USA > New York > Bronx County > The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927, Volume I > Part 39
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The "Rivolett, which runs to the Black Rock," is at present known as Barrett's Creek, and where it joins the Bronx River is a bluff of black gneiss at the southeastern part of the neck. From the presence of this rock, the patent and neck, or farm, were known as the "Black Rock" patent and farm. The "Rivolett, which divides it from the limits of West Chester," is Wilkins Creek, also known as Pugsley's Creek, from the former owner of the farm lying adjacent to the neck on West- chester Avenue; nearby the avenue used to cross the wet meadows of Barrett's Creek on a causeway, also called "Pugsley's." Just beyond were the golf links of the Westchester Golf Club until 1906. The line joining the heads of the two creeks is a few yards south of Westchester Avenue, the road to the neck formerly passing between them being a
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narrow causeway. Near the mainland on each side of the neck are salt inarshes dotted with rocky hummocks which rise from ten to twenty feet above the surrounding meadows; one of them to the east is called "Indian Rock." These meadows have now been largely filled in and the property around has been graded and improved and largely built upon. The old road used to pass from one little hummock to another to the main part of the neck, which is nearly all less than twenty feet above water, though rising in two places to forty feet. At the end of the neck are a number of summer hotels, bathing pavilions, moving picture places, and other amusement places of like character, making of the neck a sort of Coney Island on a small scale. The spot became very popular follow- ing the closing of the Oak Point resort and the running of the trolley, as one can get from almost any part of the borough for a five-cent fare.
One of the hotels, the Clason Point's Inn, is partly of stone, the older portion being the kitchen of the original Cornell house, and another part attached to it being the remains of the Willett and Clason mansion. A short distance from the inn is a small stone structure which was formerly the smoke-house of the ancient farmstead. When Clinton Stephens took possession he found the place in ruins and was tempted to pull them down completely; but the historic associations finally prevailed, and he incorporated the remains of the old buildings within the new, though it was a difficult job. Above the entrance he also placed a legend of the original occupancy of the neck by Cornell and a brief statement of its subsequent history. The neck remained in possession of the Willetts until 1793, when the west half of it was conveyed to Dominick Lynch, an Irish gentleman of considerable means who appears to have been wealthy even before he came to this country. About the same time the eastern portion of the neck was sold to Isaac Clason. This part of the neck includes the point, which, from its new owner of 1793, took the name of Clason's Point, which it still retains. A ferry to connect it with Long Island was established in the spring of 1912.
Dominick Lynch built a large and handsome stone mansion on a high point of his land which gives a fine view of the neck and river. In the large entrance hall is a fireplace and mantel of Carrara marble, beautifully carved, with supporting caryatids, which does not show a scratch or blemish on the white grained stone after the usage of more than a century. Mr. Lynch was a devout Catholic; and it is stated that the first services of the Church ever celebrated in Westchester County were held in this mansion. In 1830, his executors sold the west half of the neck to the Ludlow family; later it came into the possession of the Schieffelins, who disposed of it in 1870 to the Christian Brothers, a celebrated Irish teaching confraternity, who used it until 1883 as a training school for the neophytes of the society. In this latter year it
Bronx-22
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was changed into the Sacred Heart Academy for the education of boys, and it became known as the Clason's Point Military Academy. Several buildings, including a chapel, have been added, and there is an athletic field, while the water contiguous to the property allows of aquatic sports and pastimes. The rest of the neck, where not built upon, is under cultivation, and attention was attracted from the beginning by the number of broken shells which were turned up by the plough. Other owners of property on the neck were the Ludlow family, the first of whom came to this country in 1694. Ludlow Street, Manhattan, was named after a member of this family. The name of the first Ludlow was Gabriel, which became a family name, which constantly occurs in the family genealogy. One of the name was a colonel in De Lancey's brigade of loyalists during the Revolution; his half-sister was the wife of Francis Lewis, a signer of the Declaration of Indepen- dence; which shows how members of the same family differed in their political views during Revolutionary times. It was a good thing indeed for some of the Tories that this was so; for unquestionably many a handsome estate was saved from confiscation through the prominence of some patriotic member of a family who was in the line of inheritance.
