Village marks sesquicentennial with history and loads of fun

By MARTIN WILBUR

It was a weekend to remember for Mount Kisco.

After months of planning, the village celebrated its sesquicentennial weekend with historic tours, local musicians performing and a food truck festival on Saturday, followed by a community day-type festival and one of the biggest parades in anyone’s memory.

Community organizations were on hand Saturday, May 31, at Fountain Park to let the public know what they do, while many of the organizers were in late 19th century costumes.

A few leftover showers cleared out late Saturday morning to provide an otherwise dry weekend that allowed the festivities to go off without a hitch. 

“This was a lot of work, a lot of people and not everybody had exactly the same vision over the past 10 months,” said John Rhodes, one of the members of the sesquicentennial committee, which took the lead along with village officials in planning the event. “We kind of worked out all those differences and figured out what we could all get behind.”

The weekend coincided with the June 1, 1875, incorporation of Mount Kisco. Historical Society President Ralph Vigliotti said the community started to evolve into what it would become today in the 1850s, when the railroad came through the downtown. 

Originally part of the towns of Bedford and New Castle, about 20 years later land from those two municipalities was combined to form what is the 3-square-mile village today.

“I urge you to take advantage of every spot in Mount Kisco that is historical,” Mayor J. Michael Cindrich told those gathered during the opening ceremonies on Saturday morning. “Some of the places you will visit date back well before there was incorporation, even before there was annexation of property from the town of Bedford, controversial as it was, but it provided for high-end housing and affordable housing. So it’s something special.”

The trolley tours gave a glimpse of some of that history dating to the 19th and even 18th centuries. Stops included the Kirbyville Schoolhouse, the one-room schoolhouse built in 1852 that sits back from the road on Moore Avenue, and the St. George’s and St. Mark’s Episcopal Cemetery on East Main Street, established before the start of the Revolutionary War.

Tour guides recounted how Rochambeau’s French troops met up with forces from Gen. George Washington not far from where Northern Westchester Hospital stands before making their way south to Virginia for the Battle of Yorktown, a key development in winning the war.

Former village historian Harry McCartney, one of the tour guides, said understanding and appreciating what came previously and how a community formed into what it is today is vital to it moving forward generations later.

“I would say from an educational community awareness perspective, that any town’s history, and the length of it, whatever it is, is critical, is critical for folks to know going forward into the future — basically because the more you know in terms of what reality is, what is good, bad and indifferent, you can look towards the good and make it better,” McCartney said. “So any type of historical celebration, to me, from an educational standpoint is critical.”

Sunday afternoon’s parade helped cap off the celebrations with dozens of organizations marching, from the village’s emergency services to the Scouts to the many community groups that comprise the fabric of the community. 

Following the parade, there was free food available for everyone and activities for the children.

While last weekend was the main celebration for the 150th anniversary, it won’t be the last. Ed Reilly, another member of the sesquicentennial committee and in charge of the group that planned the events, said a fall celebration is in the works, potentially a reenactment followed by fireworks after sunset.

“I’m going to be pitching for something along those lines,” Reilly said.