, even though there’s a new kid on the block: the 2021 Cafetorium/ K-1 classroom addition that replaced
the 1962 Primary Wing (with its Multi-Purpose Room) and the 1966 “New Cafeteria” with access tunnel, both of
which were demolished in Summer 2019 as part of the ~$44 million, 2019-2022 BMPRSS construction project.
My only regret is that Bruno, who passed away at age 92 on March 7, 2024, did not get to read this updated history.
1963 Kedalion yearbook, page 3 excerpt. This was 31-year-old, Bruno’s first RSS photo after only months on the job.
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Our RSS Class of 1972 was the final, ninth grade graduating class to go out-of-district for grades 10-12 on a tuition
basis, at taxpayer expense as part of the school district budget. 65 of the 89 graduates of our RSS Class of 1972 went
on to graduate from Mamaroneck High School in June 1975, with two others graduating a year early in 1974.
Several attended Port Chester High School. Others went to private schools or moved away. The class behind us at
RSS became the first graduating class of Blind Brook High School in June 1976, with a few graduating early in 1975.
Rye Brook and the BBRUFSD (formerly District No. 5 of the Town of Rye) are tied at the hip, as I explain the
post-WWII housing explosion that took place in District No. 5, which covers about two-thirds or ~70% of the
Village of Rye Brook or what we knew as the unincorporated portion of the Town of Rye, prior to Rye Brook’s July 7,
1982, incorporation as a village. This rural, northern-most section of the Town of Rye was simply the last village to
be incorporated within the Town of Rye … the same way the Village of Port Chester incorporated in 1868, and
the Village of Rye incorporated in 1904, before becoming the City of Rye effective January 1, 1942.
A myth dispelled herein is how people incorrectly thought that District No. 5 (Ridge Street School) and its
neighborhoods were somehow part of Port Chester, simply because, historically, District No. 5 students attended
Port Chester High School (“PCHS”) with District No. 4 students, until 1975.
Sharing the 10573 zip code with Port Chester (as Rye Brook still does), only adds to the confusion over our identity.
The familiar, yet false, refrain when the Blind Brook High School opened in September 1973 and when the Village
of Rye Brook incorporated in July 1982, was that they “broke away from” or “left” Port Chester. Not true!
The 3.5 square mile, Village of Rye Brook territory was never part of the 2.4 square mile, Village of Port Chester.
The BBRUFSD (formerly District No. 5 of the Town of Rye) was never part of the Village of Port Chester nor
part of the Port Chester-Rye UFSD (formerly District No. 4 of the Town of Rye), the latter covering the Village of
Port Chester in its entirety plus the southern ~30% of the Village of Rye Brook.
New York State school districts were laid out in 1812, and predated all villages, including the Village of Port
Chester, formed in 1868 … 56 years after the 1812 school district boundaries were laid out.
Another source of confusion is that Rye, NY refers to the City of Rye rather than the Town of Rye, which town
once included the 5.85-square mile, Village of Rye (1904-1942) before it became New York State’s youngest (and
smallest) city in 1942, and thus left the Town governance in 1942, after 282 years as part of the Town of Rye. As
also explained herein, villages are part of towns, but cities are not part of towns, and their governmental jurisdiction.
The Town of Rye was settled in 1660 after (a) Indigenous peoples’ treaties dated January 3, 1660 for Peningo Neck
(now Rye Neck section of the Town of Rye, the City of Rye, and part of Rye Brook) and June 29, 1660 (Manursing
Island) and (b) May 22, 1661, purchase by deed, of tracts to the north ... also parts of Rye Brook & Port Chester.
It is important to have a sense of our local history … and to pass it along to those who come after us.
Dean P. Santon
Ridge Street School, Class of 1972
Mamaroneck High School, Class of 1975
New York University, Class of 1979
Rye Brook Trustee 2001-2003, 2003-2005, 2008-2010
Town of Rye resident 1957-1975 before attending New York University
Village of Rye Brook resident 1998-2012
June 1, 2026
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Chapter 01
Our Identity: Understanding municipal entities in New York State
Where people live, where they go to school and their postal address are basic parts of their identity.
It gets complicated in Westchester County ... and in the Town of Rye.
Here is a crash course in the administrative divisions within New York State (“NYS”).
As of 2026, there are 62 counties in New York State (see below), which counties are subdivided into 62 cities and
933 towns … with there being ~529 villages within the 933 towns. Villages cannot be part of a city, as they can
only exist as a layer of government within a town. There are 10 American Indian reservations in New York State.
Towns can then be subdivided into:
(a) incorporated villages;
(b) census-designated places (known as “CDPs,” are identified by the US Census Bureau as a
concentration of population for statistical purposes);
(c) hamlets (while not defined in the NYS constitution or laws, are population concentration areas that
have been named, but are not incorporated, have no separate government and they derive their
services from the town or village they are situated in … hamlets may or may not also be CDPs); and
(d) other unofficial, named communities.
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In August 1664, the English fleet with troops under King Charles II (1664-1685 reign) and his brother, James, Duke
of York, captured the Dutch-ruled, New Amsterdam and the broader Dutch colony of New Netherland (1624-
1664). New Netherland was renamed as the Province of New York, after the Duke of York, as proprietor of the
proprietary colony. Nine years later in August 1673, the Dutch briefly re-captured New York, but after five months of
renewed fighting between the Netherlands and England as part of the Third Anglo-Dutch War, the territory
reverted to British rule and the land grant to the Duke of York in February 1674, again as the Province of New
York. It became a royal province when Charles II died and James succeeded his brother in February 1665 as: King of
England, as James II ... and as King of Scotland, as James VII (1685-1688), until James II was deposed in the 1688
Glorious Revolution in England.
Above Left: 1660 Afbeeldinge van de Stadt Amsterdam in Nieuw Neederlandt (Picture of the City of Amsterdam in New
Netherland) by cartographer Johannes Vingboons, based on surveys by Jacques Cortelyou. Later printed in 1916 and
called The Castello Plan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castello_Plan. Above Right: 1916 redraft of the 1660 Castello
Plan of New Amsterdam by John Wolcott Adams and Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes.
Below: 1684 New Netherland map by Nicolaes Visscher II, based upon a 1651 map by Jan Janssonius ... showing the
Dutch colony stretching from Delmarva peninsula to Cape Cod that eventually became the states of New York,
New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, and portions of Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, in whole or part.
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The Province of New York, chartered in 1664, 1683 and 1691 ... was substantially reduced in size as:
(i) Portions were transferred/ sold in 1664 to create the Province of New Jersey;
(ii) Lands were ceded in 1682 to Delaware and Pennsylvania;
(iii) Claims relinquished by New York in 1780 for land that became part of Northwest Territory in 1787;
Five years after the Revolutionary War (1775-1783), the New York Convention convened in Poughkeepsie
(Dutchess County) on June 17, 1788 ... which 5 ½ weeks later on July 26, 1788, ratified the U.S. Constitution, as
New York became the eleventh (11th) State of the United States of America.
