THE RAILROAD ARRIVES Despite their short tenure in Bronxville, the Boltons witnessed the most significant event in Village history – the coming of the railroad from Manhattan. In 1844 the Harlem Railroad reached Underhill’s Crossing on its way to White Plains. New settlers soon followed, even though the train would not make regular stops for a few more years. New York City merchant James Prescott Swain purchased the old Underhill mill in 1844 and established a water-powered stone factory making screws and axles and grinding grist. He built a mansion near the river and bought swathes of land on both sides of the train tracks where he pastured a herd of cattle. At about the same time, the settlement attracted another family who would stay on to become long-time residents. Alfred Ebenezer Smith built an axle factory on the Bronx River across from the Underhill mill. Smith married into the Morgan family and soon built a house on Pondfield Road. One of his sons, David Smith, married James Swain’s daughter and became Bronxville’s first doctor. Son Alfred, Jr., was instrumental in Bronxville’s incorporation in 1898 and became the first Village Attorney. Five years after the train tracks were laid, Swain’s father-in-law, James M. Prescott, moved nearby, buying much of the Bolton land in 1849. Within months of the Prescott purchase, a New York City financier named Francis W. Edmonds began buying up adjoining property.In 1850 both men built imposing stone mansions perched on hills on the opposite sides of Midland Valley. Prescott’s Itialianate stone Manor House is now part of the Lawrence Park Historic District and Edmonds’ Crows Nest has evolved into an ornate Gothic stone mansion. <<Previous • Chapter List • Next>>