🏘️ Croton Local History

crotonhistory.org

The house built by Frederick Purdy in 1895. One of the treats of this Sunday’s 18th Annual Croton Arboretum Garden Tour will be a chance to see the Purdy homestead on Quaker Ridge Road and a group of 100-year-old family photographs, lovingly

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preserved and made available by local restaurateur Craig Purdy. Today, the property is a magnificent 23-acre estate—no longer in the family—but it was originally part of the much larger land-holdings of the Purdy family, who settled in Cortlandt in

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1735. The Purdy’s have deep roots in Westchester. Jacob Purdy is perhaps the most famous—he joined the Westchester Militia in 1775 and served until the end of the Revolution. His house in White Plains was used as General George Washington’s

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headquarters in 1778 (and possibly in 1776, during the Battle of White Plains). In Cortlandt, Quaker preacher William Purdy bought land on the south side of the Croton River from the Van Cortlandt’s in 1800, though according to family lore the

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single-story red farmhouse on Cliffdale Farm was built by a Purdy relative as early as 1735. William Purdy’s lasting contribution was the covered wooden bridge over the Croton River he rebuilt at his own expense in 1830, to a give Friends access to

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the Quaker meeting house in Croton. That bridge is long gone, but the Quaker Bridge we cross today—one of the oldest bridges in Westchester—is a lasting tribute to his civic virtue. The home on the Arboretum garden tour was built in 1895 by Frederick

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Purdy, who purchased the land from Craig Purdy’s Great Grandfather, Charles Miciah Purdy. The family photographs on display (see a selection below) come from the estate of Craig’s mother, Jean Thompson Purdy, who passed away in December 2013 at the

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age of ninety. Tickets for the tour are still available at $20 each (or $35 for two, if reserved in advance). Call 914-487-3830. Click the photos to enlarge them. The New Croton Dam, spring 1910. The New Croton Dam spillway, spring 1910. Rare photo

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of the schoolhouse, built along Quaker Ridge Road near the intersection with Quaker Bridge Road. Another view of the schoolhouse, along Quaker Ridge Road. Share this: Print (Opens in new window) Print Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

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Related Tagged Cliffdale Farm Frederick Purdy Jacob Purdy Quaker Bridge Quaker Meeting House William Purdy Published July 12, 2014 July 12, 2014

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Mikado Inn, Harmon-on-Hudson, N.Y. [No publisher, but likely the Mikado Inn]. Circa 1920. Click the image to enlarge it. Come take a stroll in the beautiful Japanese gardens of the Mikado Inn, in Harmon-on-Hudson. Enjoy a dinner of exotic oriental

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dishes (or, if you prefer something more familiar, try the $5.00 Porterhouse Steak for two). After dinner you can listen to that clever young man, Oscar Levant, play “Yes, We Have No Bananas” on the upright piano. The Mikado Inn was built around 1920

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by “Admiral” George T. Moto (a.k.a. “Data Moto” and “Toshiyuki Moto”), a disgruntled employee of Clifford Harmon. Moto had managed the Nikko Inn and after a disagreement bought land across the street and built the Mikado. Both establishments, along

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with the Tumble Inn on the other side of town, were speakeasys during Prohibition—though in 1921 the Admiral was acquitted in what newspaper accounts at the time called the first case to be tried in Westchester County for alleged violation of the New

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York State liquor law. 1 This postcard is what’s called a “real photo postcard” because the image is an actual photograph made from a negative, not a halftone reproduction. The process was invented in 1903 by Kodak with the introduction of the No. 3A

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Folding Pocket Kodak. The camera, designed for postcard-size film, allowed the general public to take photographs and have them printed on postcard backs, usually in the same dimensions (3-1/2 x 5-1/2 inches) as standard postcards. The process was

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perfect for small establishments and this card was likely produced and sold by the Mikado Inn. This crisp enlargement is possible because the postcard is an actual photographic print. Want to know more about the Mikado? See these previous posts:

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Oscar Levant Plays the Mikado Oscar Levant, the quick-witted pianist, composer, actor, author and quiz-show panelist performed there as a teenager, sharing “sleeping quarters with twenty or thirty Japanese waiters in the cellar.” What’s Cookin’ at

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the Mikado? A tasty bit of Harmon history—a Mikado Inn menu featuring two Spring Lamb Chops for $1.50, Filet Mignon Mikado for $3.00 and a Porterhouse Steak for two for $5.00. The Motorist’s Playground An ad for the Mikado and two other Croton-area

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“road houses” from the June 12, 1921 issue of the New-York Tribune . The “Japanese gardens” highlighted in the ad are shown in the postcard above. New York Evening Telegram , July 12, 1921. ↩ This simple stamp on the back is typical of real photo

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postcards. 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

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on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr Share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn Like Loading... Related Tagged Clifford Harmon Mikado Inn Nikko Inn prohibition speakeasys Published August 11, 2014 August 11, 2014

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Ad from the Ladies’ Home Journal , December, 1917 In a previous post we displayed two ads from 1917 for Goodyear Cord Tires, featuring detailed pen-and-ink drawings of Nikko Inn. These clever bits of Jazz Age cross-promotion appeared in magazines

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ranging from the Atlantic Monthly and The New Country Life to Travel and Forest & Stream . Tiny detail from the Ladies’ Home Journal ad. Now we’ve discovered a much more elegant ad from the same campaign, which ran in the December, 1917 issue of

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Ladies’ Home Journal . The art was created by Myron Perley, an illustrator and art director who is remembered today for his work for the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company. Unfortunately the image of the Nikko is hard to discern in the background. We

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