Ward House Timeline
1700
Edmund Ward Sr. purchases land for Eastchester through a Native American deed. It is documented that Edmund Ward paid the following for the land: 13 guns, 12 coats, 12 kettles, 12 axes, 2 adeses (woodworking tools), and 4 barrels of cider.
1754
Upon their father’s death, Stephen Ward receives the house and land on both sides of White Plains Road (now Villages of Tuckahoe and Bronxville) all the way up to Mill Road and Edmund Ward receives the more fertile land upon which Siwanoy Golf Course is presently situated in Bronxville.
1762
Benjamin Franklin, the Postmaster General for the British colonies, orders the installation of a 23-mile stone marker to be placed in front of the Ward House. The Ward House serves as the first post office for the town of Eastchester for the next 80 years.
1775
Stephen Ward, Town Supervisor of Eastchester, an ardent Patriot, is appointed to the first Provisional Congress, a de facto legislature for the colony of New York. Ward is also a respected member of the Committee to Detect Loyalist Conspiracies headed by John Jay.
1776
July 11 - Stephen Ward is present on the White Plains Courthouse steps when the Declaration of Independence is read for the first time to the people of the newly formed State of New York.
Late Summer/Early Fall - The British military defeat the Continental Army under the command of George Washington in the Battle of New York City. Fearful for their safety, Stephen Ward, his wife Ruth Gedney Ward, and their 11 children, abandon their ancestral home and cannot return until the end of the war.
October 19-20 - After a British defeat at the Battle of Pelham, Commander-in-Chief Lord William Howe is unable to cross the Bronx River and dismantle the Continental Army. George Washington sends Chief of Artillery, Rufus Putnam, to ascertain the strength and position of British forces east of the Bronx River. In a written report to Washington, Putnam underscores the strategic importance of the Ward House, located at the intersection of the Post Road (present day Route 22) and Tuckahoe Road (Present day Winterhill Road).
Oct. 23 - Continental Army conducts a successful attack on 250 Hessians encamped near the Ward House.
Oct. 25-28 - British Commander-in-Chief, Howe, uses the Ward House as headquarters leading up to the pivotal Battle of White Plains.
1777
Early January - George Washington sends direct orders to the commander of the Westchester/Dutchess militia, Major General William Heath, to undertake a failed mission to attack New York City. Within those orders, Washington refers to the strategic importance of the Ward House.
March 16 - A British raiding party, accompanied by the hated Loyalist militia known as the Queen’s Rangers, conducts a surprise attack on the Patriot militia encamped around the Ward House, who were awaiting the end of their enlistment. Scores of militia are slaughtered and buried in unmarked graves.
Captain Samuel Crawford, head of the Scarsdale militia, is mortally wounded in the skirmish. Crawford is considered to be the most important Patriot leader from Westchester County to die in the service of his country.
1778
British General William Tryon orders Commander of Queen’s Rangers John Simcoe to demolish the Ward House. Stephen Ward reports the wanton destruction of his home to John Jay, New York’s delegate to the Continental Congress and later its President:
“My dwelling house and other buildings in Westchester County were consumed by fire… of General William Tyron, the inveterate opponent to the rising glory of these States, and whose highest ambition is to spread havoc and desolation in every part thereof., by which burning I sustain no inconsiderable loss.” (Osborn)
Mid-1790’s
Sometime before 1797, the Ward house is rebuilt to its exact original specifications by Stephen Ward's son, Jonathan. (Robert Bolton, writing before 1848, when Revolutionary War information was still available from primary sources, wrote that the rebuilt Ward House "resembled it (the original) in all its proportions. The present house is about fifty feet wide by about thirty feet wide and has two stories and an attic, a large house for that period.")
1822
Marble is discovered on Jonathan Ward’s property.
1839
President Martin Van Buren stays overnight at the Ward house, renamed Marble Hall by its owner John Hayward. Van Buren was visiting the Tuckahoe marble quarries. It was also used as a tavern and meeting place.
1844
Joseph Dibble, a Private in the Westchester Militia at the Ward House massacre, recounts his experience at the Ward House: "The dead who fell on this occasion were interred in a beautiful locust grove west of the house and directly in the rear of the barn on the opposite side of the post road leading to White Plains.” [Source: MacDonald Papers]
1850
First Catholic Mass is celebrated at Marble Hall by the Reverend Eugene Maguire for famine Irish immigrants working in the Tuckahoe quarries.
1900-Present
Circa 1908 - Workmen unearth many skeletons at the junction of Cronin's Hill and Winter Hill in Tuckahoe. After much speculation, it is finally decided that these are Revolutionary War soldiers killed in one of several skirmishes at the Ward House. By all accounts, these bones are not immediately buried but stored at Tuckahoe's Village Hall and other locations. They are finally turned over to the Bronx chapter of the DAR who buried them at St. Paul's National Historic Site and erected a marker with the date 1910.
November 1913 - Monument is erected by the D.A.R. in honor of Captain Samuel Crawford at the top of Winter Hill Road.
1922 - Remains of a Revolutionary War soldier are found in Tuckahoe and a number of related newspaper articles are published. (This topic was revisited in a front-page article of the Journal News on Memorial Day, 2018.)
1950-March 2021 - Concordia College uses the Ward House for meetings, community gatherings, and student housing.
May 2021 - Friends of the Ward House, Inc., 501(c) (3), is formed to protect the Ward House.
August 2021 - The Village of Tuckahoe imposed a Historic Buildings Moratorium: A local law imposing a 6-month moratorium on the acceptance, processing, or approval of applications for demolition or building permits, site plan or subdivision applications for any property in the Village of Tuckahoe that is on or eligible for the National Register of Historic Places or that is listed in the Tuckahoe Comprehensive Plan as a historic structure within the Village.
September 2021 - The Ward House is sold to a developer, whose intention is to replace it with two residential homes.
January 10, 2022 - Historic Preservation Legislation is passed unanimously by the Tuckahoe Village Board.
January 20, 2022 - The Ward House is deemed eligible for Historic Landmark Status by New York Parks and Recreation.
February 2022 - The Ward House is nominated to be made a Tuckahoe landmark.
March 16, 2022 - Commemoration of the 245th Anniversary of the death of Captain Samuel Crawford, at the Crawford Monument
April 21, 2022 - Friends of the Ward House Presentation to the Tuckahoe Historic Preservation Commission supporting Ward House landmark application.
June 9, 2022 - The Historic Preservation Commission unanimously recommends that the Ward House receive landmark status.
August 8, 2022 - The Ward House is approved as the first landmark in the Village of Tuckahoe, with a unanimous decision by the Tuckahoe Village Board of Trustees at Board Meeting on August 8th, 2022.
Present - The Friends of the Ward House is working with concerned stakeholders and donors to secure the historic house and site.