New Rochelle City Map Poster

About New Rochelle

The city was founded in 1688 by the French and named La Nouvelle-Rochelle, which means "The New Rochelle" in French. The city is on the western shore of Long Island Sound 100 miles north of New York City, and is part of the New York metropolitan area. New Rochelle was originally settled by Huguenots (French Protestants) in 1688 who were fleeing religious persecution at home. Those that remained behind migrated to Westchester County, where they established a community called "Oyster Bay", after their oyster beds on Long Island Sound; this name later became attached to a village within present-day Oyster Bay Cove on eastern Long Island's North Shore near Glen Cove Harbor (the original settlement there having been abandoned). In 1766 three separate tracts were sold for £1 each: one containing , another , and one .