Pleasantville is a village in the town of Mount Pleasant, in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located 30 miles north of Manhattan. The village population was 7,513 at the 2020 census.[2] Pleasantville is home to the secondary campus of Pace University and to the Jacob Burns Film Center. Most of Pleasantville is served by the Pleasantville Union Free School District, with small parts of northern Pleasantville served by the Chappaqua Central School District. The village is also home to the Bedford Road School, Pleasantville Middle School, and Pleasantville High School. The region of Pleasantville commonly referred to as "The Flats" is mostly served by the Mount Pleasant Central School district.
The settlement of Pleasantville dates back to the Rechgawawank and Sinsink tribes, belonging to the Munsee dialect of the Lenni Lenape. This region of the Hudson Valley has been inhabited since just after the last ice age.[3] Lenape communities practiced ecosystem management, small-scale agriculture, hunting and gathering, democratic politics, and matrilineal governance.[4] Called the “Grandfathers” by neighboring tribes, the Lenape were peaceful and skilled at conflict resolution between tribes[5] and established trading routes crossing through the present-day village before the arrival of Europeans. By the end of the 17th century, most if not all of the New York Lenape people had been killed by disease or conflict or had been displaced westward; Lenape in the 21st century reside in Ontario, Oklahoma, Ohio, Wisconsin, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.[4] French Huguenot Isaac See[nb 1] settled here as an agent for Dutch landowner Frederick Philipse in 1695, beginning the modern settler-colonial history of Pleasantville.[6][7]
By the time of the American Revolution, the population of the growing settlement comprised English, Dutch, and Quakers, most of whom were tenant farmers. During the Revolution, this area was part of the Neutral Ground, where there were conflicting loyalties among the settlers. British spy Major John André passed through present-day Pleasantville carrying information from Benedict Arnold at Fort Clinton (West Point) to the British in New York City. André lost his bearings near the present-day corner of Bedford Road and Choate Lane and was captured in Tarrytown, New York. The capture of André is often cited as a key factor in the ultimate victory of the American forces.[7][8][9]
As the area's population grew in the early 19th century, the settlement was called Clark's Corners, referring to property owned by Henry Clark at the intersection of Broadway and Bedford Road. This area was the village's original commercial center. In the 1820s, the newly appointed postmaster, Henry Romer, was directed by the Postmaster General's office in Washington, D.C., to give a name to the post office planned here. Romer's proposed name, Clarksville, was rejected because another New York post office already had the name. His second choice, Pleasantville, was accepted, and the Pleasantville Post Office opened on February 29, 1828.[10][11]
A significant change in the development of Pleasantville came with the arrival of the New York Central Railroad and New York and Harlem Railroad in 1846. In the following year, a train station was built near the present corner of Bedford Road and Wheeler Avenue, and as a result the commercial center of Pleasantville shifted to its current location. The older business district at Bedford Road and Broadway is today called the Old Village. The railroad offered a speedier and more frequent connection with New York City—only 70 minutes away by rail, compared with a five-hour overland journey by stagecoach or a two-hour steamboat trip down the Hudson River. The present-day train station, which currently houses a restaurant, was built in 1905 and was moved to its present location in the 1950s to accommodate the lowering of the tracks below grade. Before the addition of the now heavily trafficked station, commuters working in New York City and lower Westchester County were forced to rely on rides from Marc Damon, now famous in Pleasantville for being "The Friendly Coachman".[8][12][13][14]
According to several sources,[15] Pleasantville was a stop on the Underground Railroad, a network of safe houses for escaped slaves from the South on their way to freedom in the north.[16]
The latter half of the 19th century was a time of rapid growth in Pleasantville. By the 1870s, there were four shoemaking businesses, a shirtmaking business, and a pickle factory. The first newspaper to serve the village, The Pleasantville Pioneer, was launched at about 1886. The village's numerous small farms and orchards began to be subdivided for a wave of solid foursquare and Victorian houses built for a growing middle class. The 1890s saw the establishment of a police department, volunteer fire department, and a library system. Pleasantville was incorporated as a village on March 16, 1897.[17][18]
