How it All Began

Pound Ridge was originally home to communities of the Wappinger Confederacy. The town’s name is believed to come from an Indigenous “pound,” or game enclosure, once located on one of the area’s many ridges. In the 1640s, European colonial expansion began to reshape the region, including land transactions by English Captain Nathaniel Turner and the spread of Kieft’s War into nearby areas. European settlers established a lasting presence in the early 1700s, and Pound Ridge was officially incorporated in 1788. After years of debate over spelling, the Town Board formally adopted “Pound Ridge” as two words in 1948.