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Real estate record and builders' guide: [v. 92, no. 2384]: November 22, 1913

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REAL ESTATE AND NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 22, 1913 A FASHIONABLE SUBURBAN SECTION Current Developments at Spuyten Duyvil, Riverdale and Van Courtlandt— Educational Schemes—Garden City Landscape For Private Dwellings. ■lil liiiiniiiiiiuiiiiieiBjiiiiGiitiiiaiiiiiiiH^ By EDWARD C. DELAFIELD* ■■■lit THE first historical mention that we have of the Riverdale section of the city is by Henry Hudson, who speaks in his diary of the Indians from the heights of Nipinichsen coming out in their canoes to attack the "Half Moon." The title history begins with the purchase from the Indians by Dr. Adrian Van der Donck of all that vast tract bounded approximately by the Croton River, the Bronx River, the Harlem River and the Hudson River, and confirmed to him by a patent by Governor Keift in 1645. After Van der Donck's death, his widow married Hugh O'Neale, and he and Alias Doughty, her brother, divided the property by an east and west line, and transferred the lower half to William Betts and George Tib¬ bett, and the northerly portion to Thomas Delaval, Frederick Philips and Thomas Lewis. This latter portion formed part of the Philipse Patent and Manor of Philips- burgh. This east and west line, the southerly boundary of the manor, ran the city saw its share of fighting, for both the .Americans and the British had their forts at Tibbett's Hill, and on Valentine Hill, to the easterly, but the central part of Riverdale was a ground more for the activity of the so-called cow boys, who found refuge among the trees, hills and rocks of the district. Possibly the best-known action was when the Stockbridge Indians, after their defeat by Emery's English chaus- sers, hid themselves on the steep hill¬ sides, where the cavalry could not fol¬ low them. Although there was no well- known action of this time, relics of the old days are still quite frequently found, such as small cannon balls, rifle bullets and a few Indian skeletons, besides many Indian arrow-heads and axe-heads. The Spuyten Duyvil Section. The district may be divided into three sections; the Spuyten Duyvil section, south of the Fieldston line, the River¬ dale section, north to the valley near Yonkers, and the Van Cortlandt section Ewen, Scrymser and Whiting families were large hslders of realty. When the Eroadway subway was extended to Kingsbridge the Spuyten Duyvil hill section immediately showed the in¬ fluence of the new form of transporta¬ tion. Two private house development propositions were entered into: .^long- the-Hudson Company, with its park- streets, and modern houses overlooking the river, and the Edge Hill Terrace Company, with its somewhat smaller type of house, overlooking the Harlem valley. New houses were also built by a number of individuals, and the whole vicinity now shows prosperity. The Riverdale Section Proper. The Riverdale section proper first consisted of very large country places and vacant land in conjunction with them, and the map by M. D. Ripps, of 1853, shows such familiar names as Schermerhorn, Morton, Morris, Nevin, Forest, Delafield, Akerman and Van Cortlandt. Soon after this date a num- WEST 246TH STREET. from a point on the Albany postroad, opposite the parade ground of Van Cortlandt Park, to a point on the Hud¬ son River some 300 feet south of Dog¬ wood Brook. The line is even now, in many places, well defined, as it was marked by a stone wall of immense boulders, that must have required two yoke of oxen to move. The property on both sides of this line was^ again brought under one ownership by Wil¬ liam Hadley, by deed from James Van Cortlandt, and by purchase from the Commissioners of Forfeiture of the Philipse Manor after the Revolution. The title to most of the property in the Riverdale section goes back to this William Hadley, the Delafield property coming directly from him in 1829. During the Revolution this section of Albro & Lindeberg, Architects. RESIDEN'CE OF CLAYTON S. COOPER. ♦President Northwestern Bronx Property Own¬ ers' Association. on the easterly slope of the hill. These' three sections, chiefly on account of railroad facilities and the contour of the land, have developed along different lines. The Spuyten Duyvil section ends to¬ wards the south -with a high bluff over¬ looking the Harlem and Hudson Rivers; at the head of this bluff stood the old Tibbett homestead. The owner of this house, the story goes, had many dis¬ putes with the inhabitants of Manhat¬ tan Island, whose half wild pigs, coming across the wading place at Kingsbridge, he branded, by cutting off an entire ear, thus destroying the former brands. This section developed very rapidly during the early days of the Hudson River Railroad, and many fine homes were built; the development of the fac¬ tory at the foot of the hill also aided. In those days the Johnson, Cox, Fuller, ber of prominent residents of the city, notably the Babcock, Pyne, Harriman, Appleton and Morris families, built their own residences near the new Riv¬ erdale railroad station, which took the place of the old station at Fieldston. These families sold a number of smaller plots to their friends, and the value of property reached a point where $10,000 an acre was considered reasonable. Development then stood still, and for many years the Riverdale sectior^ showed but little progress; even the construction of the subway had but lit¬ tle effect on the owners of these large estates until the city threatened to open city streets through the district on the old-fashioned method of square blocks. The Delafield family and others, know¬ ing the sacrifice of property that would be entailed by this method, through their own engineers and with tho aid of city