Westchester Avenue, east of the Southern Boulevard, is being gradu- ally built upon, and a large tract of land is being developed beyond the Bronx River. The thoroughfare was until 1904 little different from a country road, lined by magnificent trees, which have disappeared since the widening and grading of the street in the year mentioned. At the same time a turn-table bridge was erected over the Bronx River and the tracks of the Suburban branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad. Before this the crossing had been made at grade and it was a dangerous place.
To the eastward of Cornell's Neck is Castle Hill Neck upon which Unionport is situated. To reach the end of the neck, one goes out Avenue C, past the public school building. Unionport occupies the head of the neck lying between Westchester and Pugsley creeks. In the town records of Westchester we find under date of May 6, 1729, reg- ulations for the government of the "sheep pasture," which had been , granted to the town by the charter of February 28, 1721. The free- holders of the town were entitled to free pasturage for twenty-five sheep for each individual; "a cow in lieu of five sheep, a horse, mare, or an ox; in lieu of a sheep, a calf; in lieu of two sheep, a yearling"-all of which is reminiscent of the problems we used to solve in our childhood's days. The "sheep pasture," or "Commons," as it was later called, embraced about four hundred acres on the west side of Westchester Creek, together with a fenced-in piece of an acre and a half on Stony Brook, where the owners were in the habit of folding and washing their
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sheep. In 1825 the trustees of the town sold the Commons, as undivided lands belonging to the town, to Martin Wilkins. They then passed through several hands, including those of his grandson, Gouverneur Morris Wilkins, who paid $300,000 for them. He sold them in 1851 to a building association, that established here the village of Unionport; which, in the earlier days of the electric cars, was a favorite resort on Sundays and holidays, The Industrial Home Association Number Two filed its map of Unionport at White Plains on August 23, 1854. Included in this plot was the Lowerre farm, which Wilkins had bought for $25,000. He resold it in September, 1851, at a contract price of $200 an acre, to Henry Palmer, trustee of the building association. This will give an idea of the value of land in the vicinity as long ago as the middle of the last century.
"Passing out of Avenue C, we go through a stone gateway and over a shady country road and reach the neck itself," wrote Stephen Jenkins a decade and a half ago. "The surrounding fields are well-cultivated, the old estates being in possession of German market gardeners. We get fine views from the top of the ridge along which we pass to the outer end of the neck. The road ends at the fence about an estate which gives evidences of having once been a gentleman's country-place. It formerly belonged to the late Gouverneur Morris Wilkins, and later to his son-in-law, John Screven, from whom the neck is known locally as 'Screven's Point.' The mansion stands on a bluff near the end of the neck overlooking a stretch of meadow. The view is a fine one, with the mouth of Westchester Creek and Old Ferry Point to the east- ward and the East River to the south with the hills of Long Island beyond. If when we come to the end of the Castle Hill Road we turn to the right, we can follow a lane which passes close to the fence and which brings us into the farmyard of the ancient home of the Reverend Isaac Wilkins, built, supposedly, about 1765. It is likely that the house is even older than this as it may have been erected by the Underhills, or even by the Cromwells, previous owners of the neck; and the curious hiding place which the house contains may have been constructed for protection from the Indians; or, more likely, as a place for the storage of smuggled goods. The lonely position of the house and the con- venience to the creek at its very door lend likelihood to the latter sup- position, as we know that merchants in colonial days were exten- sively engaged with, or at least interested in, the contraband trade."
The earliest record we have of the place is of the date of 1685, when "John Cromwell and Elizabeth Cromwell, his wife, exchanged six acres of meadow with Thomas Hunt, for eight acres of upland, situated upon Castle Neck." In consequence of his occupancy of the neck, it was known for some time as "Cromwell's Neck." From the Cromwells
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the property passed to a younger branch of the Underhills, descendants of the redoubtable Captain John Underhill, whose surprise and massacre of the Indians at Mianus broke up the Indian war of Kieft's adminis- tration. Isaac Wilkins was the next owner, and he disposed of it in 1784 to Gilbert Pell for £2,500; after which it passed through several hands until it came into those of Martin Wilkins, a descendant of the Rev. Isaac Wilkins. Why the property escaped confiscation to the State under the laws of 1779, sequestrating the property of loyalists, is a question. Political and family influences, especially the latter, were more potent in those days than these; and it has to be remembered that Wilkins's wife was a half-sister of Lewis, and a full sister of Gouverneur Morris, two famous Whigs.
