Hartsdale, New York,10530

Hartsdale is a hamlet and a census-designated place (CDP) located in the town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York.

HARTSDALE HAS A RICH HISTORY -   Hartsdale's earliest inhabitants were the Weekquaeskeeks, a sub-tribe of the Algonquin Indians. Upon the arrival of the British colonialists, the area was developed (under the Manor system) and Frederick Philipse, a Dutch merchant and British Loyalist, was “granted" the land by the British government.  As Lord of his Philipse Manor, he leased his land to tenant farmers.  Hartsdale played quite a significant role during the Revolutionary War. On October 28th, 1776, a Revolutionary War battle was fought alongside the Bronx River, near the site of the current Hartsdale train station. The Odell House, which is located on Ridge Road, served as the headquarters for the French General the Comte de Rochambeau – it is at the Odell House where the Comte and George Washington are supposed to have formed an alliance in the Battle of Yorktown.  The house is now a museum.

After the Continental Army won the Revolutionary War, Frederick Philipse III (third Lord of the manor) fled for safety and  his land was confiscated by the American colonist & sold to the remaining farming tenants, many of whom were descendants of the Hart family.  The intersection of Central Park Avenue and Hartsdale Avenue was named "Hart's Corners" after Robert Hart, one of these farmers who successfully bid for the land, and in the mid 1800s the entire area became known as "Hartsdale".

The area remained largely farmland until 1865, when Eleazar Hart deeded land for the development of the New York and Harlem Railroad line into Manhattan, setting the stage for Hartsdale's change into a more cosmopolitan commuter village. Between 1880-1940, large tracts of farmland and estates were subdivided and converted into private houses and apartments at a furious pace.  By the 1960s, almost no remaining farmland was left for sale.

In 1904, the successful German-Jewish banker Felix Warburg (1871-1937) purchased large tracts of land to build his 500-acre "Woodlands" estate in Hartsdale, a summer home next to the country club where he and his wife, Frieda – upon her death in 1958, she deeded 150 remaining acres to the town of Greenburgh to build a public school. These 150 acres are now the home of the Greenburgh Central 7 School District and Woodlands High School. The main Warburg mansion currently serves as the school district headquarters, but other remnants from the original estate grounds can still be seen standing in the surrounding woods and neighboring streets.

 

In 1932, Henry Jacques Gaisman, the inventor and founder of the Gillette safety razor blade, purchased 136 acres of land along Ridge Road.  In 1999, the estate was saved from sale and development when the Town of Greenburgh acquired the property and reopened it as the Hart's Brook Nature Preserve.  Part of the agreement included the preservation of some portion of the estate as a home for retired Catholic nuns.

BASIC FACTS - Hartsdale is a hamlet located within the town of Greenburgh, NY.  The community has an area of 3.2 square miles.  Hartsdale lies on the Bronx River just 20 miles north of New York City.   Per the US Census Bureau, per information gathered from the 2000 census, Hartsdale had a population of 9,830 people and a family median income of $100,330. The town can generally be subdivided into several different areas including the "Village" or downtown part (East Hartsdale Avenue), College Corners, Manor Woods, Poet’s Corners, Ridge Road, Windsor Park and Orchard Hill.