1788 Map of The State of New York with its counties (as defined by Statute dated March 7, 1788),
by Hoffman & Knickerbocker, Albany, NY (New York State Archives, Series A0448-79), prepared pursuant to
recorded Indian treaties and deeds from 1703-1871. It shows Native American lands plus the following twelve (12)
counties of New York as of March 7, 1788: Albany, Clinton, Columbia, Dutchess, Kings, Orange, Queens,
Richmond, Suffolk, Ulster, Washington, Westchester ... plus the Indian reservations or respective Country(ies) of
the Mohawk, Oneida, Onandanga, Cayuga and Seneca nations in the northwest of the State of New York.
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Westchester County (named after Chester, England) was established during Colonial times by an act of the New
York General Assembly on November 1, 1683, as one of the initial twelve (12) counties of the Province of New
York (1664-1783). These original twelve counties were (1) Albany; (2) Duchess [NOTE: spelling later
changed to Dutchess]; (3) Kings; (4) New York; (5) Orange; (6) Queens; (7) Richmond; (8) Suffolk; (9)
Ulster; and (10) Westchester ... plus (11) Cornwall County [removed from the Province of New York in Spring
1687, transferred to Massachusetts in 1692 ... much of it part of present-day Maine after Maine seceded from the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts and became the 23rd state on March 15, 1820]; and (12) Dukes County
[Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and Elizabeth islands, which became part of Massachusetts on October 7, 1691].
1877 “Colton’s Map of the County of Westchester” showing 22 towns in Westchester County,
including: Cortlandt, Yorktown, Somers, North Salem, Lewisboro, Pound Ridge, Bedford, New Castle,
North Castle, Mount Pleasant, Ossining, Greenburgh, White Plains, Harrison, Rye, Scarsdale, Eastchester,
Mamaroneck, New Rochelle, Pelham, Yonkers and the eponymous Town of Westchester.
Westchester County once included what became The Bronx borough of New York City in 1898. The above 1877
map reflects: (i) the 1874 annexation by New York County of Westchester County’s former Towns of West Farms,
Morrrisania and Kingsbridge that became the West Bronx (see the red outlined area at lower left of above
map); and (ii) the 1895 annexation of the eponymous Town of Westchester, together with portions of the towns of
Eastchester and Pelham, and City Island that became the East Bronx. In 1914, Bronx County was created as a
coterminous county, with the Borough of The Bronx, leaving New York County to then include only Manhattan.
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As of 2026, Westchester County has 48 municipalities (municipal corporations) consisting of: 6 cities, including Rye,
NY that is both the smallest and most recent city (1942) in New York; 19 towns, which contain 23 incorporated
villages, 3 of which are coterminous town-villages. A coterminous town/ village is where an incorporated village
occupies the entire geographic area of a town. Three (3) of New York State’s five (5) coterminous town/villages are
located within Westchester County. They are Harrison, Mount Kisco and Scarsdale.
In addition, 43 portions of Westchester towns are known as census-designated places (“CDPs”), hamlets and other
named communities that are part of towns, but not situated within the limits of any incorporated village … such as:
Armonk, Bedford (CDP), Bedford Hills, Chappaqua, Goldens Bridge, Hartsdale, Hawthorne, Heritage Hills,
Katonah, North White Plains, Shrub Oak, Thornwood, Valhalla and Yorktown Heights, to name a bunch.
Purchase, NY is a hamlet within the coterminous Town/ Village of Harrison.
Eight (8) of the nineteen (19) Westchester towns have no incorporated villages within them. They are
Bedford, Lewisboro, New Castle, North Castle, North Salem, Pound Ridge, Somers and Yorktown.
Some towns (and counties) in NYS share a village. For example, the Village of Mamaroneck straddles the border of
the Towns of Rye and Mamaroneck, with the portion within the Town of Rye being known as the Rye Neck section
of the Town of Rye, which happens to have its own school district that also serves the Greenhaven section of the City
of Rye. The Village of Briarcliff Manor is situated within the Towns of Mount Pleasant and Ossining.
Municipalities and Place Names map by Westchester County Planning Department
https://planning.westchestergov.com/images/stories/MapPDFS/munmapcolor.pdf
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The Town of Rye was settled in 1660 by Greenwich, CT residents Peter Disbrow, John Coe and Thomas Stedwell,
pursuant to Indian treaties ... the territory later being named after Rye in Sussex, England in 1665.
The Rye township pre-dated: (a) the formation of Westchester County in 1683; (b) the Town of Rye incorporating
in 1788 when New York became the 11th State to ratify the U.S. Constitution and join the Union on July 26, 1788;
and (c) the Villages of Port Chester, Mamaroneck, Rye and Rye Brook, incorporating respectively in 1868, 1895,
1904 and 1982.
When the Town of Rye incorporated in July 1788 along with all other towns throughout the new State of New
York, White Plains and Harrison, which had been precincts within the Rye township, became their own towns.
Once the Village of Rye incorporated effective January 1, 1942, as the City of Rye, following NYS legislative
approval on March 15, 1940, under Section 11 of Chapter 505 of the Laws of 1940, the City of Rye left the Town of
Rye, since cities cannot be part of a town layer of government.
Only the three (3) Villages of Rye Brook, Port Chester and the Rye Neck portion of the Village of Mamaroneck
remain part of the Town of Rye in 2026.
Settled 1660 (incorporated 1788) ….........… 1683 ………..………….......………. 1788
1868 ..……................................. 1895 …………… 1904 (Village); 1942 (City … leaves the Town) …......… 1982
1696 (patent); 1788 (Town); 1975 (Town/Village) .......................... 1683 (settled); 1788 (Town); 1915 (City)
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1860 Map of the Town of Rye by surveyor Ephraim Sours,
filed October 3, 1860, as Map No. 365 with the Westchester County Register’s Office
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Map of the Town of Rye dated January 1943, prepared by Westchester County Department of Planning,
from their Atlas of County-owned land, which are highlighted in GREEN such as the Westchester County Airport,
Hutchinson River Parkway, Playland Parkway, Playland Amusement Park. Courtesy of Westchester County
Archives (Resource Identifier No. A0493_Page058). Also roughly depicted are streets from recorded subdivisions as
of January 1943. NOTE: While City of Rye streets are shown in this 1943 map, once the Village of Rye incorporated
as the City of Rye effective January 1, 1942, following NYS legislative approval on March 15, 1940 under Section 11 of
Chapter 505 of the Laws of 1940, that territory left the Town of Rye layer of government, even though the County
may still own roads, highways, parkways, municipal land, sewer infrastructure, and parkland such as Playland.
https://collections.westchestergov.com/digital/collection/ctyownlands/id/58/rec/58
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Invaluable 1848, 1871 & 1886 local history books by Bolton, Baird & Scharf
Robert Bolton, Jr. (1814-1877), born in Bath, England, the eldest of 14 children of Rev. Robert Bolton, Mr. Bolton
immigrated to Bronxville, NY in 1836 at age 22. As a passionate historian, author and teacher, he spent 30 years
researching and writing books about Westchester County, its municipalities and the Episcopal Church. Ordained as
a deacon in 1868 and presbyter eight months later in 1869, he was rector of the St. John’s Church (Episcopal) in
South Salem, NY in northern Westchester County at the time of his death in 1877. Four of Bolton’s brothers and
his father (Robert, Sr.) were all clergymen. Bolton covers the broader, local historical territory of the County in his
two-volume (1,141 combined pages), book A History of the County of Westchester ... From Its First Settlement to
the Present Time, published in 1848 ... 23 years prior to Baird’s Chronicle of a Border Town: History of Rye 1660-1870 ...
including Harrison and White Plains till 1788. Pages 607-608 of J. Thomas Scharf’s 1886 History of Westchester County
book, provides an excellent biography of his fellow Westchester historian, Robert Bolton.
