page_title: Tibbetts Brook
section_title: Etymology
hierarchical_section_title: Tibbetts Brook / Etymology
caption_attribution_description: English: This is the scarce Yonkers sheet from Beers’ 1867 Atlas of Westchester County, New York, showing modern-day Yonkers and Western Bronx. Highlighted in red are the course and various tributaries of Tibbetts Brook, and Spuyten Duyvil Creek which once separated the Bronx and Manhattan island.
context_page_description: Tibbetts Brook, originally Tippett's Brook or Tibbitt's Brook, is a stream in the southern portion of mainland New York, flowing north to south from the city of Yonkers in Westchester County into the borough of the Bronx within New York City. Originally emptying into Spuyten Duyvil Creek as part of the Harlem River system, the stream is now partially subterranean, ending above ground at the south end of Van Cortlandt Lake within Van Cortlandt Park. There it proceeds into city sewers, draining into either the northern end of the Harlem River or the Wards Island Water Pollution Control Plant. The brook provides significant watershed to both Van Cortlandt Park at its south end and Tibbetts Brook Park at its north end. There have been modern proposals to daylight the southern portion of the brook back onto the surface.
context_section_description: Tibbetts Brook was originally referred to as Mosholu by local Lenape Native Americans, an Algonquin word meaning "smooth stones" or "small stones". The Mosholu name was later given to Mosholu Parkway. The label Tibbetts Brook was applied by European settlers, named after George Tippett who held property between the Hudson River and Bronx River in the late 17th Century, with the brook running through the center. Although often considered a corruption of the name Tippett, the label may be a combination of the name of Tippett and that of his father-in-law William Betts, who owned the land along with him. The brook has also been referred to as the Yonkers River or Yonkers Creek in the past, previously written as Jonckers or Uncas.
caption: An 1867 map of Yonkers and Western Bronx, showing the course of Tibbetts Brook (in red) prior to modern development.
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