In the following years, Pleasantville quickly developed into a modern suburb of New York, with a large number of workers commuting between the village and the metropolis on what is now the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line. During the first two decades of the 20th century, roads were paved for the first time, water mains were installed, and electrical wires brought power to the village's houses. Other improvements during the first half of the 20th century include the construction of Soldiers and Sailors Field in 1909, the Saw Mill River Parkway in 1924, the Rome Theater in 1925, Memorial Plaza in 1930, Parkway Field in 1930, and Nannahagen Park in 1937 (the adjacent village pool was completed two years later). By the time of World War II, the village had taken on the appearance that it bears today.[19][20][21]
Pleasantville merits interest for its literary history. Playwright Lillian Hellman (The Children's Hour,The Little Foxes) bought Hardscrabble Farm on the western outskirts of Pleasantville and lived there in the 1940s and 1950s. For many years author Dashiell Hammett (The Thin Man,The Maltese Falcon), with whom Hellman was romantically involved, lived and worked at Hardscrabble Farm.[22]DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace, co-founders of Reader's Digest, made Pleasantville their headquarters in 1922, using a converted garage and pony shed on Eastview Avenue as their office and later building a home and larger office space on adjacent property. Subsequently, the Digest held office space in several buildings throughout Pleasantville, including the present-day Village Hall at Bedford Road and Wheeler Avenue and, diagonally opposite, the bank building currently occupied by Chase. Reader's Digest moved its headquarters to nearby Chappaqua in 1939, but retained its Pleasantville post office box, thus making the name of the village familiar to millions of Reader's Digest subscribers around the world. Pleasantville is also the home of Joseph Wallace, writer of the novel Diamond Ruby. Today Pleasantville is home to many novelists, editors, and writers, who find its easygoing charm and proximity to New York an attractive combination.[23][24][25]
Pleasantville Firefighters' Parade, 2014
Pleasantville's reputation as a cultural center was enhanced in 2001 with the opening of the nonprofit Jacob Burns Film Center in the landmark Rome Theater, a Spanish mission-style building and one of the first movie theaters in Westchester County. The Burns Center is dedicated to presenting independent, documentary, and world cinema. Guest speakers at the Burns Center have included Jerry Lewis, Woody Allen, Jonathan Demme, Robert Klein, Oliver Stone, Stephen King, Rob Lowe and numerous other notable filmmakers and actors.
Usonia Homes, a neighborhood of 50 houses spread among 100 acres (0.40km2) of wooded hillside, was started in 1948. Three houses were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.[26]
Pleasantville is home to the Westchester Table Tennis Center, where over 250 members compete, practice and train for various tournaments, and now, many are even training to become olympic athletes. The Captain Lawrence Brewing Company's first brewing location was in Pleasantville.
Pleasantville is also home to the Pleasantville Farmers Market. Started in 1998 as one of the first markets in Westchester with a goal of breathing life into a struggling downtown, the Saturday morning market is now the largest year-round farmers market in Westchester County, attracting upwards of 3,500 people a week to shop from about 60 vendors of locally grown and produced food. The market is run by volunteers in the community as a non-profit, and it has won the readers' choice "Best of Westchester" award from Westchester Magazine for eight consecutive years, since 2014.
From 1975 to 1987, Pleasantville was home to the New York Giants Training Camp. Each summer the Giants would hold their off-season workouts and Training Camp at the Pace University Pleasantville Campus. During their time at Pleasantville, thousands would flock to camp. During their stay in Pleasantville many businesses benefited from the influx of people and many of the players would be seen at many of the restaurants and delicatessens in town.[27]
Pleasantville is also the only place in America to have hosted a royal wedding, between Estelle Bernadotte and Count Folke Bernadotte, a duke of Sweden who rejected his claim to the crown.
As of the census[30] of 2000, there were 7,172 people, 2,637 households, and 1,824 families residing in the village. The population density was 3,943.4 inhabitants per square mile (1,522.6/km2). There were 2,684 housing units at an average density of 1,475.7 per square mile (569.8/km2). The estimated racial makeup of the village in 2018 [31] was 71.7% Non-Hispanic White, 90.8% White, 4.3% African American, 0% Native American, 3.1% Asian, and 1.8% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 18.3% of the population.
There were 2,637 households, out of which 35.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.3% were married couples living together, 7.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.8% were non-families. 25.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.16.
