Pelham Manor Was Expected to Oppose New York City's Plans to Build Amusement Park on Hunter's Island in 1931

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On April 3, 1931, the headline on the front page of The Pelham Sun blared that New York City Planned a "Big Amusement Park" on Hunter's Island in Pelham Bay Park.  The headline also blared that Pelham Manor was expected to oppose the amusement park.

This was the infant planning effort of New York City to create what we know today as Orchard Beach, also known as the "Bronx Riviera."  The original plans as described in The Pelham Sun, however, clearly worried Pelham Manor residents whose little village bordered on Pelham Bay Park and overlooked Hunter's Island.

According to the report, initial plans were to create a massive "amusement park" intended to "rival Playland at Rye."  Among other things, there were plans to build a system of dikes attached to Rodman's Neck and Hunter's Island to enclose a massive "artificial bathing lake with facilities for 30,000 bathers."  The City planned to pump seawater into the artificial lake from the "unpolluted 'safety' zone of Long Island Sound."  The plans also included using the dikes to form the base of a major highway leading to the amusement park.

The Pelham Sun reported that residents of Pelham Manor were expected to oppose the new "Hunter's Island Amusement Park" due principally to noise issues.  At the time, the Village of Pelham Manor was in the midst of a multi-year battle over noise (including loud amplified music) emanating from road houses and beer gardens along Shore Road.  See, e.g., Broadcast Ends at Police Order, The Pelham Sun, Aug. 29, 1930, p. 2, col. 4 (noting that Pelham Manor had battled the Hollywood Gardens beer garden on Shore Road "about the broadcasting of music through powerful loud speakers" and that after Pelham Manor complained to New York City "The New York City police department issued orders to stop the noisy broadcasting which was being done to attract patrons to the eating place."). 

The "Hunter's Island Amusement Park" so feared by Pelham Manor, of course, never came to pass.  Instead, the plan evolved into a project pushed by urban planner Robert Moses to create a massive, crescent-shaped artificial sand beach facing Long Island Sound.  Eventually the project involved using landfill to fill much of Pelham Bay by dumping the fill between Rodman's Neck, Hunter's Island, and Twin Island (thus connecting the two islands to the mainland).  Thereafter, 1.2 million cubic yards of sand were transported by barge from Sandy Hook and the Rockaways to create a massive artificial beach.  

The original iteration of Orchard Beach opened in 1936.  Though the giant amusement park originally planned never materialized, the lovely Bronx Riviera has been part of Pelham's neck of the woods for more than eighty years.  A description of the beach that appeared in the New York Times in 2000 said:

"Brooklyn may have Coney Island, with its creaky Cyclone and honky-tonk sensibilities, and Queens may have the Rockaways, with its crashing waves and miles of shoreline.  In the Bronx, residents have a less conspicuous oasis, a workingman's Southampton where the water is sometimes as still as a pond and the view onto Long Island Sound includes High Island's radio tower and the massive columns of the Throgs Neck Bridge.  But like its rivals on the Atlantic, the 1.1 mile-long crescent in Pelham Bay Park represents a link to the past for those who have made it their rite of summer, a constant in a borough that has lost so much, from landmarks like the Loews Paradise Theater to neighborhoods plowed over when the Cross Bronx Expressway came through."

Source:  Forero, Juan, ORCHARD BEACH JOURNAL:  Slice of the Riviera, With a Familiar Bronx Twist, Jul. 9, 2000.  

Despite all the angst in Pelham Manor in the early 1930s, all in all the Bronx Riviera has been a good, and now a treasured, neighbor.

Vintage-Style Poster Currently Available on eBay:

"ORCHARD BEACH NEW YORK  THE BRONX

RIVIERA"  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

*          *          *          *          *

"Extension Of Parkway And Hunter's Island Amusement Park; Plan Of New York City
-----
Park Commissioner Dolan To Recommend Appropriation of $7,155,000 To Continue Hutchinson River Parkway Into Bronx; Pelham Manor Expected To Oppose Big Amusement Park
-----

Plans for the extension of Hutchinson River Parkway into New York City and the development of Hunter's Island into an amusement park that will rival Playland at Rye, were announced this week by Park Commissioner Thomas Dolan of the Bronx.  The project which will entail an expenditure of $7,155,000 will be advanced on the return of Mayor James J. Walker of New York City from California.  

The program as outlined by Commissioner Dolan has several features which will find favor from [the] residents of Pelham Manor among which will be the continuance of the Hutchinson River Parkway and the elimination of the serious traffic hazard which now exists at the parkway terminus at the Boston road in Pelham Manor.  The Hunter's Island Amusement Park however will be strenuously opposed in Pelham Manor, the boundary line of which is only a short distance from the site of the proposed park.  Pelham Manor strenuously objected to the noise which emanated from two roadhouses near Hunter's Island last year.  It is expected to make ever stronger protest against an amusement park just over the border line.

