Before the arrival of Europeans, the site that would become downtown Yonkers was home to the Algonquin–speaking Lenape, whose village of Nappeckamack (“trap–fishing place”) was situated at the confluence of the Hudson and Nepperhan Rivers. Contact with Europeans occured as early as 1609 with the arrival of Henry Hudson’s Half Moon. Within a century, the Amerinds had almost completely disappeared—their civilization and economy disrupted by the Dutch fur trade and the ever–increasing tide of European colonization.

In 1646, the prominent Dutch settler Adrian Van der Donck purchased the land from the Amerinds and built a saw mill on the banks of the Nepperhan in the vicinity of present–day Larkin Plaza. Within a few years, the small settlement of Colen Donck was established; his untimely death, however, prevented its full development. Van der Donck’s title—jonkheer or “young gentleman” would eventually become the community’s name.