Chappaqua, New York
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| Chappaqua, New York | |
| Coordinates: | |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| State | New York |
| County | Westchester |
| Area | |
| - Total | 9.4 sq mi (24.4 km²) |
| - Land | 9.4 sq mi (24.3 km²) |
| - Water | 0.1 sq mi (0.2 km²) |
| Elevation | 492 ft (150 m) |
| Population (2000 census) | |
| - Total | 9,468 |
| - Density | 1,009.8/sq mi (389.9/km²) |
| Time zone | EST (UTC-5) |
| - Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
| ZIP code | 10514 |
| Area code(s) | 914 |
| FIPS code | 36-13805 |
| GNIS feature ID | 0946393 |
| Zip code: 10514 | |
| Website: Town of New Castle which includes Chappaqua | |
Chappaqua is a hamlet and census-designated place in northern Westchester County, New York. As of the 2000 census, the population was 9,468. Chappaqua is located in the Town of New Castle.
Contents |
[edit] History
In the early 1730s a group of Quakers moved north from Purchase, New York, to settle in present-day Chappaqua. They built their homes on Quaker Street and held their meetings at the home of Abel Weeks. Their meeting house was built in 1753 and still holds weekly meetings each Sunday.
Various spellings were used for the name they heard Native Americans use for their valley and hillside. It was an Algonquian word, "shah-pah-ka," and it meant "the rustling land" or "the rattling land," or a place where nothing is heard but the rustling of the wind in the leaves. The quakers spelled it Shapiqua, Shapaqua, Shapequa, Shappaqua, and, finally, Chappaqua. Their meeting was often referred to as the Shapequa Meeting as early as 1745.[1]
[edit] Creation of the Town of New Castle
On March 18, 1791, the government of New York decided to split the overly large town of North Castle (jokingly called "the two saddlebags") into two smaller towns, one of which was named New Castle. The border was drawn from the southwest corner of Bedford to the northeast edge of Mount Pleasant. New Castle's borders have remained the same since 1791, except for a small piece of land received from Somers in 1846.
[edit] Early businesses
Chappaqua had great streams such as the Saw Mill River and the Roaring Brook. These bodies of water powered mills to crush corn and press oil from beans. The eastern half of Chappaqua was very suitable for farming. The majority of the Quaker settlers of Chappaqua were farmers. The popular farming industry also helped give way to Chappaqua's high milk production. Other popular industries from Chappaqua included shoes, hardware, vinegar, pickles, eyeglasses, and furniture.
[edit] Railroad
In 1846 when the New York and Harlem Railroad extended through Chappaqua, business became centered around the new train station. These businesses included a hotel, livery stables, a public library, and various stores and small factories.
[edit] The first railroad commuter
The coming of the railroad marked the arrival of the commuter, the tireless person who traveled to New York City and back everyday. One very famous commuter who would make his way back and forth from Chappaqua to New York City was Horace Greeley, the successful editor of the New York Tribune. This free-thinker and politician came to Chappaqua to live out the quiet and peaceful life of a country farmer. In 1853 he bought 78 acres of land just east of the railroad. His land included upland pastures near present-day Aldrich Road, Greeley Hill, and the marshy fields now the site of the Bell Middle School fields and the shopping area along South Greeley Avenue. Horace and his wife loved the streams, the large evergreen trees, and their clean, fresh, ice-cold spring. Horace Greeley's house still stands on King Street, just east of the train station and South Greeley Avenue and is home to the historical society.
[edit] Schools
Today, the schools in Chappaqua are reputed to be among the best in the country.[2] But this was not always so. Small one-room schoolhouses devoid of windows were prevalent in the 1800s. In the Chappaqua region there were eight such schoolhouses.[citation needed] These small schools prevailed until around 1870, when the Quakers built a large school called the Chappaqua Mountain Institute on Quaker Street. In the year 1885 the school caught fire,[3] and much refurbishing was done, with the addition of two new wings. It was sold in 1908 and now belongs to the Children's Aid Society.
Around 1928, Robert E. Bell Middle School, known at the time as Horace Greeley School, was built. The present day Horace Greeley High School was built in 1957, and three elementary schools were completed over a twenty year period: Roaring Brook School in 1951; Douglas G. Grafflin in 1962; and Westorchard in 1971.
Finally, Seven Bridges Middle School was built in 2003 and added to the town's school system as a solution to the overcrowding of the only middle school in Chappaqua, Robert E. Bell. Before Seven Bridges was constructed, all students, regardless of which elementary school they attended, would have moved on to Robert E. Bell. But, because of population growth, half now move up to Bell and half move up to Seven Bridges. Westorchard and half of Roaring Brook were combined to make up the student populttion at Seven Bridges. Grafflin and the other half of Roaring Brooks were combined together to make up the student population at Bell. Both schools come together at the high school level.