Charles W. Baird, historian and Reverend of the Rye Presbyterian Church on the Boston Post Road in Rye, NY
from 1861 until his death in 1887, authored a 570-page book: Chronicle of a Border Town: History of Rye, 1660-
1870, including Harrison and White Plains till 1788, with illustrations by Abram Hosier, as published in 1871 by
Anson D.F. Randolph and Company (see Harbor Hill Books 1983 second printing cover below). It is an invaluable
resource of local history and the genealogy of the early families of the Town of Rye. Baird’s book focused on: (i) the
Town of Rye (and Harrison & White Plains as they were once part of the Town of Rye); and (ii) Fairfield County,
Connecticut where the Town of Rye, itself, was once part of during colonial times.
J. Thomas Scharf, A.M. LL.D., as both author and editor of a collection of writings by other historians (including
Baird’s 1871 History of Rye) also covers the broader subject matter of Westchester County his two-volume (1,663
combined pages), History of Westchester County, New York, including Morrisania, King’s Bridge and West
Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, published in 1886 ... 25 years after Baird’s book.
Left Center & Far Left: Title pages for the 1848 A History of the County of Westchester book by Robert Bolton, Jr.
Volume 1 (559 pages) and Volume 2 (582 pages, including Index and Errata pages). See online links below.
Volume 1: https://archive.org/details/historyofcountyo01bolt/page/n29/mode/2up
Volume 2: https://archive.org/details/historyofcountyo02inbolt/mode/2up
Bolton, Robert. A History of the County of Westchester, from Its First Settlement to the Present Time. Printed by
A.S. Gould, 1848.
Center: Dust cover for the 1983 re-printing under the Harbor Hill Books imprint of Baird’s 570-page, History of Rye
book, published in 1871. Online link to book: https://archive.org/details/chronicleofborde00bair/mode/1up .
Baird, Charles W. (1974) [1st. pub. Anson D.F. Randolph & Co.: 1871]. Chronicle of A Border Town: History of Rye
1660–1870, including Harrison and White Plains till 1788. Harbor Hill Books.
Right Center & Far Right: Title pages for the 1886 History of Westchester County book by John Thomas Scharf.
Volume 1 (893 pages, including Index) and Volume 2 (772 pages, including Index). 1992 re-printing by Picton Press.
Online Link for: Volume 1: https://archive.org/details/historyofwestche00scha/page/n7/mode/2up
Online Link for Volume 2: https://archive.org/details/historyofwestche00scha_0/page/772/mode/2up
Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. History of Westchester County: New York, Including Morrisania, Kings Bridge,
and West Farms, Which Have Been Annexed to New York City. Philadelphia: L.E. Preston & Co., 1886.
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The breadth and depth of information that Baird provides in his 1871 book about the Town of Rye, is simply
incredible. Offering information and insight, not otherwise available to us in 2026. Once you become familiar with
the geography and families living in the Towns or Rye and Harrison at that time (1660-1870), and their land
holdings through research of recorded deeds, corroborating visual aids such as land surveys and atlas maps prepared
by surveyors, things fall into place. Baird provides the connective tissue, by adding the context of the genealogy
through his research that must have included oral histories and in person interviews of people he had access to
through his position as a local clergyman. Through Baird, we gain insight into the townspeople and how they lived.
There is local history all around us in Westchester County, dating back to colonial times and the American
Revolution. For example, on page 59 (see excerpt below) of Baird’s 1871 History of Rye book, he references how the
Rye township granted to Robert Bloomer, Jr.: (i) in 1701, free use of five acres of land at “the lower end of Hogpen
Ridge, being near the lower falls of Blind Brook” and (ii) in 1707, use of the stream itself to erect a mill or mills.
Pages 59 excerpt of the 1983 second printing under the Harbor Hill Books imprint of Baird’s 570-page book,
originally published in 1871: Baird, Charles W. (1974) [1st. pub. Anson D.F. Randolph & Co.: 1871]. Chronicle of A
Border Town: History of Rye 1660–1870, including Harrison and White Plains till 1788. Harbor Hill Books.
NOTE: The book is also available online at: https://archive.org/details/chronicleofborde00bair/mode/1up .
This Blind Brook lower falls and mill site is where the east and west (main) branches of the Blind Brook merge at the
south side of Bowman Avenue, surrounding The Pointe townhouses (10 units clustered in 3 buildings), built in 2014-
2016, opposite the Port Chester Middle School’s baseball diamond at 113 Bowman Avenue, which itself was built in
1966 as The Port Chester Junior High School on a 24-acre tract between Bowman Avenue and Westchester
Avenue. Following up on the information on Baird’s pages 197 and 397 (starting on page 20 hereof), in September
2000, I tracked down recorded deeds/ maps and Court documentation and visited the 18th century burying ground
that Baird described on page 197 of his book, which was relocated in 1966 by the Port Chester school district from
the middle of their proposed 113 Bowman Avenue baseball field, into an elevated wooded area to the west.
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Following two centuries of operations as Bloomer’s Mill and as Park’s Mill when the Park family (Jesse Park ... then
John Augustus Park & his wife Julia A. Park ... and finally, by their daughter Julia A. Park Treadwell, as part of a
~43-acre, Park Farm at Bowman Avenue, on November 22, 1911, Julia A. Treadwell Park sold the ~43-acre farm at
Old White Plains Road (re-named as Bowman Avenue in about 1923) in the Towns of Rye & Harrison, containing
Park’s Mill, to Port Chester contractor, Frank C. Mertz. In January 1924, Mertz sold the former Park Farm tract with
its Bowman Avenue Dam, mill operations and ice houses to The Port Chester Hygeia Ice Company, who harvested ice
from the upper pond behind the dam. Four years later, in April 1928, they sold the property straddling the Towns
of Rye and Harrison, with the Blind Brook running through it, to the Westchester Service Corporation.
1910 G.W. Bromley atlas, Plate 37 map shows the Park’s Mill location at Old White Plains Road (re-named in July
1923 as Bowman Avenue) where the two branches of the Blind Brook the brook and upper pond with dam.
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In 1940, the City of Rye purchased the Westchester Service Corporation tract consisting of ~11 acres of Town of
Rye (Rye Brook) land at 250 Bowman Avenue plus ~16 acres of adjoining Town of Harrison land, with the main
branch of the Blind Brook running through the ~27-acre tract where Rye City owns the operable Bowman Avenue
Dam with sluicegate, which they use for flood control purposes to help mitigate downstream flooding of Rye City
properties. Purchased for $20,000 from the Westchester Service Corporation on June 15, 1940 by the Village of Rye
(before the Village became the City of Rye in 1942), the tract originally included an additional 5.626 acres in the
Town/ Village of Harrison that were subsequently condemned by NYS on March 10, 1959 for the construction of
the Cross Westchester Expressway known today as I-287 that opened in December 1960 to connect the New
England Thruway (I-95) with the Tappan Zee Bridge that opened in 1955.
