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There are and were a few places in Riverdale called “The Knoll’s”. There is one with the legal address at 6030 Spencer Ave, Bronx 10471 but is best viewed from Huxley Ave at W. 260th. I attached a photo from 1901.
“Kingsbridge, the Bronx neighborhood with royal connections” ….. Interesting, but lets not forget the Bronx neighborhoods of Highbridge, and Williamsbridge. Both have there own Train Station & Post Offices. You could not travel the Old Boston Post Road, without crossing the Kingsbridge & the Williamsbridge from Manhattan to Boston
Estate of Isaac Merritt Singer at Kingsbridge Avenue, Corlear Avenue & West 232nd St
A curiosity in Isaac Merritt Singer’s will filed in Westchester County https://www.google.com/books/edition/De_Bernardy_s_next_of_kin_gazette_unclai/V0YFAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22isaac+m.+singer%22+westchester&pg=PA49&printsec=frontcover
Isaac M. Singer, must have owned a substantial piece of property to get such a prominent identification on the map.
It appears that his son Isaac Augustus Singer was also an inventor ( see attachment )
and 150 years ago today, filed for a patent. Isaac A. Singer was born 7/27/1837 and died 9/25/1902 and is now resting in Woodlawn.Whelan’s Garage was active selling Socony gas ( Standard Oil became Mobil Oil ) in 1918 according to an add in the NY Times, located at 3129 – 3131 Bailey Ave Bronx NY. Still a garage. The names and date of birth of Mr. Whelan & his brother would help.
In 1642, John Throckmorton was granted a patent from New Netherland in area named Vriedelandt or Vreeland / Oostdorp. So it would appear that the Dutch considered their holdings from the deed to include the Bronx. The Dutch claimed to own property east to the Connecticut River and the English claimed west to the Hudson. So they agreed to a boundary ( Black Dog Brook ) northeast of Westchester Creek, separating Westchester from Eastchester. Vreeland Ave located close to Westchester Square in the Bronx.
We just went back & forth with our 2022 interpretations of the 1639 land deed. We did what the historians of 1906 agreed. They made a map and labeled it. However, Nick Dembowski threw a new wrinkle into the mix. The Long Island Sound has been called the Great Kill ! To me…now that is what I would call a great Kill, greater than Staten Island or the Bronx Kill. It would therefore make the the entirety of the Bronx “Keskeskich” East to West from the great Kill. By 1659 there was already a village established in the area called OOSTDORP by the Dutch that we know today as Westchester Square in the Bronx. On the Kill ( Westchester Creek ) referenced often in
1659 https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Documentary_History_of_the_State_of/KtuBzUJ6AzUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=oostdorp&pg=PA557&printsec=frontcoverThe Sachems point to the Bronx. I think the Harlem was the great Kil. (It’s a tidal strait ). Therefore, Kingsbridge is looking like the spot. Just wondering who received the property from the DUTCH WEST COMPANY
Peter, I just do not see the Bronx Kil as “GREAT”
Opposite the flat of Manhattan could be opposite Dyckman Flats ( Kingsbidge or University Heights) or Gracie Mansion ( Randalls Island ) or East Harlem ( Bronx or Randalls Island ) The only high hills could be in Kingsbridge and University heights…unless St Mary’s park is considered a high hill…( it was for me sledding ).. Then back to Bronck’s
Why is this thought to be Westchester County ? When I read Great Kil, I think of Staten Island or Jersey City
Page 111 of the 1848 book by the New York Historical Society describes the Spuyten Duyvil Creek in Kingsbridge. In the next line, the hill in Bay, into the Kills ( Staten Island) was called Nipnichsen by the Indians. This is probably where the name Nipnichsen and Kingsbridge was connected by Bolton.
I could only find Robert Bolton, Cornelius Winter Bolton · 1881 use of Nipnichsen in The History of the Several Towns, Manors, and Patents of the County of Westchester – 1881 when describing Berrian’s Neck & A History of the County of Westchester, from Its First Settlement to the Present Time
by Robert Bolton – 1848Ads
I could only find Robert Bolton, Cornelius Winter Bolton · 1881 use of Nipnichsen in The History of the Several Towns, Manors, and Patents of the County of Westchester – 1881 when describing Berrian’s Neck.
The author Davis Gold concludes that the meaning of Nipnichsen does not fit the description of our area, and so it must have been selected by someone other than Native Americans. He was comparing the appropriate usage of Shorakkappoch, Paprinimen, Gowahasuasing vs Nipnichsen
According to History In Asphalt by John McNamara, Paparinemin meant “Place of False Starts”, alluding to the double tide caused by the Hudson and the Harlem Rivers.
Also see- Studies in Etymology and Etiology, by David Gold ( attached)According to an FBI log of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s August 1963 meetings with publisher Al Duckett (as told by Taylor Branch in Parting the Waters), Dr. King “managed to escape almost every day to the nearby Riverdale Motor Inn, where Clarence Jones had ensconced a writer named Al Duckett to help with crash production of the Birmingham book (Why We Can’t Wait).”
