Chappaqua was founded by a group of Quakers in the 1730s and was the home of Horace Greeley, New-York Tribune editor and U.S. congressman. Chappaqua's high school is named after him.
Various spellings were used for the name Native Americans gave to their valley and hillside. It was an Algonquian word, shah-pah-ka, and it meant "the rustling land" or "the rattling land," or a place where nothing is heard but the rustling of the wind in the leaves. The Quakers spelled it Shapiqua, Shapaqua, Shapequa, Shappaqua, and, finally, Chappaqua. Their meeting was often referred to as the Shapequa Meeting as early as 1745.
On March 18, 1791, the government of New York decided to split the overly large town of North Castle (jokingly called "the two saddlebags") into two smaller towns, one of which was named New Castle. The border was drawn from the southwest corner of Bedford to the northeast edge of Mount Pleasant. New Castle's borders have remained the same since 1791, except for a small piece of land received from Somers in 1846 and the secession of Mount Kisco in 1978.
Chappaqua had great streams such as the Saw Mill River and Roaring Brook. These bodies of water powered mills to crush corn and press oil from beans. The eastern half of Chappaqua was very suitable for farming. The majority of the Quaker settlers of Chappaqua were farmers. The popular farming industry also helped give way to Chappaqua's high milk production. Other popular industries from Chappaqua included shoes, hardware, vinegar, pickles, eyeglasses, and furniture. Many early homes and businesses were demolished in the 1904 Chappaqua tornado.
According to the 2020 U.S. census, Chappaqua has a total area of 0.45 square miles (1.2km2), all land. As delineated for the 2000 census, the CDP of Chappaqua covered a much greater area: 9.44 square miles (24.4km2), of which 9.38 square miles (24.3km2) was land and 0.06 square miles (0.16km2), or 0.64%, was water.
Chappaqua Farm, West Chester County, N.Y., The Residence of Hon. Horace Greeley, Currier & Ives, c. 1870Statue of Horace Greeley in Chappaqua
Note the Chappaqua census-designated-place is different from the Hamlet of Chappaqua, which has a much higher population as part of the Town of New Castle.
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, Chappaqua had a population of 2,598. The median age was 43.1 years. 23.7% of residents were under the age of 18 and 15.9% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 94.8 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 90.9 males age 18 and over.
100.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.0% lived in rural areas.
There were 970 households in Chappaqua, of which 40.4% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 65.7% were married-couple households, 8.7% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 22.3% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 18.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 1,004 housing units, of which 3.4% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.4% and the rental vacancy rate was 3.1%.
As of the 2010 census, following a major revision to the delineation of its boundaries by the Census Bureau, the population was 1,436.
According to the 2010 census, males had a median income of $207,083 versus $128,750 for females. 0% of families were below the poverty line. 6.6% of people old enough had a high school or equivalent degree of education, 5.8 had some college but no degree, 4% had an associate degree, 37.3% had a bachelor's degree, and 46.3% had a graduate or professional degree.
2000 census
At the 2000 census, with very different census-defined boundaries, Chappaqua had a population of 9,468.
Demographic estimates
According to the 2015-2019 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, the median household income is $250,000+.
America's first concrete barn was completed by Horace Greeley on his Chappaqua farm in 1856. It was also one of the first concrete buildings ever built in the U.S. Greeley's daughter and son-in-law later remodeled it into their house and named it Rehoboth.[citation needed]
Part of the original structure of one of Horace Greeley's homes is part of the present-day New Castle Historical Society.
The Shamberg House, designed by Richard Meier, was built in Chappaqua in 1974.
A Georgian-inspired mansion in Chappaqua served as the shooting location for the 2022 horror film Bodies Bodies Bodies.
The Chappaqua Central School District includes the village. In 2024, Chappaqua Central School District had around 3.5 thousand students from grades K-12, above the national average.
Around 1928, Robert E. Bell Middle School, known at the time as Horace Greeley School, was built. The present day Horace Greeley High School was built in 1957. The three elementary schools in Chappaqua were completed over a twenty-year period: Roaring Brook School in 1951, Douglas G. Grafflin in 1962, and Westorchard in 1971.
In 2003, after the opening of the new middle school, Seven Bridges, and the moving of the fifth grade from Chappaqua's elementary schools to the middle schools, the district added a full day kindergarten.
Small, one-room schoolhouses devoid of windows were prevalent in the 1800s. In the Chappaqua region, there were eight such schoolhouses.[citation needed] These small schools prevailed until around 1870, when the Quakers built a large school called the Chappaqua Mountain Institute on Quaker Street. In the year 1885 the school caught fire, and much refurbishing was done, with the addition of two new wings. It was sold in 1908 and the school's property is now owned by Children's Aid.
Infrastructure
Emergency services
Emergency medical services and fire protection are provided by volunteer agencies. The Chappaqua Volunteer Ambulance Corps provides basic life support services to most of New Castle, including Chappaqua. Paramedic service is provided by Westchester EMS, a non-profit provider. The hamlet is protected by the New Castle Police Department, which also provides first-response services for medical emergencies. The volunteer-based Chappaqua Fire Department, established in 1910, provides firefighting services to the hamlet of Chappaqua. The fire department currently maintains two firehouses in Chappaqua.
Notable people
Bill Ackman, investor and CEO & Founder of Pershing Square Capital Management
Adam Arkin, American television, film, and stage actor, son of Alan Arkin
Tina L. Brozman, former Chief Justice of the Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York
Dan Bucatinsky, actor, producer, director, 2013 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series as James Novak in Scandal.
Bill and Hillary Clinton, former governor of Arkansas and U.S. president, and former first lady, U.S. senator, and United States Secretary of State. The Clintons purchased their home in Chappaqua for $1.7 million in 1999, near the end of Bill Clinton's presidency.
Renee Cox, Jamaican-American artist, photographer, political activist, and curator
Leo Esaki, a Japanese physicist, was living in the town when he won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1973.
Aerin Frankel, professional and Team USA ice hockey goaltender.
Horace Greeley, reformer, politician, editor of the newspaper New York Tribune. He came to Chappaqua to live in a rural area, so in 1853 he bought 78 acres (320,000m2) of land just east of the railroad. His land included upland pastures near present-day Aldridge Road, Greeley Hill, and the marshy fields now the site of the Bell Middle School fields and the shopping area along South Greeley Avenue.
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