[Frederic Shonnard & W.W. Spooner (1900)] The date 1682 was ac-cepted at the time when the -Manor House" became the City Hall of Yonkers; but it is sturdily maintained by respectable authorities on the early history of Philipseburgh Manor that the dwelling did not have its beginning until many years later. The time of the erection of the Pocantico house, styled "Castle Philipse,' is like-wise unknown. Ultimately the « Manor House " at 1 onkers became the principal seat of the family, much excelling the Pocantico house THE PHILIPSES AND VAN CORTLANDTS 161 in architectural pretensions; but of the two dwellings as originally built, the latter was undoubtedly the finer, a fact of which suffi-cient evidence is afforded by the circumstance that it was the pre-ferred habitation of the proprietor after the procurement of the ma-norial patent. The selection of the Yonkers site for one of the resi-dences was undoubtedly determined by the existence there of Van der Donck's mill and the conspicuous natural advantages of the locality. The other, being intended as the family seat for the dis-tant northern section of the property, was naturally located on the most important stream falling into the Hudson in that section, the Pocantico River. Opinions differ as to whether Philipse had a predecessor on the Pocantico as on the Nepperhan.