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== History == Before the area where Irvington is now located was settled by Europeans, it was inhabited by the [[Wecquaesgeek|Wickquasgeck]], a band of the [[Wappinger]]s, related to the [[Lenape]] (Delaware) tribes which dominated lower New York state and [[New Jersey]].<ref name="chrono">{{cite web |author=Steiner, Henry |website=HenrySteiner.com |url=http://henrysteiner.com/DIRcomm/irvington/chronology.htm |title=A Quick Chronology of Irvington, New York in the Early Days |access-date=February 13, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711162940/http://henrysteiner.com/DIRcomm/irvington/chronology.htm |archive-date=July 11, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref group=notes>The name of the Indian band has variously been spelled Wiechquaeskeck, Wechquaesqueck, Weckquaesqueek, Wecquaesgeek, Weekquaesguk, Wickquasgeck, Wickquasgek, Wiequaeskeek, Wiequashook, and Wiquaeskec. The spelling given here is one widely used for the original name of [[Broadway (Manhattan)|Broadway]] in [[lower Manhattan]]: "The Wickquasgeck Trail". The meaning of the name, however spelled, has been given as "the end of the marsh, swamp or wet meadow", "place of the bark kettle", and "birch bark country". See Trumbull, James Hammond (1881), [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_JS8TAAAAYAAJ/page/n97 <!-- pg=81 quote=Wickquasgeck. --> ''Indian Names of Places, Etc., in and on the Borders of Connecticut, With Interpretations of Some of Them''] Hartford: Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company. p.81</ref> The Wickquasgeck still lived in the area as late as 1775.<ref name=tiffanyvoice /> After the Dutch came to the area in the 1600s, the land was part of the Bisightick tract of the Adrian Van der Donck grant. Early settlers in the Irvington area were Stephen Ecker, Jan Harmes, Captain John Buckhout, and Barent Dutcher. The Van der Donck grant was purchased by [[Frederick Philipse]] in 1682, after the British had taken over the area in 1664. At first it was settled by tenant farmers,<ref name=greenburgh>Greenburgh Bicentennial Commission (1988) ''Greenburgh: A Glimpse of Our Past: Town of Greenburgh: 1788-1988'' Greenburgh Bicentennial Book Committee, pp.171-176</ref> but by the 1700s, most of the settlers were artisans.<ref name=tiffanyvoice /> The King's Highway – later the [[Albany Post Road]], and now [[Broadway (Manhattan)|Broadway]] – which connected New York City with Albany, was built through the settlement by the 1720s, which created a need for inns and taverns<ref name=greenburgh /> to supplement Odell's Tavern, which was built in 1690. In 1785, the state of New York confiscated the Phillipse's land from his grandson, Frederick Philipse III, after he [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|sided with the British]] in the American Revolution, and sold it to local [[Patriot (American Revolution)|patriot]] farmers who had been tenants of the Phillipse family. This is presumably how part of it came to be the farm of William Dutcher.<ref name="chrono" /> Dutcher sold half of his farm to Justus Dearman in 1817, who then sold it to Gustavo F. Sacchi in 1848 for $26,000. Sacchi sold the parcel to John Jay – the grandson of the American [[Founding Fathers|Founding Father]] by [[John Jay|the same name]]<ref name=nyt13 /> – that same year, and Jay laid it out as a village which he called "Dearman", after Justus Dearman,<ref name=nyt13 /> and sold lots at auction in New York City starting on April 25, 1850.<ref name="chrono" /> The organization of the streets into a right-angled grid pattern was criticized by [[Andrew Jackson Downing]], who was at the time the foremost expert on [[landscape design]]. Downing condemned the use of the street grid outside of cities and saw the hilly and heavily wooded site of Dearman as particularly suited to his own theories, which called for curvilinear roads and irregular lots which followed the contours of the land. With the frequent steamboat, stagecoach, and train transportation available, he felt that Dearman could have been an ideal suburb, instead of "mere rows of houses upon streets crossing each other at right angles and bordered with shade trees".