With White Plains's population growing rapidly, the village acted to ensure an adequate water supply. In 1898 the village acquired the private water company known as the Westchester County Water Works Company, and the next year the Board of Water Commissioners, which had been buying privately held land in North Castle for the past few years, largely from White Plains resident Thomas Holden, commissioned the construction of a reservoir in North Castle, which was completed in 1900. Soon this supply was found to be insufficient, and in 1907, a second reservoir was added. Again, by the time it was finished, population growth rendered it inadequate, so arrangements were made to tap the New York City water supply, which remains our major water source. By 1910 the water commissioners had this road built by Reservoir #2, connecting to N. Broadway. The area around the reservoirs was annexed to White Plains when it became a city in 1916. Anyone reading the description of the city's northern border in the city charter will see it is hard to follow, and a dispute between White Plains and the town of North Castle had to be resolved by the County Board of Supervisors in 1931.
Except part of the above seems to be nonsense, since this road appears on a map from 1776, along with Old Road to Kensico, which goes along the east side of the reservoirs, and got its name from the fact that it went to the village of Kensico, which was flooded when the Kensico Dam was built.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorMy name is Cliff Blau. I was born and raised in White Plains, NY, and in 2015 became interested in learning more about the history of this fair city. The pathway I took into White Plains history was to discover the reason for the names of each of the streets. See https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1WvlOinVQnWh4KGDmEN7YPFfg4II for an annotated map of White Plains. Archives
March 2024
Categories |