Westchester County is a county located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of New York, bordering the Long Island Sound to its east and the Hudson River on its west. The county is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population of 1,004,456, its highest decennial count ever and an increase of 55,344 (5.8%) from the 949,113 counted in 2010. Westchester covers an area of 450 square miles (1,200 km2), consisting of six cities, 19 towns, and 23 villages. Established in 1683, Westchester was named after the city of Chester, England. The county seat is the city of White Plains, while the most populous municipality in the county is the city of Yonkers, with 211,569 residents per the 2020 census. The county is part of the Hudson Valley region of the state.
Rye is a coastal city in Westchester County, New York, United States, located near New York City and within the New York City metropolitan area. It is separate from the Town of Rye, which has more land area than the city. The City of Rye, formerly the Village of Rye, was part of the Town until it received its charter as a city in 1942, making it the youngest city in the State of New York. Its population density for its 5.85 square miles of land is roughly 2,729.76/sq mi.
Waccabuc is a hamlet and lake in the town of Lewisboro, Westchester County, New York, United States. Waccabuc is considered "New York's Secret Suburb" and is home to a "collection of privacy-loving C.E.O.s and bright stars in other firmaments," according to an Upstart Business Journal article about the tremendous number of notable residents in a hamlet of just a few hundred people. Waccabuc is known by many outside the town for its Castle Rock.
The Franklin Pierce Homestead is a historic house museum and state park located in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. It was the childhood home of the 14th president of the United States, Franklin Pierce.
The John Jay Homestead State Historic Site is located at 400 Jay Street in Katonah, New York. The site preserves the 1787 home of Founding Father and statesman John Jay (1745–1829), one of the three authors of The Federalist Papers and the first Chief Justice of the United States. The property was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1981 for its association with Jay. The house is open year-round for tours.
The Boston Post Road Historic District is a 286-acre (116 ha) National Historic Landmark District in Rye, New York, and is composed of five distinct and adjacent properties. Within this landmarked area are three architecturally significant, pre-Civil War mansions and their grounds; a 10,000-year-old Indigenous peoples site and viewshed; a private cemetery, and a nature preserve. It is one of only 11 National Historic Landmark Districts in New York State and the only National Historic Landmark District in Westchester County. It touches on the south side of the nation's oldest road, the Boston Post Road, which extends through Rye. A sandstone Westchester Turnpike marker "24", inspired by Benjamin Franklin's original mile marker system, is set into a wall that denotes the perimeter of three of the contributing properties. The district reaches to Milton Harbor of Long Island Sound. Two of the properties included in the National Park designation are anchored by Greek Revival buildings; the third property is dominated by a Gothic Revival structure that was designed by Alexander Jackson Davis.
Timothy Knapp House and Milton Cemetery is a historic district at 265 Rye Beach Avenue and Milton Road in Rye, New York.
The Jay Estate is a 23-acre park and historic site in Rye, New York, with the 1838 Peter Augustus Jay House at its center. It is the keystone of the Boston Post Road Historic District, a National Historic Landmark District (NHL) created in 1993. The site is the surviving remnant of the 400-acre (1.6 km2) farm where US Founding Father, John Jay, grew up. It is also the place where Jay returned to celebrate the end of the American Revolutionary War, after he negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris with fellow peacemakers John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. The preserved property is located on the south side of the Boston Post Road and has a 3⁄4-mile (1.2 km) view of Milton Harbor.
The Jay Heritage Center (JHC) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization incorporated in 1990 and chartered by the New York State Board of Regents to act as stewards of the 23-acre Jay Estate, the National Historic Landmark home of American Founding Father John Jay. Jay's ancestral property in Rye, New York is considered the centerpiece of the Boston Post Road Historic District.
The William E. Ward House, known locally as Ward's Castle, is located on Magnolia Drive, on the state line between Rye Brook, New York and Greenwich, Connecticut, United States. It is a reinforced concrete structure built in the 1870s.
