Mount Pleasant blends suburbia and state parks in Westchester County
Mount Pleasant offers nature-filled suburban living in the heart of Westchester County. Over 44,000 people live in communities on either side of Rockefeller State Park Preserve, and the population hasn’t stopped growing since the 1860s. Stretching from the Hudson River to Kensico Reservoir near the Connecticut border, the area is now full of parks, historic communities and residential developments. “Many of our people come from New York City,” says Donna McKenna-Edlund, an associate broker with Coldwell Banker. “When they want a little more space, they’ll come up here and buy a single-family home. When they don’t need to commute to the city anymore, they’ll come up this way.” Manhattan is a 30-mile drive or an hour train ride via Metro-North, and three highways link the town to Westchester’s other hubs. Plus, a few corporate offices and local hospitals offer job opportunities closer to home.
Hiking, golfing, swimming and fishing are available at local parks
Rockefeller State Park occupies nearly a quarter of Mount Pleasant, preserving 1,800 acres of old-growth forest for hiking, horseback riding and fishing. The park takes its name from the Rockefeller family, whose Kykuit estate in Mount Pleasant welcomes visitors with a mansion and expansive gardens. Blue Hill at Stone Barns, a top-tier restaurant with two Michelin stars and its own farm, is also in the park. “Westchester County used to have a lot of apple farms up here. We still have a few left in the upper part of the county,” McKenna-Edlund says. “We have lots and lots of trees, and we have the bike and walking path that goes from Yonkers up into Putnam.” The Hardscrabble Wilderness Area offers an additional 235 acres of woodlands, and the Kensico Reservoir is open for trout and bass fishing. “We also have the Long Island Sound on the other side, which is also more boating, fishing, swimming,” McKenna-Edlund says. “We don’t lack in golf courses either.” Along the Hudson River, the private Sleepy Hollow Country Club has an 1890s Vanderbilt mansion as its clubhouse.
Expansive suburbs feature diverse housing options
Within Mount Pleasant, residents live in densely suburban sections like the Usonia Historic District or in less dense areas like Archville and Pocantico Hills. Sidewalks are rare outside urban enclaves like Hawthorne and Pleasantville. “We have all kinds of housing: multifamily, single-family, condos, co-ops, rentals — we have whatever someone needs,” McKenna-Edlund says. Much of Mount Pleasant’s housing stock was built from the 1920s to the 1970s, when the New York metro area experienced massive suburbanization. Homes built since 2000 tend to cluster north of Pleasantville or in Sleepy Hollow, and Frank Lloyd Wright built several homes in the Usonia Historic District. Mount Pleasant’s median sale price is $2,110,000, which is higher than Tarrytown’s median of $680,000 and Chappaqua’s median of $1,570,856.
Students can attend A-rated schools with internship options
Students can attend the Mount Pleasant Central School District and the Public Schools of the Tarrytowns; both districts receive an A rating from Niche.The A-rated Pocantico Hills Central School District serves grades K-8, and graduates are free to attend the A-minus-rated Sleepy Hollow High School, the A-plus-rated Briarcliff High School or the A-rated Pleasantville High School. High schools offer unique programs like Briarcliff’s senior internships, which enable students to acquire hands-on experience in fields as diverse as health care, the television industry and politics.
Villages within Mount Pleasant serve as shopping hubs
Mount Pleasant mostly consists of suburban developments and nature, but villages within the town, like Pleasantville and Hawthorne, serve as hubs for shopping and dining. Thornwood has a ShopRite, while residents living along the Hudson can travel into Tarrytown for its CTown supermarket. Mount Pleasant’s suburban areas also have their own restaurants, including Guadalajara Mexican Restaurant, which serves Mexican food and margaritas next to the Sleepy Hollow Country Club. The Rose Hill Shopping Center near Thornwood puts an Acme supermarket next to Silvio’s Restaurant & Pizza, an Italian eatery in business for more than 55 years.
Commuters can travel to Connecticut, New York or New Jersey for work
The Saw Mill River Parkway offers commuters a 30-mile drive to Midtown Manhattan, while Mount Pleasant, Valhalla , Hawthorne and Pleasantville each has a Metro-North Railroad stop around an hour’s ride from Grand Central. “Mount Pleasant itself is right in the center of Westchester County. If you come to Mount Pleasant, you can pretty much go anywhere: You can get over the Tappan Zee to New Jersey, you can get over to Connecticut quickly, you can go all upstate, you can go back down into the city — it’s just right in the center,” McKenna-Edlund says. Phelps Hospital offers health care access along the Hudson, and the Westchester Medical Center is on the southern edge of town. “The hospitals here are great. They do attract a lot of employment,” McKenna-Edlund says.
![Jacob Adelhoch]()
Written By
Jacob Adelhoch
