Pelhamville Citizens Petitioned to Establish a Fire District In Early 1893

In late 1892 and early 1893, before the incorporation of the Village of North Pelham and the adjacent Village of Pelham , residents of the area north of the newly-incorporated Village of Pelham Manor agitated to form a modern volunteer fire fighting unit to fight fires in Pelhamville and the area we know today as Pelham Heights. Under recently enacted New York State laws, the taxpayers of Pelhamville and Pelham Heights prepared a petition signed by more than half the resident taxpayers in that part of the town asking for the " authority to organize a fire department in that portion of said town lying north of the old Boston Post Road, and to be known as the Pelhamville fire department."

More on the 1889 Fire that Destroyed the Hunter House on Travers Island

When the New York Athletic Club of New York City bought the island it renamed "Travers Island" in Pelham Manor, there stood on the island a beautiful old home known as the "Old Hunter House." Named after John Hunter of Hunter's Island who had remodeled and improved the home during the mid-19th century, the main portion of the home was said to have been built in 1812 for Temple Emmett, a member of the Emmett Family that long resided in the area.