In the fall of 2003, after the opening of the new middle school, Seven Bridges, and the moving of the fifth grade from Chappaqua's elementary schools to the middle schools, the district added a full day kindergarten.[4][5]
In 2001, a scandal involving parental supervision erupted when a Chappaqua couple was arrested for hosting a pre-season party for the high school football team featuring a stripper, drugs, and alcohol.[6] The couple pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child and were sentenced to 100 hours of community service and one year of probation.[7] Also in 2001, Chappaqua students made national news in a scandal about cyberbullying.[8]
The singer/songwriter Dar Williams grew up in Chappaqua and graduated from Greeley High School. The area's briefly high teenage suicide rate in the mid 1980s [9] is said to have influenced her song lyrics.[10]
In 2006, the Chappaqua Central School District came under criticism for assigning excessive homework at the elementary school level. [11]
[edit] Geography
Chappaqua is located at (41.165925, -73.765244)[12].
Parts of the Chappaqua ZIP code area are located in the Towns of Mount Kisco, New Castle, Millwood, Mount Pleasant, Yorktown, and Bedford. Parts of the Chappaqua Central School District include homes in other zip codes, such as 10570, the Pleasantville, New York zip code.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 24.4 km² (9.4 mi²). 24.3 km² (9.4 mi²) of it is land and 0.2 km² (0.1 mi²) of it (0.64%) is water.
[edit] Demographics
As of the census[13] of 2000, there were 9,468 people, 3,118 households, and 2,687 families residing in the Census-designated place. The population density was 389.7/km² (1,009.8/mi²). There were 3,181 housing units at an average density of 130.9/km² (339.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 91.80% White, 0.94% African American, 0.03% Native American, 5.62% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.52% from other races, and 1.07% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.55% of the population. 14.3% were of Italian, 11.4% Russian, 10.6% Irish, 7.1% United States or American, 6.0% English and 5.7% German ancestry according to Census 2000. 92.4% spoke English, 3.6% Spanish and 1.0% Italian as their first language.
There were 3,118 households out of which 52.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 79.1% were married couples living together, 5.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 13.8% were non-families. 11.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.03 and the average family size was 3.27.
In the CDP the population was spread out with 32.8% under the age of 18, 3.2% from 18 to 24, 25.9% from 25 to 44, 29.4% from 45 to 64, and 8.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females there were 97.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.8 males.
The median income for a household in the CDP was $163,201, and the median income for a family was $180,451. Males had a median income of $100,000 versus $71,875 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $77,835. About 2.3% of families and 3.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.8% of those under age 18 and 4.8% of those age 65 or over.
Nationwide, Chappaqua ranks 42nd among the 100 highest-income places in the United States (with at least 1,000 households).
[edit] Public safety
Emergency Medical Service and fire protection are provided by volunteer agencies. The Chappaqua Volunteer Ambulance Corps (CVAC) provides Basic Life Support services to most of New Castle, including Chappaqua. The hamlet is protected by the New Castle Police Department, which also provides first-response services for medical and fire emergencies.[citation needed]
Although Chappaqua's crime rate is far below the national average[14], the area has had several high-profile murders. in 1996, a battle between a lottery winner and his former lover over custody of their 5-year-old child resulted in a gun battle; the winner was acquitted of the murder of his former lover on the basis of self defense, and convicted of the shooting of the woman's father.[15] In November 2006 a disbarred attorney, drove the body of his severely injured wife, Peggy Perez-Olivo, a special education teaching assistant at Grafflin Elementary, to Northern Westchester Hospital, claiming that the couple had been ambushed and shot. She died soon after. For over a year, police expressed skepticism about the husband's account and did not ruled him out as a suspect. In December 2007 Mr. Perez-Olivo was charged with his wife's murder after trying to collect on life insurance policies.[16][17]
[edit] Notable residents
Some notable Chappaqua residents, past and present, include:
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This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2008) |
- Alan Arkin, Academy Award-winning actor, best known for his roles in such films as The In-Laws, Catch-22, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Wait Until Dark, and Little Miss Sunshine.