(Continued on Page 5)

EXTEND PARKWAY INTO NEW YORK
-----
(Continued from Page One)

The proposed highway will be a connecting link between the Hutchinson parkway and the Pelham Parkway which passes through Pelham Bay Park.  Commissioner Dolan's plan includes the construction of two approaches to the parkway in Pelham Manor.  He proposes that the Pelham villages pay for the cost of widening highways leading to the proposed parkway.

Inasmuch as the extension would terminate at the Pelham Manor boundary line, the Westchester County Park Commission would construct the bridge over the Boston road and continue the parkway on to the city line.  The Village of Pelham Manor has been urging such a program for several years.

Commissioner Dolan's plan for the Hunter's Island amusement park includes provision for the creation of an artificial bathing lake with facilities for 30,000 bathers on the island.  The lake will be formed by dykes between Rodman's neck and Hunter's Island.  The dykes will form the base of the highway leading to the island and will also serve to impound sea water which will be pumped in from the unpolluted 'safety' zone of Long Island Sound."

Source:  Extension Of Parkway And Hunter's Island Amusement Park; Plan Of New York City -- Park Commissioner Dolan To Recommend Appropriation of $7,155,000 To Continue Hutchinson River Parkway Into Bronx; Pelham Manor Expected To Oppose Big Amusement Park, The Pelham Sun, Apr. 3, 1931, Vol. 22, No. 1, p. 1, cols. 1-2 & p. 5, col. 3.

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Images of Pelham Published in 1884

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Recently I was able to purchase a copy of the August 9, 1884 issue of Harper's Weekly (Vol. XXVIII, No. 1442).  Why?  Because it included a brief article on the newly-acquired lands northeast of New York City intended to create parks including Pelham Bay Park and a page of engraved images of the area within what was, at the time, part of the Town of Pelham.  

I previously have used one of the notable images of Pelham Bridge from that article before (with an overall image of the engraved page from which it came).  The images presented today, however, are significant because I now can tie them back to the article with which they were associated and can provide a citation to the source of each.  

In 1884, of course, New York City was in the midst of condemning lands in the Town of Pelham through the power of eminent domain to create today's Pelham Bay Park.  While Pelham Bay Park is quite extensive, the focus of the park included the area stretching from the famed Pelham Bridge to the equally-famous Hunter's Island.  Most images of the proposed parkland at the time focused on that region.  

On August 9, 1884, Harper's Weekly included a brief article on the new parks being created on the mainland northeast of Manhattan.  Harper's Weekly was a weekly national magazine that billed itself as the "JOURNAL OF CIVILIZATION."  The text of the article as well as images of the cover of the magazine, the page of Pelham engravings, and details from the images on that page appear immediately below.  Each is followed by a citation to its source.

Cover of Aug. 9, 1884 Issue of Harper's Weekly that Included an

Article on the New Pelham Bay Park and Images of Pelham (See

Below).  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

"1.  View of the Park Shores from City Island.  2.  Long Island Sound from

the Park.  3.  Pelham Shore.  4.  Pelham Bridge.  PELHAM PARK, NEW

YORK.  -- DRAWN BY CHARLES GRAHAM. -- [SEE PAGE 521.]"  Source:

"PELHAM BAY PARK" in Harper's Weekly, Vol. XXVIII, No. 1442, Aug. 9,

1884, p. 521.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

Detail from "4. Pelham Bridge."  Source:  "PELHAM BAY PARK" in Harper's Weekly,

Vol. XXVIII, No. 1442, Aug. 9, 1884, p. 521.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

Detail from "1. View of the Park Shores from City Island."  Source:  "PELHAM

BAY PARK"  in Harper's Weekly, Vol. XXVIII, No. 1442, Aug. 9, 1884, p. 521.

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

"2.  Long Island Sound from the Park.  "  Source:  "PELHAM

BAY PARK"  in Harper's Weekly, Vol. XXVIII, No. 1442, Aug. 9, 1884, p. 521.

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

Detail from "3.  Pelham Shore.  "  Source:  "PELHAM BAY PARK

in Harper's Weekly, Vol. XXVIII, No. 1442, Aug. 9, 1884, p. 521.

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

"PELHAM BAY PARK.

IT has been once or twice remarked that parks were the lungs of cities.  If Manhattan Island is not very well furnished with these useful organs, the 'annexed district,' when it becomes metropolitan instead of suburban, will have cause to bless the liberal pulmonary provision timely made in its behalf by the commission of which Mr. LUTHER R. MARSH was chairman, whose recommendations are now in the course of execution.

