Tuckahoe

Industry and growth

The name “Tuckahoe,” originating from the Native American term meaning “it is globular,” referred to various bulbous roots used as food by indigenous peoples of the region. Throughout the 1700s and 1800s, Tuckahoe remained a rural, minor community within the larger town of Eastchester. However, in the early nineteenth century, Tuckahoe gained prominence within the New York Metropolitan Area following the discovery of extensive deposits of high-quality white marble near the Bronx River by Scottish entrepreneur Alexander Masterson.

Utilizing his financial resources and influence, Masterson kickstarted Tuckahoe’s marble industry by establishing its first quarry in 1812. The exceptional quality of “Tuckahoe Marble” quickly garnered significant demand, propelling the once quiet village into becoming the “marble capital of the world.” To facilitate transportation of marble to the city, the New York and Harlem Railroad opened two train depots in Tuckahoe during the 1840s.

The flourishing marble industry attracted successive waves of immigrant workers, including German, Irish, Italian, and post-Civil War African-Americans from the South. For nearly a century, the Tuckahoe quarries thrived before dwindling supplies led to the industry’s decline.

The village’s Church of the Immaculate Conception stands as a testament to this era, constructed using Tuckahoe Marble to serve the predominantly Catholic population.

In the 1920s, Burroughs Wellcome, later part of GlaxoSmithKline, established research and manufacturing facilities in Tuckahoe, contributing significantly to the local economy. Notably, Nobel Prize-winning scientists Gertrude B. Elion and George H. Hitchings conducted groundbreaking research there, leading to the invention of drugs like mercaptopurine, which are still in use today. However, Burroughs Wellcome relocated to Research Triangle Park in North Carolina in 1971.