Did you ever take a ride through Pound Ridge and notice that instead of the usual metal street signs there are signs seemingly hand made and carved of wood? Even more interesting is the fact that they are not a simple pole with a small rectangular name plate for the street but resemble outstretched arms with a hand and a finger pointing to the road it is meant to mark. The name of the street is in black block letters along the arm.

There is an article in the March 2009 “Bedford Magazine” about the “finger pointing” signs of Pound Ridge. They are from the early 1950s when Guy Rainsford, an advertising art director, suggested the motif after seeing similar signs in his travels across the country and the signs were crafted by local men from the Pound Ridge Highway Department. Then again there was such a sign on Mead Street in Waccabuc to the North since the 1940s so perhaps it was just a local influence. They were made by local handymen of wood and later were replaced by metal. They grace the rambling country roads of Pound Ridge and enhance the ambiance of the town. Nonetheless, it gives the feeling that they were from Colonial Times!

They may have been post-Colonial but Pound Ridge actually was a busy center of industry in Colonial times and throughout the decades that followed.

Pound Ridge was settled in 1640 and the industries that became important to the area were basket making, the sale of the oysters and clams brought to the hamlet from the shores of Long Island and the Hudson River to the West, and even factories that made shirts and shoes and employed scores of people.

At the end of the 19th century Pound Ridge became known as Basket Town and the Restaurant “Blind Charlie’s” is named after one local man so deft at basketry that although he was indeed blind, he became a local legend at his craft.

Then the age of “Mad Men” came to the hamlet in the 1950s and breadwinners headed to the Big City of New York, Stamford, CT, Mt. Kisco and White Plains, New York.

Pound Ridge today is a mix of charming original Colonial homes through the age of contemporaries that are juxtaposed against the natural settings. Scotts Corners is named after one of the founding families of Pound Ridge that were the predominant business owners and remains the center of business and services for the hamlet today. Pound Ridge shares a border with Connecticut and the children enjoy the schools of the Bedford Central School System.

Posted By: Karen Benvin Ransom