The entire scheme submitted by these gentlemen, and adopted at the last session of the Legislature, comprises three main parks:  Pelham Bay, on the Sound shore of Westchester, just beyond the point at which the East River widens into the Sound; Bronx Park, nearly midway between the Sound and the Hudson; and Van Courtlandt Park, lying on the eastern, which is the gentler, slope of the heights bordering the Hudson beyond Spuyten Duyvil, extending northward to the boundary of Yonkers, and bordering upon the south Jerome Park, which are for picturesque purposes continuations of it.  The three parks are to be connected by ample avenues, and the system is completed by smaller detached parks in the southern and more closely built quarters.

The most extensive of all is Pelham Bay Park, which includes two islands in the Sound (one of them Hunter's Island), and embraces some 1700 acres, or twice the area of Central Park.  It has a very great advantage over Central Park, in that it does not need to be made, but only to be preserved.  As we all know, Central Park has no advantages of situation.  Its name sums up all that can be said in favor of its site, and it was established as a compromise between the claims of the projectors of rival riparian pleasure-grounds.  The original difference between an artificial park like the Central and a natural park like the well-named Prospect Park of Brooklyn can never be wholly overcome by art.  The Westchester parks all have this initial advantage of a romantic situation, and they have also the advantage of ancient trees, the lack of which in the Central Park is only now, after a quarter of a century, ceasing to be painfully felt.

The new parks differ widely, also, among themselves.  It would not be easy to find in the same area a greater diversity of scenery than they afford.  Van Courtlandt Park, the heart of the ancient manor of Van Courtlandt, which two hundred years ago extended all along the lower Hudson, and the manor-house of which is to be included in the attractions of the park, is a bold and rugged piece of hill country, and from it glimpses may be had across the Hudson of the still bolder and more rugged escarpment of the Palisades.  At the foot of the declivity which Van Courtlandt Park occupies winds, generally in a languid fashion, JACOB BRONCK'S mill-stream, the 'mine own romantic Bonx' of RODMAN DRAKE, with banks still well wooded, and Bronx Park is a charming and peaceful reach of river.  From the river to the Sound is a slightly undulating plain, having the flat and sedgy character that appears at intervals along the whole northern shore of the Sound, and that is especially marked in lower Westchester, where the plain is intersected by countless estuaries, and juts out into countless 'necks,' and where the roads have the aspect of causeways.  The salt-marsh is in little esteem for agricultural purposes, and is quite unavailable for subdivision into villa sites, but it has a picturesqueness and a poetry of its own, as some painters and some poets have shown us, notably among the latter LOWELL, who has celebrated the flats of his native Cambridge in the 'Indian Summer Reverie,' and TENNYSON, of whom CARLYLE declared that his birth and nurture among the fens of Lincolnshire had left an impression on his verse.  Nowhere is this character more marked than at Pelham Bay, with its two islands separated from the mainland by little estuaries, and connected again by bridges.  Beyond the boundaries of the park lies City Island, to which a bridge is thrown from an inner island, and beyond this Hart's Island.  These diversify picturesquely the tranquil expanse of the Sound, here already a great sheet of water, the outlook over which is but for them unbroken.

There could be no better site than this for a public park by the water-side, and fortunately the dedication of it to this purpose will not interfere with any profitable private use, for the uses to which it has thus far been put have not been highly lucrative.  Pretty as the place is, and although it is only five or six miles from Harlem Bridge, the charms of this shore have hitherto been almost unknown to New-Yorkers, except the marauders who come by water, and the citizens whose occasions take them over the Harlem River branch of the New Haven Railroad.  Bartow, a station on this road, is within the precincts of the new park.

As has been said, Pelham Bay does not need to be converted into a park, but only to be preserved as a park.  All that is needed to bring it into public use is more facility of access, and a police force which shall secure the innocent and quiet pleasure-seekers from molestation by pleasure-seekers who are neither innocent nor quiet.  The parkway to Bronx Park will supply a more commodious drive than is now available.  The waterway from the East River is already open and is ample.  The construction of the wharves which will make it fully available for public use is a small matter.  When this improvement is made, and walks are laid out within the boundaries of the park, Pelham Bay Park will be one of the most attractive, and not many years can elapse before it will become also one of the most frequented and useful, water-side parks in the world."

Source:  "PELHAM BAY PARK" in Harper's Weekly, Vol. XXVIII, No. 1442, Aug. 9, 1884, p. 521.

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Is It Possible an Algonquian Oral Tradition of the Native American Sale of Lands to Thomas Pell on June 27, 1654 Has Survived?

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The questions seem far-fetched.  Is it possible that an Algonquian oral tradition of the sale by Native Americans of the lands that became the Manor of Pelham to Thomas Pell on June 27, 1654 has survived?  If so, does it provide any insights into how the land transaction was perceived by the Native Americans who were involved?

