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🏘️ Croton Local History
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Detroit Public Library, National Automotive History Collection. 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
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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 Lake Station New York Central Railroad Published July 13, 2015 July
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Here’s a real treat—a double-fold promotional postcard for the Nikko Tea House, probably printed circa 1907 to 1910. 1 An artist with the initials “W.K.” created the beautiful images and hand-lettered the map and poem on the centerfold. The map has a
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wonderful depiction of the Nikko and helpfully provides the location of “police traps” on the roads in Westchester. The lines indicating the Hudson River along the left cleverly become strings for Japanese lanterns at the bottom. We can thank C.K.
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Nazu, who was manager of the Nikko at the time, for this wonderful ode to Harmon: Of Harmon on the Hudson You surely must have heard, But if you’ll give attention I should like a word, About the Nikko Tea House, On the wooded Croton’s brink, The
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situation picturesque; The food is fine we think; So get a horse or motor car, And bring your friends along; If you follow the road to Harmon, You surely can’t go wrong. Here are a few previous posts about the Nikko Tea House: C.K. Nazu is listed as
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the manager in this 1908 ad (though the last name is spelled “Nezu”). Another clever bit of promotion from 1917, when the Nikko was called the “Nikko Inn.” One of our favorite Nikko stories by a New York journalist who stopped for some “skiyaki” in
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1931. To see all the posts about the Nikko click the “Nikko Inn” tag in the right hand column. If you have any vintage photographs or ephemera of the Nikko or the early days of Harmon please send an email . Local postcard expert Susan Hack-Lane, who
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helped date the card, pointed out the names written on the front, Nellie L. Beach and Billy Beach. Beach was a Peekskill family name (Beach Shopping Center) which may explain why this card was never mailed. ↩︎ Share this: Print (Opens in new window)
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LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn Like Loading... Related Tagged Ephemera Harmon Harmon-on-Hudson Nikko Inn Post card Published August 19, 2015 November 26, 2017
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Mr. John Fish at the New Croton Dam, circa 1902 We recently acquired a great set of photographs showing the New Croton Dam under construction. The images are particularly exciting because they include some rare views of the construction site and one
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of the soon-to-be submerged Old Croton Dam. Based on the state of completion of the dam we think these were taken circa 1902. 1 The images appear to document a visit to the site by “Mr. John Fish,” who can be seen in several photographs. Who was Mr.
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Fish and why was his visit photographed? Why were the photos laboriously labelled on the negatives when a simple inscription on the back of the print or on a scrapbook page would have sufficed? 2 We don’t know. We speculate that Fish may have been
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involved in the construction as a subcontractor but so far a search of online and offline sources has turned up nothing. If you have any information please send us an email . The scanned images below have been adjusted in Photoshop to increase
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contrast and bring out details. The actual prints are lighter, either due to age, overexposure when the photos were taken or printed—or both. We have cropped and enlarged sections of the images to bring out glorious details. Click the first photo to
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enlarge it and then click the arrow icons to cycle through the images. View looking north Close-up of John Fish Detail showing the machine shops below the dam The machine shops below the dam (where the park is today) with the temporary suspension
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bridge over the river in the background. The house on the hill was used as the construction office. Detail showing the machine shops Detail showing the suspension bridge Detail showing the house used as the construction office John Fish on the
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suspension bridge Looking south at the construction area below the dam Detail showing stones stacked up next to the railroad tracks Detail showing another view of the machine shops Detail showing some construction buildings on the other side of the
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river below the dam Other visitors to the dam Detail showing the man higher up the stairs looking through a pair of binoculars Detail showing the railroad tracks through the tunnel, used to bring stone to the face of the dam This photo of the face of
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the dam is mislabelled. The retaining wall, built to divert the Croton River during excavation, had been removed by the time these photos were taken. Detail showing stone at the base of the dam A rarely seen view of the area behind the dam during
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construction. Large chunks of stone on flat railcars, waiting to be transported through the tunnel to the face of the dam. This is probably the house of Aaron Cornell, along the original bank of the Croton River. The road below the house was called
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“the Dugway.” A nice view of the Old Croton Dam and gatehouse, several miles upriver from the New Croton Dam Detail showing the Old Croton Dam gatehouse Detail showing the gentle S-curve design of the Old Croton Dam Many thanks to Tom Tarnowsky,
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Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct, and Carl Oechsner, Croton Friends of History, for their help in analyzing these photographs. ↩︎ The text labels in the photos were added to the negatives in the darkroom so they would appear on every print. To be
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readable when the images were printed the labels needed to be written or applied in reverse—a tricky thing to do in a darkroom—which is why some of the letters are incorrectly reversed on the prints. Because the text labels in several of the photos
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are cut off it appears these prints were trimmed down, though it could also have been a mistake when the images were printed. None of the prints have inscriptions on the back and the seller was unable to provide any additional information. ↩︎ Share
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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 on Tumblr (Opens
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in new window) Tumblr Share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn Like Loading... Related Tagged Cornell Dam Croton River New Croton Dam Old Croton Dam Published August 27, 2015 August 27, 2015
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New Croton Dam, February, 1934. Click the image to enlarge it. New Croton Dam spillway, February, 1934. Click the image to enlarge it. Ice on the spillway of the New Croton Dam, February, 1934. Click the image to enlarge it. Croton River below the