<ref>{{cite news|author=[[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing, Andrew Jackson]]|title=Our Country Cottages|newspaper=The Horticulturalist|date=June 1850}}page=(quoted in {{cite crabgrass}}), p.65</ref> The side streets off the village's Main Street – or "Main Avenue", as an 1868 map has it – were originally designated "A", "B", "C", and so forth, but are today named after many of the area's early settlers,<ref group=notes>In order, from the river going up the hill along Main Street, the streets are Astor, Buckhout, Cottenet, Dutcher, Ecker, Ferris and Grinnell, until the pattern is broken by Croton Place and Aqueduct Lane, followed by Dearman Street, the last side street before Broadway.</ref> such as Barent and William Dutcher, Captain John Buckhout (who lived to 103) and [[Wolfert Acker|Wolfert Ecker]] (or "Acker"). ===American Revolution=== Wolfert Ecker's house, then owned by Jacob van Tassel, was burned by the British in the [[American Revolution|Revolutionary War]] because it had become a notorious hang-out for American patriots. [[Washington Irving]] later wrote about it under the name of "[[Washington Irving#Wolfert's Roost|Wolfert's Roost]]" ("roost" meaning "rest"), and purchased and re-modeled another house on the land to become "[[Sunnyside (Tarrytown, New York)|Sunnyside]]". Another early settler was Capt. Jan Harnse, and the Harnse-Conklin-Odell Tavern on Broadway was built in 1693 and became an inn in 1743.<ref name=greenburgh /> (See [[#Points of interest|below]]) It was at Odell's Tavern that the Committee of Safety, the executive committee of the legislature of the new State of New York, officially received the news that [[George Washington]] had lost the [[Battle of Long Island]], and, later, British troops camped nearby, putting Jonathan Odell into custody in the [[Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow|Old Dutch Church]] in Sleepy Hollow.<ref name="guidebook">{{cite book| last=Adams| first=Arthur G.| title=The Hudson River Guidebook|publisher=Fordham University Press| year=1996| edition=2, illustrated| isbn=0-8232-1679-9| url=https://archive.org/details/hudsonriverguide0000adam| url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="steiner">{{cite news| url=http://www.riverjournalonline.com/article.php?focus=1171593821| title=Irvington's Patriot| last=Steiner| first=Henry| date=February 16, 2007| newspaper=River Journal Online| access-date=May 14, 2009}} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref><ref>Graff & Graff, pp.19-21</ref> No major battles of the Revolutionary War were fought in the area, only minor skirmishes between residents and soldiers.<ref name=foundation>Dodsworth (1995)</ref> With the [[Battle of Fort Washington|capture of New York City]] by the British, Irvington and the rest of southern Westchester County became the "Neutral ground", an unofficial {{convert|30|mi|km|adj=on}} wide zone separating British-occupied territory from that held by the Americans, and the people of the area who remained – many of the Patriot population had fled – traded with both sides to great profit. However, there was also a great deal of pillaging and plundering, even of Tory households, both by the regular British army and loyalist militias and irregulars, all in the name of hunting down rebels.<ref name=gotham>{{cite gotham}} pp. 246-247, 254</ref> By the time the war was over, the countryside had been ravaged: <blockquote>The country is rich and fertile, and the farms appear to have been advantageously cultivated, but it now has the marks of a country in ruins, a large portion of the proprietors having abandoned their homes. On the high road where heretofore was a continuous stream of travelers and vehicles, not a single traveler was seen from week to week, month to month. The countryside was silent. The very tracks of the carriages were grown over with grass or weeds. Travelers walked along bypaths. The villages are abandoned, the residents having fled to the north, leaving their homes, where possible, in charge of elder persons and servants.