In the village, the population was spread out, with 28.5% under the age of 18, 4.8% from 18 to 24, 29.9% from 25 to 44, 23.5% from 45 to 64, and 13.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.1 males.
The median income for a household in the village was $86,632, and the median income for a family was $105,227. Males had a median income of $62,344 versus $47,978 for females. The per capita income for the village was $41,397. About 2.0% of families and 4.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.0% of those under age 18 and 3.5% of those age 65 or over.
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.
Sleepy Hollow is a village in the town of Mount Pleasant, New York, United States.
Briarcliff Manor is a suburban village in Westchester County, New York, 30 miles (50 km) north of New York City. It is on 5.9 square miles (15 km2) of land on the east bank of the Hudson River, geographically shared by the towns of Mount Pleasant and Ossining. Briarcliff Manor includes the communities of Scarborough and Chilmark, and is served by the Scarborough station of the Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line. A section of the village, including buildings and homes covering 376 acres (152 ha), is part of the Scarborough Historic District and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. The village motto is "A village between two rivers", reflecting Briarcliff Manor's location between the Hudson and Pocantico Rivers. Although the Pocantico is the primary boundary between Mount Pleasant and Ossining, since its incorporation the village has spread into Mount Pleasant.
Chappaqua is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of New Castle, in northern Westchester County, New York. It is approximately 30 miles (50 km) north of New York City. The hamlet is served by the Chappaqua station of the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line. In the New York State Legislature it is within the New York State Assembly's 93rd district and the New York Senate's 40th district. In Congress the village is in New York's 17th District.
Mount Pleasant is a town in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 44,436. The hamlets of Valhalla, Hawthorne, Pocantico Hills, and Thornwood, and the villages of Pleasantville, Sleepy Hollow, and a small portion of Briarcliff Manor lie within the town.
New Castle is a town in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 18,311 in the 2020 United States census, an increase over 17,569 at the 2010 census. It includes the named hamlets of Chappaqua and Millwood, but residents and businesses in the Town of New Castle can also have a designated city address of Ossining, or Millwood as well as Chappaqua or even Mt. Kisco.
Thornwood is a hamlet, census-designated place (CDP), and postal designation in the town of Mount Pleasant in Westchester County, New York. The population was 3,759 at the 2010 census.
Mount Kisco is a village and town in Westchester County, New York, United States. The town of Mount Kisco is coterminous with the village. The population was 10,959 at the 2020 United States census over 10,877 at the 2010 census.
Bedford is an incorporated town in Westchester County, New York. The population was 17,309 at the 2020 census.
Ossining is a town located along the Hudson River in Westchester County, New York. The population was 40,061 at the time of the 2020 census. It contains two villages, the Village of Ossining and part of Briarcliff Manor, the rest of which is located in the Town of Mount Pleasant. Ossining is the location of Sing Sing maximum-security prison.
Northern Westchester refers to the upper portion of Westchester County, New York, a suburban area north of New York City. Lying north of Interstate 287/Cross Westchester Expressway, these communities are distinguished by distance from New York City and their more rural character from those of Southern Westchester. The area is notable for its general affluence and high degree of watershed for New York City, being home to two major collection reservoirs supplying drinking water to it, the New Croton and Kensico.
The Saw Mill River Parkway is a limited-access parkway that extends for 28.93 miles (46.56 km) through Westchester County, New York, in the United States. It begins at the border between Westchester County and the Bronx, as the continuation of the Henry Hudson Parkway leaving New York City, and heads generally northeastward to an interchange with Interstate 684 (I-684). At its north end, the parkway serves as a collector/distributor road as it passes east of the hamlet of Katonah. The parkway is named for the Saw Mill River, which the highway parallels for most of its length.
Pleasantville station is a commuter rail stop on the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line, located in Pleasantville, New York. There is also bus service to the station from Pace University.
New York State Route 117 (NY 117) is a 15.23-mile (24.51 km) state highway in Westchester County, New York, in the United States. The southern terminus of the route is at an intersection with U.S. Route 9 (US 9) north of the village of Sleepy Hollow. The northern terminus is at an interchange with the Saw Mill River Parkway just south of Interstate 684 (I-684), south of Katonah, a hamlet in the town of Bedford. NY 117 meets the Taconic State Parkway in Pleasantville and parallels the Saw Mill Parkway from Pleasantville to Bedford.
