Buy a Brick and Help Pines Bridge Monument Bring Yorktown History to Life

There is so much history in Yorktown that ties the area to the American Revolution. For more than two years  and local historian Michael Kahn has been . 

Besides donating money to help Kahn's vision of a historical monument come to life, Yorktown residents can also be a part of history.

The  Fundraising Committee is offering all not-for-profit organizations and residents in Yorktown a partnership in the "Bricks Are Us" program. The personalized bricks will pave the walkway to the statue. needed for the monument. People are encouraged to donate as little or as much as they'd like.

The bricks can be used for a number of special occasions such as birth announcements, dearly departed, anniversaries, birthdays and almost anything else someone wishes to remember. The bricks are placed in eternity and will remain forever.

The monument depicts three figures in "heroic scale" standing eight feet tall. They represent soldiers participating in the 1781 battle including those of African American and Native American decent, as well as Colonel Christopher Greene, who led the battle.

Kahn said the statue will be erected at Downing Park (shown on the map above) and will be across from the ’s graveyard. Colonel Greene and Maj. Ebenezer Flagg, who were killed in the battle, are both buried at that graveyard.

The bronze statue will immortalize members of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, whose duties were to protect the Pines Bridge, which is where the battle took place in 1781. 

The Pines Bridge at the time was one of the two ways to get over the Croton River. The river was a vital and natural barrier, which separated northern from southern Westchester. Colonel Christopher Greene was charged with the duty to guard the bridge. His Continental regiment consisted of whites, freed blacks and Native American soldiers. Every night the guards would move the wooden planks, making it impossible for people to cross the bridge, only to put them back in the morning.

Greene was ordered by George Washington to arrest DeLancey of the New York Loyalist forces, who was a criminal attacking citizens and destroying and taking people's properties. He commanded a unit also known as the "Refugees" who were stationed in the Bronx.

Early morning on May 14, 1781, DeLancey's men crossed the Croton River west of Pines Bridge and launched a surprise attack against Greene who was staying at the Davenport House on Croton Heights Road in present-day Yorktown, Kahn said.

Greene was stabbed, taken prisoner, then left to die nearby, according to Kahn. Several of his men were killed, wounded, or captured.

A maquette of the winning design by Oregon-based sculptor Jay Warren was  before a crowd of residents complete with Revolutionary War re-enactors.

Although the project is funded entirely by private donations, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. The estimated costs for the finished monument are approximately $300,000. Kahn hopes to unveil the monument sometime between 2014 and 2015.

"The public has been supportive because the area (Yorktown and Westchester as a whole) has so much history and ties to the American Revolution, and many would like to see the local history acknowledged as it relates to general American history," Kahn said. "Not everything happened in Saratoga, Valley Forge, Lexington and Concord or the "other" Yorktown (Virginia)."

If you'd like to learn more about the "Bricks Are Us" program, click here. If you'd like to donate, click on the pdf file to fill out the form. To register your organization for payment, please complete the form and send it to: Pines Bridge Monument e/o Joseph Visconti, Chairman 800 Granite Springs Road, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598.

For more information on the Battle of Pines Bridge Monument, please contact Michael Kahn at Monument1781@yahoo.com. Updates are posted at www.yorktownhistory.org and on Facebook at Remember the Revolution-Yorktown Heights, NY.

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