<ref>Graff & Graff, pp.24-25</ref></blockquote> Eventually, the area recovered and continued to develop. The [[Hudson River Railroad]] reached the settlement on September 29, 1849;<ref name=greenburgh /> the first passengers on a regularly scheduled run through the village paid fifty cents to travel from [[Peekskill, New York|Peekskill]] to [[Chambers Street (Manhattan)|Chambers Street]] in [[Manhattan]] on September 29, 1849.<ref>Lockwood, Wolfert Ecker in Graff & Graff, p.35</ref> By 1853, a ferry ran across the Hudson from Dearman to [[Piermont, New York|Piermont]] on the west bank, the village had a population of around 600, a hotel, six stores, a lumber yard and around 50 houses, and the hamlet of "Abbotsford" – which would later become Ardsley-on-Hudson – was forming along Clinton Avenue.<ref name="chrono" /><ref name=greenburgh /><ref name=foundation /> ===A change of name=== In 1854, Dearman and Abbotsford combined, and by popular vote adopted the name "Irvington", to honor the American author [[Washington Irving]],<ref name=greenburgh /> who was still alive at that time and living in nearby "[[Sunnyside (Tarrytown, New York)|Sunnyside]]" – which is today preserved as a museum.<ref group=notes>Although Sunnyside was considered to be part of Irvington (or "Dearman") at the time, the neighboring village of [[Tarrytown, New York|Tarrytown]] incorporated first in 1870, two years before Irvington, and when the official boundaries were drawn, the estate ended up in Tarrytown rather than Irvington, as did [[Lyndhurst (mansion)|Lyndhurst]], the estate of [[Robber baron (industrialist)|robber baron]] [[Jay Gould]]. <blockquote>Just how the change in our northern boundary occurred I could never find out to my satisfaction. Some say this calamity happened over night, so to speak, when our officials were napping or away on vacation. But this I know, that fully a dozen of our most prominent citizens and their magnificent estates were suddenly taken from Irvington territory and the village boundary was moved to the center of Sunnyside Lane. ... The part that most saddened our hearts was the fact that Irving's home, "Sunnyside", for whom Irvington was named, no longer rests in the town in which he originally thought he lived." Jennie Black (quoted in Graff & Graff, pp.54-56)</blockquote></ref> Influential residents of the village prevailed upon the [[Hudson River Railroad]], which had reached the village by 1849,<ref name=foundation /> to change the name of the train station to "Irvington", and also convinced the Postmaster to change the name of the local post office as well. It was thus under the name of "Irvington" that the village incorporated on April 16, 1872.<ref name="living1992">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/19/realestate/if-you-re-thinking-of-living-in-irvington.html| title= If You're Thinking of Living in: Irvington| last=Vizard| first=Mary McAleer| date=April 19, 1992| newspaper=[[The New York Times]]| access-date=May 14, 2009}}</ref><ref name="scharf">{{cite book| last=Scharf| title=History of Westchester County| year=1886| volume=2| page=190| chapter=II| url=http://www.rootsweb.com/~nywestch/towns/irvingtn.htm}}</ref><ref name="chamber">{{cite web|url=http://www.irvingtonnychamber.com/about_irvington_NY.html |title=About Irvington, NY |year=2007 |publisher=Village of Irvington Chamber of Commerce |access-date=May 14, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081206091628/http://www.irvingtonnychamber.com/about_irvington_NY.html |archive-date=December 6, 2008 }}</ref> [[File:Bridge Street 1800s.jpg|thumb|left|375px|The Irvington waterfront between 1859 and 1889, showing the [[Lord & Burnham Building]] on the right]] By the census of 1860, the population of the village was 599.<ref>Graff & Graff p.46</ref> A few years later, in 1863, Irvington was touched by the [[New York Draft Riots]]. Fearing that the violence in the city, which had to be put down by Federal troops, would spread to Westchester, special police were brought in and quartered in a schoolhouse on Sunnyside Lane. They were commanded by [[James Alexander Hamilton|James Hamilton]] – the third son of [[Alexander Hamilton]] – whose estate, Nevis, was on South Broadway. The presence of this special force deterred any violence a group of draft protestors which passed through [[Greenburgh, New York|Greenburgh]] on their way to [[Tarrytown, New York|Tarrytown]] may have intended. This was the only instance in which [[American Civil War|Civil War]]-related activity directly affected Irvington.