The rights to the land in southern New York State that now make up Westchester County were purchased from the first-known residents, members of various Indian tribes, in the 17th Century. In the 300 years since, the area has changed from scattered farms and small villages to a county with more than 890,000 residents descended from most races and nationalities. Westchester’s early development was along the western boundary of the Hudson River and the eastern edge of Long Island Sound.

In 1642 Jonas Bronck purchased 500 acres from the Indians along what is now known as the Bronx River which bisects southern and central Westchester County. During this pioneer period, southern Westchester was settled by the Dutch, English and the Huguenots, while what is now northern Westchester was settled by people from New England. In Mamaroneck, settlements by Quakers began as early as 1685.

Throughout its early history preceding the Revolutionary War, Westchester County was farm country without cities but with a few small villages along major routes of commerce and travel. Several notable people were part of Westchester’s early history. John Peter Zenger whose firm stand did much to insure freedom for the press in the new republic; Alexander Hamilton who led a battery in the Battle of White Plains; John Jay, first chief justice of the United States; authors Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper.

On July 9, 1776 New York State was born at the Westchester County Courthouse when the Provincial Congress received the Declaration of Independence. The courthouse site in White Plains is marked today by a monument. For the next five years the southern part of the county was occupied by the British. At the same time the northern area was occupied by Washington and his fellow revolutionaries. Most of the active operation of the war during 1776 was in Westchester County. The original village of White Plains was burned to the ground in 1775 by Massachusetts militia who believed most of the residents had Tory sympathies. The Battle of White Plains was fought in what today is the City of White Plains and the adjacent communities of Harrison and North Castle.

During the post-revolution period the importance of the county’s north-south transportation corridors was evident. The most important north-south roads were the Albany Post Road along the Hudson River, the Boston Post Road along Long Island Sound and the Old Post Road from New York City to White Plains. Between 1785 and 1787 stage coaches traveled from New York to Albany and from New York to Boston along these routes.

In 1844 the first railroad opened between New York City and White Plains and in 1847 extended north to Croton Falls. Known then as the New York and Harlem. It is now the Harlem Division of Metro-North. The New York and Hudson, now the Hudson Division of Metro-North, opened in 1849 as did the New Haven Railroad between Mount Vernon and New Haven. These were the major survivors among the growing number of railroads sprouting up at the time.

The second half of the nineteenth century showed rapid industrial expansion. Beginning in 1853 when a blast furnace was built in Peekskill with a six-mile narrow gauge railway to an iron mine in Putnam County. Several major companies started operations. Otis Elevator came to Yonkers in 1854 as is a sugar refinery in 1862. The Alexander Smith Carpet Mill was established in Yonkers in 1865. During this period Yonkers became the largest population and industrial center in the County.

The rural way of life was still dominant in most of Westchester in the decades after the Civil War. People led quiet, hard-working lives on their farms or in their villages, their normal routine relieved only by occasional visits to the larger towns. But change was in the air, and by 1914 the lifestyles in Westchester had changed so completely that an 1865 resident would have felt completely out of place. By then railroads, trolleys, automobiles, and paved roads had ended the isolation of Westchester’s rugged countryside and opened up the county.

After New York incorporated the boroughs of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island in 1898, the water supply had to be increased again. Plans for the Catskill Water System were approved by the state of New York, and between 1906 and 1915 more dams and reservoirs were built to bring an additional 500 million gallons of water a day to New York City. Water from the new reservoirs west of the Hudson had to be carried through Westchester by way of a new aqueduct which led to the new reservoir created behind a larger Kensico Dam, completed in 1915.

By 1924 New York City owned 18,320 acres of land in fourteen Westchester towns. And still New York thirsted. The Delaware Water System, completed in 1944, increased New York’s water supply by 800 million gallons a day from four reservoirs on the south slope of the Catskill Mountains.