The name of Throgg's Neck is given to that portion of the former town of Westchester lying between Westchester Creek, the East River, the Sound, and Eastchester Bay. As early as 1704, the northern portion, now within Pelham Bay Park, was called "Dorman's Island." Its ear- liest settlement was made by Throgmorton, Cornell, and their com- panions, after the Indian war of Kieft's administration. Such part of the land as had not been occupied by the colonists came into possession of Augustine Hermans. It is probable that these colonists, who escaped the Indian massacre, returned to the neck after that unhappy affair and once more occupied and cultivated their lands. Two of these were named Spicer and Brockett, who gave their names to two necks on the south side of the peninsula. On the southwest side of Spicer's Neck, the Siwanoy Indians had one of their most important places of sepulture, and hence the neck was frequently called "Burial Point." On January 7, 1667, Colonel Nicolls granted to Roger Townsend "a certain parcel of land ... at ye southeast end of Throgmorton's neck, commonly called New Found Passage, containing fifteen acres, as also a small neck thereto adjoining commonly called Horseneck, being about the same quantity of land, which is not in occupation." In January, 1686, Spicer's and Brockett's necks were patented to Thomas Hunt of Westchester by Governor Dongan under the title of Grove Farm. The yearly quit- rent was a bushel of good winter wheat, to be paid "on or before the five and twentieth day of March, at the city of New York." That Hunt received a previous confirmation is evident from his will of 1694, in which he bequeathed "to my grandson Josiah Hunt, eldest son of my son Josiah Hunt, the Grove Farm, to him and to his heirs male, which was patented to me by Governor Nicolls 4th December, 1667, and further entails the same to the said Josiah and his heirs male lawfully begotten from generation to generation." This was the same Thomas Hunt, who married a daughter of Edward Jessup, one of the patentees of the West Farms, and thus came into the possession of Planting Neck, after-
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wards called Hunt's Point. The Grove Farm was sold at public vendue on May 6, 1760, to Josiah Cousten for £3,400; so that it has to be con- cluded either that the male line of the Hunts had run out, or that the entail had been broken. Cousten sold the same property in October, 1775, to John Ferris, a descendant of John Ferris, one of the original patentees of Westchester, who had married Myanna Hunt. In con- sequence of this purchase, Spicer's Neck became known as Ferris's Point. From Brockett's Neck, just beyond, the ferry connected with Whitestone, Long Island, and the neck thus became known as Old Ferry Point.
As the stroller crosses over the causeway from Westchester, he is confronted by the Presbyterian Church on a spot on the opposite hill, upon which the British erected a semi-circular breastwork in October, 1776, as a protection from the American riflemen and artillery at the Westchester end of the causeway, during the five days that Sir William Howe held the neck before his advance toward New Rochelle. The road leads straightway to the end of the neck, where Fort Schuyler is situated. A number of estates have been developed under the name of Throgg's Neck Gardens. On the north side of the road, beyond the Eastern Boulevard, are the grounds of the Westchester Polo Club. The Eastern Boulevard extends from Pelham Bridge to Unionport and crosses Castle Hill Neck and Clason Point and ends at Port Morris. On the north side of Throgg's Neck are Locust Point, and Weir Creek, as well as a small settlement called Pennyfield. Turning to the north over the Eastern Boulevard the traveler passes the grounds of the Westchester Country Club and, continuing on his way, comes to Pelham Bridge. The old road connecting Westchester causeway with Pelham Bridge passes one of the famous trees of the borough. This is the "Spy," or "Haunted" Oak. Its age is considered to run into centuries ; as three feet above the ground its girth is twenty feet, and at the ground the spreading roots must increase this measurement by at least ten more. It gets its name from the tradition that a British spy, caught prowling near the American line, was hanged from one of its branches.
