Editing Saddle Rock, New York (section)

== History ==
The area now consisting of the Village of Saddle Rock was, like the rest of the Great Neck Peninsula, originally inhabited by the [[Matinecock (tribe)|Matinecock]] [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]].<ref name=":81" /><ref name=":0" /> The first European settlers arrived in the area during the 17th century. The Village of Saddle Rock is so named for an offshore boulder that gives the appearance of a saddle, first noted on a map in 1658, during these early years of European settlement.<ref name=":81">{{Cite book|last=Winsche|first=Richard|title=The History of Nassau County Community Place-Names|date=October 1, 1999|publisher=Empire State Books|isbn=978-1557871541|location=[[Interlaken, New York]]|pages=}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

The village is also home to a historic mill. Officially known as the [[Saddle Rock Grist Mill]], it was built circa 1700 and is located inside a small cove that opens onto [[Little Neck Bay]] off [[Long Island Sound]].<ref name=":13" /> The mill is listed in the [[National Register of Historic Places]] and is the oldest continually operating tidal grist mill in the United States. The mill is now owned and operated by Nassau County as a working museum open to the public. The mill has been restored to its mid-19th-century appearance and is located on Grist Mill Lane.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brady |first=Ralph F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BCp_CQAAQBAJ&dq=%22saddle+rock+bridge%22+ny&pg=PT20 |title=Landmarks & Historic Sites of Long Island |date=July 17, 2012 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-1-61423-590-3 |language=en}}</ref>

The first Mayor of Saddle Rock was Roswell Eldridge, who was appointed "Acting Mayor" after he had incorporated his own private estate as the Village of Saddle Rock in 1911.<ref name=IGN >{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_OhJW0BRTqkC&q=udall+eldridge&pg=PA49 |title=Inventing Great Neck: Jewish identity and the American dream |first=Judith S. |last=Goldstein |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year=2006 |isbn=9780813538846}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://higley1000.com/archives/55 |title=The Gold Coast of Long Island| quote=Eldridge successfully lobbied the state legislature and the governor of New York to change the state law’s minimum requirement to organize a village from 250 residents to 50. By including his family and his servants, Mr. Eldridge incorporated his estate and set a precedent that was emulated throughout the Gold Coast...the huge upsurge in the population in the twenties witnessed no less than twenty-one “golf club” village incorporations. Many of these “villages” were little more than three or four estate owners banding together to form a municipality.}}</ref>

In 1926, Eldridge's wife, Louise Udall Skidmore Eldridge, officially became the first female Mayor of Saddle Rock, and reportedly the first female Mayor in the state of New York. Louise Eldridge served as Mayor from 1926 until her death in 1947.<ref name=IGN /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.saddlerock.org/history.html |title=History of Saddle Rock}}</ref> She was also the last private individual to own the grist mill.