Scarsdale Village

Westchester County, New York

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Scarsdale Village Hall is located at 1001 Post Road, Scarsdale NY 10583.
Phone: 914‑722‑1110. Scarsdale was incorporated as a village in 1915.

Beginnings [1]

The Indians who inhabited the area of the village of Scarsdale prior to European settlement were Mohegans, of the Algonquin confederation. Dutch settlers, in the early 17th century, were the first to purchase land in what is now Westchester County from the native Americans. Settlement by Englishmen began with Thomas Pell's 1654 purchase of lands lying immediately east of those belonging to the Dutch. Between 1660 and 1662, four former residents of Connecticut made purchases along the sound and west of Greenwich. In 1661, John Richbell, of the island of Barbados, bought a tract lying between the lands of Pell and those on the sound, and "extending a long distance inland." Richbell's title was confirmed by letters of patent issued by Governor Lovelace in 1663. In 1696, Richbell's widow conveyed these lands to Colonel Caleb Heathcote, who increased them with additional purchases of his own. All of Heathcote's properties were confirmed by royal patent in 1701 and that created the lordship and manor of Scarsdale, the town of Mamaroneck, and portions of Larchmont, White Plains, North Castle and New Castle.

The original manor settlement had a population of 12 in 1712. Five years later, on April 22, 1717, Heathcote conveyed approximately 249 acres lying near the head of the Hutchinson River and west of the Bronx River (including the settlement) to Edmund Tompkins. Tompkins, who died shortly thereafter, willed 100 acres to his wife, Hannah, who transferred them in 1719 to her late husband's father, John of Eastchester. On October 22, 1722, John sold the 100 acres to Abraham Hyatt, "yeaoman." Seven years following almost to the day, in October of 1729, Hyatt sold to Thomas Hadden for one hundred and fifty pounds land in "ye part of the Manor of Scarsdale commonly called Fox Meadow. (Today's Fox Meadow Road in the village of Scarsdale commemorates this area.) The deed specified "houses, barns, orchards, gardens, fences and fencing."

  1. Junior League of Scarsdale, Inc., Karen Morey Kennedy, preservation consultant, and Austin O'Brien, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Wayside Cottage, Westchester County, nomination document, 1981, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.

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