Pearl River, NY

In 1696, Pearl River was part of a larger piece of land known as the Kakiat Patent that was granted to Daniel Honan and Michael Hawdon. In 1713, the land was split into north and south plots. After the Revolutionary War, the land was further divided and sold. Pearl River was a piece of land made up of woods and swamps originally called Muddy Creek.

In the early 1870s, the town was divided into five different parts: Middletown, Sickletown, Pascack, Muddy Brook, and Naurashaun.

There are conflicting accounts on how Muddy Creek came to be named Pearl River. According to some historians, a town resident named Ves Bogert found small pearls in mussels that thrived in Muddy Brook and, upon hearing this, the wife of John Demarest, the president of the New Jersey and New York Railroad, suggested the name “Pearl River” to him.

Another account is that the name change was made to make the station sound more appealing on railroad schedules. A third account is that Julius E. Braunsdorf wanted to enhance the hamlet’s business image by renaming it Pearl River. In any event, there is no body of water near the hamlet called Pearl River; the most significant stream is Muddy Brook.

Braunsdorf, an industrialist and German immigrant, purchased Muddy Creek in 1870. He donated a long strip of land through the center of his property to the New Jersey and New York Railroad to enable it to bring an extension of the line from Hillsdale, New Jersey north to Nanuet.

Braunsdorf was the “Father of Pearl River” and established Aetna Sewing Machine Company to produce his patented home sewing machine in 1872. Later that year the first post office was established in the hamlet and from then on it was known as Pearl River.

Braunsdorf invented and manufactured the carbon-arc light bulb in 1873, six years before Thomas Edison’s carbonized filament version. It was installed and used on ships in New York harbor for loading and unloading operations. He also designed generators, one of which powered the first incandescent electric lights, which he also invented, in the nation’s capital.

When Braunsdorf designed the street layout, the only existing streets were Pearl Street and Washington Avenue. He drew a wide main street through the middle of town and called it Central Avenue. Parallel to Central Avenue he drew Franklin, after his hero, Benjamin Franklin. To connect Washington, Central, and Franklin he drew three streets and named them William, John and Henry, after his sons.

Braunsdorf built:

1872 – The Aetna Sewing Machine Company, the largest factory in Pearl River, and ceded land to the railroad company so workers from New York City could get to his factory.
1872 – The Pearl River Post Office and became the first Postmaster.
1873 – Two brick train stations (passenger/freight) still in use today.
The Pearl River Hotel
Low-cost housing for the factory employees he attracted from Germany and Scandinavia.
In 1894, Talbot C. Dexter moved his Dexter Folder Company to Pearl River. On August 25, 1885, Dexter filed a patent for an automatic folding machine that changed the way newspapers, books, and magazines were folded and assembled. Between 1885 and 1913, Dexter filed many patents, some still in use today.

Ernest Lederle established the Lederle Antitoxin Laboratories in 1906. In 1930, it became Lederle Laboratories, a division of American Cyanamid, and during World War II, Lederle was a major supplier of blood plasma.[citation needed]

In 1931, Gottfried (Fred) Schmidt invented the automatic pinsetter. Brunswick was not interested in an automatic machine at the time. In 1937, AMF acquired the patent rights to this early machine—The “Sch-Bec-Roy”, which stood for Schmidt (inventor), Beckerle (bowling alley proprietor) and McElroy (blueprint designer).

In 1955, Pearl River was the setting for Norby, an NBC situation comedy that aired from January to April of that year and was one of the first regular television series filmed in color. It starred David Wayne as a small-town banker who lived and worked in Pearl River, where the 13 episodes of the series were filmed.

In 2011, CNNMoney.com ranked Pearl River 78th on its annual “100 Best Places to Live” list.

Pearl River is the site of Blue Hill Plaza, Rockland County’s first commercial skyscraper, with 21 stories of office space. Companies with offices in Blue Hill Plaza include Syncsort and Hunter Douglas.

In 1906, Ernest Lederle, the former commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, founded Lederle Laboratories (which became Wyeth and is now Pfizer) on a farm that now encompasses 550 acres (2.2 km2), 40 buildings, and until recently employed around 3,200 workers. The number of employees has dwindled to the hundreds Pfizer took over.

The community is served by the Pearl River School District. Pearl River High School is at 275 East Central Avenue and serves students in grades 8 through 12. It enrolls about 1,000 students. 96% of the class of 2009 continued on to college, university, or technical school.

• In 2001, the Pearl River School District won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.
• In 2008 and 2014, Franklin Avenue Elementary School was a U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon School of Excellence Award winner.
• In 2011, Pearl River Middle School was a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence Award winner.
• Saint Margaret School is a Catholic school serving grades Pre-K through 8.
• Pearl River School District
  • In 2017, U.S. News & World Report ranked Pearl River High School with a Silver award as the 76th Best High School in New York State and 727th in the nation.
  • U.S. News ranked Pearl River High School the best high school in Rockland County in 2019.
  • In 2020, Niche.com ranked the Pearl River School District’s COVID-19 pandemic school reopening plan as “excellent.”

Josephine Pucci, a member of USA Hockey’s Women’s National Team, is from Pearl River.

The Pearl River High School Pirates have athletic programs such as baseball, basketball, football, swimming, softball, ice hockey, lacrosse, volleyball, field hockey, bowling, soccer, track, wrestling, and chess club.

The 2010 Pearl River High School girls’ softball team won the New York State Championship.

• Cuyper-Van Houten House, 66 Sickletown Road
• Johannes Perry House, 49 Elizabeth Street
• Scherer House, 599 Orangeburg Road

• Braunsdorf Park Pearl River, Central Avenue & South Main Street – named after Julius Braunsdorf, first industrial developer of Pearl River and inventor of various models of sewing machines, newspaper printing presses, carbon arc light bulbs, and electric generators. His sewing machine factory is now the Dexter industrial complex. Braunsdorf installed the world’s first indoor lighting at the U.S. Capitol.
• Edward Salyer House (NRHP)
• Jacob P. Perry House, 15 Sickletown Road – Built in 1801, it is one of Rockland County’s oldest Dutch Colonial Style houses and is in the historic Nauraushaun area (NRHP)
• Maria’s Rock, front lawn of Lederle Laboratories, North Middletown Road – An 18th- century legend tells of a little girl named Huffy who wandered from her home in nearby Tappan and died of hunger and exposure. Tradition says that villagers found her bones near the massive boulder.
• Orangetown Museum & Archives – 213 Blue Hill Road
• “The Spot” – The formerly wooded area along Railroad Avenue
• Pearl River United States Post Office (NRHP)
• Van Houten Farms, 68 Sickletown Road – on the eastern edge of Pearl River. Adjacent is the Van Houten/Kuyper Dutch Sandstone House, the main section built in 1732 and purchased by Van Houten circa 1812.
• Mel’s Army Navy Center, 25 South William Street, established in 1955 and one of the oldest independent retailers in Rockland County (out of business now)