Welcome to the Westchester County Archives. At our session today we will show you copies of some of the types of primary documents that are available to you and we will demonstrate how to use them. Primary documents are defined as a variety of papers such as wills, legal briefs and death certificates that were written at the time the events occurred. Unless otherwise noted, all of the documents and photographs used in this exhibit are from the Westchester County Archives.

Today, we are going to tell the stories of one village and two families who had lived there, and you will learn what happened to them by reading primary documents. The village, which no longer exists, was Kensico in Westchester County, New York. It was flooded due to the construction of the Kensico Dam.  The Kensico Dam was built to be part of the system of reservoirs that were constructed to provide New York City with water.

As the population of New York City grew in the 19th century, the need for water was becoming greater.  Due to the lack of sufficient water, cholera epidemics and fires were spreading throughout New York City. It had been decided that in order to make life livable, if not comfortable, more services were needed. Waste disposal, transportation and water sources were among these services.

The first use of water from 
Westchester County came from the old Croton Reservoir that was completed in 1842. By the 1880's, the City was forced to expand the Croton System to meet the increasing demand for water. So plans were made to build a new Croton Dam and to create a system of reservoirs to bring water from Westchester County as well as the Catskill Mountains to New York City.  The new Croton Dam was completed in 1905. 

In the meantime, because New York City needed even more water, the Kensico Dam had been built south of the village in 1885.  An earthen dam formed a small lake from water supplied by the Bronx and Byram rivers, but it soon proved inadequate for New York City's needs.  What was needed was a reservoir that would contain waters from the various reservoirs and act as a holding tank that could easily provide needed water to nearby New York City.  

The village of Kensico was surrounded by hills that came to a natural v-shape and there was a nearby stone quarry on Silver Lake in North Castle, making the town a logical site for the new dam.  Although relatively small, Kensico had houses, stores, churches, hotels and a railroad station with a population of about 200 people.  Nevertheless, the village had to be flooded to make way for the dam.  

By 1905, legislation was passed by New York State to allow money to be raised for the building of the Kensico Dam and the next year final planning by the state was approved and preliminary surveys were begun. Seventeen miles of railroad track were privately built to carry materials from quarries at nearby Cranberry and Silver lakes to the dam site; this spur railroad and a highway network had to be built to move supplies into place. A camp for 1,500 workers and their families had to be constructed along with facilities such as a school for the children and a night school for the non-English speaking adults.  Many of these families had immigrated from Italy and Germany.

In preparation for this huge enterprise, individual lots of land were condemned and families had to move to such surrounding towns as Valhalla, Armonk and White Plains. Workers had to be brought to the area of the new dam and housing and other facilities had to be built for them. The actual construction of the dam began in 1913, and was concluded in 1917, three years ahead of schedule.

There are four parts to the telling of this story: one will be about the town itself and how land use and the building of the dam radically changed the lives of its people.

The second part will look at the Carpenter family, who owned businesses in the town. The property they owned was bought by New York City while the Carpenters moved to other nearby towns—White Plains, Armonk, and Valhalla. 

In the third part we will study the Cesari family, whose members worked on the dam or supplied services to those building the dam. In the beginning, at least, they lived in the area on a temporary basis.

Finally, in the fourth part we will survey the schools at Kensico and how the dam altered the children’s lives and the work of their teachers. 

By sharing and combining the information learned from these four parts we shall all have a more complete concept of the effects of the dam on the community of Kensico. 

The Kensico reservoir is still in use, supplying water to the City of New York. The people of Kensico are remembered mainly in our archival studies.

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