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39-465: The Old Chappaqua Historic District is located along Quaker Road ( New York State Route 120 ) in the town of New Castle , New York, United States, between the hamlets of Chappaqua and Millwood . It was the original center of Chappaqua, prior to the construction of the New York and Harlem Railroad and the erection of its station to the south in the mid-19th century. In 1974 it was recognized as

78-505: A historic district and listed on the National Register of Historic Places . What is today Chappaqua was first settled around 1740 by a group of Quakers from Long Island . They built the still-used Chappaqua Friends Meeting House , a Friends meeting house and the oldest known building in the town, around which the district centered a decade later. The other contributing properties , all timber frame buildings up and down

117-540: A 100-acre (40 ha) farm that included the area of the future district, along Quaker Road from Kipp Street to Roaring Brook Road. By 1747 there were enough Quakers in Shapequaw that they began petitioning the Purchase meeting to establish their own. Permission was granted shortly thereafter, and Reynolds donated two of his acres (8,100 m) to the group so it could build a meeting house and burial ground. By 1753

156-593: A dual purpose as a place of worship and for public discourse, but sometimes only for "...the service of God." As the towns grew and the separation of church and state in the United States matured, the buildings that were used as the seat of local government were called town-houses or town-halls. Most communities in modern New England still have active meetinghouses, which are popular points of assembly for town meeting days and other events. The nonconformist meeting houses generally do not have steeples, with

195-632: A handful of local streets and serving Rye's station on the Metro-North Railroad 's New Haven Line . Past the station, the highway passes under the New Haven Line, Amtrak 's Northeast Corridor line, and I-95 in quick succession ahead of the Purchase Street Business District. The commercial surroundings give way to residential neighborhoods after three blocks as NY 120 winds northward through

234-530: A junction with NY 100 (Saw Mill River Road) at the northern edge of the hamlet. The segment of modern NY 120 between Westchester Avenue and the north end of the overlap with NY 22 was originally designated as part of Route 1, an unsigned legislative route , by the New York State Legislature in 1908. Route 1 approached Purchase Street from the west on Westchester Avenue and continued north from Armonk on what

273-409: A large house at what is today 386 Quaker, moving the older Thorn house in the process. That was the last development in the district related to the original Quaker settlers and their families. As the railroad spurred the suburbanization of northern Westchester in the later 19th and early 20th centuries, the meeting house and associated farm buildings remained in use. However, the economy changed. With

312-525: A slightly more northward track through another residential section of Harrison. Less than 1 mile (1.6 km) from I-287, NY 120 connects to the Hutchinson River Parkway by way of exit 27, a diamond interchange just northeast of the parkway's interchanges with I-287 and a reference route spur leading to I-684 . Continuing northward from the parkway, the highway enters the hamlet of Purchase , where NY 120 runs along

351-475: Is a state highway in southern Westchester County, New York , in the United States. It begins in the city of Rye at an intersection with U.S. Route 1 (US 1) and runs for about 18 miles (29 km) north to the hamlet of Millwood , where it ends at a junction with NY 100 . The route intersects with Interstate 684 (I-684) and the Saw Mill River Parkway , and serves

390-535: Is in Westchester County . Meeting house Nonconformist Protestant denominations distinguish between a: In early Methodism , meeting houses were typically called "preaching houses" (to distinguish them from church houses , which hosted itinerant preachers ). The colonial meeting house in America was typically the first public building built as new villages sprang up. A meeting-house had

429-566: Is now NY 22. NY 120, meanwhile, was assigned as part of the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York to the portion of its modern alignment north of the junction of Purchase Street and Westchester Avenue (then NY 119 ) in Harrison . It was extended south to US 1 in Rye c.  1938 by way of Purchase Street and Highland Road. NY 120 was altered again by

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468-684: The Westchester County Airport in North Castle . Portions of the route have been signed ceremonially in remembrance of American serviceman killed in the 2000s and 2010s during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan . NY 120 was assigned as part of the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York , but only to the portion of its routing north of Westchester Avenue. It was extended south to Rye c.  1938 , then rerouted to follow Westchester Avenue east to Port Chester by

507-606: The Harlem Line, the route dips under the Saw Mill River Parkway and intersects two parallel local streets leading to the parkway's exit 32. NY 120 turns northward here, crossing over the Saw Mill River and leaving Chappaqua for less densely populated areas of the town of New Castle. At 0.6 miles (0.97 km) north of Chappaqua early 19th-century farmhouses that clustered around the Quaker meeting house that

546-628: The King Street name and turns northwest to straddle the state line for roughly 1 mile (1.6 km). The route passes over I-684 and the northern tip of Rye Lake and serves an industrial complex in the Connecticut town of Greenwich before the state line turns 90 degrees to the northeast. NY 120 remains on a northwesterly alignment, however, and it crosses the Delaware Aqueduct prior to meeting NY 22 (Mount Kisco Road) on

