Mahopac, New York - History

History

Mahopac and Mahopac Falls have played central roles in the history of Putnam County.

Originally inhabited by the Wappinger Native Americans, an Algonquian tribe, the hamlet's land was patented in 1697 by Adolphus Philipse, son of a wealthy Anglo-Dutch gentryman. During the French and Indian War, Wappingers throughout Putnam County traveled north to Massachusetts to fight for the British.

When the Crown refused to return their land after the war, most Wappingers abandoned the area and joined with other displaced Native Americans elsewhere. Farmers and their families migrated to Mahopac from as far away as Cape Cod and rented land from the Philipse family. Wheelwrights and blacksmiths set up shops to assist the tenant farmers.

Although no battles were fought in Mahopac during the American Revolution, the area was strategically important due to its location. With troop encampments in nearby Patterson, Yorktown, West Point, and Danbury, Connecticut, it was a cross-roads between key Colonial garrisons.

Soldiers were stationed in Mahopac Falls to guard the Red Mills, an important center for grinding grain and storing flour for the American troops.

Upon Colonial victory in the Revolution the Tory-sympathizing Philipse family lost its claim to the land, which was then resold to farmers by New York State.

After the incorporation of Putnam County in 1812 the Mahopac area grew steadily. By the middle-19th century the hamlet had become a summer resort community. The New York Central Railroad brought vacationers north from New York City to Croton Falls. Hotels would often have competing races of decorated horse-drawn coaches bringing passengers to Lake Mahopac. After the Civil War a direct rail spur was laid, creating boom times for the village.

The locale remained primarily a summer resort until after World War II, when nearby highways such as the Taconic State and Saw Mill River parkways began to make travel by automobile convenient. With the passing of the last passenger service to Mahopac in 1959, the hamlet evolved into a year-round community, many of its residents making the commute to New York City.

During the summer of 1956 Richard Yates moved to Mahopac with his family and wrote much of his most famous novel Revolutionary Road in the wellhouse of the estate on which he lived.