<ref>Graff & Graff, p.50</ref> With convenient rail transportation now available, the village's cool summer breezes off the Hudson and the rural riparian setting began to attract wealthy residents of New York City – businessmen, politicians and professionals – to the area to buy up farms and build large summer residences on their new estates, setting a pattern which would hold until the early 20th century.<ref>Graff & Graff, p.35</ref> Still, the village continued to expand, with various commercial enterprises opening along the waterfront. Pateman & Lockwood, a lumber, coal and building supply company, opened in the village in 1853, and [[Lord & Burnham]], which built boilers and greenhouses, in 1856. Both expanded to newly created land across the railroad tracks, in 1889 and 1912 respectively, and the Cypress Lumber Company opened on a nearby site in 1909.<ref>{{Citation |last=Chi |first=Sheena |title=A History of the Waterfront |date=2009-08-08 |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/sheenachi/5014517406/ |access-date=2025-03-31}}</ref> Notwithstanding this commercial activity, for many years, through the 19th and early 20th centuries, Irvington was a relatively small community surrounded by numerous large estates and mansions where millionaires, aristocrats and captains of industry lived – the population was reported as 2,299 in 1890 and 2,013 in 1898. After [[World War I]], some of the bigger estates in the area were broken up into smaller lots, and were developed into communities inside the village, such as Jaffray Park, Matthiessen Park and Spiro Park. Many of the estates and mansions are now gone, but a small number still exist. After World War II, [[cooperative apartment|cooperative apartment complexes]] were built in the village, but despite these changes, Irvington still has many large houses, and is still an overwhelmingly well-heeled community.<ref name="chrono" /><ref name=tiffanyvoice /><ref name="chamber" /> ===Recent events=== {{see also|#2005 mayoral election}} In June 2016, Irvington Fire Chief Christopher D. DePaoli was one of 23 recipients of the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission medal for heroism. In April 2015, DePaoli stepped in when he saw a woman being attacked by a man with a knife at the [[Irvington, New York train station|Irvington Metro-North Station]]. DePaoli was able get between the man and the woman, the man's girlfriend, who was on the ground being stabbed, and distract him with a baseball bat until the police arrived. The man was arrested and the woman survived the attack.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rom |first=Gabriel |title=Irvington fire chief gets national heroism award |url=https://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/westchester/2016/06/30/an-irvington-fire-chief-who-stopped-a-vicious-knife-attack-by-a-man-on-his-girlfriend-last-april-has-received-national-recognition-medal-for-his-heroism/86522658/ |access-date=2025-03-31 |website=The Journal News |language=en-US}}</ref> Since 2014, Irvington has held a "Celebrate Irvington" festival on the village's Main Street in the early summer.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Festival celebrates love for village of Irvington |url=https://westchester.news12.com/festival-celebrates-love-for-village-of-irvington-35691131 |access-date=2025-03-31 |website=News 12 - Default}}</ref> Irvington's first murder since 1974 took place on April 25, 2018, when a recently-hired dishwasher stabbed Bonifacio Rodriguez, a prep cook, in the kitchen of the River City Grille at 6 South Broadway. The accused woman, New York City resident Rosa Ramirez, told police when she was arrested shortly after the incident. that she had suffered a "[[psychotic break]]".