🏘️ Croton Local History
Blog posts, articles, and community histories by local historians
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crotonhistory.org
and Old Mill in Sleepy Hollow and the capture of Major André. When he gets to Croton he makes “a call” at Van Cortlandt Manor—“one of the pleasantest incidents of my journey”—and enjoys the hospitality of James Stevenson Van Cortlandt, his widowed
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mother and sister. Van Cortlandt Manor in 1890. “All the country hereabout is historic ground,” he notes, “the scenery of the Hudson Valley is beautiful, and this happy blending of the historical with the picturesque made a tramp over the old road .
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. . throughly enjoyable.” The story he tells about the history of the Van Cortlandt family and the manor house is unremarkable, but as he continues on his journey he gives us a rare treat—a vivid description of the “quiet hamlet” of Croton in 1890
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and the Old Post Inn, once located on today’s Grand Street, across from the Holy Name of Mary Church. The Old Post Road Inn in 1890. What’s particularly interesting about his account is the depiction of the upper village as a byway, with grass
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growing in the road because a new street had “been cut through the bluff down by the river.” Seventy-seven years later all of Croton became a byway when the construction of Route 9 destroyed the village’s waterfront along the west side of Riverside
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Avenue. “There is little of the inn left about the old house now. The grass is growing in the road before the door.” Let’s listen to C. Hills Warren as he takes us back to Croton in 1890. “Croton is a quiet hamlet, whose inhabitants have been for
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several generations industriously digging up the fields and pressing the soil into bricks, until it looks as though the place had stood a siege, and the enemy had exploded mines all round its borders. Here I found the first post-house. It is a
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two-story wooden structure, somewhat the worse for wear, with a double piazza running the whole length of the front, in the style popular with builders of country taverns in the last century. A wide hall from the front door to the kitchen in the
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rear, and doors open from it to the sitting-room on right and the bar-room opposite. A postcard of the Old Post Road Inn before it burned down. The brick building on the left is still there—the Cornelia Cotton Gallery is on the bottom floor. It is
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the home of Miss Susan McCord, a pleasant-voiced spinster, who was born there; and remembers well when the stages used to roll to the door and hungry guests came trooping the dining-room to partake of her father’s fare. He was a popular innkeeper,
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and when, one stormy Winter’s day, a party of legislators, their way to Albany, were unable to go farther through the drifts, he made them so comfortable over night that they resumed their journey with reluctance. There is little of the inn left
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about the old house now. The grass is growing in the road before the door; for a new street has been cut through the bluff down by the river, and even the line of telegraph-poles that follows the post-road through most of its windings deserts it here
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for the more direct route of its rival.” Location of the Old Post Inn today. See Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly , January, 1890, here . ↩ Share this: Print (Opens in new window) Print Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email Share on
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Cornelia Cotton Gallery Old Albany Post Road Old Post Road Inn Riverside Avenue Susan McCord Published April 26, 2015 June 17, 2020
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High Bridge puzzle, published by E. G. Selchow & Co., circa 1867-1880 High Bridge is one of the greatest feats of early American engineering and New York City’s oldest standing bridge. A key part of what we now call the Old Croton Aqueduct, the
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bridge once carried water across the Harlem River into Manhattan. Although it was built to support large water pipes, it was open to pedestrians and soon after completion in 1848 the bridge became a hugely popular public promenade—thronged by
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visitors enjoying the views—and a favorite subject for artists and photographers. After more than 20 years of planning and fundraising by a diverse coalition of organizations High Bridge has been reopened. To celebrate we’ve assembled a group of
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images including one of John B. Jervis’s original engineering drawings, 19th century prints and stereoviews, works of art inspired by the bridge, a children’s puzzle and more. You can learn more about this historic landmark—and plan a visit— here .
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Click the images below to enlarge them. Elevation of a high bridge for crossing Harlem River by John B. Jervis. Jervis Library. Detail from John B. Jervis’ plan of High Bridge, circa 1844. Jervis Library. Wood engraving of the design for the “Harlem
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River Bridge” from the newspaper Dollar Weekly, October 22, 1842. Detail of the front page of The New York Herald, April 17, 1848, the year the bridge was completed. View of High Bridge and the Harlem River by William James Bennett, 1844. New York
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Public Library. The High Bridge at Harlem, N.Y. Published by Nathaniel Currier, circa 1849. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. High Bridge During the Construction of the Large Main. D.T. Valentine’s Manual, 1862. High Bridge During
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the Construction of the Large Main. D.T. Valentine’s Manual, 1862. High Bridge, circa 1861. Gelatin silver print. New-York Historical Society. See the Valentine’s Manual lithograph print of this same image. High Bridge, New York by Jasper F. Cropsey,
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circa 1879. Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park. Bird’s eye view of High Bridge. Detail from The City of New York by Will L. Taylor, chief draughtsman. New York, Galt & Hoy, 1879. The Library of Congress. High Bridge and High Service
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Works and Reservoir. D.T. Valentine’s Manual, circa 1869. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Detail from High Bridge and High Service Works and Reservoir. D.T. Valentine’s Manual, circa 1869. Library of Congress Prints and
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Photographs Division. Detail from High Bridge and High Service Works and Reservoir. D.T. Valentine’s Manual, circa 1869. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. High Bridge from the North, showing Hotel, Stereoview from Robert N. Dennis
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collection, New York Public Library. High Bridge, New York. Stereoview from Robert N. Dennis collection, New York Public Library. High Bridge from the East. Stereoview from Robert N. Dennis collection, New York Public Library. Looking west across
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High Bridge, 1923. Eugene L. Armbruster photograph collection, New-York Historical Society, Detail of a stereoview by Underwood & Underwood. UC Riverside, California Museum of Photography, Keystone Mast Collection. Edgar Allen Poe Walking on the High
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Bridge by Bernard Jacob Rosenmeyer, circa 1900. High Bridge, New York City by Jules Guerin. Century Magazine, October, 1902 High Bridge looking north toward the Alexander Hamilton Bridge. Early 1900s. Lehman College Library, CUNY. High Bridge, Early
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Moon by Ernest Lawson, circa 1910. The Phillips Collection. High Bridge puzzle, published by E. G. Selchow & Co., circa 1867-1880. Harlem River at High Bridge by Ernest Lawson, 1911. De Young Museum. High Bridge, New York City, 1900. Detroit
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