- Adam Arkin, American television, film, and stage actor, son of Alan Arkin
- Elizabeth Joy Arnold, Author of the novels Pieces of My Sister's Life and Promise the Moon
- Bibi Besch, actress
- Ayla Brown, NCAA basketball player and singer
- Bill Clinton, 42nd U.S. President and former governor of Arkansas
- Hillary Clinton, U.S. Senator (D-N.Y.), former First Lady, candidate in 2008 U.S. presidential election. The Clintons purchased their home in Chappaqua for $1.7 million near the end of Bill Clinton's presidency in 1999.[18]
- Matthew Etlinger, founder and CEO of eSwarm
- Ace Frehley, lead guitarist of Kiss
- Horace Greeley, newspaper editor, reformer, politician
- Nora Guthrie, daughter of Woody Guthrie and sister of Arlo Guthrie
- Jeff Van Gundy, formerly head coach of the Houston Rockets, formerly head coach of the New York Knicks
- David A. Harris, Executive Director of the American Jewish Committee
- Roxanne Hart, An American television, film and stage actress, appeared in Highlander, nurse on Chicago Hope among other roles
- David Ho, prominent AIDS researcher
- Mary Beth Hurt, Actress
- Paul F. Iams, founder of the Iams pet food company
- Kenneth T. Jackson, American historian
- Stu Jackson, former NBA head coach and current senior vice president of the NBA
- Herman Kahn, Cold War military strategist
- Heather Paige Kent, actress
- Jonathan Klein, President of CNN
- Peter Kunhardt, documentary film-maker
- Brian Leiser, musician
- Paul Levitz, President of DC Comics
- Daniel O'Keefe, Reader's Digest editor and inventor of the secular holiday Festivus. His son, Dan O'Keefe, popularized the holiday in 1997 by writing it into the plot of the television sitcom Seinfeld.[citation needed]
- Frank R. Pierson, screenwriter and film director
- Robert L. "Nob" Rauch, a financier and flying disc sports executive
- Gerry Ritterman, founder of Soap Opera Digest
- Jay O. Sanders, an American character actor
- Jason Scott Sadofsky, computer historian and film producer
- Peter Saul, painter
- Simon Schama, British historian
- Paul Schrader, Writer and Director
- Michael Jeffrey Shapiro, composer and conductor of The Chappaqua Orchestra
- John and Elizabeth Sherrill, Christian writers
- Kenneth G.Standard,former president of the Harvard club and New York Bar association
- Rene Syler, journalist
- Bert Sugar, boxing historian
- Matthew Van Fleet, children's book writer and illustrator [1]
- Kevin Wade, screenwriter known best for Working Girl
- Vanessa Williams, model, actress, singer
- Dar Williams, singer, songwriter
- Jenna Wolfe, sportscaster
[edit] Notable structures
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This section does not cite any references or sources. (June 2008) Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
- The Chappaqua Friends Meeting House, circa 1753, is the oldest Quaker meeting house standing in Westchester County.
- America's first concrete barn. It was completed by Horace Greeley on his Chappaqua farm in 1865. It was also one of the first concrete buildings ever built in the U.S.
- The world headquarters of Reader's Digest is in Chappaqua, although its mailing address is in neighboring Pleasantville, New York. The building has statues of Pegasus on it.
- One of Horace Greeley's homes. Part of the original structure still stands, and is part of the present-day New Castle Historical Society.
[edit] References
- ^ Warde, Robert (1982). Chappaqua: Our Connections to Its Past. Chappaqua Central School District (CCSD).
- ^ GREELEY HIGH CALLED ONE OF BEST IN U.S. by Lena Williams, The New York Times, September 27, 1981.
- ^ DRIVEN OUT BY THE FIRE; THE QUAKER SCHOOLHOUSE AT CHAPPAQUA BURNED. THE TEACHERS AND CHILDREN IN THE BITTER COLD IN THEIR NIGHT CLOTHES--COOL YOUNG FARRAGUT. The New York Tines, February 22, 1885.
- ^ IN THE SCHOOLS; The Half-Day Stress Of Kindergarten by Merri Rosenberg, The New York Times, February 23, 2003.
- ^ Minutes, Chappaqua Central School District Board of Education, May 25, 2004.
- ^ Alcohol Wars Give 'Party Jitters' A Whole New Meaning by David Scharfenberg, The New York Times, February 20, 2005.
- ^ Metro Briefing | New York: Chappaqua: No Jail For Party Parents, The New York Times, June 1, 2002.
- ^ Cyber slammed, by Amy Benfer, Salon, July 3, 2001.
- ^ FOURTH TEEN-AGER'S SUICIDE SHOCKS 2 SUBURBAN COUNTIES by Lena Williams, The New York Times, February 23, 1984.
- ^ Cool As it Can Be by Lucy O'Brien, Diva Magazine, December 1996/January 1997.
- ^ The Case Against Homework: How Homework Is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do About It by Sarah Bennett & Nancy Kalish (2006), pp. 71-72.
- ^ US Gazetteer files: 2000 and 1990. United States Census Bureau (2005-05-03). Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
- ^ American FactFinder. United States Census Bureau. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
- ^ Crime stats from a real estate relocation site.
- ^ Lotto Winner Guilty in a Killing, Cleared in 2d, The New York Times, March 21, 1998.
- ^ Husband Not Ruled Out in Murder Probe, Jim Fitzgerald, the Associated Press, November 22, 2006.
- ^ Westchester Lawyer Charged in Wife’s 2006 Shooting Death by Robert D. McFadden and Fernanda Santos, The New York Times, December 21, 2007.
- ^ The Clintons Are Coming and Chappaqua Braces by David Montgomery, The Washington Post, September 4, 1999.
[edit] External links
- Town of New Castle
- Chappaqua Central School District
- VIEW; A Friend From Chappaqua Writes . . . by Timothy Jack Ward, The New York Times, September 5, 1999: an open letter to the Clintons about Chappaqua, published shortly after the Clintons bought their Chappaqua house.
- Chappaqua, New York is at coordinates Coordinates:
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