Editing Croton-on-Hudson, New York (section)

==History==
Humans have lived in the area that would become Croton-on-Hudson since at least 7000 BC.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brennan |first1=L. A. |title=The Lower Hudson: A Decade of Shell Middens |issue=1 |jstor=40897731  |journal=Archaeology of Eastern North America |volume=2 |pages=81–93 |date=Spring 1974}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=About Croton-on-Hudson |url=http://www.crotononhudson-ny.gov/Public_Documents/CrotonHudsonNY_WebDocs/CrotonHistory |website=Village of Croton-on-Hudson |access-date=July 3, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180703220218/http://www.crotononhudson-ny.gov/Public_Documents/CrotonHudsonNY_WebDocs/CrotonHistory |archive-date=July 3, 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The [[Wappinger#Kitchawank|Kitchawanc]] tribe, part of the [[Wappinger]] Confederacy of the [[Algonquian peoples]], signed a peace treaty with the newly arriving Dutch people at Croton Point in 1645, now commemorated by a plaque in [[Croton Point Park|the park there]].

[[Stephanus van Cortlandt]] began acquiring land in the area to build a manor in 1677, the same year he became mayor of New York City. It was granted by royal patent in 1697 as the Manor of Cortlandt, including the area known as Croton Landing where the [[Croton River]] meets the [[Hudson River]], where the manor house was built. A 1718 census reported 91 inhabitants, including Dutch settlers and English [[Quakers]]. People worked the manor primarily as [[farmer]]s or [[miller]]s.
[[File:Detail_view_of_spillway_looking_upstream_perpendicular_to_dam_axis_-_New_Croton_Dam_and_Reservoir,_Croton_River,_Croton-on-Hudson,_Westchester_County,_NY_HAER_NY,60-CROTOH.V,1-10.tif|alt=View of spillway looking upstream perpendicular to dam axis. White water flowing down spillway and calm water upstream from the dam.|left|thumb|[[New Croton Dam]] and Reservoir, Croton River, Croton-on-Hudson, NY]]
In the mid- to late 1800s first the [[Old Croton Dam|Croton Dam]], then the [[New Croton Dam]], and the [[Croton Aqueduct]] were built on the Croton River to supply New York City, along with the [[New York Central Railroad]] station on the Hudson River. Many Irish, Italian and German [[immigrants]] moved to the area to work on those projects, increasing the population dramatically. By 1898, when the Village incorporated, the population was 1,000 people, growing to 1,700 people in the early 1900s.

In 1846, work began on a Hudson River rail line from [[Poughkeepsie, New York|Poughkeepsie]] to New York City. [[Clifford B. Harmon|Clifford Harmon]], a realtor, purchased 550 acres of land next to the village  of Croton in 1903. He gave part of the land to the [[New York Central Railroad]] to build a train station, on the condition that the station would forever be named after him. Today it is called the [[Croton-Harmon station]] of the [[Metro-North Railroad]] and of [[Amtrak]].<ref name='wc_american_suburb'>{{cite book | last1 = Panetta | first1 = Roger | title = Westchester: the American Suburb | chapter = Chapter 1: Westchester, the American Suburb: A New Narrative |editor= Roger Panetta | publisher = Fordham University Press | year = 2006 | location = New York, New York | pages = 42–43 | isbn = 0-8232-2593-3}}</ref> In 1906, the station became a major service facility for the railroad. The station expanded even further in 1913, when it became the stop at which electric trains from New York City switched to steam engines.<ref name='picturing_past'>{{cite book | last1 = Williams | first1 = Gray | title = Picturing Our Past: National Register Sides in Westchester County | chapter = Suburban Westchester |editor= Elizabeth G. Fuller |editor2=Katherine M. Hite | publisher = Westchester County Historical Society | year = 2003 | location = Elmsford, New York | pages = 382–383 | isbn = 0-915585-14-6}}</ref> The station still serves this purpose, but for diesel locomotives instead of steam engines.

Harmon thrived as an [[artist's colony]] alongside the village, while the neighboring [[Mount Airy, New York|Mount Airy]] community evolved from Quakers to Greenwich Village artists and writers by the early 1900s. Mount Airy was home to many early members of the American Communist Party.<ref>[http://www.guidemehome2westchester.com/2010/2/8/mount-airy-road-reds-on-hudson ''Mount Airy Road: Reds-on-Hudson'' (Houlihan Lawrence)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101003071453/http://www.guidemehome2westchester.com/2010/2/8/mount-airy-road-reds-on-hudson |date=October 3, 2010 }}</ref> In 1932 Harmon and most of Mount Airy were incorporated into the village.