A Short History of Philipse Manor Hall

On November 28, 1776, the same year that fifty–six Americans signed the Declaration of Independence, well over two hundred colonial New Yorkers placed their signatures on a “Declaration of Dependence.” These signers were Loyalists, citizens who remained faithful to their sovereign, George III, King of Great Britain. Prominent among the signatures was that of Frederick Philipse III, Lord of the vast Manor of Philipsburg and resident of the elegant mansion known today as Philipse Manor Hall.
Surrounded by the City of Yonkers, Philipse Manor Hall stands on a site which was inhabited long before Europeans settled these shores. The Algonquian –speaking Lenape Indians called it “Nappeckamack,” or “trap fishing place,” because fishing was so plentiful on the nearby Nepperhan, or “trap,” River. In 1646, Dutchman Adriaen van der Donck obtained a grant for the region from the Dutch West India Company, secured this title by purchasing the land from the Indians, and built a saw mill on the river. The Nepperhan has since become know as the Saw Mill River. The City of Yonkers attributes its name to Adrian Van der Donck, for he was a “youncker,” or young nobleman, and his property came to be called “the Youncker’s Land”.