Arrowheads and ancient trails exist as evidence that Native Americans were here long before the Dutch arrived. The Weckquaesgeek and Lenape tribes both inhabited what is now Hastings-on-Hudson. Beginning in the 17th century, the area was part of Frederick Philipse’s holdings, which at the time stretched from what is now the Bronx to Croton-on-Hudson.
During the American Revolution, this vicinity experienced drama and intrigue leading up to the 1778 Battle of Edgars Lane. Although this area was called “The Neutral Ground,” local lore suggests that after tavern keeper Peter Post overheard Hessian soldiers planning an attack, he tipped off the Continentals. This led to a resounding Patriot victory.
In the 1800s, quarrying stone was a big industry and Hastings white marble was used in buildings throughout the Eastern seaboard, including some prominent Hastings homes. The Old Croton Aqueduct that traverses the village, begun in 1837, was one of the most ambitious engineering projects of the day, bringing fresh water to Manhattan. The Aqueduct’s level, unpaved route is a popular footpath today.
By 1840, some small factories began operation in the ravine behind today’s James V. Harmon Community Center. Using the stream there to power water wheels, operations included Scheckler’s Button Factory, Saunder’s Axle & Brass Turning Factory, and a bone mill, the latter of which was so odorous, it is said the townspeople collectively paid to have it shut down.
The arrival of the railroad in the 1840s changed everything. Around 1850, the Hudson River Steam Sugar Refinery was established on the waterfront, employing some 200 workers – mostly German, until a fire burned the factory down to rubble in 1875. This event led to the formation of the community’s first fire company in 1876 and, indirectly, to the incorporation of the village in 1879.
In 1880, the Hastings Pavement Company began making hexagonal pavers, still visible in the sidewalks along the west and east sides of Manhattan’s Central Park and in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. The “fog works,” so nicknamed because of the smoke the paving company generated, would remain on the Hastings waterfront until 1936.
In the late 19th century, both the National Conduit and Cable Company, and Zinsser Chemical were established, bringing thousands of immigrant workers to our community. Anaconda Wire and Cable took over National Conduit in 1922, and together with Zinsser, they employed many Hastings residents into the 1970s. In 1955, the Zinsser plant was sold to Harshaw Chemical. Six years later, Moore-Tappan Tanker bought out Harshaw and erected four fuel tanks that operated as a petroleum distribution facility until 1985, the last 10 years under the Mobil Oil name.
While industry was gaining a foothold, the village began to draw wealthy Manhattan residents, who came up to “the country” to buy summer homes. Large estates were carved out of former tenant farms, and were often given grand names – such as Burkeley Crest and Elmcroft – by their proud new owners.
In 1876, an article in The New York Evening Post touted our village’s virtues, saying, “The hedges and lanes of its environs give an English air to the landscape, and are the delight of its residents.” Drawn by the area’s rural charm, working-class day trippers also came up the Hudson, often by boat, to visit excursion destination Dudley’s Grove on the Yonkers border.
Uniontown, one of Hastings’ earliest neighborhoods, dates back to the 1860s. That area, and the cluster of attached homes and apartments along Warburton and Washington Avenues, was where many of Hastings’ factory workers lived.
Once the railroad was electrified in 1906, with the dirt and dust of train travel eliminated, Hastings became a more appealing commuter destination. Portions of the village began to experience development. Promoted in 1907 as, “the home place deluxe,” Riverview Manor, on the north end of town, was carved out of land that had been the Robert Minturn estate. By 1915, the development of Hudson Heights was underway, followed by the neighborhoods of Shado-Lawn and Ravensdale in the 1930s. More sub-divisions were created in the years after World War II.
In 1929, the village saw the completion of its first apartment building, La Barranca (“the Ravine”), built on three acres along Broadway of what had been Cook’s Woods. Several additional multi-family complexes followed, with Hastings House built in 1938, River Glen in 1940, and River Pines (now Hastings Gardens) completed in 1950. The next few decades saw more apartment and townhouse units being added to the mix, most located downtown or along Broadway.
Over the years, Hastings had its share of artists and scientists in residence. In the 1800s, painters Carl Brandt, George Harvey, and famed Hudson River School artist Jasper Cropsey lived in our village. Ever Rest, at 49 Washington Avenue, which served as Jasper Cropsey’s home and studio from 1885 to 1900, is now part of the Newington-Cropsey Foundation. Adjacent is the Foundation’s Gallery of Art, built in the 1990s, which features many of Cropsey’s most famous oil paintings.
Henry Draper was another prominent resident, credited with taking the first clear photograph of the moon through a telescope. His observatory, located in Draper Park, is now the home of the Hastings Historical Society.
In the early 20th century, renowned photographer Lewis Hine was a resident, as were two cast members of The Wizard of Oz – Frank Morgan (the Wizard) and Billie Burke (Glinda the Good Witch). Sculptor Jacques Lipchitz established a studio just off the Aqueduct in the 1950s and his 1967 sculpture “Between Heaven and Earth” was placed in front of the Hastings Public Library, where it remains as one of the village’s landmarks.
On the waterfront, Robison Oil built several steel oil storage tanks in the mid-1930s and in 1939 purchased an old wooden ship, the Buccaneer, that it used as a breakwater to keep ice flows from its underwater pipeline. Robison moved out of Hastings in the late 1980s and, in 1998, the Harvest-on-Hudson restaurant was constructed utilizing one of Robison’s industrial buildings.
In 1970, the River Tennis Club was established on River Street and its successor, the Tennis Club of Hastings, remains in operation today. The coming of winter is signaled each year when the Tennis Club puts up its white, bubble enclosures, turning it into an indoor facility for the colder months.
With the exception of the iconic water tower that still remains, all physical vestiges of Hastings’ industrial past are long gone. The residents of the village include descendants of the area’s former immigrant workers, once employed by those waterfront industries, as well newer transplants from New York City and farther afield. Many are drawn to the same features that attracted visitors from bygone years: our village’s proximity to Manhattan, a community receptive to arts and innovation, and the spectacular views of the Hudson.