US Post Office-Rye is a historic post office building located at Rye in Westchester County, New York, United States. It was built in 1935 and designed by the Office of the Supervising Architect under the direction of Louis A. Simon. It is a one-story symmetrical flat roofed building in the Colonial Revival style. The front facade features a central, recessed entrance with broad limestone surround and shallow decorated cornice. The lobby features a mural by Guy Pene du Bois painted in 1938 and titled "John Jay at His Home."
Bush-Lyon Homestead is a historic home located at Port Chester, Westchester County, New York. The earliest part was built about 1720. It is a 1+1⁄2-story, five-by-two-bay, frame residence faced in shingles and clapboards. It has a center stone chimney. The rear kitchen wing and 1-story north wing were added about 1800 and the house given its saltbox configuration. In the mid-19th century, the present porch was added with its Doric order piers and a 1-story, gable-roofed wing added. Also on the property are a carriage house, former slave quarters, and a storage building / corn crib. The property was purchased by the village in 1925 from the Bush estate. It served as headquarters for General Israel Putnam, 1777–1778.
The Old Chappaqua Historic District is located along Quaker Road in the town of New Castle, New York, United States, between the hamlets of Chappaqua and Millwood. It was the original center of Chappaqua, prior to the construction of the New York and Harlem Railroad and the erection of its station to the south in the mid-19th century. In 1974 it was recognized as a historic district and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Homestead is a historic home located at Waccabuc, Westchester County, New York. It has five contributing buildings and one contributing structure. The main house, known as The Homestead, was built between 1820 and 1822 in the Federal style by the locally prominent Mead family. It has a four bay wide main block with a three bay ell. The frame building sits on a cut stone foundation. Also on the property is a 19th-century barn, four room cottage, tool shed, chicken house, and well house. The Mead family built the separately listed Mead Memorial Chapel.
Rye Meeting House, also known as Milton Mission Chapel, Grace Chapel, and the Friends Meeting House, is a historic Quaker meeting house located at Rye, Westchester County, New York. The property is adjacent to the Bird Homestead. It is a one-story, wood-frame building on a stone foundation with two main volumes, a nave and an asymmetrical transept. The exterior is sheathed in clapboard and shingles and exhibits characteristics of the Stick style. The front facade features a 2+1⁄2-story bell tower. The building was built in the 1830s as a school house. It was moved to its present site in 1867, and enlarged in 1871, 1875, and 1877. At the time, the church was a mission church of nearby Christ's Church, an Episcopal church. The Quakers obtained the property in 1959. The property was deeded to the city of Rye in 2002.
Rye House is a historic summer estate property at 122-132 Old Mount Tom Road in Litchfield, Connecticut. Developed in 1910 for a wealthy New York City widow, it is a prominent local example of Tudor Revival architecture, and a major example of the trend of country estate development in the region. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in southern Westchester County, New York, excluding the cities of New Rochelle and Yonkers, which have separate lists of their own.
There are numerous nationally and locally designated historic sites and attractions in Westchester County. These include architecturally significant manors and estates, churches, cemeteries, farmhouses, African-American heritage sites, and Underground Railroad depots and waystations. There are sites from pre-Revolutionary and Revolutionary times, as well as battlegrounds. Westchester County also played an important role in the development of the modern suburb, and there are many associated heritage sites and museums.
The African American Heritage Trail of Westchester County in New York was created in 2004 to help preserve and interpret the historic landmark places that help tell the narratives of women and men of African descent who have made significant contributions to an American identity. The initial list had 13 sites. Westchester County historian and Schulman History Honoree Dr. Larry Spruill was lead consultant and researcher for the project.
Marshlands Conservancy is a 147-acre nature preserve in the city of Rye, New York, fully owned and operated by Westchester County Parks. It has numerous wildlife habitats, ranging from ponds to creeks to a large meadow area, succession forest, freshwater wetlands, and the only extensive salt marsh in Westchester. It borders Long Island Sound and can be entered via an easement on the historic Boston Post Road. It is one of 5 properties that together constitute the Boston Post Road Historic District. It has high archaeological sensitivity. The conservancy has also been designated an Important Bird Area.