585-469: The airport's main entrance in the town of North Castle , where the road connects to I-684 via Airport Road (unsigned County Route 135 or CR 135), where NY 120 becomes a two-lane surface road. Continuing northward, I-684 and NY 120 head due north toward the state line, where NY 120A rejoins its parent route at a junction with King Street just north of the airport. From here, I-684 continues north into Connecticut while NY 120 takes on

624-712: The bridge was named the SSG Kyu Hyuk Chay Memorial Bridge in memory of Army Staff Sergeant Kyu Chay, whose family owns a dry cleaning business adjacent to the bridge. A plaque was also erected in his honor at the war memorial by the Chappaqua train station. Chay, a Special Forces linguist and Korean immigrant, was three credits shy of his law degree at Brooklyn Law School when he was killed in Afghanistan . NY 120 once had two suffixed routes; only one still exists. The entire route

663-510: The community's main north–south route, NY 117 (Bedford Road). NY 120 heads north through the center of Chappaqua, overlapping with NY 117 to reach another section of King Street one block to the north. Past NY 117, NY 120 continues generally westward through Chappaqua, changing names to Quaker Road a short distance east of Chappaqua's station on the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line . After crossing

702-443: The construction of the New York and Harlem Railroad (still in use today as Metro-North Railroad 's Harlem Line ) in 1846. It followed the river valley, and so the station was built a mile (1.6 km) south of the meeting house. Gradually that area became developed and grew into the downtown Chappaqua that exists today. Allen built a couple of small houses across the road from the meeting house, and cabinetmaker Henry Dodge built

741-432: The district. Within this boundary, along a 0.6-mile (1 km) stretch of Quaker, are 33 acres (13 ha) with 30 buildings, half of which are contributing properties . All of them, whether contributing or not, are wood frame houses of two to three stories with gabled roofs. Those of more modern construction are sympathetic to their historic neighbors. Except for the meeting house, all are still used as residences. In

780-555: The eastern edge of Manhattanville College 's campus and passes a short distance west of the State University of New York at Purchase . Part of Purchase Street near the entrance to SUNY Purchase at Anderson Hill Road is named the Specialist Anthony N. Kalladeen Memorial Highway in memory of United States Army Specialist Anthony Kalladeen, a SUNY Purchase student who was killed in Iraq in 2004. A dormitory at

819-495: The easternmost part of Westchester County . While NY 120A heads east toward Port Chester , NY 120 takes on the Westchester Avenue name as the two directions of the route split to follow collector/distributor roads running northwestward along both sides of I-287. The route remains on the frontage roads for about a half-mile (0.8 km) to another section of Purchase Street, where NY 120 turns to follow

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858-468: The edge of another Kensico Reservoir inlet. The two routes briefly overlap to cross the inlet on a causeway before splitting on the water body's north shore. From here, NY 120 heads through substantially less developed, mostly wooded areas as it traverses the northeastern edge of the reservoir. North of the reservoir, NY 120 crosses the northernmost part of the Bronx River and traverses

897-666: The following year to follow NY 119 east along Westchester Avenue to US 1 in Port Chester . Most of NY 120's former routing south of Westchester Avenue became part of NY 119A, a new route assigned to all of Purchase Street between NY 119 and NY 120 in Harrison and US 1 in Rye. NY 120 was realigned once more in October ;1960 to follow Purchase Street south to Rye, supplanting NY 119A. At

936-530: The following year. Most of NY 120's former routing to Rye became part of New York State Route 119A at that time. NY 120 was rerouted to serve Rye again in October 1960, replacing NY 119A. NY 120 begins at an intersection with US 1 (Boston Post Road) in the city of Rye . The route proceeds northward along Purchase Street as a two-lane street through the Locust Avenue Business District, intersecting

975-430: The historic properties within the historic district have been designated town landmarks. The town's historic preservation ordinances provide for the designation of local landmarks. A Landmarks Advisory Committee, consisting of the town historian and four residents with an interest in preservation and development appointed by the town board to three-year terms, guides the town in not only its designation of landmarks but

1014-518: The meeting house was finished. In 1776 it would serve as a hospital for Continental Army soldiers injured at the nearby Battle of White Plains . Two years later a wing was built on it. The original Reynolds farm was eventually subdivided . Other farmers, like Samuel Allen and Elnathan Thorn, built houses near the meeting house. By 1825 the area had become the community of what was now known as Chappaqua. The residents were largely self-sufficient farmers with side businesses as craftsmen. That ended with

