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Founding
Founding of New Rochelle
city in Westchester County, State of New York, United States, suburb of NYC
- 1688 – 1899
- North America
Founding
city in Westchester County, State of New York, United States, suburb of NYC
Fetching the article from Wikipedia…
New Rochelle ( rə-SHEL) is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is a suburb outside of New York City, located about 17 miles (27 km) from Midtown Manhattan. The city had a population of 79,726 at the time of the 2020 census, making it the seventh-largest city and 22nd-most-populous municipality in New York.
This area was occupied by cultures of indigenous peoples for thousands of years. They made use of the rich resources of Long Island Sound and inland areas.
By the 17th century, the historic Lenape bands, who spoke a language in the Algonquian family, were prominent in the area. Their territory extended from the coastal areas of western present-day Connecticut, Long Island, and south through New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware.
In 1654, the Siwanoy Indians, a band of Lenape (also known as the Delaware by English colonists), sold land to English settler Thomas Pell. Some 33 families established the community of La Nouvelle-Rochelle (French pronunciation: [la nuvɛl ʁɔʃɛl]) in 1688. Many of them were artisans and craftsmen from La Rochelle, France, after which they named the settlement. The people continued to speak French, and a common practice for people in neighboring areas was to send their children to New Rochelle to learn the language. A monument containing the names of these settlers stands in Hudson Park, the original landing point of the Huguenots. In 1689, Pell officially deeded 6,100 acres (25 km2) for the establishment of a Huguenot community.
Jacob Leisler is an important figure in the early histories of both New Rochelle and the United States. He arrived in America as a mercenary in the British Army and later became one of the most prominent merchants in New York. He was subsequently appointed acting governor of the province; during his tenure he acted on behalf of the Huguenots.
One condition of the sale was that Pell and his heirs would receive "one fatt calfe" on June 24 of every year thereafter, if demanded. The "fatt calfe" was commemorated in the New Rochelle 250th Anniversary half dollar, minted in 1937. Pell's descendants did not request a calf until the 1950s. Since then, there have been occasional "fatt calfe" ceremonies.
Of all the Huguenot settlements in America founded with the intention of being distinctly French colonies, New Rochelle most clearly fulfilled such plans. The colony attracted French refugees until as late as 1760, during the French and Indian War in North America between Britain and France.
In 1775, General George Washington stopped in New Rochelle on his way to assume command of the Army of the United Colonies in Massachusetts. In 1776 the British Army briefly occupied sections of New Rochelle and Larchmont. Following British victory in the Battle of White Plains, New Rochelle became part of the infamous Neutral Ground of Westchester County.
After the Revolutionary War ended, in 1784, patriot Thomas Paine was given a farm in New Rochelle for his service to the cause of independence. The farm, totaling about 300 acres (1.2 km2), had been confiscated from its owners by the state of New York due to their Tory activities.
The first national census of 1790 shows New Rochelle with 692 residents. Some 136 were African American, including 36 who were freemen; the remainder were enslaved.
Through the 18th century, New Rochelle had remained a modest village that retained an abundance of agricultural land. During the 19th century, however, New York City was a destination from the mid-century on by waves of immigration, principally from Ireland and Germany. More established American families left New York City and moved into this area. Although the original Huguenot population was rapidly shrinking in relative size, through ownership of land, businesses, banks, and small manufactures, they retained a predominant hold on the political and social life of the town.
The 1820 Census showed 150 African Americans residing in New Rochelle, six of whom were still enslaved. The state abolished slavery by degrees; children of enslaved mothers were born free, and all enslaved people were freed by 1827.
In 1857, the Village of New Rochelle was established within the borders of the Town of New Rochelle. A group of volunteers created the first fire service in 1861. In 1899, a bill creating the New Rochelle City Charter was signed by Governor Theodore Roosevelt. Through this bill, the Village and Town of New Rochelle were joined into one municipality. In 1899, Michael J. Dillon narrowly defeated Hugh A. Harmer to become New Rochelle's first mayor. The recently established city charter designated a board of aldermen as the legislative unit with two members to be elected from each of four wards and 10 elected from the city at-large.
By 1900, New Rochelle had a population of 14,720. Throughout the city, farms, estates, and wooded homesteads were bought up by realty and development companies. Planned residential neighborhoods such as Rochelle Park, one of the first planned communities in the country, soon spread across the city, earning New Rochelle the sobriquet "City of Homes". In 1909, Edwin Thanhouser established Thanhouser Film Corporation. Thanhouser's The Million Dollar Mystery was one of the first serial motion pictures. In 1923, New Rochelle resident Anna Jones became the first African-American woman to be admitted to the New York State Bar.
Poet and resident James J. Montague captured the image of New Rochelle at the time in his 1926 poem "Queen City of the Sound".
In 1930, New Rochelle recorded a population of 54,000, up from 36,213 only 10 years earlier. During the 1930s, New Rochelle was the wealthiest city per capita in New York and the third-wealthiest in the country.
By the end of the century, the Metro North railroad station was rebuilt along with a $190 million entertainment complex, nicknamed New Roc City, which featured a 19-screen movie theater, an IMAX theater, an indoor ice hockey arena, mini-golf, go karts, an arcade, restaurants, a hotel, loft apartments, and a megasupermarket. The complex was built on the site of the former New Rochelle Mall, which had opened in 1968.
In 2014, New Rochelle's planning board approved $149 million in developments to three major sections of the city. The developments include restaurants, stores, hotels, an entertainment area, theaters, and a mixed-use waterfront area, and were expected to be completed within 10 years. Additional tax breaks ranging in the tens of millions of dollars have since been awarded by the city government to further the redevelopment of the downtown area.
In March 2020, New Rochelle became one of the first reported centers for COVID-19 transmission in New York during the 2019–20 coronavirus outbreak. On March 10, 2020, Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered components of the New York Air National Guard and New York Army National Guard to institute a one-mile radius containment area centered around the Young Israel of New Rochelle synagogue in the Wykagyl section of the city in an attempt to stem the spread of the virus. The implementation of this containment area, which covered multiple neighborhoods in New Rochelle and extended into parts of the neighboring Town of Eastchester, marked the first use in the state of New York of social distancing measures and the closure of schools, houses of worship, and other institutions to combat the spread of the pandemic. Large gathering places including schools and places of worship were declared closed, while National Guard troops were deployed to provide logistical support such as assistance with the distribution of food and the disinfection of public areas.
New Rochelle is located at the southeastern point of continental New York. It lies on the Long Island Sound, bordered on the west by Pelham, Pelham Manor, and Eastchester, by Scarsdale to the north and east, and Mamaroneck and Larchmont to the east. The city lies 2 miles (3.2 km) north of the New York City border (Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 13.2 square miles (34.3 km2). The city has a roughly triangular shape, around 10 miles (16 km) from north to south and 1.5 miles (2 km) from east to west at its widest point.
As of the 2020 census, New Rochelle had a population of 79,726. The median age was 40.1 years. 20.7% of residents were under the age of 18 and 17.8% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 93.1 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 89.7 males age 18 and over.
100.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.0% lived in rural areas.
There were 28,702 households in New Rochelle, of which 32.2% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 46.5% were married-couple households, 17.4% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 31.1% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 28.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
Text from the Wikipedia article “New Rochelle, New York”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.