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Eberhart |first=Matt Spillane and Christopher J. |title=Suspect in Irvington restaurant stabbing said she had 'psychotic break:' court docs |url=https://www.lohud.com/story/news/crime/2018/05/25/woman-indicted-fatal-stabbing-river-city-grille-irvington/644984002/ |access-date=2025-03-31 |website=The Journal News |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-02-21 |title=Woman Admits To Fatal Stabbing Of Co-Worker At Westchester Restaurant Where She Just Started |url=https://dailyvoice.com/ny/stony-point/news/woman-admits-to-fatal-stabbing-of-co-worker-at-westchester-restaurant-where-she-just-started/783772/ |access-date=2025-03-31 |website=Stony Point Daily Voice |language=en}}</ref> Ramirez pleaded guilty to [[second-degree murder]], a [[Class A felony]], on February 21, 2020, in return for an expected sentence of 17 years to life,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-02-21 |title=Plea In 2018 Fatal Stabbing Of Restaurant Worker |url=https://patch.com/new-york/rivertowns/plea-2018-fatal-stabbing-restaurant-worker |access-date=2025-03-31 |website=Rivertowns, NY Patch |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Eberhart |first=Christopher J. |title=Irvington: Woman pleads guilty in River City Grille murder |url=https://www.lohud.com/story/news/crime/2020/02/21/irvington-rosa-ramirez-pleads-guilty-river-city-grille-murder/4832829002/ |access-date=2025-03-31 |website=The Journal News |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Independent |first=Hudson |date=2020-02-21 |title=Kitchen worker pleads guilty to 2018 murder in Irvington restaurant |url=https://thehudsonindependent.com/kitchen-worker-pleads-guilty-to-2018-murder-in-irvington-restaurant/ |access-date=2025-03-31 |website=The Hudson Indy Westchester's Rivertowns News - |language=en-US}}</ref> which was made official in September 2020.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bandler |first=Jonathan |title=Irvington restaurant employee sentenced for murder of co-worker |url=https://www.lohud.com/story/news/crime/2020/09/10/rosa-ramirez-sentenced-17-years-life-irvington-restaurant-murder-bonifacio-rodriguez/5767501002/ |access-date=2025-03-31 |website=The Journal News |language=en-US}}</ref> In May 2020, a lawsuit was filed against an 18 year old Irvington High School senior, Ellis Pinsky, who was accused with co-conspirators from the US and Europe of swindling [[digital currency]] investor Michael Terpin – the founder and chief executive officer of Transform Group – of $23.8 million in 2018, when the accused was 15 years old, through the use of data stolen from smartphones by [[SIM swap scam|"SIM swaps"]]. The complaint alleges that Pinsky had a personal worth of $70 million as of December 2017. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in [[White Plains, New York]] and asked for triple damages.<ref>[[Reuters]] (May 7, 2020) [https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/05/07/us/07reuters-crypto-currency-lawsuit.html "U.S. Cryptocurrency Investor Sues Suburban NYC Teen for $71.4 Million Over Alleged Swindle"] ''[[The New York Times]]''</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-05-08 |title=Suburban 15-Year-Old Led ‘Evil Geniuses’ in $24M Heist: Suit |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/15-year-old-ellis-pinsky-led-ring-of-evil-computer-geniuses-in-dollar24m-cryptocurrency-heist-says-lawsuit/ |access-date=2025-03-31 |website=The Daily Beast |language=en}}</ref> An investigation by the ''[[New York Post]]'' revealed that Pinsky lived a lavish lifestyle, driving an [[Audi R8]], maintaining an account with a private air service, purchasing prime tickets to [[New York Rangers]] hockey games, and wearing expensive clothing.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kaplan |first=Michael |date=2020-05-23 |title='Baby Al Capone' Ellis Pinsky pulled off a $23.8 million crypto heist |url=https://nypost.com/2020/05/23/baby-al-capone-ellis-pinsky-pulled-off-a-23-8-million-crypto-heist/ |access-date=2025-03-31 |language=en-US}}</ref> Pinsky had previously been recognized by the [[College Board]] as being an "AP Scholar".<ref>[https://www.irvingtonschools.org/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=9&ModuleInstanceID=44&ViewID=6446EE88-D30C-497E-9316-3F8874B3E108&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=6244&PageID=11 "Irvington High School Seniors Named AP Scholars"] Irvington Union Free School District website</ref>
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