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Yonkers, NY<\/p>\nYonkers, NY<\/p>\n
One important fact to know about Philipse Manor Hall in Yonkers, one of the oldest buildings in Westchester, is that the Philipse family were loyalists and left for England after the war<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 By Mary Hoar, City of Yonkers Municipal Historian, 1977 recipient of the Key to the City of Yonkers, President Emeritus Yonkers Historical Society, recipient of the 2004 Key to History, Yonkers Landmarks Preservation Board Member, Founder of Revolutionary Yonkers 250 and President Untermyer Performing Arts Council<\/p>\n
Monday, June 29th<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 June 29, 1936: Earl Browder, 30 Post Street, was nominated as the Communist Party candidate for President at its Madison Square Garden Rally!\u00a0\u00a0 While giving his acceptance speech, the 25,000 attendees gave Browder a rousing 30-minute ovation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
James Ford, from Harlem, accepted the nomination of Vice President.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 July 29, 1943:\u00a0 Three thousand, eight hundred thirty-two Yonkers OCP (Office of Civilian Protection) volunteers jumped out of bed at 2:23 am in response to a surprise blackout drill.\u00a0 According to Chief Air Raid Warden John J. Flynn, the drill went extremely well, with few violations noted.\u00a0 The blackout lasted 36 minutes,<\/p>\n
Tuesday, June 30th<\/p>\n
June 30, 1927:\u00a0 Speaking to a crowded meeting of Yonkers Rotary, Assistant Secretary of War F. Trubee Davison spoke about the progress in developing the Army Air Service, and the planned expansion of that part of our armed forces.\u00a0 He outlined the plan to expand to a force of 15,000 officers and over 2,000 planes of all types.\u00a0 He told the Rotarians Yonkers should be part of this development, as we were uniquely suited for an airport\u2026 an airfield would be invaluable to the development of Yonkers and aviation.<\/p>\n
He had wanted to fly to Yonkers from Washington but couldn\u2019t.\u00a0 It would have meant landing at Mitchell Field, then traveling by car to Yonkers. It would have taken longer than traveling by train!<\/p>\n
June 30, 1929:\u00a0 Nine honorary Deputy Public Safety Commissioners pooled their funds to purchase new regulation summer shirts for Yonkers 42 traffic police officers. Donors were Paul Appenzellar, Max Cantor, George Engle, Stanley Mitchell, Dr. James Morrissey, James Reed, John Reilly, Felix Sarubbi, and William Ward.<\/p>\n
Wednesday, July 1st<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 July 1, 1893:\u00a0 A group of 31 businessmen organized the Yonkers Board of Trade.<\/p>\n
July 1, 1944:\u00a0 Staff Sergeant Peter Bodnar of Vineyard Avenue arrived home for a 3-week furlough.\u00a0 An engineer-gunner, he spoke about shooting down enemy planes.\u00a0 His plane had no escort for one mission over Udine, Italy.\u00a0 \u201cEnemy interference\u201d by 50 enemy planes started 30 minutes before they reached their target.\u00a0 His plane was under a tail attack, so Bodnar shot down the plane with a direct hit; he was awarded the Air Medal for his action.<\/p>\n
After his leave, he reported to Atlantic City for reassignment.<\/p>\n
Thursday, July 2nd<\/p>\n
July 2, 1929:\u00a0 GAR leader Major Abraham Hunter Tompkins of Linden Street passed away.\u00a0 Tompkins was born 1844 in New York City and moved to Yonkers when he was twelve.\u00a0 He worked with his dad in a \u201ccabinet shop\u201d on Ashburton Place making base and snare drums.\u00a0 Their drums were famous, and, according to The Yonkers Herald, were prized!\u00a0 Tompkins entered the War with a musician\u2019s commission.<\/p>\n
July 2, 1945:\u00a0 Yonkers two largest defense companies closed to give employees a one-week vacation!\u00a0 Alexander Smith and Sons Carpet Company and all the Habirshaw Cable and Wire Company plants closed that Saturday and reopened a week later. \u00a0Habirshaw\u2019s plants were at Glenwood, McLean Avenue, Saw Mill River Road and the foot of Main Street.\u00a0 All Operation Overlord cable was put together at the Main Street plant!<\/p>\n
Friday, July 3rd<\/p>\n
July 3, 1781:\u00a0 General Benjamin Lincoln and the Duc de Lauzun\u2019s French landed their troops near Manor Hall; their aim was to attack the British in the Harlem forts.\u00a0\u00a0 They managed to get through the outer British lines, but not farther.\u00a0 This convinced the French commanders they should NOT attack New York but instead should head to Yorktown, Virginia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
July 3, 1939:\u00a0 Stephen Seredynsky\u2019s quick thinking saved the life of an eight-year old boy!\u00a0 Little John Fasko was exploring a woodshed between Croton Terrance buildings and fell, getting wedged between two structures.\u00a0 His head and neck caught on the wires.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Seredynsky saw the boy\u2019s predicament and immediately took action. He grabbed a chair, stood on it, and supported the boy\u2019s body to release pressure on John\u2019s neck and head.\u00a0 Others heard the commotion and called for rescue assistance. Officers Reichenbach and Hobarth pried boards off the woodshed to free John, then brought him to St. Joseph\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n
Saturday, July 4th\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
July 4, 1923:\u00a0 American flags were presented to new citizens at the Americanization and Patriotic ceremonies held in front of City Hall.\u00a0 Speakers were Mayor Taussig, Supreme Court Justice George Taylor, and two new citizens, Claus Setterlund and John Goldi.<\/p>\n
July 4, 1966:\u00a0 Mary Croughwell, the first woman Morse code operator in the US, died in Yonkers Professional Hospital at 91.\u00a0 Croughwell lived on Radford Street and was the first office manager of MacKay Radio, forerunner of Postal Telegraph that became Western Union.\u00a0 Ms. Croughwell ended her career as a telegrapher with Western Union.<\/p>\n
Sunday, July 5th<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 July 5, 1944: \u00a0Regional Civilian Protection Director Colonel Ralph Bishop notified Alexander Smith and Sons Carpet Company it received the National Security Award. They were the first company in the area to receive this prestigious award, the highest award that could be bestowed on an industrial plant for civilian protection and safety measures!<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Smith President Fred Smith commented, \u201cI am pleased and proud we received the honor, not only for the company but for the hundreds of our men who have done such a fine job.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey volunteer their services in civilian protection work at the plant, cooperating in the fullest way possible.\u00a0 Many of them devoted their own time and have done a grand job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith not only had a complete civilian protection organization, in an emergency, they made themselves available to help other areas of Yonkers.<\/p>\n
Any questions on this column, email yonkershistory1646@gmail.com.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
For information on the Yonkers Historical Society, the Sherwood House Museum on Tuckahoe Road or upcoming events, please visit www.yonkershistoricalsociety.org, call 914-961-8940 or email info@yonkershistoricalsociety.org.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yonkers, NY One important fact to know about Philipse Manor Hall in Yonkers, one of the oldest buildings…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-278531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}