Land & belonging
Croton Point, layer by layer
Indigenous occupation, vineyards, brickmaking and a landfill have each left a mark on today’s county park.
Croton history
Articles, photographs, maps and original records.
Featured history
When New York Threw a Party for Croton Water
October 14 marks 184 years since the 1842 Croton Water Celebration. Watch our new Croton Ode lyric film and explore the poem, the aqueduct and the historical score behind the anniversary.
Read article →
1892 · 1937 · Today
Historical atlas ↗
Compare old maps with modern streets. Locate Native sites, the waterworks, railways and events, with sources for each.
Open the interactive map →Browse by subject
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River & water supply
Aqueducts, reservoirs, work and the riverfront.
Revolution & memory
Wartime Westchester, remembered and contested.
Native history & land
Indigenous history, dispossession, slavery and changing land use.
Village & culture
Vineyards, artists, Prohibition and the places we protect.
Research notes
Source comparisons and questions for further investigation.
Selected articles
Village & culture
Brinton Brook and the art of explaining data
The engineer behind two books on statistical graphics, and the sanctuary that carries his name.
Revolution & memory
Two fights at Teller’s Point—and the story between them
Letters, military records and veterans’ later testimony separate the Vulture cannonade from the disputed story of Peterson and Sherwood.
September 1780
Teller’s Point and the Arnold–André plot
Six events, with contemporary sources and disputed details.
September 20
Livingston's ammunition is on its way
John Lamb writes that he has sent the ammunition Livingston requested for firing a four-pounder at a ship.
Open the source ↗Before the cannonade
A boat approaches under a white flag
Captain Sutherland reports that concealed men fired on a boat he sent to Teller's Point. He names no shooters and reports no injury. Weigel dates this encounter September 21; the surviving letter's docket and printed transcriptions differ.
Open the source ↗Night, September 21–22
André meets Arnold ashore
André leaves the Vulture and meets Arnold on the Hudson's western shore.
Open the source ↗Dawn, September 22
American artillery fires from Teller's Point
The Vulture withdraws from range. Livingston's artillery preparations are documented; the later account of Peterson and Sherwood guiding an officer remains uncorroborated.
Open the source ↗Evening, September 22
André crosses King's Ferry
André travels in non-regimental clothing under the name John Anderson, carrying intelligence from Arnold.
Open the source ↗September 23
Captured near Tarrytown
John Paulding, David Williams and Isaac Van Wart stop André; papers found on him expose his mission.
Open the source ↗Events are spaced equally for reading; spacing does not measure elapsed time. The boat encounter’s exact day is disputed. Read the account and its sources →
Collection statistics
These charts describe our collection, not the frequency or importance of events in Croton’s past.
Articles by subject
Archive sources
Categories follow archive filenames. A source file may contain many passages; image descriptions are text records, not a count of photographs.
View chart data and method
Story counts come from the published Markdown collection, grouped once per subject. News-format history features are listed separately. Archive counts group distinct source filenames; word totals sum stored passage counts. Counts are calculated directly from the collection.
| Material | Source files | Words |
|---|---|---|
| Image descriptions | 833 | 54,300 |
| Interview transcripts | 419 | 306,882 |
| Documents and other texts | 344 | 10,346,633 |
Search by era
Indigenous history
Archaeology, Native communities and colonial encounters
Colonial & the Manor
Van Cortlandt Manor and Dutch Westchester
Revolution & the Neutral Ground
Skinners, Cowboys, and the Arnold-André affair
The Aqueduct & the Dam
Water supply, engineering and construction
Village formation (1898)
Incorporation and the making of the village
Twentieth century
Harmon, Prohibition, and modern Croton
Search by place
Croton Point
Shell middens, vineyards, brickyards, a landfill, a park
Harmon
Residential development and the railroad
Croton Landing
Steamboats, docks, and the riverfront
Quaker Bridge
The crossing above the gorge
The Dam
Construction, labor and water supply
Van Cortlandt Manor
The manor and its surrounding lands
The McDonald interviews
In the 1840s and early 1850s, John M. McDonald recorded Westchester residents’ memories of the Revolution. Read 418 cataloged items alongside manuscript images and transcriptions.
These are recollections recorded decades later. Their disagreements are part of the evidence.
Read the interviews →