Excerpt of 1929 G.M. Hopkins atlas, Vol. 1, Plate 41, showing the convergence of the west and east branches of the
Blind Brook just south of Old White Plains Road (re-named as Bowman Avenue in about 1923). The centerline of the
west branch of the Blind Brook, is the municipal boundary between the Towns of Rye and Harrison
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2025 Westchester GIS Tax Parcel mapping showing parcels owned by the City of Rye (above left; ~11 acres with
Bowman Avenue Dam (see arrow) at 250 Bowman Avenue, Rye Brook) and adjacent The Pointe townhouses (above
right) ... plus 101 Bowman Avenue, Harrison parcels (below left on CAI Technologies tax mapping via Harrison tax
assessor website), which ~16 acres owned by the City of Rye, flank the 5.626-acre strip condemned on March 10,
1959 by NYS (below right) for construction of the Cross Westchester Expressway (I-287), opening December 1960.
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The Pointe townhouses site at Bowman Avenue was historically known as the “Keyhole Site” because of the shape of
the resulting lower pond of the Blind Brook created after Barber & Coccola, Inc., a Rye City-based roadway
construction/ paving contractor, purchased the 4.5-acre Bowman Avenue site in 1948 and operated a quarry there
until 1970s before selling the property in 1993 to my friend and RSS Class of 1972 alumnus, Kip Konigsberg, for
re-development. The quarry’s excavation activities created the lower pond where the two branches of the Blind
Brook converge just east of the longstanding upper pond and dam at the main (westerly) branch of the Blind Brook.
Excerpt of March 28, 1990, flyover survey #1990_1112_0_38 by Keystone Aerial Surveys, Inc. from the Historical
Aerial Photograph Collection -- Westchester County GIS via the Westchester County Department of Planning
website, which shows (a) the Ridge Street dam at the eastern branch of the Blind Brook, with a pond historically
known as Price’s Pond, dating back to 1915-1940, when it was part of Edgar F. Price’s Knollwood Farm ... shown here
as the centerpiece of the 1989 Hidden Falls “conservation subdivision” with homes under construction in this photo;
(b) the “lake” created at the 1986 General Foods headquarters property at 800 Westchester Avenue fed by the
western branch of the Blind Brook that is the boundary between the Towns of Rye & Harrison; and (c) the Bowman
Avenue Dam at the upper pond that flows into the lower pond wrapping around the peninsula of The Pointe
townhouses ... across Bowman Avenue from the PCMS baseball field.
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Excerpts of: (a) 1901 G.W. Bromley atlas, Plate 26 (above left); (b) 1910 G.W. Bromley atlas, Plate 37 (above right)
showing: (i) the upper pond at Bowman Avenue created by the Bowman Avenue Dam and (ii) the Ridge Street pond
with dam, known since the 1920s as Price’s Pond, and as the centerpiece of the 1989 Hidden Falls subdivision ... and
(c) 1893 Joseph R. Bien atlas, Plate 17 showing four (4) ponds at Blind Brook tributaries. Alexander J. Cox’s Port
Chester Hygeia Ice Company had ice harvesting operations with ice houses at these ponds. Two minor ponds: the
original 10-acre portion of St. Mary’s Cemetery at Ridge Street and one meadow of the vast Thomas Lyon Farm (now
the PCMS site) did not remain. The two ponds with operating dams remaining in 2026 are: (i) the Bowman Avenue
Dam on the western (main) branch of the Blind Brook at 250 Bowman Avenue ... used in early 1700s-early 1900s for
grist mill operations; and (ii) the dam at the eastern branch of the Blind Brook at the Hidden Falls subdivision.
19
Above: Like the Bowman Avenue Dam, the third dam in Rye Brook is at the western (main) branch of the Blind
Brook, just south of Anderson Hill Road. Owned by The Blind Brook Club since the club’s inception in 1916, it
regulates a pond to irrigate their golf course. This dam is at the southwest corner of The Blind Brook Club property,
adjacent to 4th hole green/ 5th hole tee box, the PepsiCo HQ site, and 145/149 Country Ridge Drive homes, as
shown in the above excerpt of April 10, 1995, flyover survey #1995_14_14_023 by Photo Science, Inc. from the
Historical Aerial Photograph Collection --Westchester County GIS via Westchester County Department of Planning
website. Below: Map of Land Belonging to John H. Schmaling in the Town of Harrison dated August 1, 1900, prepared
by surveyor Frederick S. Odell and filed on June 29, 1905 as Map 1521 with the Westchester Register (now the
Westchester County Clerk) covering a 4.5-acre parcel with locations of The Blind Brook Club Dam, pond, circa-1900
ice house next to a roadside dwelling, and the foundation of a former ice house shown by an adjacent pond.
20
The private burial site that Baird references on page 197 (see below) of his 1871 book, was where the Port Chester
school district built its baseball diamond in 1966. It includes tombstones of R.B. (1771) that Baird presumed was
probably Robert Bloomer ... and Nathaniel Brown (1801).
In order to build the proposed baseball field near Bowman Avenue, these and other 18th century tombstones were
relocated in 1966 by the PCRUFSD to the elevated, woods at the southwesterly portion of their 24-acre, site at 113
Bowman Avenue in Rye Brook, which was built as the Port Chester Junior High School (grades 7 & 8) in 1966,
before converting to the Port Chester Middle School (grades 6-8) in Summer 1982 for a September 1982 debut.
Pages 197 & 397 excerpts from the 1983 second printing under the Harbor Hill Books imprint of Baird’s 570-page
book, originally published in 1871: Baird, Charles W. (1974) [1st. pub. Anson D.F. Randolph & Co.: 1871]. Chronicle of
A Border Town: History of Rye 1660–1870, including Harrison and White Plains till 1788. Harbor Hill Books.
NOTE: The book is also available online at: https://archive.org/details/chronicleofborde00bair/mode/1up .
21
The Port Chester school district obtained permission from the New York State Supreme Court (“NYSSC”) in a
November 18, 1965 “Order” with November 19, 1965 “Stipulation” (see these documents below) to relocate
these and other historic tombstones, so District No. 4 could build the baseball field near Bowman Avenue.
In September 2000, I publicly brought these documents to the attention of both Rye Brook and PCRUFSD
officials, since the school district was not in compliance with the 1965 NYSSC Order that required them to
maintain the burial site in perpetuity and provide public access to said cemetery. In Spring 2001, the PCRUFSD did
the right thing and cleared pathways through the thick underbrush to comply with the 1965 Court order by
maintaining the relocated burial ground and public access thereto. Sadly, 25 years later in 2026, the underbrush is
thicker than ever at the wooded, southwestern portion of PCMS site and public access to these historic tombstones
is not being provided as the 1965 Court order requires in perpetuity. Thick vines are climbing (and will gradually
kill) mature trees in the woods, if not cut. The PCRUFSD Board of Education and district staff need to ensure full
compliance with the November 1965 Court order.
