Places of Significance
North River Wastewater Treatment Plant: This is a large wastewater treatment plant built over the Hudson greenway along the river at approx. 125th St. It handles a large amount of the human waste and from the West Side. The treated water, called effluent, is released into the Hudson, and the treated sludge is dewatered and turned into “bio-solids” and used as fertilizer. There was a heated controversy over the creation of the plant, as it was originally designed to be on the Hudson at approx. 72nd St, but the predominately white, upper-middle class, community in that region rejected the idea, and the site was moved to the much poorer West Harlem.
Hastings-on-Hudson: In 1977 the Atlantic Richfield Corporation (ARCO) purchased an industrial site along the river previously owned by Anaconda Wire and Cable Company. ARCO did an environmental impact assessment of the site and began small remedial measures to clear the site of the old industrial buildings. The site was placed on the State Superfund list as ARCO’s tests revealed high levels of PCBs and heavy metals. ARCO has worked alongside the DEC, the Riverkeeper and the town of Hastings-on-Hudson to remediate and redesign the waterfront area. Currently it’s approx. 29 acres of concrete with a metal slurry wall in the Hudson River. Steps towards full remediation have not begun yet.
Phillipsburg Manor: Frederick Phillipse was a Dutch merchant who settled in what would become Sleepy Hollow. Through his skill in business and his marriages he came to own nearly 52,000 acres of Westchester county. His manor became a center of colonial era trade, and when the British took the island of Manhattan from the Dutch he traded allegiances so he could keep doing business. His sons sided with the British crown during the Revolution, and lost the estate. It is now a center of cultural history, alongside the Old Dutch Church in Sleepy Hollow, where fairs and other events tell of the history and legends of the small town.
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