Mount Vernon, New York (pop. 73,893), is a historic suburb of New York City. The first permanent settlement in the Mount Vernon area, Eastchester, was established in 1664. In 1735, a New York newspaper publisher named John Peter Zenger was put on trial for criticizing the governor of the New York colony for interfering in an election held in Eastchester. Zenger’s trial, in which he was found innocent of libel charges, helped establish the principle of freedom of the press in the United States.
In 1851, the Industrial Home Association of New York bought land for a community of homes there for workers who wanted to avoid the high rents and overcrowding of New York City. It named the community Mount Vernon, after the home of George Washington, the first U.S. President. Mount Vernon was incorporated as a village in 1853 and chartered as a city in 1892. Old St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, used by the British as a hospital during the Revolutionary War in America (1775-1783), still stands in Mount Vernon. It was named a national historic landmark in 1943. Mount Vernon has a mayor-council form of government.
