The town of Ossining also contains the village of Briarcliff Manor, which it shares with the town of Mount Pleasant. According to the Town of Ossining web site the village of Ossining has 24,010 people in an area of 3.2 miles; the village of Briarcliff Manor has 7,696 people in an area of 6 miles; and the "unincorporated" section of the town has 5,514 people in an area of 3 miles.
Ossining is best known as the home of the Sing Sing Prison.
Frederick Philipse bought the area which presently constitutes the Town of Ossining from the Sint Sinck Indians in 1685. His manor extended from Spuyten Duyvil Creek on the border between present day Manhattan and The Bronx to the Croton River.
The last lord of the manor, also named Frederick Philipse, was a Loyalist in the American Revolutionary War, so the State of New York confiscated the manor in 1779.
In 1813, the village of Sing Sing was incorporated.
In 1845, the New York State Legislature created a new town out of the northern part of what had been the Town of Mount Pleasant. A local Indian authority suggested the town be named Ossinsing, a different form of the name Sing Sing. One year later the last "s" was removed for ease in pronunciation.
In 1901, to prevent confusion of goods made in the village with prison-made items, local officials had the village name changed to Ossining as well.
In 1902 an area east of the village of Ossining, then known as Whitson's Crossing, was incorporated as the village of Briarcliff Manor.
History
External links
This article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by fixing it.