Pocantico Hills, New York | |
|---|---|
Hamlet | |
 Pocantico Hills in autumn | |
  Pocantico Hills, New York Pocantico Hills within the state of New York | |
| Coordinates:41°5′40″N73°50′9″W / 41.09444°N 73.83583°W /41.09444; -73.83583 | |
| Country | United States |
| State | New York |
| County | Westchester County |
| Town | Mount Pleasant |
| Elevation | 541 ft (165 m) |
| Time zone | UTC-5 (Eastern (EST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
| ZIP code | 10591 |
| Area code | 914 |
Pocantico Hills is ahamlet in theWestchester County town ofMount Pleasant, New York, United States.[1] The Rockefeller family estate, anchored byKykuit, the family seat built byJohn D. Rockefeller Sr., is located in Pocantico Hills, as is the adjacentRockefeller State Park Preserve.
The area was originally settled by Native Americans of theWecquaesgeek tribes; "Pocantico" means "stream between two hills",[2] a reference to the meanderingPocantico River. The hamlet was once a part ofPhilipsburg Manor.[1] 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".[3]John D. Rockefeller, an industrialist, began buying land in Pocantico Hills in 1893.[4]
In 1880, The"Old Put" Railroad ran from New York to Brewster. The section betweenEast View andPocantico Hills, travelled over an 80-foot-high trestle over a marsh-filled valley.[5] 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.[6] The bridge was torn down in 1883, and the valley became theTarrytown Reservoir. The railroad ran through the Rockefeller property. In 1928,John D. Rockefeller Jr. negotiated with theNew York Central Railroad to relocate the line along theSaw Mill River, costing $200,000, which Rockefeller Jr. paid.
When theDe La Salle Brothers' property inAmawalk was condemned to make way for theNew Croton Reservoir, they moved the novitiate to Pocantico. Around 1929, the Rockefeller family purchased the property.[7]
TheStone 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.[8]
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 lies across town and village borders, including areas ofSleepy 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 attendingSleepy Hollow High School, Briarcliff, or Pleasantville High School.
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 magnateJames Butler of Eastview.[9]
TheUnion 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, one of the founders of the Museum of Modern Art.[10]
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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.[11]
Media related toPocantico Hills, New York at Wikimedia CommonsMunicipalities and communities ofWestchester County, New York,United States | ||
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