🏘️ Croton Local History

crotonhistory.org

Sanford Robinson Gifford, American, 1823–1880. Hook Mountain, Near Nyack, on the Hudson , 1866. Oil on canvas. Yale University Art Gallery. Click the image to enlarge it . This magnificent Hudson River School painting, Hook Mountain, Near Nyack, on

39 words

crotonhistory.org

the Hudson by Sanford Robinson Gifford, shows the view looking west from the southern shores of Croton Point. Hidden in the trees in the foreground is the rooftop and cupola of Richard T. Underhill’s Italianate villa, which he built in 1846 and

42 words

crotonhistory.org

christened “Interwasser”. Detail showing the rooftop and cupola of the Underhill mansion on the southern tip of Croton Point. Click the image to enlarge it. The image is courtesy of the Yale University Art Gallery , which has made “thousands of

41 words

crotonhistory.org

images of works in the Gallery’s collection . . . available for free download . . .” For a similar view from higher up, showing the Underhill vineyards, see this previous post of a wood engraving from Harper’s Weekly . You should also check out the

46 words

crotonhistory.org

Hudson River School Art Trail , which includes this painting in an effort to encourage people to “hike in the footsteps of Hudson River School artists . . .” to “see the locations that influenced famous American landscape paintings of the 19th

42 words

crotonhistory.org

century.” Share this: Print (Opens in new window) Print Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on X (Opens in new window) X Share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest Share

45 words

crotonhistory.org

on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr Share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn Like Loading... Related Tagged Art Hudson River School Richard T. Underhill Sanford Robinson Gifford Published January 10, 2014 September 8, 2017

36 words

crotonhistory.org

Map of Hudson River Line Steamers, Albany and C. Vibbard . Courtesy of Wellcome Library, London. Click the image to enlarge it. Here’s a nice route map of the Hudson River Line steamers Albany and Chauncey Vibbard during the Golden Age of steamboats.

43 words

crotonhistory.org

The New York State Education Department has a fascinating account of Hudson River steamboat travel which includes descriptions of both boats and what was then called the Day Line. Of the many Hudson River steamboat lines, the one which became the

41 words

crotonhistory.org

best known in this country and abroad was the Hudson River Day Line. Its “white flyers” were famous for their elegance and speed, and provided the most enjoyable way to travel the Hudson River. No one could claim to have seen America without seeing

44 words

crotonhistory.org

the Hudson River, and the only way to properly see the Hudson River was from the deck of a Day Liner. . . . In the first full season of the Day Line in 1864 the steamer Chauncey Vibbard was launched and paired with the Daniel Drew to provide regular

50 words

crotonhistory.org

steamboat service between New York and Albany. Service was offered six days a week, but never on Sunday. As one of the steamboats was traveling upriver, the other was traveling downriver. The Day Line claimed its steamboats operated under the “nine

41 words

crotonhistory.org

hour system.” That is, it took nine hours for the boats to complete the trip between Albany and New York City, with Poughkeepsie as the half-way point for these trips. . . . In the 1880s the Day Line, in order to better promote its business, felt

47 words

crotonhistory.org

that it needed to upgrade its fleet with new boats that were not only larger and faster, but also more elegant in appearance and décor. The Day Line introduced the Albany in 1880 and the New York in 1887. These two new steamers, built on iron hulls

47 words

crotonhistory.org

300 feet in length, could accommodate 1,500 passengers and claimed to be the fastest steamboats in the world. They were built exclusively for carrying passengers, and were said to be the finest boats ever constructed for the business. The Day Line

41 words

crotonhistory.org

advertisements emphasized that it was “strictly first-class—no freight.” These boats featured spacious cabins finished in highly polished woods; they were handsomely paneled, luxuriously furnished and adorned with statuary and paintings by celebrated

32 words

crotonhistory.org

artists. The dining rooms were on the main deck, where the traveler could enjoy an excellent dinner, which was served on the European plan, and lose nothing of the view of the most charming of American rivers. See this previous post for images from

44 words

crotonhistory.org

Souvenir of the Hudson River , which has an inscription in the back that reads “Bought Sept. 1881 on Steamer Vibbard.” This map is courtesy of Wellcome Library, London, which has 100,000 images—ranging from ancient medical manuscripts to etchings by

40 words

crotonhistory.org

artists such as Van Gogh and Goya—available for free download on their website . Share this: Print (Opens in new window) Print Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on X (Opens in

46 words

crotonhistory.org

new window) X Share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest Share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr Share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn Like Loading... Related Published January 21, 2014

34 words

crotonhistory.org

The first page of Cartwright’s notebook. For the second time in a month we are pleased to have helped the Westchester County Historical Society acquire an important piece of Croton-related history. Last month WCHS purchased an 1804 bible owned by

40 words

crotonhistory.org

Abraham I. Underhill, one of the three Underhill brothers who started the flour mill on the Croton River. Today the organization purchased something that may prove to be more significant—a 22-page notebook kept by surveyor George W. Cartwright when

39 words

crotonhistory.org

he conducted a detailed survey of Van Cortlandt Manor in 1837–1838. 1 Historic Hudson Valley (the organization which manages Van Cortlandt Manor, Philipsburg Manor, Kykuit and other historic sites) has in its collection a Cartwright survey which we

38 words

crotonhistory.org

believe was made from these notes. By comparing the notebook and map we may be able to glean new information about the area, which Cartwright called “Van Cortlandt Manor Farm” in the first entry. Detail of the lower Croton River from Cartwright’s

42 words

crotonhistory.org

survey map, likely based on his 1837–1838 notebook. Van Cortlandt Manor is in the C-shaped area in the top left. The yellow road running diagonally above it is what we know today as South Riverside Avenue. George W. Cartwright was a civil engineer

43 words

crotonhistory.org

whose maps and surveys are a treasure-trove of information about the Croton and Ossining area in the early to mid 1800s. Records show that he made a map of the “Villages of Sing Sing and Sparta” as early as 1820. In the 1820s he also surveyed and

47 words

crotonhistory.org

gauged the entire Croton River and his data—particularly his calculation that twenty million gallons of water a day flowed in the river near Pines Bridge—was later used in planning the Croton Aqueduct. 2 The Westchester County Clerk Historical Maps

39 words

crotonhistory.org

collection has several by Cartwright maps online, including this map showing downtown Sing Sing in 1835. Pages recording the survey of the creeks in the marsh on Croton Point—now the capped Westchester County dump. Click the image to enlarge it. We

41 words