Pocantico Hills, New York
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Pocantico Hills is a
hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
in the
Westchester County Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population o ...
town of
Mount Pleasant, New York Mount Pleasant is a town in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 44,436. The hamlets of Valhalla, Hawthorne, Pocantico Hills, and Thornwood, and the vill ...
, United States.Weinstock, Cheryl Platzman. "If You're Thinking of Living In/Pocantico Hills", ''The New York Times'', April 29, 2001
/ref> The Rockefeller family estate, anchored by
Kykuit Kykuit ( ), known also as the John D. Rockefeller Estate, is a 40-room historic house museum in Pocantico Hills, a hamlet in the town of Mount Pleasant, New York 25 miles north of New York City. The house was built for oil tycoon and Rockefelle ...
, the family seat built by
John D. Rockefeller Sr. John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He has been widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller was ...
, is located in Pocantico Hills, as is the adjacent
Rockefeller State Park Preserve Rockefeller State Park Preserve is a state park in Mount Pleasant, New York in the eastern foothills of the Hudson River in Westchester County. Common activities in the park include horse-riding, walking, jogging, running, bird-watching, and f ...
.


History

The area was originally settled by Native Americans of the
Wecquaesgeek The Wecquaesgeek (also Manhattoe and Manhattan) were a Munsee-speaking band of Wappinger people who once lived along the east bank of the Hudson River in the southwest of today's Westchester County, New York,Their presence on the east bank of the ...
tribes; "Pocantico" means "stream between two hills", a reference to the meandering
Pocantico River The Pocantico River is a tributary of the Hudson River in western central Westchester County, New York, United States. It rises from Echo Lake, in the town of New Castle south of the hamlet of Millwood, and flows generally southwest past Briarc ...
. The hamlet was once a part of
Philipsburg Manor Philipsburg Manor (sometimes referred to as Philipse Manor) was a manor located north of New York City in Westchester County in the Province of New York. Netherlands-born Frederick Philipse I and two partners made the initial purchase of land ...
. The area was once called Beeckmantown, after the family of Stephen D. Beeckman, who had lived in a residence on the highest ground of the area, just west of the "Irving Institute".
John D. Rockefeller John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He has been widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller was ...
began buying land in Pocantico Hills in 1893. In 1880, The "Old Put" Railroad ran from New York to Brewster. The section between East View and
Pocantico Hills Pocantico Hills is a hamlet in the Westchester County town of Mount Pleasant, New York, United States. The Rockefeller family estate, anchored by Kykuit, the family seat built by John D. Rockefeller Sr., is located in Pocantico Hills, as is the a ...
, travelled over an 80-foot-high trestle over a marsh-filled valley. Because of the dangers of crossing the bridge, which often required that trains slow down to a crawl, the line was rerouted west around that valley in 1881. The bridge was torn down in 1883, and the valley became the
Tarrytown Reservoir The Tarrytown Reservoir is an storage reservoir in Tarrytown, New York. It was completed in 1897 by the Village of Tarrytown as the village's main storage reservoir. The reservoir was formed by the Tarrytown Waterworks Dam which impounded a tribut ...
. The railroad ran through the Rockefeller property. In 1928,
John D. Rockefeller Jr. John Davison Rockefeller Jr. (January 29, 1874 – May 11, 1960) was an American financier and philanthropist, and the only son of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller. He was involved in the development of the vast office complex in M ...
negotiated with
New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...
to relocate the line to along the
Saw Mill River The Saw Mill River is a tributary of the Hudson River in Westchester County, New York, United States. It flows from an unnamed pond north of Chappaqua to Getty Square in Yonkers, where it empties into the Hudson as that river's southernmost t ...
, costing $200,000, which Rockefeller Jr. paid. When the De La Salle Brothers' property in Amawalk was condemned to make way for the
New Croton Reservoir The New Croton Reservoir is a reservoir in Westchester County, New York, part of the New York City water supply system lying approximately north of New York City. It is the collecting point for water from all reservoirs in the Croton Watershed. ...
, they relocated their novitiate to Pocantico. Around 1929, the Rockefeller family purchased the property. The Stone Barns agricultural center in Pocantico Hills was established in 2003 to demonstrate multi-cultural, self-sustaining farming techniques; it is host to the Blue Hill restaurant, a high-end eatery which features foodstuffs grown (or raised) on the Stone Barns property.


Education

The hamlet is a part of the Pocantico Hills Central School District, and the Pocantico Hills School, a K-8 school, has a diverse district that lays across town and village borders, including areas of Sleepy Hollow, Pleasantville, Briarcliff Manor, and Elmsford, New York. On graduating from Pocantico Hills School, as there is no high school for the district students to attend, they are afforded the choice of attending Sleepy Hollow, Briarcliff, or Pleasantville High School.


Churches

The Roman Catholic Parish of the Magdalene began in 1893 as a mission Church of St. Teresa of Avila parish in North Tarrytown to serve about forty families in Pocantico Hills and Eastview. The Church was dedicated in September 1895. A significant benefactor of the parish was grocery store magnate James Butler of Eastview. The
Union Church of Pocantico Hills Union Church of Pocantico Hills is a historic church in Pocantico Hills, New York. The church was built by John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1921, as part of his plans to develop the town of Pocantico Hills, which was below his estate Kykuit. Upon the d ...
was built by the Rockefeller family in 1921. It features stained glass windows by Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall. The Matisse window was his final piece prior to his death in 1954 and was commissioned by Nelson A. Rockefeller in memory of his mother,
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Abigail Greene Aldrich Rockefeller (October 26, 1874 – April 5, 1948) was an American socialite and philanthropist. She was a prominent member of the Rockefeller family through her marriage to financier and philanthropist John D. Rockefel ...
, one of the founders of the Museum of Modern Art.


Government

The hamlet lies within, and is governed by the Town of Mount Pleasant, New York. Emergency services stem from a variety of sources, with policing services provided by the Town of Mount Pleasant Police Department, fire protection services provided from the all-volunteer Pocantico Hills Fire Department, and emergency medical services from a combination of the
Sleepy Hollow Volunteer Ambulance Corps (SHVAC), Sleepy means feeling a need for sleep, also known as somnolence. It may also refer to: People * Sleepy (rapper) (born 1984), a South Korean rapper part of the hip hop duo Untouchable * Sleepy Bill Burns (1880–1953), American baseball player * ...
Pleasantville Volunteer Ambulance Corps (PVAC), Pleasantville may refer to: Places Canada * Pleasantville, a defunct community located inside the modern boundaries of Newmarket, Ontario * Pleasantville, Newfoundland and Labrador * Pleasantville (electoral district) - former electoral district in ...
and Westchester EMS. The fire department has a tanker truck which often responds mutual-aid to neighboring fire districts when called upon, having assisted at fire related incidents in the Villages of Pleasantville, Briarcliff Manor, Croton-on-Hudson, Ossining, Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, Irvington, and Elmsford, as well as the hamlets Archville, Hawthorne, Thornwood, and Valhalla. The first volunteer fire department, Liberty Hook and Ladder Company, was organized in 1904.


Notable people

* Marianne Hagan (b. 1968), actress and writer, was raised in Pocantico Hills. *
David Rockefeller David Rockefeller (June 12, 1915 – March 20, 2017) was an American investment banker who served as chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan Corporation. He was the oldest living member of the third generation of the Rockefeller family, ...
(1915–2017), philanthropist and head of Chase Manhattan, died in Pocantico Hills on March 20, 2017.


References


External links

*
"Life at Pocantico Then and Now" -interview with David Rockefeller
{{Authority control Hamlets in New York (state) Hamlets in Westchester County, New York