It is well-established that Thomas Pell of Fairfield acquired a vast tract of land from Native Americans on June 27, 1654.  Indeed, a copy of the deed believed to be in Pell's own handwriting still exists.  

17th Century Copy of Pell Deed Signed by Thomas Pell

and Native Americans on June 27, 1654, Believed To Be

in Thomas Pell's Handwriting.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

There is no reliable record documenting when, where, or how the Pell Deed was executed.  Tradition, likely apocryphal, long has held that the deed was signed beneath the spreading branches of a massive White Oak that survived into the 20th century on the grounds of today's Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum.  The spot is marked with a circular wrought-iron fence that once protected the so-called "Pell Treaty Oak" before its death in the early 20th century.  

There is, however, a purported record of an Algonquian oral tradition passed from generation to generation until it was recorded in a book published in 1982 about sixty years after the death of the Native American who recounted the tradition.  Today's posting to the Historic Pelham Blog addresses this oral tradition.

We should not, immediately, dismiss the possible academic merit and potentially scholarly substance of such a record.  As one academic recently has written:

"Oral histories can go back many hundreds of years, as three generations of people living into their eighties can span 200 years in storytelling.  It is the old folks who tell the stories.  Since the Indians were strong on oral history to keep their tribe's belief's intact, they could have had good tribal memories for many hundreds of years."

Source:  Buckland, John Alexander, The First Traders on Wall Street:  The Wiechquaeskeck Indians of Southwestern Connecticut in the Seventeenth Century, p. 132 (Westminster, MD:  Heritage Books, Inc., 2009).  

In 1982, Theodore Kazimiroff, son of former Bronx Historian, dentist, naturalist, and amateur archaeologist Dr. Theodore ("Ted") Kazimiroff, published a book entitled "The Last Algonquin."  In it, he detailed a story long told him by his father, Dr. Kazimiroff, before his father's death in 1980.  The book tells of Dr. Kazimiroff's encounter with a Native American living off the land on Hunter's Island in Pelham Bay Park during the 1920s when Dr. Kazimiroff was a young boy.  The Algonquin called himself Joe Two Trees and followed Native American traditions including the making of pottery, the crafting of stone tools, the preparation of clothing from animal hides, and traditional hunting, fishing, and food preparation techniques.

As detailed in the book, the young boy met Joe Two Trees in the final year of his life and grew close to him, visiting him as often as possible. As Joe Two Trees neared death, living in a traditional wigwam crafted with his own hands on Hunter's Island, he recounted the story of his life to his young friend who helped care for him.  According to that story, Joe Two Trees was born as "Two Trees" on Hunter's Island in about 1840.  His father was named Eagle Feather.  His mother was named Small Doe.  Both his mother and father died before Two Trees was fifteen and remaining members of his clan departed for places unknown.

Two Trees made his way to Manhattan where he worked during the winter of 1855-56.  After killing a thief who attempted to rob him of his meager earnings, Two Trees fled to Staten Island and, then, New Jersey where he lived off the land following traditional Native American ways.  By 1858 he made his way to Pennsylvania where he was directed to coal mines where he worked for about two years until 1860.  

After his stint in a Pennsylvania coal mine, Two Trees -- then known as "Joe Two Trees" -- made his way across the land back toward New York City which he reached in the early winter of 1862.  He lived the next sixty years or so in New York, much of that time on Hunter's Island where he died.

Joe Two Trees, according to Dr. Kazimiroff and his son, told the young boy a number of stories that were part of the fabric of his life.  One of those stories purportedly involved an oral account of the Native American sale of lands to Thomas Pell on June 27, 1654.  As told in the book "The Last Algonquin," Two Trees told young Ted Kazimiroff that in the mid-seventeenth century as the Native Americans near Manhattan chafed at the ever-greater pressure of European settlers pressing toward their lands, local Native American clans in the region decided to split with some departing the region and a small group including the ancestors of Two Trees deciding to stay as the Turtle Clan.  According to Kazimiroff in his book:

"The new group [the Turtle Clan], flourished and they did all the things their sachem had ordered on the night of the joining ceremony.  They hunted and planted, fished and lived well.  Some died, but new children were born often, and they stayed a large clan for many years.

During this time, in 1654, a man named Thomas Pell had come to live nearby.  He wished to buy land here, and after the people saw that he was a good man who dealt honorably with his Indian neighbors, they agreed to listen to his offer of purchase.  Although the Turtle clan was not directly involved in the transaction, their brothers on the mainland invited them to the deliberations.  They were, after all, nearby, and this sale could well affect them too.  Subsequent studies revealed many of the details of what followed.

The white man spoke to the Indian delegation for a long time.  He promised peace and respect.  He said he would interfere with their lives as little as possible.  He told them that he would stay away from their holy places, and allow them to hunt on the land even after it was his.  He promised the red men that he would use the land and its game in ways that would not anger their Great Spirit.