There are forty-five local police agencies in Westchester County, New York. As well as other agencies. They are responsible for protecting Westchester County, these agencies frequently work with one another in the surrounding counties. Current economic times has caused a few Westchester municipalities to consider consolidation of police services. The Westchester County Department of Public Safety started providing primary police services for the Town/Village of Mount Kisco in 2015.
Westchester County, New York, in the United States, contains 40 public school districts, 118 private schools, 12 colleges/universities and 3 theological seminaries. According to the 2018 rankings provided by the education website Niche, taking into account public comments, 28 of the top 100 school districts in New York State were located in Westchester County.
Pocantico Hills is a hamlet in the Westchester County town of Mount Pleasant, New York, United States.
Pleasantville High School is in the village of Pleasantville within the town of Mount Pleasant in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is a comprehensive high school that provides a broad range of academic and educational programs. A full complement of extra-curricular activities including the performing and visual arts, sports, and academic and service clubs. The high school was ranked 122nd on Newsweek's 2015 list of top U.S. high schools.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in northern Westchester County, New York, excluding the city of Peekskill, which has its own list.
New York's 92nd State Assembly district is one of the 150 districts in the New York State Assembly. It has been represented by Democrat Mary Jane Shimsky since 2023, defeating then-incumbent Thomas Abinanti.
↑ Corcoran, Dennis J. Pleasantville—300 Years: From Manor to Suburb, 1695-1995. Village of Pleasantville, publisher, 1995, pp. 1, 2, 3.
1 2 Crandall, John E. "A Village Between". Reader's Digest, 1971, p. 1
1 2 Corcoran, Dennis J. Pleasantville—300 Years: From Manor to Suburb, 1695-1995. Village of Pleasantville, publisher, 1995, pp. 11-13
↑ Horne, Philip F. "Mount Pleasant: The History of a New York Suburb and Its People". self-published, copy on file at Mount Pleasant Library, Pleasantville branch, 1971, pp. 17-18
↑ Corcoran, Dennis J. Pleasantville—300 Years: From Manor to Suburb, 1695-1995. Village of Pleasantville, publisher, 1995, pp. 20-21, 26
↑ Crandall, John E. "A Village Between". Reader's Digest, publisher, 1971, p. 4
↑ Crandall, John E. "A Village Between". Reader's Digest, publisher, 1971, p. 5
↑ Horne, Philip F. "Mount Pleasant: The History of A New York Suburb and Its People". self-published, copy on file at Mount Pleasant Library, Pleasantville branch, 1971, p. 29
↑ Waterbury, George. "Mount Pleasant (Image of America Series)". Arcadia Publishing, 2009, p.47
↑ Crandall, John E. "A Village Between". Reader's Digest, publisher, 1971, p. 7
↑ Corcoran, Dennis J. Pleasantville—300 Years: From Manor to Suburb, 1695-1995. Village of Pleasantville, publisher, 1995, p. 28
↑ Crandall, John E. "A Village Between". Reader's Digest, publisher, 1971, pp. 6, 7, 11
↑ Corcoran, Dennis J. Pleasantville—300 Years: From Manor to Suburb, 1695-1995. Village of Pleasantville, publisher, 1995, pp. 42-48
↑ Crandall, John E. "A Village Between". Reader's Digest, publisher, 1971, pp. 10,11
↑ Horne, Philip F. "Mount Pleasant: The History of a New York Suburb and Its People". Self-published, copy on file at Mount Pleasant Library, Pleasantville branch, 1971, p. 50
↑ Martinson, Deborah. "Lillian Hellman: A Life With Foxes and Scoundrels". Counterpoint, A Member of the Perseus Books Group, 2005, pp. 156-157
↑ Corcoran, Dennis J. Pleasantville—300 Years: From Manor to Suburb, 1695-1995. Village of Pleasantville, publisher, 1995, p. 42
↑ Crandall, John E. "A Village Between". Reader's Digest, publisher, 1971, p. 15, 16
↑ Waterbury, George. "Mount Pleasant (Image of America Series)". Arcadia Publishing, 2009, p. 118
↑ Reisley, Robert. "Usonia New York: Building A Community". Princeton Architectural Press, 2001
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