Sloping toward the deep Hudson River, forming a natural mooring for ships and a natural amphitheater for viewing river activity and the Palisades, Hastings-on-Hudson inherited its shape, industry, and sense of place from its geography. Natural resources provided for native inhabitants and later tenant farmers, and Hastings marble built urban buildings while town water powered mills. Still it was the people who gave Hastings its character. From tenant farmers and rebels to country gentlemen, from mill owners to mill workers, from shopkeepers at the heart of the village to commuters who lived on the hills, all worked together to make Hastings the place they dreamed it could be.