Joe's people listened in silence, and when he had finished, they walked off a little way to make council.  After everyone had spoken, the leader saw that the agreement would be made.  Now he must bargain for a high price.  The beads and knives, jackets and pots had simply proven too much for the forest people to resist.  The sale was made now; all that remained was a final price.

The Indians and white man sat down under a large oak tree that day and made treaty.  A steatite smoking pipe was passed from hand to hand to seal the agreement.  The Indian people with their new pots and beads and other treasures were very much poorer when they finally stood up.

The oak tree grew alongside Shore road near the present Bartow Mansion.  It grew there, a landmark from earlier times, in an open field until early in the twentieth century when it was struck by lightning.  It subsequently died and rotted.  Now, an iron fence stands around the spot where Thomas Pell purchased Pelham Bay Park, parts of Westchester, and areas of the Bronx in 1654.  The final price must have been one of the best bargains in history.

The treaty was otherwise a good one, and both sides lived by it.  But the seeds of the end had been sown with its signing.  All people who make treaties have one thing in common.  None of them lives forever."

Source:  Kazimiroff, Theodore L., THE LAST ALGONQUIN, pp. 42-43 (London, New Delhi, New York, Sidney:  Bloomsbury, 1982) (paperback ISBN 978-0-8027-7517-7).

There has been a long-standing debate over whether Joe Two Trees existed and, even if so, whether "The Last Algonguin" accurately reflects his life.  Some of Dr. Kazimiroff's friends thought it odd that he had never mentioned Joe Two Trees to them before his death.  Although Dr. Kazimiroff's son who authored the book has acknowledged "fleshing out" the story, he has insisted that the basic story was true.  

Of course, even if Joe Two Trees recounted an oral tradition of Thomas Pell's purchase on June 27, 1654, we will never know if it was accurate in the first place or whether it was accurately described when put to paper some sixty years later.  Yet, the fact that such an account exists at all provides a tantalizing glimpse of a day that is admittedly one of the most significant in the history of Pelham.

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John Hunter of Hunter's Island in Pelham Campaigned for Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren in 1832

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The presidential election in 1832 was a raucous affair at the national level.  After the end of the Congressional nominating caucus system in the election of 1824, the nation was left without a formalized institutional method for determining presidential nominations.  In 1832, however, the nation's three major parties, each known by various names but referred to here as the Democratic-Republican (Democratic) Party, the National Republican Party, and the Anti-Masonic Party.  All three parties held national conventions in Baltimore in 1832.  

The Democratic Party nominated Andrew Jackson for reelection to the presidency with Martin Van Buren as his vice presidential running mate, running in his first national election.  The National Republican Party nominated Henry Clay of Kentucky with John Sergeant as his vice presidential running mate.  The Anti-Masonic Party nominated William Wirt of Maryland with Amos Ellmaker as his vice presidential running mate.  

The Democratic Party that nominated Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren was one of the remnants of the Democratic-Republican Party that, by 1824, had split four ways and lacked any center of gravity.  Jackson's Democratic Party eventually evolved into the modern Democratic Party.  At the time, however, Jacksonian Democrats distrusted banks and paper money and opposed the existence of the Second Bank of the United States.  The Jacksonian Democrats supported a strong executive branch and a weak legislative branch while also supporting an expansion of suffrage.

Andrew Jackson won 219 of the 286 electoral votes cast in the 1832 election and won the presidency.  Martin Van Buren became his vice-president.  

John Hunter's involvement in the local political movement to support a Democratic ticket that included Martin Van Buren as the vice-presidential candidate seems significant in hindsight.  This was the first national election in which New Yorker Martin Van Buren ran for office.  He was selected for the ticket to succeed John C. Calhoun as vice-president and, in the 1836 election, won the presidency and succeeded Andrew Jackson.  However, in 1832 Van Buren faced intense opposition for the vice-presidency, with many supporting Pennsylvania resident William Wilkins.  John Hunter of Pelham and his cohorts from remaining towns in Westchester County supported the Jackson-Van Buren ticket.  

John Hunter of Hunter's Island in Pelham was an early supporter of what evolved into the modern Democratic Party.  He was politically active and, like fellow New Yorker Martin Van Buren, was a political organizer who grew to become friends with Van Buren.  Indeed, John Hunter is repeatedly mentioned in the personal papers of Martin Van Buren throughout the 1830s and 1840s.  See Fri., Dec. 15, 2006:  References To John Hunter of Pelham Manor in the Papers of President Martin Van Buren.  

During his one-term presidency, Martin Van Buren failed to deal with the economic Panic of 1837 and, due to the ensuing Depression, became known as "Martin Van Ruin."  That and a surging Whig Party led to his defeat in the 1840 presidential election.  While President of the United States, however, Van Buren visited John Hunter on Hunter's Island in the Town of Pelham in July, 1839.  See Thu., Nov. 3, 2005:  President Martin Van Buren's Visit to Pelham in July 1839.  

