Westchester County Antique Maps

The history of Westchester County, New York is thought to date back as far as the Archaic Period (8000-2000 BCE), when early Native American tribes occupied the area.  Antique maps of Westchester County show that in the 1600s the County was settled by European immigrants, as was much of the area in and around New England and New York.

 Although the area was home to many Algonquin-speaking tribes, the region that eventually became Westchester County was largely populated by a subset known by ethnographers as Munsee-speakers at the time when European settlers arrived.  Many other tribes moved in and around the area, as well.

 Europeans began to visit the area as early as the 16th century, starting with Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524, and more importantly, Henry Hudson in 1609.  Settlers prompted by the sponsorship of the Dutch West India Company began to populate the area in the 1620s with English settlers following in the 1640s.

 By the 1660s the English settlers had largely taken over the area and set up a system of manor houses and tenant farms.  The county itself was not established until 1683, when many of the first counties in the state (then still a colony) came into being.  Over time, as the population grew and area farms required trade goods, which led to trade routes springing up, including roads, towns, and rest stops for travelers.

 By the time the American Revolutionary War began in 1775, Westchester County boasted the largest population and greatest wealth of all the counties in the New York colony.  Colonists in the county were divided between patriots and loyalists, but as most were loyalists, their lands were seized and sold off following the war, helping to speed economic recovery of wartime devastation.

 The population flourished in the following years and continued after the Civil War, thanks not only to the addition of railroads through the region, but also due to New York entrepreneurs building estates in Westchester County.  Manufacturing interests springing up along the Hudson River in the latter half of the 19th century perpetuated population growth and wealth in the county. Cadastral or Landowner maps of Westchester County show the changes in land and business ownership of the time.

 Today there are several large cities in Westchester County, most notably Yonkers, White Plains, and New Rochelle.  However, it is considered by many to be a suburban county full of workers commuting to New York City.

 Westchester County is also home to the village of Sleepy Hollow, which acted as the basis for Washington Irving's thriller "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".  These days, however, the county may be better known for the many major corporations with headquarters there, including IBM, PepsiCo, and General Foods, just to name a few.

Located just North of New York City, Westchester County is bordered to the South by the Bronx, East to Connecticut, North to Putnam County and West to the Hudson River. Here you can find antique, vintage and landowner maps of the various cities, towns and villages of Westchester County such as: Ardsley, Briarcliff Manor, Bronxville, Buchanan, Croton-on-Hudson, Dobbs Ferry, Elmsford, Hastings-on-Hudson, Irvington, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Mt.Kisco, Ossining, Pelham, Pelham Manor, Pleasantville, Port Chester, Rye Brook, Scarsdale, Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, Tuckahoe, Bedford, Cortlandt, Eastchester, Greenburgh, Harrison, Lewisboro, Mamaroneck, Mt. Pleasant, New Castle, North Castle, North Salem, Ossining, Pound Ridge, Somers, Yorktown, Peekskill, and Rye.