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PO Box 7
273 Lakeview Avenue
Valhalla, NY 10595 |
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| JUDGE JOHN FITCH |
| Farther down Commerce, just before the community mausoleum, on the right is a Druid cross of Cape Ann granite. This memorial to judge John Fitch is the first monument that was erected at Kensico. The memorial was unveiled on November 12, 1890, amid great ceremony. Some two hundred members of The Sons of the Revolution, along with other dignitaries, traveled by chartered train from Grand Central Depot in New York City to Kensico for the occasion. Following the unveiling, a banquet was held at a historic stone house located within the cemetery grounds. The house, which was later razed, was the place where British spy Major John André was cornered in 1780. Earlier that year, André had plotted with American revolutionary and traitor Benedict Arnold for the surrender of the American post at West Point to the British. The plot was discovered. Arnold escaped and later fought for the British. André was not as lucky. In the house on these grounds, he was brought before Major Benjamin Tallmadge and incarcerated for two days. He was then moved to General Washington's headquarters in White Plains and was hanged for his espionage activities. |
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