A Peninsula with Deep Roots
Davenport’s Neck is one of New Rochelle’s most distinctive neighborhoods—a long, quiet peninsula reaching into Long Island Sound between New Rochelle Harbor and Echo Bay. Today, its tree-lined streets, waterfront homes, parks, marinas, and private clubs give it an almost village-like atmosphere. But beneath that peaceful setting lies a history stretching back thousands of years.
Long before European settlement, the area was home to the Siwanoy, whose villages occupied the shores of the Neck. The sheltered coves provided fishing, shellfish, waterfowl, and access to the Sound, while the surrounding woods supplied game and building materials. Archaeological discoveries—including arrowheads, stone tools, mortars, and other artifacts—show that Davenport’s Neck was an important Native American settlement and trading area. Some materials found here came from distant regions, suggesting that the Siwanoy participated in wide-ranging trade networks. ([en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davenport_Neck?utm_source=openai))
The neighborhood’s earliest history is therefore not simply a story of colonial landowners. It begins with the people who knew the shoreline, marshes, and tidal waters long before the name New Rochelle appeared on a map.
From Pell’s Little Neck to Davenport’s Neck
European land claims began appearing in the seventeenth century. The peninsula was once called Pell’s Little Neck, distinguishing it from Thomas Pell’s larger tract farther west. In the late 1600s, French Huguenots seeking a new home after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes began acquiring land in the area.
A major purchase in 1687 expanded the proposed Huguenot settlement to approximately 6,000 acres, including Davenport’s Neck and much of the surrounding mainland. Early proprietors included Jacob Leisler, Guillaume Le Conte, Jean Bouteillier, and other Huguenot settlers. For a time, the peninsula was known as Leisler’s and Le Conte’s Neck.
The northeastern point of the peninsula—now associated with Hudson Park—was called Bonnefoy Point as early as 1703, after David Bonnefoy, Le Conte’s brother-in-law. The changing names reflect the neighborhood’s early history: each generation of owners left its mark on the landscape and on local memory.
In the early eighteenth century, the property passed to Antoine Lispenard and later to Joseph Rodman. Lispenard constructed a dam and mill complex between the Neck and the mainland around 1724. The resulting millpond, now known as Titus Mill-Pond, became part of a productive agricultural and commercial landscape. Flour and other goods were processed locally, then shipped for use and export. ([en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davenport_Neck?utm_source=openai))
How the Davenport Name Took Hold
The name Davenport became associated with the peninsula after the Revolutionary War. In 1784, John R. Myer sold the property to Newberry Davenport, who expanded his holdings by acquiring additional parcels, including salt meadows and nearby islands. Over time, the Davenport family became the dominant landowning family on the Neck, and their name replaced earlier references such as Rodman’s Neck and Myer’s Point.
The family’s influence continued for generations. In 1814, Newberry Davenport divided the property between his sons, Newberry Davenport Jr. and Lawrence Davenport. Lawrence built a house in 1816 on his portion of the land. That residence survives today as Davenport Grange, a reminder of the era when the peninsula was still a largely rural estate landscape.
The older Rodman house also remained in the family and became known as the Lispenard-Rodman-Davenport House. Located near Davenport Avenue, it is considered New Rochelle’s oldest standing residential structure and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its successive owners—Lispenard, Rodman, and Davenport—represent three important chapters in the Neck’s colonial and early American history. ([en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davenport_Neck?utm_source=openai))
War, Water, and Changing Fortunes
Davenport’s Neck was not isolated from national events. On October 22, 1776, during the American Revolution, General Wilhelm von Knyphausen landed nearby with Hessian and Waldeck troops before joining British forces in the campaign that led toward the Battle of White Plains.
During the War of 1812, local militia guards were stationed on the Neck because British warships operated in Long Island Sound. In September 1813, a British squadron engaged American gunboats near New Rochelle, creating considerable alarm among residents.
For much of the early nineteenth century, the Neck retained its agricultural character. Mills, meadows, orchards, and family estates occupied much of the peninsula. But the arrival of steamboat transportation changed New Rochelle’s relationship with the waterfront. The Sound became not only a source of food and commerce but also a place for recreation, summer homes, picnics, and excursions.
From Country Estates to Waterfront Recreation
By the mid-1800s, wealthy New Yorkers were increasingly drawn to New Rochelle as a summer destination. Davenport’s Neck offered breezes, views, shoreline access, and convenient transportation to Manhattan. Large homes and seasonal estates began appearing along roads that later became associated with Davenport Avenue and the surrounding waterfront.
One of the best-known houses from this period is Davenport House, built in the late 1850s for Lawrence Montgomery Davenport. Designed by noted architect Alexander Jackson Davis, the house reflects the picturesque architectural taste of the era, when wealthy families sought country residences that combined comfort with dramatic landscape settings. ([en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davenport_House_%28New_Rochelle%2C_New_York%29?utm_source=openai))
At the eastern end of the peninsula, Bonnefoy Point evolved into a popular picnic and recreation ground. The area was eventually purchased by the Town of New Rochelle in 1886 for $38,000 and named Hudson Park. Its public beach, open lawns, bathhouses, playgrounds, and later bandshell helped establish the waterfront as a civic amenity rather than merely a collection of private estates. Hudson Park remains one of the city’s most recognizable waterfront parks. ([en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davenport_Neck?utm_source=openai))
Nearby islands also became part of New Rochelle’s recreational identity. In the late nineteenth century, Glen Island was transformed into a celebrated resort featuring entertainment, gardens, a beach, and attractions. Steamboats brought visitors from New York City, turning the shoreline around Davenport’s Neck into a lively destination.
Davenport Park and Public Stewardship
The Davenport family’s most enduring public legacy may be Davenport Park. In 1929, the family gave the property to the City of New Rochelle, helping preserve open waterfront space for public use. The park’s setting—where grassy land meets the Sound—captures the natural character that first attracted the Siwanoy, early farmers, summer visitors, and generations of local families.
Today, Davenport Park sits alongside a neighborhood that includes residential streets, waterfront clubs, the municipal marina, the New Rochelle Rowing Club, and the Davenport Bird Sanctuary. The Titus Mill-Pond wetlands also preserve a glimpse of the tidal environment that once supported mills, marsh hay, fishing, and shoreline agriculture.
A Neighborhood That Still Feels Connected to Its Past
Over the decades, Davenport’s Neck has evolved from Native American settlement to Huguenot farmland, from mill district to family estate country, and from summer resort landscape to an established residential neighborhood. Yet its essential character remains remarkably consistent.
A walk along Davenport Avenue or near Hudson Park still reveals the qualities that have defined the peninsula for centuries: broad water views, quiet coves, mature trees, old stone walls, and a sense of separation from the busier parts of New Rochelle. Historic homes stand alongside newer residences, while public parks and protected wetlands preserve the shoreline for future generations.
What makes Davenport’s Neck special is not just the age of its houses or the list of famous owners. It is the way history remains visible in everyday places—the curve of a road, the name of a park, the pond left behind by an old mill, or the view across the Sound from a public beach. For longtime residents, the neighborhood feels less like a museum than a living inheritance: a place where the past continues to shape the way people walk, gather, garden, row, and look out toward the water.