Lying northward of Throgg's Neck, and between it and City Island, are several small rocky islands whose tops are bare at low tide, and upon one of which the Federal Government maintains a lighthouse. These islets are called the "Stepping-stones"; and the origin of the name is due to an Indian legend in which the devil figures prominently. At the end of Throgg's Neck is Fort Schuyler, which, with Fort Totten on Willett's Point, Long Island, commands the eastern entrance to the East River, which is here very narrow. To the eastward of the two points is the Sound. Fort Schuyler was named in honor of General Philip Schuyler, who commanded the Northern Army in 1777, and whose
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conduct of the campaign made possible the defeat and capture of Bur- goyne by the succeeding American commander, Horatio Gates. On the south side of Throgg's Neck, west of Fort Schuyler, are estates which are superb in situation and in the care lavished upon them. Upon the Huntington estate is the finest cedar of Lebanon to be found in the United States.
On the west side of Westchester Creek, the principal roadway, leading from the borough-town through the middle of the township is the Eastchester Road, which is mentioned in Nicoll's grant of the Ten Farms as the "Westchester path." Before the days of the Oost- dorp settlers it was a trail, or path, used by the Siwanoys. It passes along the meadows of the creek to the higher ground along their edge and crosses Boston Road at Corsa Lane, Williamsbridge. From this point, the Coles Road followed the Eastchester Road. It crosses the Bronx and Pelham Parkway; and it was not far from this point that the Americans had an outpost to prevent the enemy from crossing at the head of the creek in October, 1776. Beyond the Eastchester Road is the Williamsbridge Road, passing to the north of what was the Morris Park race-track; on the south of the track is the Bear Swamp Road leading to Bronxdale.
Bronxdale was like West Farms, though smaller; since, having been a milling village strung along the Boston Road in the early part of the last century, the substantial stone cottages and houses stood until 1911, when they were removed out of Bronx, being either demolished or taken to other sites. Robert Bolton established a bleachery near where the Boston Road crosses the Bronx River about 1820, and for many years a successful business was conducted there. The little village was about a mile above West Farms, but the community of interests inade them virtually one settlement. Bronxdale is connected with Williamsbridge by the White Plains Road; but this section is still sparsely settled and developed. In the northeast portion of the old township is Williamsbridge, which gets its name from a farmer of pre- Revolutionary days whose farm was on the east side of the Bronx River near the bridge. John Williams' house, about one hundred and fifty years old, was still standing in 1903, on First Street, a little east of the White Plains Road, within the new park that has resulted from the widening of the street. The Bronx River presents some beautiful views just below the bridge. Many of the occupants of the houses are French and their grounds and houses are ornamented with statues and flowers. The French settlement has been in existence over thirty years and to it is due the factory for the manufacture of Gobelins tapes- tries. There are also several French restaurants where one can dine al fresco.
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The former village of Williamsbridge, which was incorporated and elected its own officers, December 27, 1888, comprised the villages of Olinville Number One, Olinville Number Two, Jerome, and Wakefield. The first two were named after Bishop Olin of the Methodist Church, the map of Number One having been filed at the county-seat at White Plains on December 18, 1852, and that of Number Two, on April 11, 1854. The first lay north of the bridge along the Bronx River, and the latter, south of the bridge as far as the Lorillard estate, now within Bronx Park; the White Plains Road was the eastern boundary of both. Jerome was a smaller section north of the bridge and east of White Plains Road; and Wakefield, laid out in 1853, was east and north of Jerome. Laconia Park is a speculative holding laid out about 1888, lying between Wakefield and the Boston (Coles) Road. The northern boundary of Williamsbridge and the town of Westchester is on the line of 229th Street; east of that is the Black Dog Brook, extending to the Hutchinson River.
In Eastchester-Only a small part of the township of Eastchester was added to the Borough of The Bronx. The name of Washington- ville was that originally applied to the station on the Harlem Railroad where the New Haven Railroad leaves the Harlem tracks and swings to the eastward; but a few years ago the name was changed to Wake- field, which has thus become the upper end of the city. A small settle- ment close to Wakefield was called Jacksonville. A section on the east of the Bronx River abreast of Woodlawn Cemetery awaits develop- ment, though the park reservation along the river has taken a good deal of the land. Right on the boundary line of the city, on the White Plains Road, is situated what is left of the old Penfield estate. The large comfortable-looking old mansion was an object of interest to all the passengers to the terminal of the Union Railway Company at 242d Street; and the mansion possessed an air of dignity that went with its age. The house was almost entirely destroyed by fire on the morning of May 13, 1912. Its misfortune was a precedent merely to its inevitable demolition to make way for apartments in the neighborhood.
