Bedford, New York: One Town Government, Three Separate Hamlets

Bedford, New York is a single town government in northern Westchester County covering 39.3 square miles and about 17,309 residents as of the 2020 census. It splits into three hamlets: Bedford Village, Bedford Hills, and Katonah. Only two of the three have their own Metro-North Harlem Line stations, Bedford Hills and Katonah; Bedford Village has none. Town Hall sits in Bedford Hills, not the Village. Homes near the Village Green typically list from $700,000 to $900,000, with multi-acre estate properties running well above that.

What “Bedford, New York” Actually Means

Bedford town map hamlets

Bedford is the name of one town government, not one village. It governs three hamlets, Bedford Village, Bedford Hills, and Katonah, under a single town board seated in Bedford Hills. According to the Town of Bedford, the town was established in 1680 and today covers 39.3 square miles with a 2020 census population of 17,309.

“Bedford Village” is a place name only. The three hamlets share one local government and police department; there is no separate incorporated Village of Bedford sitting inside the town.

Is Bedford Village a separate village government from the Town of Bedford?No. Bedford Village is a hamlet name, not an incorporated village. All governance, zoning, and police service run through the single Town of Bedford government based in Bedford Hills.

The Three Hamlets, Compared

three hamlets comparison

Hamlet	Founded / relocated	Town role	Rail access	Defining landmark
Bedford Village	Settled 1680	Historic core, no municipal offices	None	1787 Court House, Village Green
Bedford Hills	Renamed from Bedford Station in 1910	Seat of town government	Metro-North Harlem Line	Town House (built 1926)
Katonah	Rebuilt on its current site in 1897	Cultural hub	Metro-North Harlem Line	Katonah Museum of Art

Sources: hamlet history and renaming dates from the Town of Bedford Police Department’s hamlet history; station data from MTA.

Governance and rail access track each other here: the hamlet with the train station in 1847 grew into the seat of government by 1910, while Bedford Village, the hamlet without a station, kept its 18th-century footprint and lost the administrative role.

How Bedford Is Governed

Bedford town board

A five-member Town Board, chaired by the Town Supervisor, governs all three hamlets from Town Hall in Bedford Hills. There is no mayor and no separate village council anywhere in the town.

Getting There: Roads and Rail

Metro-North Harlem line train

Bedford Hills and Katonah each sit directly on the Metro-North Harlem Line, confirmed by MTA’s own station page for Bedford Hills. Bedford Village has no station; reaching it means driving or taking a connecting car from one of the other two hamlets. For the town’s core, drive time to Grand Central runs around 60 minutes, the same source that puts the town’s riding-trail network at roughly 150 miles for anyone weighing horse access over train access. Published per-hamlet train travel times to Grand Central were not available from an authoritative source at the time of writing.

Which Bedford hamlet has a Metro-North station?Bedford Hills and Katonah both have Harlem Line stations. Bedford Village does not.

What It Costs to Live There

Bedford NY home prices

Homes near the Village Green typically run $700,000 to $900,000, the modest end of Bedford’s market; larger estate parcels with acreage price well above that band. One active example from that same listing source: White Brook Farm, a newly completed four-bedroom home on three private acres near Bedford Farms.

Are there affordable homes in Bedford, or is it all multi-million-dollar estates?Both exist. Colonials and ranches near the Village Green start around $700,000; horse-farm estates on multiple acres run well into seven figures.

A Short History: 1680 to Three Relocated Villages

Bedford NY history timeline

Bedford’s history is really three separate relocation stories layered under one town charter. Bedford Village was settled in 1680 and burned by British troops during the Revolution, then rebuilt on the same footprint. The railroad reached the hamlet later called Bedford Hills in 1847, and that hamlet took its current name in 1910. Katonah is the most dramatic case: the entire hamlet was picked up and moved about a mile to its present site in 1897 to make way for the Muscoot Reservoir, with houses physically relocated rather than rebuilt.

Bedford Oak tree

A figure worth checking before repeating it: the Bedford Oak’s age. The Bedford Historical Society, which maintains the tree, puts it at over 500 years old. The town’s Historic Highlights page says it “took root around 1500,” meaning roughly 525 years, consistent with the historical society’s figure. At least one hospitality site reads that same phrase as “1,500 years old,” a three-fold overstatement that appears to come from misreading “around 1500” as a duration instead of a year.

The tree still stands at Hook Road and Cantitoe Street on land deeded to the town in 1942.

Why do old maps show Katonah in a different spot than the current hamlet?Because it is a different spot. The original Katonah was relocated roughly a mile south in 1897 when the site was needed for the Muscoot Reservoir.

Common Mix-ups Worth Clearing Up

Bedford NY confusion other places

Three confusions come up often. First, this Bedford is not Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, Bedford, New Hampshire, or Bedford, Massachusetts; all are separate places that share only a name. Second, “Bedford Corners” is a neighborhood bordering Mount Kisco inside the town, not a fourth hamlet with its own government. Third, some searches for “Bedford, NY” are actually looking for the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, New York State’s largest women’s prison, located in the Bedford Hills hamlet but administratively separate from the town government.

Does “Bedford, NY” ever refer to the prison rather than the town?Sometimes. Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, the state’s largest women’s prison, sits in the Bedford Hills hamlet, but it is a state facility, not part of town government.