Survey of Property to be conveyed to Union Free School District No. 4 in the Town of Rye, NY dated December 23, 1963,
as prepared by surveyors, J.A. Kirby Co., shows the 18th century burial ground near Bowman Avenue that was
relocated in 1966 into the wooded area, west of the left outfield of the PCMS baseball field, fenced in with a 4-foot
high, chained link fence.
22
23
24
As Baird details on page 56 of his 1871 book, to ratify the 1660 Peningo Neck and other American Indian treaties
(land purchases) .... on September 4, 1680, Robert Bloomer, Hachaliah Brown and Thomas Merritt purchased by
recorded deed from an Indian chief named Maramaking (also known as Lame Will or Limping Will), a tract of land
that the Indians called Eaukecaupacuson (translated into English as “Hogg penn ridge”), which tract extended
north from where the two branches of the Blind Brook converge at the south side of present day Bowman Avenue
surrounding The Pointe townhomes in Rye Brook, across Bowman Avenue from the Port Chester Middle School
campus.
Above Left: Graphic from page 1 of Charles W. Baird’s 1871 book: Chronicle of a Border Town: History
of Rye, 1660-1870, including Harrison and White Plains till 1788, showing the 1660-1662 “Indian Purchases”
detailed on pages 8-18 and 50-61 of Baird’s book [https://archive.org/details/chronicleofborde00bair/mode/1up ].
Above Right: Excerpt of Map 1-2 of Rye Brook and Environs, prepared April 2012 by the Westchester
County Department of Planning, highlighting the three (3) current villages within the Town of Rye:
Village of Rye Brook; Village of Port Chester and Rye Neck section of the Village of Mamaroneck
(see full map on page 28).
25
List of Indigenous people treaties/ deeds for land in Towns of Rye & Harrison
The series of land purchases from the 16th century Indigenous peoples known as the Munsee-speaking Lenape or
Algonkian nation and the Siawanoy (further described in a March 7, 2024 article by Paul Hicks in The Rye
Record: https://ryerecord.com/native-americans-rye/ ... and by the Rye Historical Society at:
https://www.ryehistory.org/brief-history) for tracts in Rye and Harrison, as detailed in Baird’s Chapter II: The Indian
Purchases 1660-1662 on pages 8-18 and Chapter VII: Moving Out Into the Woods; 1670-1720 on pages 50-61 of his 1871
book, were typically made by individuals representing group(s) of proprietors who were then given shares or
allotments of the tracts of land acquired for distribution to individual proprietors to: (i) use as “home lots”
[homesteads]; (ii) develop as farms; and (iii) subdivide for use by family members; or to (iv) sell to others ... as
Baird chronicles so well.
(1) January 3, 1660: “First Purchase on Peningo Neck” by deed to Peter Disbrow, John Coe and
Thomas Stedwell of Greenwich, CT, representing 18 proprietors, whom Baird
lists on page 83 as “The Eighteen” or “The Eighteen Proprietors of Peningo
Neck,” covering the lower part of Peningo Neck, between the Blind Brook and
Byram River, and running north from the Rye Neck peninsula to the current
Port Chester southern boundary and in Rye Brook, just south of Bowman
Avenue where the two branches of the Blind Brook merge, surrounding The
Pointe townhouses.
(2) June 29, 1660: Deed for Manursing Island (Indian name: Manussing) to Peter Disbrow, John
Coe and Thomas Stedwell of Greenwich, CT on behalf of The Eighteen.
(3) May 22, 1661: “Will’s First Purchase” deed for what is now the northern portions of Rye
Brook and Port Chester, bounded on the west by the Blind Brook and on the
east by the Byram River ... known as Byram Ridge. Serving 34 proprietors.
(4) November 8, 1661: Deed for Budd’s Neck (Indigenous people name: Apawamis) to John Budd
for land west of the Blind Brook, now Rye Neck and part of Harrison.
(5) November 11, 1662: Two deeds to John Budd for (i) Hen Island, Pine Island & Scotch Caps plus
(ii) west Rye Neck to Mamaroneck River adjoining Apawamis (Budd’s Neck).
(6) June 2, 1662: Area north/northwest of Apawamis (now Harrison and part of White Plains),
Purchased by John Budd, Peter Disbrow, Thomas Coe and Thomas Stedwell.
(7) April 29, 1666: Confirmation Deed to John Budd (alone) for the abovementioned area
north/northwest of Apawamis (now Harrison and part of White Plains),
which tract was purchased four years earlier in June 1662 by John Budd, Peter
Disbrow, Thomas Coe and Thomas Stedwell.
(8) September 4, 1680: Referred to as “Lame Will’s Purchase,” or “Will’s First Purchase”,
Robert Bloomer, Hachaliah Brown and Thomas Merit [Merritt] essentially
re-purchased from Indigenous peoples chief Maramaking (known as Lame
Will or Limping Will) what appears to be the same lands already purchased
two decades years earlier in 1661, with the same Native American chief. Not
uncommon apparently for settlers to have to pay again for the same land.
NOTE: See next page for the excerpt from page 56 of Baird’s 1871 History of
Rye book, of the 1681 Lame Will’s Purchase deed for land that became known
by the Indigenous name of Eaukecaupacuson translated into English as Hogg
penn Ridge. A name later spelled in 17th/ 18th century deeds as Hog-pen Ridge.
26
Page 56 excerpt from Charles W. Baird’s 1871 book: Chronicle of a Border Town: History of Rye, 1660-1870,
including Harrison and White Plains till 1788, showing text of the deed dated September 4, 1680.
(8) October 8, 1681: “Will’s 2nd Purchase” deed to Robert Bloomer, Hachaliah Brown and
Thomas Merrit from Indigenous people chief named Maramaking aka Lame
Will for a tract of land situated to the north of the first purchase, and within
the present Town of North Castle (Armonk).
27
Page 58 from Charles W. Baird’s 1871 book: Chronicle of a Border Town: History of Rye, 1660-1870,
including Harrison and White Plains till 1788, showing text of the deed dated September 4, 1680.
28
Map 1-2: Rye Brook and Environs, prepared in April 2012 by the Westchester County Department of Planning,
highlighting the three (3) Villages within the Town of Rye: (1) Village of Rye Brook; (2) Village of Port Chester;
and (3) Rye Neck section of the Village of Mamaroneck. Once the Village of Rye (incorporated in 1904) became a
city on January 1, 1942, as the City of Rye following NYS legislative approval on March 15, 1940 under Section 11 of
Chapter 505 of the Laws of 1940, it left the Town of Rye, as cities cannot be parts of a town.
29
Harrison and White Plains ... once part of the Rye settlement
White Plains [originally known as “the White Plains” from the Munsee-speaking, Weckquaeskeck (also spelled
Wickquasgeck) band of the Wappinger tribe’s word Quarropas, meaning “white marshes”] and Harrison, had been
part of the Rye settlement, pursuant to Indian treaties/ deeds detailed on pages 23-25 hereof.
White Plains was: (i) settled in 1683; (ii) established as the County seat in 1757; (iii) incorporated as a Town in 1788
when New York State achieved statehood; (iv) as a Village in 1866; and (v) became the City of White Plains in 1915.