Martin Van Buren in a Photograph Taken by

Matthew Brady, Ca. 1855-58.  Source:  Wikipedia.

NOTE:  Click Image to Enlarge.

John Hunter worked to support the candidacies of Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren in the 1832 presidential election.  On September 28, 1832, members of the Democratic-Republican Party of Westchester County gathered in Mount Pleasant and elected a committee that included John Hunter of Pelham to represent them.  That Committee, among other things, unanimously agreed to support the re-election of Andrew Jackson to the Presidency, and Martin Van Buren as Vice President of the United States.  The Committee further decided to publish minutes and resolutions of the meeting in numerous local newspapers as a show of their support for Jackson and Van Buren.

Today's posting to the Historic Pelham Blog transcribes the text of one such set of minutes and resolutions published after the Mount Pleasant meeting.  The text is followed by a citation and link to its source.  

"At a large and respectable meeting of the Democratic Republicans of Westchester county friendly to the re-election of Andrew Jackson to the Presidency, held at the house of J. M. Twitchings, in the town of Mount Pleaseant, on the 28th day of September, 1832.  General Jacob Odell was called to the chair, and Hiram P. Rowel, and Elijah Yerka were appointed Secretaries.

Resolved, That a committee to consist of one person from each town be appointed to nominate a suitable Assembly ticket, to be supported at the ensuing election, and to draft resolutions expressive of the sense of this meeting.

Whereupon the following persons were appointed such committee, Aaron Brown, Somers; Albert Lockwood, Poundridge; Jonathan M. Hall, Bedford; Sam'l P. Smith, North Castle; Wm J. Van Yassell, Mount Pleasant; Henry Brecort, Yonkers; Cornelius M. Odell, Greenburgh; Gilbert Oakley, White Plains; Jeremiah Anderson, Harrison; Horace B. Bloat, Mamaroneck; Thomas Carpenter, New Rochelle; John Hunter, Pelham; James Somerville, East Chester; Wm. H. Arnow, Westchester.

The committee retired, and after mutual deliberation returned and reported the following Assembly Ticket and Resolutions, which were unanimously adopted.

For Members of Assembly.
Israel H. Watson of Westchester, 
John W. Frost, of Cortland, and 
Thomas Smith of South Salem.

Resolved That this meeting unanimously agree to support the re-election of Andrew Jackson to the Presidencey, and Martin Van Buren as Vice President of the United States.

Resolved, That this meeting unanimously agree to support William L. Marcy for Governor, and John Tracy for Lieut. Governor of this state at the ensuing election.

Whereas the Republicans of this county have in later years, at the different Conventions to which they have sent Delegates, either been over-reached by management and intrigue or treated with disregard.  Therefore,

Resolved That this meeting do not deem it proper to send Delegates to either the Congressional or Senatorial Convention.

Resolved, That this meeting, according to usage, consider the right of nomination to Congress for a candidate at the ensuing election to be in the county of Putnam, and provided they nominate a suitable candidate, we will support their nomination.

Resolved, That the Chairman and Secretaries of this meeting be empowered, should they deem it necessary, to call a meeting at any time they may think proper previous to the election, and to fix the time and place at which the next annual meeting shall be held.

Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the chairman and secretaries and published in the Westchester Spy, Westchester Herald, New York Standard, and Evening Post.

JACOB ODELL, Chairman.
HIRAM P. ROWEL, }
                                } Secretaries.
ELIJAH YERKA       }"

Source:  [Untitled], New-York Evening Post [NY, NY], Oct. 2, 1832, No. 9400, p. 2, col. 4.

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1910 Article Describes Mansions that Still Stood in What Once Was Pelham Overlooking Long Island Sound

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During the nineteenth century, the beauty of the Town of Pelham situated on Long Island Sound attracted wealthy New Yorkers who built stupendous mansions and elegant summer homes on Pelham Neck and along Shore Road overlooking the Sound.  I have written on the histories of many such mansions and their owners.  I have included an extensive list of such postings at the end of today's article.

 

1868 Map Detail Showing Many Pelham Mansions and Summer Homes. 

Source:  Beers, F.W., Atlas of New York and Vicinity,

p. 35 (NY, NY: F.W. Beers, et al., 1868) (plate entitled

"City Island, Pelham Township, Westchester Co., N.Y.

(with) Town of Pelham, Westchester Co., N.Y.").



Today's Historic Pelham Blog posting transcribes a lengthy exerpt from an article published in 1910 that describes many of the mansions that continued to stand at the time in Pelham Bay Park. 