1053-848: The middle of a small grassy island at the Chappaqua Mountain Road intersection is a rock with a commemorative plaque to the district attached. Quakers , fleeing religious persecution in England as Dissenters , settled in British colonies during the 17th century. One group established a meeting on Long Island in 1645. By the early 18th century their offshoots had crossed Long Island Sound to Westchester County , where they established Mamaroneck and Purchase by 1727. In 1730, further offshoots of those groups moved further inland, to Wampus Pond (now Armonk ) and "Shapequaw". Ten years later one of them, John Reynolds, established

1092-439: The northeastern corner of the town of Mount Pleasant , where the woods give way to a handful of residential neighborhoods. The transition in surroundings continues into the adjacent town of New Castle , home to housing tracts that become less isolated as the road veers westward toward the hamlet of Chappaqua . NY 120 proceeds west through residential and commercial areas to Chappaqua's central business district, where it meets

1131-508: The northern part of Rye to the adjacent village/town of Harrison . In Harrison, NY 120 passes several mansions on both sides of the highway as it gradually turns northwestward and approaches I-287 (the Cross Westchester Expressway). The route parallels the western edge of the freeway for several blocks to Westchester Avenue, where NY 120 meets the southern end of NY 120A , an alternate route through

1170-543: The older buildings since then. Among the contributing properties, several are particularly important in the context of the district. None have yet been listed individually on the National Register, but they are all local landmarks, carrying markers indicating what they are and their year of construction. While New Castle's zoning does not include any special measures for the district, the town has other measures to protect and preserve it. Most prominently, all of

1209-569: The preservation of those already designated. Any change to an existing landmark's exterior must be approved by the committee. As allowed under New York state law, property tax exemptions are available to any owner of a landmark who restores or rehabilitates it, if they have been approved in advance by the committee and the town assessor certifies that they were finished as planned. [REDACTED] Media related to Old Chappaqua Historic District at Wikimedia Commons New York State Route 120 New York State Route 120 ( NY 120 )

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1248-539: The railroad close by, the farmers switched to growing cash crops for the New York City market, and sold some of their larger landholdings. Some buildings, such as the outbuildings on the Thorn–Dodge property, were destroyed by the 1904 tornado . New construction in the district did not replace any of the historic structures. In 1961 another wing was added to the meeting house. There have been few other changes to

1287-473: The road and continues back to its southern boundary. The terrain is hilly, forcing the road through some gentle curves as it passes through the district. Despite the extensive residential development in the area, it is still heavily wooded, with many tall trees shading the houses and few clearings. Streams in the area drain into the Saw Mill River , which rises in the woods to the east. Quaker Road climbs approximate 140 feet (43 m) from south to north through

1326-399: The road on either side near the meeting house, are the surviving buildings from some of the farms established then and later. They have been preserved intact from that time. The district begins on the west side of the road, approximately 0.6 mi (1 km) north of downtown Chappaqua and the Saw Mill River Parkway interchange, at 332 Quaker Road, just opposite Commodore Road. It follows

1365-410: The same time, NY 119 was truncated on its east end to Purchase Street while the portion of Westchester Avenue that had carried NY 119 and NY 120 between Purchase Street and Port Chester became an extension of NY 120A . The two-lane bridge carrying NY 120 over the Metro-North Railroad in Chappaqua was rebuilt as a four-lane bridge in 2012 for $ 19 million. Once completed,

1404-532: The school is also named for him. Another stretch of homes north of Purchase leads to Westchester County Airport , situated between NY 120 and the New York– Connecticut state line about 1 mile (1.6 km) to the east. Here, NY 120 begins to run alongside I-684 as a four-lane undivided expressway and both roads pass by Rye Lake, an offshoot of the Kensico Reservoir . NY 120 meets

1443-481: The south line of that lot , then a line consistent with the west line of that lot through Fair Ridge Cemetery up to 478 Quaker, then turns 100 ft (30 m) to follow the north line and cross the road to take in 485 Quaker. It turns south at the lot corner to create a corridor 450 feet (140 m) wide with the road at the center south back to 385 Quaker, just north of Chappaqua Mountain Road, where it returns west to

1482-538: The two routes cross the right-of-way of the former Putnam Division of the New York Central Railroad and pass by the site of Millwood's station , which was demolished in May 2012 after years of neglect. Just after the railroad right-of-way, NY 133 turns southwestward onto Station Place while NY 120 proceeds northwest as Millwood Road for one more sparsely developed block before terminating at

1521-540: Was then the center of Chappaqua, line the road. Today these are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Old Chappaqua Historic District . Roughly 1.5 miles (2.4 km) past the historic district, NY 120 makes a gradual turn to the west to reach a junction with NY 133 (Millwood Road). NY 120 turns onto NY 133, following Millwood Road westward into the hamlet of Millwood and its commercial center. Here,

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