History
Petticoat Hill receives its name from a family of seven daughters, who, according to local tradition, lived on the hill and regularly hung their petticoats from a laundry line where they "wave in the wind visible for miles around when the did their laundry on Mondays."
By the early 19th century, the area around Petticoat Hill was the most populated section of Williamsburg. The current reservation property, except for a field of boulders, was mostly sheep pasture. When farming interests moved to the Midwest by the late 1800s, the hill gradually reverted to forest. Old stone walls, foundations, and cellar holes are the only remains of the hill's former use.
The east side of Petticoat Hill was donated to The Trustees of Reservations in 1906 by Mrs. Edward W. Nash in memory of her husband. Additional land was donated in 1924.
Read more about this topic: Petticoat Hill
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“We have need of history in its entirety, not to fall back into it, but to see if we can escape from it.”
—José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)
“It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.”
—Henry James (1843–1916)
“American time has stretched around the world. It has become the dominant tempo of modern history, especially of the history of Europe.”
—Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978)