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🏘️ Croton Local History
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the History of New York.” He urged New Yorkers to “Think of Your Children,” growing up in “the Highest, Healthiest, Most Beautiful, Most Accessible, and Most Aristocratic Part of Westchester County.” Early promotional post card for Harmon captioned
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“View of Benedict Boulevard, where it crosses Broadway.” Circa 1907. Although we can’t really appreciate what visitors to the undeveloped land at Harmon thought in 1907, the promotional post card shown above is a revelation to Crotonites today. If
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you stand in the parking area of the Dairy Mart, looking down Benedict Boulevard at Vogue Spa & Nails (the original Harmon sales office), you can approximate the view shown in the post card. Detail from a promotional postcard for Harmon. Circa 1907.
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Can you believe there was once a huge, flat, treeless field in front of you, going straight down Benedict Boulevard to the hilly area of Lexington, Sunset and Observatory Drives? “A New Village in Westchester County—Harmon,” The Katonah Times , May
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24, 1907, page 2. ↩︎ 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 Clifford Harmon Harmon Harmon-on-Hudson Post card Published May 29, 2016
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As summer comes to a close, let’s take a look at this nice postcard of swimming at Croton Point, circa 1915. The card was published for “W.H. Noll, Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.” by Commercialchrome, a printer located in Cleveland, Ohio. The company
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operated from 1910-1920 and the white border on the front and divided back (with separate space for the message and address) means it was probably printed circa 1915. 1 “W.H. Noll” is likely William H. Noll, proprietor of Bill’s Restaurant, once
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located at the intersection of South Riverside Avenue and Brook Street. According to his 1941 obituary in the Ossining Citizen-Register , he had lived in Croton for 29 years and had operated the restaurant for 25 years. His wife, Ella Munson Noll,
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died in 1931. At the time of his death he lived at 8 Hamilton Avenue in Croton. 2 A great resource for identifying postcard printers is metropostcard.com . ↩︎ Ossining Citizen-Register, May 23, 1941, page 2 column 4. See here . ↩︎ Share this: Print
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(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 in new
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window) Tumblr Share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn Like Loading... Related Published August 27, 2016 August 27, 2016
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Accident on the Van Cortlandt Bridge, 1911. Photograph courtesy of the Ossining Historical Society. In the summer of 1911 the rear wheels of a heavy truck broke through the wooden planks of the Van Cortlandt Bridge—the bridge that once carried the
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Albany Post Road across the Croton River. The accident took place on the Croton side of the bridge and you can see Van Cortlandt Manor through the trees on the right of this wonderful photograph, which comes to us courtesy of our friends at the
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Ossining Historical Society. According to OHS president Norm MacDonald, the occupants of the truck can be seen on the left—David Miller (who appears to be looking at the person who took the photo) and with her back to us on his right, Aimee Marie
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Dyckman, the local woman he would marry six years later. Miss Dyckman lived just north of Croton in Oscawana and she was related to the Dyckmans who once owned the magnificent Boscobel estate. (For those who don’t know this bittersweet part of local
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history, Boscobel was originally located where the FDR Veterans Administration Hospital is today—before it was slated for demolition, partially torn down, rescued, and moved and rebuilt at great expense where it is today.) 1 The Van Cortlandt Bridge
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had a long history, dating back to 1860 when the Board of Supervisors of Westchester County was authorized “to construct a bridge at or near the mouth of Croton river.” Like all bridges on the Croton River during the 19th and early 20th centuries the
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Van Cortlandt Bridge suffered regular damage from storms, ice and spring freshets and it was repeatedly repaired and rebuilt. 2 The invention of the automobile and truck presented new challenges for bridges which were not originally designed to carry
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such heavy loads. The truck shown in the photo appears to be a 2- to 3-ton model built by the American Locomotive Company of Providence, Rhode Island. The company manufactured one of the highest quality trucks during the period of 1909 to 1913. 3
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It’s not surprising that such a heavy truck would break through weathered wooden planks of a bridge built for lighter vehicles. Detail showing David Miller and Aimee Marie Dyckman on the left and the repair crew using a fulcrum in an attempt to raise
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the rear tire of the 2- to 3-ton vehicle. By the end of the summer of 1911 the Westchester County Board of Supervisors took action to fix the bridge and noted two incidents—one doubtlessly recorded by this photograph—when “the flooring of this bridge
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gave way.” “It was ordered that bids for building a new floor and supports on the Van Cortlandt Bridge over the Croton River be advertised to be opened on September 11th next. The flooring of this bridge gave way on two occasions recently when the
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heavy auto vans tried to cross with extra heavy loads on.” 4 Take a drive across the Van Cortlandt Bridge and learn more in this previous post: Motoring Across the Croton, 1912 An excellent history/timeline of Boscobel can be found here . ↩︎ Until at
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least 1871 the long bridge on the Ossining side was a drawbridge, to allow boats to sail up the lower Croton River. ↩︎ For information about and images of American Locomotive Company trucks from 1909-1913 see here and here . ↩︎ See “Supervisors in
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Long Session Transact a Lot of Important County Business,” New Rochelle Pioneer , August 12, 1911, page 3, here . ↩︎ 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
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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 Boscobel Croton River
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Dyckman family Van Cortlandt Bridge Published November 25, 2016
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For more than 60 years the Danish Home in Croton has been issuing what most people would think of as Christmas seals—stamp-like labels placed on mail during the Christmas season to raise funds and awareness for charitable programs. 1 The American
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Lung Association has become so well-known for its Christmas seals that they’ve trademarked the term, but that doesn’t prevent other organizations from creating these beautiful, poster-like images. Click the stamps to enlarge them. Stamp collectors