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THE BOROUGH OF THE BRONX 



West of Webster Avenue and almost opposite the Union Rail- 

 way car barns on the old Hyatt farm, stands an unpretentious 

 one-and-a-half-story building that played an important part in 

 the early days of the Revolution, and in which Washington when 

 hard pressed and in danger of Lord Howe's and General Von 

 Knyphausen's advance from Pell's Point, thought it prudent to 

 store some of his cannon so that he could make quicker progress 

 in his retreat to White Plains. The house is known today as 

 "Washington's Gun House," while the adjoining settlement was 

 called Washingtonville. 



Washington's Gun House 



When the land hereabouts was still the uninvaded country of 

 the Indians, the copper-skinned maidens of the Stockbridge braves 

 of the Algonquins, who lived in a neighboring village, selected as 

 a trysting place an immense rock under a group of willow trees 

 on the bank of the Bronx River. It is said that at this beautiful 

 spot one of the fairest daughters of the Stockbridge tribe was 

 wooed by the son of an Algonquin chieftain and that when he 

 carried her off as his bride the boulder was named the "Wishing 

 Rock." After the white men had driven the Indians from this 

 region the legend of the rock remained, and until a half century 

 ago it was still a rendezvous for lovers. The section is now known 

 as Wakefield. 



The Penfield homestead, which stood, until it was almost de- 