The height of the hills above the river valley is shown at East 233d Street, the northern boundary of the cemetery. There was formerly a dangerous crossing of the Harlem tracks at the Woodlawn station on this street, but in January, 1905, the bridge over the tracks was com- pleted and opened. Mundy's Lane is part of the boundary line between the borough and Mount Vernon; it is the ancient road leading from Hunt's Bridge in the Mile Square to the Kingsbridge (or Boston) Road, leading to Eastchester. The Kingsbridge Road, an old highway dating back to 1673, takes us through Edenwald to near old St. Paul's, East-
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chester, though over the city line. Here is the old Seton estate, through which runs Rattlesnake Brook, upon which there was formerly a mill. The site of the old mill is in a narrow and picturesque gorge where the water has a descent of about thirty feet in two falls, to which the name of Seton's Falls has been given. It has been for several genera- tions a favorite place for a stroll, or for picnics by the inhabitants of the neighborhood. In the spring, the dogwood blossoms whiten the woods, and through the whole year the ground in carpeted with all kinds of wild flowers in their turn, as nature here has full sway and has been but little interfered with by man. After a heavy rain, a considerable body of water comes over the falls, which adds to the beauty and wildness of the scene. In the plan of the streets adopted in 1903, provision was made for a public park at this place.
Rattlesnake Brook crosses the Boston (or Coles) Road. To the east of the road the stream is dammed, forming Holler's Pond, from which the ice supply of the neighborhood is cut and upon the frozen surface of which the people are able to skate. There is also a factory for the mak- ing of artificial ice. Near this pond is located a small settlement, which is part of the old village of Eastchester within the borough. A lane leads down the neck to Reid's mill, about a mile from the Boston Road. This lane used to be a very beautiful one; but in 1904 and 1905 most of the trees were cut down for firewood and the beauty of the landscape has been much decreased in consequence. There are several magnificent old trees on the Boston Road near the entrance to the lane, but these too are suffering from the grading of the post road, now being made into a State road. At the end of the lane we come to the salt meadows of Eastchester Creek, which stretch away for several miles, and over which there is no way of passing on foot, unless we go to Pelham Bridge on the south, or to Prospect Hill on the north. These meadows are not without their picturesqueness, and Edward Gay has depicted them in several pictures.
Formerly the end of the lane at Eastchester Creek was called Sander's Landing. In 1739, there was erected there a tidal mill by Thomas Shute and Joseph Stanton. The mill passed through several hands until 1766, when it was bought by John Bartow, who, in 1790, sold it to John Reid, whose son Robert was the last miller. The mill was thus known as "Bartow's," but more commonly as "Reid's Mill." It was for many years the town mill, and as such passed into the possession of the city of New York, at the time of annexation. It was a great barn-like structure of wood and was blown down in a storm about 1900, so that nothing now remains of it except the foundation stones. Near by is a picturesque old structure, probably the home of the miller, the oldest part of which, so it is said, dates from 1668.
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Near the bridge by which the Boston Road crosses the Hutchinson River, a pleasant road leads down to the right to "Invermere," known formerly as Hunt's Landing. There is a famous strawberry farm on this road a short distance from the post road. A few hundred rods above Rattlesnake Brook, the White Plains Road, now called Columbus Avenue, branches off to the left and passes by the ancient green in front of old St. Paul's, its route being over the old Boston road of 1673 for some distance. As it sweeps down the hill, it passes a gateway guarded by quaint and imposing white posts. This is the entrance to Halsey Place, which was the executive mansion of President John Adams in October and November, 1797, several of his letters being dated from Eastchester. During that year, Philadelphia, the Federal capital, was visited by yellow fever, and Adams took up his residence in the Halsey house, then occupied by his daughter Abigail, and her husband, Colonel William Smith. During the Revolution the communion ser- vice, the Bible, and other valuables presented to St. Paul's Church by Queen Anne, were buried upon this property and dug up after the war ; this was to prevent them from being looted by the British, who used the church about half a mile above for the hospital, and who frequently occupied the section in force, so that it thus became the scene of many a raid and warlike encounter.
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