Harrison (i) received its English patent, issued to John Harrison in 1696; (ii) incorporated as the Town of Harrison
in 1788 when New York became the 11th state of the Union; and (iii) became a coterminous Town/ Village in 1975.
1696 (patent); 1788 (Town); 1975 (Town/Village) .......................... 1683 (settled); 1788 (Town); 1915 (City)
1893 Joseph R. Bien atlas, Plate 17 showing Towns of White Plains, Harrison & Rye, including 1868 Village of Port
Chester, 1982 Village of Rye Brook, 1942 City of Rye and Rye Neck section of Village of Mamaroneck). Note the
inset labeled as Village of Rye, even though Rye officially incorporated as a village in 1904, before its 1942 city status.
30
1867 F.W. Beers atlas, Plate 11 of Mamaroneck, Scarsdale, White Plains, Harrison.
31
Revolutionary War era estate of John Thomas, became 1973 SUNY Purchase
Painting by Charles Albert Harker of the first New York public reading of the Declaration of Independence,
on the steps of the White Plains courthouse on July 11, 1776, by Judge John Thomas, Jr., the first judge of the
Colonial Court of Common Pleas of Westchester County from 1743-1776, who owned a large farm and homestead in Rye
Woods ... now the central section of the SUNY Purchase College site at Anderson Hill Road. In this painting, Judge
Thomas is flanked by another prominent Town of Rye resident, 30½ year old, John Jay (1745-1829).
The Jay family had large Westchester County homesteads (farms) in both Rye and Katonah. The following link:
https://jayheritagecenter.org/land-ownership-residents/ from Rye’s Jay Heritage Center, provides an excellent
timeline of how John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1789-1795), appointed by President George
Washington, and the 2nd Governor of New York State (1795-1801) ... came as an infant in early 1746, to live in Rye at the
Boston Post Road (Westchester Turnpike), backing up to Milton Harbor overlooking the Long Island Sound. His father Peter
Jay (1704-1782), acquired ~400 acres of land, starting in 1745, from original Town of Rye proprietors, the Budd family. John
Jay retired to the sprawling Katonah homestead (Town of Bedford) in 1801, where he died in 1829. 60 acres of the Katonah
estate and 23 acres of the Rye estate, with their respective Jay family dwellings, remain today as both National Historic
Landmarks, and are operated by New York State as historic parkland sites.
As Baird details in his 1871 History of Rye book, after several failed attempts, British soldiers captured Judge John
Thomas at his home in Rye Woods on March 22, 1777, and imprisoned him in the New York Provost (old Sugar
House) in Brooklyn, where he died 41 days later, on May 2, 1777. Judge Thomas is interred at the Trinity Churchyard
at 75 Broadway, opposite Wall Street in Manhattan.
Judge John Thomas (1705-1777) and his wife, Abigail Sands Thomas (1708-1782), had four daughters and three
sons. Two of their sons were active during the Revolutionary War. Colonel [later promoted to Major General]
Thomas Thomas (1745-1824) commanded the regiment of Patriots that included his brother, John Thomas III,
which fought the British and protected the County against marauders known as “Cowboys” and “Skinners” ... who
also served as High Sheriff of Westchester County in 1778.
32
In November 1777, a group of Simcoe’s Rangers, a Loyalist military unit under British Lt. Colonel John Graves
Simcoe, captured Colonel Thomas Thomas as he fled his home at [Anderson Hill Road] and imprisoned him in the
old Sugar House in New York City. Colonel Thomas was later released and inherited the family farm and
homestead at Rye Woods where he died half a century later in 1824, at age 79. Adjacent to the Neuberger Museum
at SUNY Purchase College is the Thomas Family Cemetery and monument (obelisk) to the promoted Major General
Thomas Thomas. With no children, the Rye Woods estate was left to the heir of Major General Thomas’ late sister
Charity Thomas Ferris (1734-1809) ... her grandson, Thomas Thomas Ferris.
FUN FACT: Judge John Thomas’ wife, Abigail Sands Thomas, a daughter of John Sands II (1684-1763) and
granddaughter of James Sands (1622-1695), who emigrated from England to Plymouth, MA in 1658, before he
(James Sands) was one of a reported 16 settlers of Block Island in 1661. Thirty years later in 1691, Abigail’s father,
John Sands II, bought farmland in Cow Neck, NY (Town of Hempstead) or what became Sands Point at the North
Shore of Long Island. Both Judge John Thomas and his wife Abigail were born in the Town of Hempstead, where
John’s father, Rev. John Thomas, was a local clergyman.
Undated photo of the Colonial era, Thomas Family homestead within the large estate at the north side of Harrison
Avenue (re-named as Anderson Hill Road). Photo via Westchester County Historical Society (WCHS Call #M-924).
See the 1848 map (land survey) on the next page, showing 336.21 acres of the homestead of the
late Major General Thomas Thomas auctioned off in March 1849.
33
Map of Property of Thomas T. Ferris in Harrison NY, the late homestead of Major General Thomas Thomas, surveyed
October 1848 by Stephen Brown, and filed on March 24, 1849, with the Westchester County Register (County Clerk)
as Map 273. The eight lots aggregating 336.21 acres were publicly auctioned on March 1, 1849. Lots 1-7 are situated
on the north side of Anderson Hill Road (then known as Harrison Avenue), and Lot 8 with a mill alongside the
Blind Brook on the south side of the roadway on land owned in 2024 by PepsiCo. Lot No. 7 contains the Thomas
Homestead at the north end of Thomas Street (re-named Lincoln Avenue) and the Thomas Family Cemetery that is
adjacent to the Neuberger Museum at Purchase College, where Major General Thomas Thomas of the Continental
Army was buried in 1824 on the property he resided at and inherited from his parents.
34
The Battle of White Plains ... October 28, 1776
February 1777 military map by Claude Joseph Sauthier of British & Continental army troop movements
(October 12 to November 28, 1776) re: the October 28, 1776, Battle of White Plains at Chatterton’s Hill near
the Bronx River ... commemorated by a 1.3-acre, park at 76 Battle Avenue in White Plains.
35
New York/ Connecticut Boundary in Dispute
The boundary between the Town of Rye (NY) and the Town of Greenwich (CT) with its Connecticut panhandle
shape, has remained largely since 1731, as we know it today. Minor boundary survey disputes continued beyond the
220-year period covered in Baird’s 1871 book.
Baird’s Chapter XII (Harrison’s Purchase: 1695-1778) on pages 96-104 therein, explains how the Greenwich residents
who settled Rye through the aforementioned 1660-1681 Indian treaties/ deed purchases, were furious with the 1696
granting by King William III of John Harrison’s claim to territory that they previously purchased from the Native
Americans ... and so Rye approached the Governor of the Connecticut and seceded to the Connecticut colony
until King William III ordered in 1700 that Rye revert to being part of the Province of New York. Chapter XIII (The
Boundary Dispute; 1650-1870) on pages 105-127 of Baird’s book, details a variety of boundary disputes with
Connecticut involving Rye and Bedford, NY and Greenwich, CT.
