Westchester 419 



the pictures by Ridgway Knight. The French settlement has 

 been in existence for about twenty years and is due to the 

 factory for the manufacture of Gobelins tapestries. There 

 are also several French restaurants where one can dine al 

 fresco; and one of which, "A l'Hermitage," has been made 

 famous by F. Hopkinson Smith in his A Day at Laguerre's. 



The former village of Williamsbridge, which was incorpo- 

 rated and elected its officers, December 27, 1888, comprised 

 Olinville Number One, Olinviile Number Two, Jerome, and 

 Wakefield. The first two were named after Bishop Olin of 

 the Methodist Church, the map of Number One having been 

 filed at the county-seat at White Plains on December 18, 1852, 

 and that of Number Two, on April 11, 1854. The first lay 

 north of the bridge along the Bronx River, and the latter, 

 south of the bridge as far as the Lorillard estate, now within 

 Bronx Park; the White Plains Road was the eastern boundary 

 of both. Jerome was a smaller section north of the bridge 

 and east of the White Plains Road; and Wakefield, laid out 

 in 1853, was east and north of Jerome. Laconia Park is a 

 speculative holding laid out about 1888, lying between Wake- 

 field and the Boston (Coles) Road. 



The northern boundary of Williamsbridge and the town of 

 Westchester is on the line of 229th Street ; east of that is Black 

 Dog Brook, extending to the Hutchinson River. On 221st 

 Street, east of the White Plains Road, is the old Husted house, 

 which antedates the Revolution. It is the best example of 

 colonial methods of building that the author has seen. The 

 sills, rafters, and studding are all of hewn timbers, held together 

 by wooden trenails; where the plaster is off, the split laths 

 nailed on with wrought nails can be easily seen; the shingles 

 on the roof and sides are also of split wood, and the flooring is 

 of a width seldom seen in these days — about twelve inches. 



