WHITE PLAINS, a city of New York, U.S.A., the county seat of Westchester county; 24 m. N.N.E. of the Grand Central station in New York city, on the Bronx river, midway between the Hudson and Long Island sound. It is served by the New York Central and electric railways and motor-bus lines. Pop. (1920) 21,031 (2o% foreign-born white and 5% negroes) ; 1930 by Fed eral census 35,830. White Plains is a beautiful residential suburb, spreading over ro sq.m. of rolling tree-clad hills and meadowlands, with the Bronx River parkway running through it and three lakes (Silver, Kensico and Rye) in the vicinity. The city's assessed valuation for 1929 was The early traders called this region "the white plains" from the groves of white balsam which covered it. In Nov. 1683, a party of Connecticut Puritans came from Rye (in the territory then in dispute between New York and Connecticut), bought land from the Indians and established a settlement. Their title was con tested by the heirs of John Richbell, and the controversy was not settled until 1722. In 1759 White Plains succeeded Westchester as the county seat. In the early summer of 1776 the Third Pro vincial Congress of New York met here, in the old court house on South Broadway (where an armory now stands). From the steps
of this building the Declaration of Independence was officially read for the first time in New York on July 1776, and here New York was first declared a State and the work of drafting its first Constitution was begun. In Oct. 1776, Washington withdrew his forces from the north end of Manhattan and concentrated them. near White Plains. On Oct. 28 the Americans (about 1,600) de fending rude earthworks on Chatterton's hill (on the west bank of the Bronx river) were attacked by 4,000 British and Hessians, and after making a stubborn resistance retreated in good order across the river. The American loss was about 125; the British, 25o. The old Miller house, in North White Plains, was occupied at intervals by Washington as his headquarters before the battle and again in the summer of 1778. In 1779 a Continental force under Aaron Burr was stationed here for some months, and in July 1781, the Heights of Greenburgh, west and south-west of the city, were occupied by parts of Lauzun's and Rochambeau's French army. White Plains was incorporated as a village in 1866 and as a city in 1916.