The illustration below shows the series of boundaries between New York and Connecticut, in dispute for over 200
years from 1650 past 1870, when Charles W. Baird published his 1871 book (available online at
https://archive.org/details/chronicleofborde00bair/page/124/mode/2up?view=theater ).
Illustration by Abram Hosier on page 105 of Charles W. Baird’s book Chronicle of a Border Town: History of
Rye, Westchester County, New York, 1660-1870, including Harrison and the White Plains Till 1788
36
As you travel along King Street between Rye Brook’s Hillandale Road and upper Lincoln Avenue that separates
BelleFair from the Westchester County airport, the King Street roadway weaves in and out of New York and
Connecticut ... often with the roadway straddling the boundary of the two states.
FUN FACT: Speaking of Lincoln Avenue. Prior to the 1967-1972 re-development of Hugh Chisholm’s ~500-
acre, Strathglass Farm to become the SUNY Purchase campus, the 3.8-mile long, Lincoln Avenue ... beginning at
Westchester Avenue and continuing 2 miles north through the Towns of Rye and Harrison to Anderson Hill Road
(then, a 4-way stop sign intersection prior to SUNY Purchase). Lincoln Avenue extends another 1.8 miles north
through Hugh Chisholm’s Strathglass Farm (now SUNY’s Purchase College), with a 90-degree turn east, continuing
beyond the farm (now the college campus) along the Westchester County Airport’s southerly border, to King Street.
As a child in the early 1960s, I vividly remember driving with my father from our home at 1 Pine Ridge Road
(corner of Lincoln Avenue), to get Halloween pumpkins and apple cider at Purdy’s Farm at the corner of King
Street and Bedford Road in North Greenwich. We’d drive north on Lincoln Avenue right through the center of
Hugh Chisholm’s Strathglass Farm. That section of Lincoln Avenue has been preserved within the Purchase
College campus, with portions of the stone walls lining each side of the roadway ... except in those days (early
1960s), there were herds of prized, Ayrshire dairy cattle grazing beyond the walls.
May 5, 1960, The New York Times photo re: sale of 200 prized Ayrshire dairy cattle as precursor to
the 1967 acquisition of Hugh Chisholm’s ~500-acre Strathglass Farm, redeveloped as SUNY Purchase.
37
Above: Excerpt of 1929 GM Hopkins atlas, Plate 44, shows 1.8-mile, L-shaped path of Lincoln Avenue running north
of Anderson Hill Road through Strathglass Farm (now SUNY Purchase College), and east to King Street. This was the
5.5-mile route, we would travel from my 1 Pine Ridge Road home up Lincoln Avenue through the Strathglass Farm
to Purdy’s Farm and cider mill at 1353 King Street, Greenwich CT for our annual Halloween pumpkins and apple
cider pressed right in front of us. October 1992 (below left) and October 1995 (below right) photos during a couple of
my annual visits, decades later to Purdy’s Farm, with my own sons from the BBHS Classes of 2010 and 2011.
38
Above: January 18, 2012, Stamford Advocate newspaper photo by Bob Luckey in connection with an article about the
sale of the remaining 2.3-acre portion of the former Purdy’s Farm at 1373 King Street in Greenwich, CT ... at the
northeast corner of Bedford Road, which was operated by Delmo “Del” Zanette (1930-2010) for ~40 years from the
mid-1960s until 2007. Below: File photos from 2005 (left) and 2007 (right) of Del Zanette at Purdy’s Farm as featured
in the April 1, 2010 obituary/ article by Frank MacEachern, published in the Greenwich Time newspaper.
Thanks, Del, for the decades of fond memories on Upper King Street at Purdy’s Farm!!
]
39
The Purdy family connection ... from Rye Brook’s Ridge Street to North Salem
Purdy families were prominent 19th century landowners throughout Westchester County, including the Town of
Rye. Underhill Purdy owned the 79-acre, King Street farm that became the Kingfield site at 1100 King Street with
six (6) office buildings of 90,000 rsf each, built in 1982 (buildings 1-3) and 1986 (buildings 4-6) by developer
London & Leeds; plus the 110 single-family, Kingfield homes built in 2016-2019 on the 31-acre Phase 3 of the site.
Mary Willis [née Lyon] Purdy (1820-1905), was raised by her father in a farmhouse of the Thomas Lyon Farm on
the west side of South Ridge Street, in the middle of the block between Old White Plains Road (re-named Bowman
Avenue in 1923) and Westchester Avenue. Mary was the only child of Mary Totten Lyon (1798-1821), who grew up
on King Street, and farmer Thomas “Tommy” Lyon (1792-1873). Mary Totten Lyon, died in 1821 at age 23, when
their daughter Mary Willis Lyon was only 10 months old. The red, converted farmhouse/ barn at 111 Bowman
Avenue, across the street from the Rye Ridge Shopping Center, was part of Mary Willis Lyon Purdy’s childhood
homestead.
In 1839, at age 19, Mary Willis Lyon married Issac Hart Purdy II (1813-1891), who hailed from the Purdy family in
North Salem that at one point, reportedly owned a thousand acres and founded Purdy’s, the hamlet of the Town of
North Salem. The home where they raised their five children born between 1840 and 1854, was the 1776 Joseph
Purdy Homestead, built by Isaac Hart Purdy’s grandfather, Joseph Purdy (1744-1814), at the intersection of Routes
22 and 116, with a current street address of 100 Titicus Road, North Salem, NY. It is listed on the National Historic
Register. That Purdy homestead in North Salem is where Mary Willis Lyon Purdy was living when she died in 1905.
It became a restaurant after six generations of Purdys had lived there. The most recent restaurant occupying the
1776 Joseph Purdy Homestead is the Purdy’s Farmer &The Fish restaurant that opened in 2012.
When her father died in 1873, Mary Willis Lyon Purdy inherited the 91.33-acre Thomas Lyon Farm at Ridge Street
in the Town of Rye (now Rye Brook).
Mary Lyon Purdy sold the 12 acres stretching east from Ridge Street to S. Regent Street, to Robert F. Brundage in
January 1886, which became his 67-lot subdivision in April 1886 that created Franklin Street and the homes along it.
“Map of Building Lots Belonging to R.F. Brundage ...” subdivision plat map filed April 27, 1886 with the Westchester
County Register’s Office in Map Volume 7 at Page 14, for 67 lots along newly proposed Franklin Street.
40
In July 1887, Mary Lyon Purdy sold 21.726 acres (parcels of 10.409 + 8.372 + 2.945 acres) near the Harrison border
(the Blind Brook), to abutting major landowner Joseph Park, thereby reducing the Thomas Lyon Farm to 57.604
acres (parcels of 10.195 + 47.409 acres), shown in G.W. Bromley atlas plates dated 1901 & 1910. See next page.
