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Pocantico Hills is a
hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...
in the
Westchester County Westchester County is a county located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of New York, bordering the Long Island Sound and the Byram River to its east and the Hudson River on its west. The county is the seventh most populous cou ...
town of Mount Pleasant, New York, 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 north of New York City. The house was built for oil tycoon and Rockefeller fa ...
, the family seat built by John D. Rockefeller Sr., is located in Pocantico Hills, as is the adjacent Rockefeller State Park Preserve.


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 th ...
tribes; "Pocantico" means "stream between two hills", a reference to the meandering Pocantico River. 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. Dutch-born Frederick Philipse I and two partners made the initial purchase of land that ...
. 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 businessman and philanthropist. He was one of the List of richest Americans in history, wealthiest Americans of all time and one of the richest people in modern hist ...
, an industrialist, 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 (New York), hamlet in the Westchester County, New York, 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 ...
, 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 railroad ran through the Rockefeller property. In 1928, John D. Rockefeller Jr. negotiated with the
New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected New York metropolitan area, gr ...
to relocate the line 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, New York, Chappaqua to Getty Square in Yonkers, where it empties into the Hudson as that r ...
, costing $200,000, which Rockefeller Jr. paid. When the
De La Salle Brothers The De La Salle Brothers, officially named the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (; ; ) abbreviated FSC, is a Catholic lay religious congregation of pontifical right for men founded in France by Jean-Baptiste de La Salle ( ...
' 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 moved the 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 High School, 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 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. Rockefeller ...
, one of the founders of the Museum of Modern Art.


Government

The hamlet is within and 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), Pleasantville Volunteer Ambulance Corps (PVAC), and Westchester EMS. The fire department has a tanker truck which often responds mutual-aid to neighboring fire districts when called upon. It has assisted 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 economist and investment banker who served as chairman and chief executive of Chase Bank, Chase Manhattan Corporation. He was the oldest living member of the third generation of ...
(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