The town of New Castle was split off from the town of North Castle in 1791. There are two hamlets within the town, Chappaqua and Millwood. The area was settled mainly by Quakers, who built their Chappaqua meetinghouse in 1753. Most residents were subsistence farmers until the Harlem Rail Road arrived in 1846, when farming became a business. Farming declined toward the end of the 1800s, and many farms were absorbed into large estates for wealthy New York businessmen. New Castle started to become suburban in the early 1900s and the process accelerated when the Depression brought the estate era to an end. Since the end of World War II, New Castle has become entirely suburban. Its last farm was sold for subdivision in 1997.

Visit the Town of New Castle online

Abraham Hyatt
Military Commission,
1776

Records of Horace Greeley,
1861-1872

Records of
Gabrielle Greeley Clendenin,
1891-1999

Map of the Croton Turnpike
& Old Sing Sing Road, 1814

Images of Chappaqua
Mountain Institute,
1870-1909

Images of the
Chappaqua Tornado,
July 16, 1904