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🏘️ Croton Local History
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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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suspect that the art was done in full-color and published here in black-and-white to save money. Maybe another version will turn up and we’ll get to see the Nikko in full-color glory. Until then we can try to imagine what an exotic and alluring
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destination the Nikko Inn must have been in those days—and the “sharp and palpable difference” we would have “felt in the riding quality” of our car “shod with Goodyear Cord Tires.” For more on the Nikko, the Mikado and Harmon’s rich history, see
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these previous posts . 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)
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Pinterest Share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr Share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn Like Loading... Related Tagged Harmon Harmon-on-Hudson Mikado Inn Nikko Inn prohibition speakeasys Transportation Published August 25, 2014
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Croton’s first train station, circa 1849. Croton filmmaker, journalist and history-buff Ken Sargeant has shared with us a disk of images he acquired many years ago when he was doing some work with the late Roberta Arminio at the the Ossining
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Historical Society. Ms. Arminio was a long-time director of the OHS, as well as the Ossining town and village historian. We’ve selected a few rare 19th century images of Croton from Ken’s cache and are pleased to present the first in the series,
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courtesy of the Ossining Historical Society . Croton’s First Train Station, circa 1849 This is a very early photograph—possibly the earliest—of the first train station in what was then called Croton Landing. The station was built in 1849 and was
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located on the river side of the tracks, across from the intersection of today’s North Riverside Avenue and Grand Street (then called River Street and Lower Landing Road, respectively). There is a different photograph of this station in the Croton
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Historical Society’s Images of America book—which you can order here or purchase at the CHS office in the Municipal Building—but it was taken from the opposite side of the building and appears to be a later image. What’s significant about this
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photograph is that it shows the shore of the Hudson River before it was greatly extended with landfill and also nicely juxtaposes the old and new modes of transportation. Below is a detail of the area from a map of the property of Phillip G. Van
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Wyck. 1 The map helps approximate the age of the photo because it shows landfill and buildings on the river side of the station which don’t appear in the photograph. The map is dated 1850, making it likely that the photograph dates from 1849, the
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year the station was constructed. Detail from an 1850 map of the property of Phillip G. Van Wyck in Croton. The road on the right is today’s Grand Street, then called Lower Landing Road. Coming next: A photograph of the ornamental wooden arch and
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gate that once greeted worshippers and mourners visiting Bethel Cemetery. For more on the Van Wyck map, see this previous post . ↩ Share this: Print (Opens in new window) Print Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook
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(Opens in new window) Facebook Share on X (Opens in 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 Tagged Croton
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Landing Hudson River Railroad Ossining Historical Society Phillip G. Van Wyck Published August 28, 2014 August 29, 2014
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The gateway to Bethel Chapel and Cemetery, circa 1860-1870. This image has been manipulated in Photoshop to make it lighter. The unretouched image is below. This is the second in a series of rare 19th century images of Croton, selected from a
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collection that Croton filmmaker, journalist and history-buff Ken Sargeant photographed many years ago at the Ossining Historical Society . To see the first installment click here . Bethel Cemetery Gateway, circa 1860-1870 Although you’d never guess
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it from looking at the driveway on Old Albany Post Road, during the time of the Civil War worshippers and mourners visiting Bethel Cemetery and Chapel would have entered the property through this quaint wooden gateway. The dirt road in the photograph
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follows the same path up the hill as the driveway does today and a number of the gravestones, particularly the two obelisks, are easily spotted. The photograph was most likely taken circa 1860 to 1870, but the property (which was smaller then than it