Many historic things happened in this area during the revolutionary war. It is hard to appreciate it with the land have undergone so may signifiant infrastructure changes. But this overlay of a 1922 digital map of the area, overlaid on top of a 1925 arial photo of the area will help you understand better how things were much earlier in the history of Unionville (Hawthorne).

Brett’s Tavern, on Route 100 (dead center on the maps), was the site of one revolutionary skirmish that left two American soldiers dead. As the story goes, two American Soldiers were on their way home from being honorably discharged and decided to stop for a drink. At some point a British soldier rode up, fired his two pistols through the windows, dismounted from his horse and then charged in to finish the job with his sword. It sounds crazy, but it is things like this that caused so many people to flee Westchester during the height of the war. It may have been called the “Neutral Zone”, but skirmishes and incidents were apparently a regular thing.