"BRONX PARKS.
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Colonial and Revolutionary Landmarks.
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Homes of Romance, Tradition and Tragedy.
-----

*   *   *

PELHAM BAY PARK.

Bartow Mansion -- This beautiful and exclusive mansion, displaying such a striking Grecian front of native cut masonry, is a short distance northeast of the Bartow station of the New Haven road, and perhaps a mile south of Hunter's Island.  Standing on what was the Pell estate, it is but a stone's throw east of the fabled site of the ancient Pell manor house, where the manor courts were held and the tenants of Lord Pell would assemble in the early days.  The grizzled veteran of the forest, which up to a year ago stood on the immense grassy lawn in front of the Bartow mansion, was pointed out as the great tree under whose branches Lord Pell signed the celebrate treaty [sic] with the Indian sachems, on Nov. 14, 1654 [sic], the noted Pell treaty oak.  Closer to the water's edge a tiny cemetery proclaims from the quaint inscriptions on its well-worn tombstones that it is the last resting place of several members of the Pell family.  For a number of summers the courtesy of the Bronx park commissioner has enabled the Crippled Children's Asscoiation to have its little members bask in the warm sun and enjoy the cooling and refreshing breezes that circle around the old Bartow mansion.

De Lancey Mansion -- Almost opposite the twin gate posts of Hunter's Island is 'Greystones,' the former splendid residence of William H. DeLancey.  On the walls used to hang the original portrait of the Hon. Caleb Heathcote, lord of the Manor of Scarsdale.  This native stone building has been known as Hunter's Island Inn, and is situated at a sharp curve in the road that has proved such a thorn in the flesh to scorching automobilists.

Hunter Mansion. -- This elaborate stone residence lately used as an inn stands adjoining the athletic field, not far from the picturesque summer house by the shore, commanding a fine view of City Island across Pelham Bay.  Built in the fifties of the last century, it was styled
Annie's Wood' by the late owner E. Des Brosses Hunter, son of John Hunter of Hunter's Island.  It stands on part of the extensive estate of the Bayards, those well-known early settlers who came from France to escape the Huguenots persecution.  One of the three brothers who came as immigrants was Blathazar Bayard, a Huguenot clergyman, who accounts tell us, was shipped from Rochelle, France, in a hogshead.

Hunter's Island Mansion. -- Standing like a massive stone sentinel on the central crest of Hunter's Island in the very northeastern corner of Pelham Bay Park, this splendid old-time structure occupies the grandest location for a private residence along the whole length of Long Island Sound.  Any one who has seen its striking Ionic colonnade, or the magnificent panorama of sea and land, to be obtained from the upper windows, cannot but be lost in admiration of Mr. Hunter's good taste in the selection of a home.  History tells us that the Hunter family were related to that of Gen. Philip Schuyler, of Revolutionary fame.  Certain it is that the Schuyler mansion stood not so very far removed from that of Mr. Hunter, its site being about a mile to the southwest, back of the present Bartow station, and close to the banks of the Hutchinson River, named after that noted early settler, Anne Hutchinson, who braved the dangers of the primeval forest for a home in Pelham Bay Park, where she could enjoy religious freedom.  At one time the Hunter mansion was the residence of Mr. Henderson, a southern gentleman, once a surgeon in the British army, having seen service in distant Asia.  Under his ownership the mansion was a sumptuous bachelor's hall, and the 'Lonely Lord' is found to have made his homestead the palatial home of th finest prvate art gallery of its time in the whole United States, it having been filled to overflowing with the choicest treasures of the Italian masters.  For a number of years past the Hunter mansion has been the summer home of the Little Mothers' Association, and a more beautiful charity cannt be imagined than allowing these hard-worked children of the poor to have the enjoyments that this island affords.

Lorillard Mansion. -- Now known as the Tallapoosa Club House, this once splendid mansion was erected by Pierre Lorillard, Jr., and is a typical example of the grand array of country residences that once were the pride of lower Westchester County.  Its location, just this side of Pelham Bridge, commanding a glorious view of the waters of the sound, whose waves break almost at its very doors, cannot be excelled for romantic beauty.

Marshall Mansion -- Opposite the upper end of City Island and surrounded by a forest of its own the white Marshall mansion rears its stately walls, and presents in its handsome Grecian columns a most striking and picturesque appearance.  The name 'Hawkswood' still clings to the place, and it will not be long before the snaillike horse car of a bygone age will give place to the modern monorail system now under construction, whose dazzling cars are expected to fly past the Marshall mansion at 135 miles an hour.

Morris Mansion -- A few steps west of the Marshall mansion described above, 'Longwood,' A. Newbold M. Morris' late home, occupies one of the finest locations on Pelham neck with a beautiful view to the south.  Not far from this is the old shingle-sided Bowne homestead, near which, according to one account, was the old Pell residence, so located from the fishhawks' nests, which Mr. Pell felt sure would bring good luck to him and his family.

