Prior to 1825 most of the traveling was done by private conveyance, and taverns were more necessary then than now. The farmers' light produce was carried to New York weekly by two market-wagons, while the heavy was carried to the rivers and sent by sloops.

In 1828 a number of gentlemen in White Plains, desirous that there should be a school in which their sons might be educated and fitted for college, applied to the Legislature and procured the charter for an academy, which was for many years successfully conducted.

Fifty years ago there were no roads running westerly from Broadway, between the old post road running past the residence of Mr. Samuel Faile and the road to Tarrytown, north of the Presbyterian Church. The business part of the town was on the west side of Broadway, north of the old court-house and south of Railroad Avenue. Opposite the court-house was the principal hotel, at which the daily mail stages met at noon, carrying mails and passengers between New York and Danbury. A little north of the court-house was the law-office of Minott Mitchell, and a few rods northwest from his oflice was his residence, erected in 1829-30. On the lot on which Mr. Elijah S. Tompkins now resides was the shop and the dwelling-house of Elisha Crawford, saddler and harness-maker, while next-door the dwelling now occupied by Samuel C.Miller was then the hotel of Robert Palmer, and about fifty feet north was the store of Palmer & Fisher. Between the hotel and the store was a building, a part of which was occupied by Purdy Tompkins, the village tailor, the other part being the law-office of Robert S. Hart, Esq., a young gentleman then lately admitted to the bar. He soon after removed