![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/boyce.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A Boyce Thompson Institute building and its plant greenhouses<\/p>\n
By Mary Hoar, City of Yonkers Historian, President Emeritus Yonkers Historical Society, recipient of the 2004 Key to History and the Key to the City of Yonkers, Yonkers Landmarks Preservation Board Member, Founder of Revolutionary Yonkers 250 and President Untermyer Performing Arts Council<\/p>\n
Monday, January 5th \u00a0<\/p>\n
January 5, 1936:\u00a0 Charles Drury of Spencer Place, one of New York\u2019s best musical directors and arrangers, made his radio debut as musical director of the revue \u201cAt Home Abroad,\u201d starring headliners Beatrice Lillie, Ethel Waters, Herb Williams, Eddie Foy Jr., Vera Allen and Yonkers resident Eleanor Powell!\u00a0 Director of Music at the Winter Garden, he also arranged music for George M. Cohan and George White\u2019s Scandals.\u00a0 Drury was married to Yonkers native and performer Ethel Odell.<\/p>\n
January 5, 1943:\u00a0 Two Yonkers naturalized citizens, Gotthilf Faigle and Herbert Otto, went on trial with 18 other men alleged to be members of the German American Bund; the government wanted to revoke their American citizenships.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Faigle, reportedly leader of the Yonkers unit, was reported to have said he wanted to live permanently in Germany\u2026 and did not want Germany to lose the war.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Finders was accused of being the head of the New Rochelle unit, and agreeing with Hitler\u2019s spoutings; he reputedly said \u201cWe need Hitler in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tuesday, January 6th \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
January 6, 1931:\u00a0 Two Yonkers\u2019 scientists, Dr. S. E. McCallan and Dr. Frank Wilcoxon, were singled out by the American Society of Phytopathology at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They were recognized for their work at Yonkers\u2019 Boyce Thompson Institute for \u201cone of the finest pieces of plant pathology work in the United States during the last year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The duo worked for more than eighteen months on treating and killing fungus growth in Sulphur sensitive plants.\u00a0 Sulphur dust didn\u2019t actually kill the fungus, instead, fungi used it to create toxic hydrogen sulphide to kill fungus. The two scientists termed it as fungi taking their own lives.\u00a0 McCallen and Wilcoxon were recommended for $1,000 prizes.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 January 6, 1943:\u00a0 The Army Quartermaster gave Alexander Smith and Sons an order to manufacture an additional 5,000 blankets; the original contract was to manufacture 150,000 olive drab wool blankets at $6.835 each.\u00a0 All blankets had to be delivered no later than June 30th.<\/p>\n
Wednesday, January 7th:<\/p>\n
January 7, 1933:\u00a0 Twenty-five-year-old Wolffe Street resident Hemsley Winfield performed the role of Witch Doctor in the premiere of the new American opera, \u201cEmperor Jones.\u201d\u00a0 Based on Eugene O\u2019Neill\u2019s play of the same name about an African American conman, the lead role was played by Lawrence Tibbett in black makeup.\u00a0 Although the Met wanted to stage the production with all white dancers, Tibbett threatened to quit the production unless Winfield and dancers from Winfield\u2019s New Negro Art Theater filled the dance roles.\u00a0 Winfield became the first African American under contract to the Metropolitan Opera\u2026 and the first whose name was listed on the program!<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 January 7, 1944: Vera O\u2019Brien, Registrar of St. Joseph\u2019s School and Chairman of the Parochial Schools Coordinating Committee, announced Yonkers parochial schools would sponsor a new C-47 Douglas ambulance plane to enable the quick transportation of badly wounded service men! Yonkers\u2019 Catholic Schools pledged to sell war bonds totaling $110,000 during Yonkers\u2019 Fourth War Loan drive to underwrite the plane. If successful, a plaque crediting Yonkers Parochial Schools would be placed on the flying ambulance.<\/p>\n
Thursday, January 8th \u00a0<\/p>\n
January 8, 1906:\u00a0 Mayor John Coyne suggested an unused fire house could be used for the free tuberculosis dispensary requested by the Yonkers Sanitary League.\u00a0 The League requested city funds for their work; the Common Council told them to incorporate so Yonkers legally could give them money.<\/p>\n
January 8, 1937:\u00a0 Six musicians dismissed from the Federal Music Project held Westchester\u2019s first \u201csit-down strike\u201d at the project office in the Main Street Sears, Roebuck Company building. The Federal Music Project had five units:\u00a0 Westchester Philharmonic Orchestra; Westchester Singers; the Federal Theater Orchestra; Philharmonic String Quartet; and the Westchester Symphonic Band.\u00a0 The six musicians were members of the Westchester Singers, a group \u201cabandoned\u201d December 15th as part of a general curtailment of the WPA.\u00a0 During the ensuing days, the group swelled to a dozen, as people from the other project performing groups were laid off.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Members of the group were offered jobs as laborers, roadwork using pick and shovels.<\/p>\n
Friday, January 9th<\/p>\n
January 9, 1911:\u00a0 The first copy of \u201cThe Up-To-Date-Woman,\u201d edited and published by the Yonkers Woman\u2019s Suffrage Association, was presented to Mayor Lennon.\u00a0 The paper, meant to be published just one day, was 16 pages and filled with excellent articles written by women prominent in suffrage circles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 January 9, 1954:\u00a0 Seminarians at St. Joseph\u2019s Seminary and College took advantage of the extreme cold snap to skate on the frozen pond on its grounds!\u00a0 Almost the entire body of water was frozen, with the exception of one far corner\u2026 the only place the usually happy ducklings could swim.<\/p>\n
Saturday, January 10th<\/p>\n
January 10, 1920:\u00a0 More than 125 men enrolled in the Knights of Columbus School for returned servicemen.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 January 10, 1926:\u00a0 Public Safety Commissioner William H. Van Keuren announced his plan to establish an annual \u201cMedal of Honor\u201d award and other honors for police bravery; these new recognitions would give added weight to the Civil Service promotion lists.<\/p>\n
Sunday, January 11th<\/p>\n
January 11. 1927:\u00a0 Chief of Police Edward Quirk announced news dealers who persisted in selling \u201cso-called art literature\u201d banned in Yonkers would lose newsstand privileges.<\/p>\n
January 11, 1931:\u00a0 The Common Council adopted a resolution requesting a signal device be placed in Getty Square to notify police and pedestrians in case of fire.\u00a0 Apparatus from headquarters frequently sped through the Square; a signal would give policemen advance warning that Yonkers Fire Department engines and trucks were coming.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Questions or comments on this column? Email YonkersHistory1646@gmail.com.<\/p>\n
For information on the Yonkers Historical Society, Sherwood House and upcoming events, please visit our website www.yonkershistoricalsociety.org, call 914-961-8940 or email info@yonkershistoricalsociety.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A Boyce Thompson Institute building and its plant greenhouses By Mary Hoar, City of Yonkers Historian, President Emeritus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-87114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87114","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=87114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}