Ogden Mansion. -- In this remote yet romantic nook, on the easterly of the tiny Twin Islands, only reached by a winding roadway over the hills of Hunter's Island, is the magnificent stone Ogden mansion, for a while the home of one of Jacob A. Riis's settlements.  One cannot be but in rapture over the glorious landscape here, yet how few are allowed to enjoy it.

*    *    * "

Source:  BRONX PARKS -- Colonial and Revolutionary Landmarks -- Homes of Romance, Tradition and Tragedy, The Daily Standard Union [Brooklyn, NY], Oct. 17, 1910, p. 9, cols. 3-6. 
 
*          *          *          *          *
 
Below is a list of prior postings that address the histories of some Pelham mansions and their owners.
 
Mon., May 26, 2014:  James D. Fish and the Mansion He Built that Once Stood on the Most Easterly of the Twin Islands in Pelham. 

Thu., May 15, 2014:  Edgewood, a Grand 19th Century Estate Owned by Frederick Prime Overlooking Long Island Sound. 

Mon., Apr. 28, 2014:  More on The Estate Known as "West Neck" that Once Belonged to Philip B. Schuyler. 

Wed., Apr. 23, 2014:  Philip B. Schuyler and the Burning of the Schuyler Homestead in What Once was Part of Pelham in 1895.

Mon., Mar. 03, 2014:  The Suydam Estate known as “Oakshade” on Shore Road in the Town of Pelham, built by James Augustus Suydam. 
 
Wed., Feb. 26, 2014:  Research Regarding "Greystones," The Elegant DeLancey Estate that Became Hunter Island Inn and Once Stood in Pelham on Today's Shore Road.
 
Fri., Feb. 14, 2014:  Martin Euclid Thompson, the Architect of the Pelham Mansion Known as Hawkswood and the Marshall Mansion.
 
Thu., Feb. 13, 2014:  More Information About Elisha W. King, the Builder and Original Owner of Hawkswood.
 
Mon., Feb. 10, 2014:  Hawkswood, Also Known as the Marshall Mansion, Colonial Hotel and Colonial Inn, Once Stood in Pelham Near City Island.
 
Fri., May 07, 2010:  Image of Hawkswood Published in 1831.
 
Mon., Apr. 26, 2010:  Public Service Commission Couldn't Find Marshall's Corners in 1909.
 
Thu., Jun. 28, 2007:  19th Century Notice of Executor's Sale of "Hawkswood" After Death of Elisha W. King.

Fri., Mar. 2, 2007:  A Brief Account by American Author Margaret Deland of Her Education at Pelham Priory in the 19th Century. 

Thu., Dec. 14, 2006:  Items from Bolton Priory in the Collections of The Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture, The New-York Historical Society.
 
Tue., Oct. 03, 2006:  Two Interesting Photographs of Bolton Priory in Pelham Manor. 
 
Fri., Jul. 28, 2006:  Image of Bolton Priory in the Town of Pelham Published in an 1859 Treatise on Landscape Gardening. 
 
Wed., Jul. 26, 2006:  A Brief Account of Visits to Bolton Priory in the Early 1880s. 

Jul. 5, 2006:  Bricks Laid by Washington Irving and Ivy from Kenilworth Castle at the Bolton Priory in Pelham Manor.
 
Wed., Apr. 5, 2006:  "Hawkswood", Later Known as the Marshall Mansion on Rodman's Neck in Pelham. 

Wed., Mar. 15, 2006:  A Biography of Cornelius W. Bolton Published in 1899.

Wed., Mar. 1, 2006:  1909 Real Estate Advertisement Showing Bolton Priory.

Wed., Dec. 7, 2005:  The Sale and Subdivision of the Bolton Priory Estate in the 1950s. 
 
Fri., Dec. 02, 2005:  John Hunter of Hunter's Island in Pelham, New York. 

Tue., Nov. 29, 2005:  An Early, Interesting Photograph of Bolton Priory in the Village of Pelham Manor. 
 
Thu., Nov. 3, 2005:  President Martin Van Buren's Visit to Pelham in July 1839.

Tue., Aug. 23, 2005:  Society Scandal: The "Strange" Story of Mrs. Adele Livingston Stevens Who Acquired the Bolton Priory in Pelham Manor. 
 
Fri., Jun. 10, 2005:  Pelham's Most Magnificent Wedding Gift: The Bolton Priory.   

Tue., May 3, 2005:  Colonel Frederick Hobbes Allen, An Owner of Bolton Priory in Pelham Manor. 

Bell, Blake A., A Brief History of Bolton Priory in Pelham Manor, The Pelham Weekly, Vol. XIII, No., 16, Apr. 16, 2004, p. 8, col. 2. 

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