Town
Hall
34 5th Avenue
Telephone: (914) 738-1021
Pelham is the oldest town in Westchester County. Thomas
Pell signed a treaty in 1654 with the Siwanoy Indians to
buy what is not only the Town of Pelham but is all of the
borough of the Bronx and the land along Long Island Sound
north to the Rye border and inland to the Bronx river. Pell
named his manor "Pelham" in honor of his tutor, Pelham Burton.
Thomas
Pell's nephew, Sir John Pell, was the first of the Pells
to live in Pelham Manor. He inherited the land in 1670 and
until the American Revolution only the Pell family lived
in Pelham.
During
the American Revolution, the Battle of Pelham was fought
along Split Rock Road and Wolf's Lane on October 18, 1776.
Despite a fierce fight, the British army commanded by Sir
William Howe won the battle.
The
Joshua Pell House, built about 1760, is still standing today
at 145 Shore Road. Another Pell House, which was remodeled
by the Hay family in the 1820s and renamed "Pelhamdale",
still stands at 45 Iden Avenue.
The State Legislature incorporated the Town of Pelham on
March 7, 1788, and at that time included all of City Island
and what is now Pelham Bay Park east of the Hutchinson River.
In 1895, the Town of Pelham was reduced to its current area.
Three Villages were incorporated within the Town - the Village
of Pelham Manor in 1891 and two others, the Village of North
Pelham and the Village of Pelham, in 1896. In 1975, the
Villages of North Pelham and Pelham (also known as Pelham
Heights) merged to form the present Village of Pelham.
click
here for more Pelham history
