WHITE PLAINS PUBLIC ACCESS TV

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White Plains, the county seat of Westchester County, New York since 1757, came into being in 1683. Men from nearby Rye, New York purchased 4,435 acres of land from the Weckquaeskeck Indians. They dubbed their purchase “White Plains”, translating the Indian “Quarropas” or white marshes or plains. Eighteen settlers were granted a patent to White Plains from King George II in 1721. At that time, homes, churches and businesses had already sprung up along the “Village Street”, now Broadway.

In the first courthouse, built in 1758, the members of the Fourth Provincial Congress of New York assembled on July 9, 1776, and there received a copy of the Declaration of Independence sent to them by the Continental Congress, then sitting in Philadelphia.

The document was referred to a committee of five, chaired by John Jay. This committee reported back favorably that same day, whereupon the Provincial Congress immediately approved the document, and instructions were sent to New York's delegates in Philadelphia to sign the Declaration.

That day the Congress also "Resolved and Ordered that the style or title of this house be changed from that of 'The Provincial Congress of the Colony of New York' to that of 'The Convention of Representatives of the STATE of New York.'"

On July 11, 1776, Judge John Thomas of Purchase stood on the steps of the courthouse in White Plains and read the Declaration of Independence to the public for the first time in the STATE of New York.

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