In this period, more and more people were anxious to move out of New York City to the suburbs. Communities were laid out in southern Westchester where farms had stood a generation earlier. As the population grew, villages and towns became incorporated, and taxes were collected to provide necessary public services, such as paved roads, sewers, fire companies, and police forces. Horse drawn trolley lines were established throughout the county in the 1880s and were electrified by 1890. Steamboats continued to do a brisk freight and passenger business on the Hudson River and Long Island Sound right up to World War I. For twenty-five cents one could take a day trip on a Starin steamboat from New York to the internationally-famous Starin’s Glen Island Resort in New Rochelle.

The period after 1865 brought vast fortunes to a new class of entrepreneurs in the New York area. Many built large estates in Westchester County. Colonial, Chateauesque, and Renaissance Revival houses were built on the hills overlooking the Hudson River and Long Island Sound. Perhaps the most fantastic of all were the homes built to resemble castles, such as Lyndhurst in Tarrytown, Ophir Hall in Purchase, Leland Castle in New Rochelle, and Carrollcliff (now Axe Castle) in Tarrytown. In northern Westchester, magnificent mansions were built on the hilltops of New Castle, Bedford, and North Castle.

None of the estates, however, matched the grandeur and scope of the Rockefeller estates. The largest mansion in the county was the 204-room Rockwood Hall, built by William Rockefeller in 1887 on 1,000 acres overlooking the Hudson River in North Tarrytown and Mount Pleasant. William’s brother, John D. Rockefeller, completed his mansion and gardens on 3,500 acres in Pocantico Hills in 1913. His son raised his family of six children there and built a million-dollar recreation hall that included a bowling alley, squash court, tennis court, and swimming pool. John D., Sr., enjoyed playing golf daily on his own course built on the grounds, and when the Putnam railroad disturbed his peace, he persuaded the railroad to move its tracks five miles away.

South of White Plains, the few remaining farms disappeared rapidly after 1920 as suburbanization began in earnest. The Bronx River Parkway was the highway that opened up Westchester. It had been begun in 1906 as part of the project to clean up the Bronx River, which had become a badly contaminated eyesore by the turn of the century.

The Bronx River Parkway was followed by the Saw Mill River Parkway, the Hutchinson River Parkway, the Taconic Parkway, and the Cross County Parkway, all completed by the 1930s. The scenic beauty of Westchester’s parkways is still fresh fifty years later.

The parkways brought many young, middle-class executives and professionals to Westchester to buy new homes being erected on old estates.

The period between the wars saw a number of new businesses arriving in Westchester. When B. Altman’s opened a branch in White Plains in 1934, it was the first major New York department store to come to Westchester. Best and Company, Peck and Peck, and Sloane’s followed in the 1940s, and White Plains became the major shopping center in Westchester County. The man credited with this development of “Little Fifth Avenue” was Leonard H. Davidow, who set a high standard of excellence in his dealings.

The post-World War II period of the 1950s was one of prosperity and optimism. Veterans returned home, married, entered the job market, and raised large families. The baby boom was on, and Westchester responded to it by building high-rise apartments, single-family homes, and schools. Ranch homes, split levels, and clapboard and stone colonials filled up the vacant lots in lower Westchester.

Since 1960 the arts have received increasing attention from the Westchester community. An educated population offered support and volunteer time to help promote historical and art museums and the performing arts. The Katonah Gallery is an outstanding example of a professional and volunteer staff working closely together to create highly professional art exhibits and programs for the public and for the schools.

The relocation to Westchester of several corporate headquarters during the decades after World War II had a major impact on the county. General Foods was the first, in 1953, followed by Ciba-Geigy, in 1956, and Nestle, in 1958.

In the 1960s and 1970s many factors combined to influence the corporate giants to move their vast operations to Westchester. They had the opportunity to build their own facilities, an available work force, and the interstate road system; Westchester County Airport made the county easily accessible to the rest of the northeast. Also, New York City had become less attractive as rents and taxes rose and the environment decayed.

In the past ten years, many business areas in Westchester communities have undergone extensive revitalization. White Plains, for instance, has undergone vast changes. While there are many new buildings being built in Westchester today, there is a significant movement to retain fine old ones, and many landmarks have been renovated to be used as schools, colleges, and business offices.