Excerpts of 1901 G.W. Bromley atlas, Plate 26 (above) and 1910 G.W. Bromley atlas, Plate 37 (below), showing the
remaining portions of the 91.33-acre Thomas Lyon Farm ... after Mary Willis Lyon Purdy’s sale of 33.726 acres in
1886-1887, reducing the farm to 57.604 acres at the westside of Ridge Street, from Westchester Avenue to the south
side of Old White Plains Road (Bowman Avenue). Thomas Lyon Purdy (1854-1923), as the grandson of farmer
Thomas “Tommy” Lyon, and the son of Mary Willis Lyon Purdy (1820-1905) and Issac Hart Purdy II (1813-1891),
inherited the farm after his mother Mary, sold off 21.726 acres near the Harrison border to major landowner, Joseph
Park (father of Hobart J. Park) in July 1887 ... and the 12 acres east of Ridge Street to Robert F. Brundage in January
1886. On November 1, 1920, Thomas Lyon Purdy sold the remaining 57.604 acres of the Thomas Lyon Farm to Edgar
F. Price, as part of the ~256 acres that Mr. Price assembled for his Knollwood Farm. After the 1940 sale of Price’s
estate, said 57.604 acres became: 10.2 acres of the Rye Ridge Shopping Center; and the converted Thomas Lyon Farm
barn/staff farmhouse at 111 Bowman Avenue; the Port Chester Middle School at 113 Bowman Avenue; the 760-800
Westchester Avenue office complex; homes at 38, 40 & 42 S. Ridge Street; and the 90 S. Ridge Street office building.
41
111 Bowman Avenue with the converted, circa-1866 barn structure from the Thomas Lyon Farm shown in the D.B.
Metcalf, LLS land survey (above), filed August 23, 1948, as Map 6633 with the Westchester County Clerk’s Office
and the Town of Rye Assessment Office’s March 2017 photo (below) in SDG Image Mate Online database as of 2026.
42
Mary Willis Lyon Purdy (1820-1905) and her husband, Isaac Hart Purdy II (1813-1891), grandson of Joseph Purdy
(1744-1814), and son of Isaac Hart Purdy (1773-1836), arranged for the New York and Harlem Railroad
Company to establish the Purdy’s Station in 1847 (now a Metro-North station). Mr. Purdy reportedly felt that having
a train station in his community, would enhance the value of the Purdy family’s vast land holdings and the quality of
life in their community. So, Issac Hart Purdy II and Mary Willis Lyon Purdy granted a 4.88-acre strip of land
through their property for $1.00, with the railroad agreeing to maintain train service to Purdy’s Station, in perpetuity,
and to operate on a regular schedule, commencing in June 1847.
Above: Excerpt of Map Vol. 80, Page 76-1 filed October 17, 1847, made a part of the deed dated/filed August 16, 1847
in Liber 124 at Page 61 with Westchester County Register, where Isaac Hart Purdy & Mary Willis Lyon Purdy
conveyed 2,857 linear foot strip of land (4.88 acres) between the Titicus & Croton Rivers, to the New York and
Harlem Railroad Company. Below: Excerpts of 1910 G.W. Bromley atlas, Plate 43 (Town of North Salem)
43
Isaac Hart Purdy II owned ~1,000 acres in North Salem and built Purdy’s Depot (above) after striking a land deal
with the railroad. The Joseph Purdy Homestead (below), built in 1776 by Isaac’s grandfather, Joseph Purdy, at the
intersection of Routes 22 & 116 (100 Titicus Road, North Salem, NY 10560), was added to the National Register of
Historic Places in 1973. It became the Purdy’s Farmer & the Fish restaurant in 2012, after six generations of Purdys
had lived there. Mary Willis Lyon Purdy, who was born in 1820 in a Thomas Lyon Farm farmhouse on Ridge Street in
what is now Rye Brook, died in 1905 in the circa-1776 Purdy farmhouse, shown below. Visit the restaurant there now
and see the 3-sided fireplace that had heated The Joseph Purdy Homestead. Both photos from January 14, 2015, The
First Families of Westchester article by Eric Shanfelt in Westchester Magazine: https://westchestermagazine.com/life-
style/the-first-families-of-westchester/. See article excerpt on next page, for convenience.
44
The Purdys
North Salem
How one family founded—and protected—the hamlet that bears their name.
On a cold winter’s day in 1955, Thomas L. Purdy Jr. drove from his home in North Salem to the
Woolworth Building offices of the Public Service Commission in lower Manhattan. Determined to
streamline the railway, the Commission wanted to reduce passenger service and completely cut
freight service to tiny Purdy’s Station. But in his pocket, Thomas Purdy had his trump card: a
document, dated 1847, signed by his grandfather, Isaac Hart Purdy II, and Isaac’s wife, Mary [Mary
Willis Lyon Purdy]. They had granted The New York and Harlem Railroad Company right of way
through Purdy land for one dollar, with the agreement that Isaac “establish a Depot and stopping
place” and that freight and passenger trains “regularly stop” at Purdy’s Station.
That small parcel represented a fraction of the thousand acres that Isaac’s great-grandfather Daniel
had bought from the vast Van Cortlandt Manor in the mid 1700s. But Isaac knew that a village would
sprout up around the railroad, and he was right. (He promptly opened a post office and appointed
himself the postmaster.)
The hamlet needed Purdy’s Station to attract commuters and maintain property values. Now, in 1955,
the State was looking to back out of the deal, claiming that, after 108 years, the covenant was moot.
Thomas Purdy III, who goes by “Tim,” remembers his father’s description of what happened at the
hearing. “He sat in the back and waited until the very end of the meeting. He put up his hand and
asked if he could approach the bench. He said, ‘Your honor, I think you should look at this document
before you make a decision.’ The judge looked at it and dismissed the hearing right then and there.”
At 74, Tim Purdy is a rarity, a sixth-generation descendant who’s stayed on his ancestral lands. Only 20
acres of that original 1,000 remain in the family; the rest has been sold over the years. The old Purdy
homestead, at the intersection of Routes 22 and 116, is now Purdy’s Farmer & the Fish, the latest
restaurant to occupy the 225-year-old structure that had been home to six generations of Purdys.
Tim’s grandmother, Anne Beeson Purdy, was the last Purdy to live there.
Tim remembers holiday meals in the parlor (now the main dining room), and the Irish cook named
Katy who made such delicious desserts: chocolate cake for him, custard for his sister. Today, diners
dig into produce grown on terraced plots behind the restaurant, all that’s left of the Purdys’ rich
farming history. “When I was a boy, there were five working dairies in North Salem,” Tim recalls. “Now,
the milk bottles are at the historical society. The cow barns are horse facilities.”
While Tim may be the last Purdy in Purdy’s—his daughter Sophie Purdy Meili and her family live in
Dutchess County, where she raises livestock—there’s no dearth of people in Westchester who bear
that name. The first Purdys, Tim explains, were French Huguenots, their name pronounced Per Dieu,
“for God.” They fled France for England and, in the 1600s, Francis Purdy sailed for Massachusetts. The
father of all Purdys in this region, Francis, settled in Fairfield, Connecticut. His progeny drifted like
dandelion seeds in the wind, landing throughout Westchester, from Rye to Croton-on-Hudson. (Craig
Purdy, co-owner of Croton’s Ümami and Tagine Restaurant & Wine Bar, is also a descendant.) His five
sons were among the first settlers in Rye, and their progeny helped found White Plains. “My branch of
the family had a farm in Harrison, where the Westchester Country Club is now,” explains Tim. “They
kept moving north. They bought this land because it was the confluence of the Titicus and Croton
Rivers, and they needed the river to float logs to the Hudson.”