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🏘️ Croton Local History
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refer to Christmas seals as “Cinderellas” the term for anything resembling a postage stamp but not issued for postal purposes by a government postal administration. ↩︎ Share this: Print (Opens in new window) Print Email a link to a friend (Opens in
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Like Loading... Related Tagged Danish Home Ephemera Published December 24, 2016 December 24, 2022
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This postcard shows a sign that once existed along Truesdale Drive, marking the entrance to the Mikado Inn. The card was published circa 1920 by the Photo & Art Postal Card Co. in New York, but it was doubtlessly commissioned by the inn’s proprietor,
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“Admiral” George T. Moto. The sign is long gone, but part of the low stone wall and entrance (under the green roof in the postcard) are still there today. Want to learn more about the Mikado? See these previous posts: Oscar Levant Plays the Mikado
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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 the Mikado? A tasty bit of
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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. Mikado Inn “Real Photo” Postcard, circa 1920 See the beautiful Japanese gardens behind the Mikado
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Inn. The Motorist’s Playground An ad for the Mikado and two other Croton-area “road houses” from the June 12, 1921 issue of the New-York Tribune . The “Japanese gardens” highlighted in the ad are shown in the post above. You might also be interested
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in the Nikko Inn across the street on Nordica Drive. 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
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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 Mikado Inn Published January 1, 2017 November 26, 2017
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Sixty-nine years ago today, on April 1, 1948, the postal service officially added hyphens to the cancellation stamp for what had been the “Croton on Hudson” post office. The transition was recorded on this pair of envelopes, called “commemorative
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cacheted covers”, inscribed by Croton postmaster Augustus W. Dymes, Jr.—the uncle of Croton’s current Village Historian, Dorothy Pezanowski. In stamp collecting a cachet is a printed or stamped design or inscription (other than a cancellation or
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pre-printed postage) on an envelope, postcard, or postal card to commemorate a postal or philatelic event. A pair of envelopes like these are apparently referred to as “last/first covers.” Another significant date in Croton’s postal history took
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place on July 4, 1891. That’s the date when the Postal Service officially changed the name of our post office from Croton Landing to Croton-on-Hudson. 1 See The Highland Democrat, July 4, 1891. ↩︎ Share this: Print (Opens in new window) Print Email a
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in new window) LinkedIn Like Loading... Related Tagged Croton Landing Croton-on-Hudson Ephemera Published March 31, 2017 March 31, 2017
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If you’re walking on Elliott Way, south of the Yacht Club, you’ll see some red bricks scattered among the rip rap along the shore. These all appear to be what were called Croton Point bricks, made at the William A. Underhill Brickyard on the northern
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end of the point. Some Underhill bricks were stamped with his initials (WAU) but others, like the partial example shown above, were stamped IXL, a clever bit of self-promotion meaning “ I excel ” at brickmaking. During the height of the brickmaking
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industry in the 1850s there were more than 25 brickyards on the shores of Haverstraw Bay and in Croton there were five in the area between what is now Half Moon Bay and the end of Croton Landing Park. 1 For some nice examples of WAU bricks see this
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post, History Underfoot . United States Coast Survey. Hudson River No. VI, Topographical Survey by F.H. Gerdes. August, 1854. ↩︎ 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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During a walk along the beach on the north side of Croton Point we spotted some old bricks, encased in a piece of concrete. “IX” could be seen stamped on one of them and “XL” on the other. As we wrote in this previous post , these bricks were made at
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the William A. Underhill Brickyard on the northern end of the point, close to where we found them. Some bricks were stamped with Underhill’s initials (WAU) but others, like these, were stamped with the letters IXL—a clever bit of self-promotion
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meaning “ I excel ” at brickmaking. Since both bricks look burned, we suspect they were among the rejects that once littered the area. Perhaps they were later picked up and used in the foundation of one of the cabins that were built along the north
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shore in the early 20th century. Some of the cabins and outhouses on Croton Point when Westchester County purchased the land. Here’s a 19th century advertisement from The Clay-Worker for the “I. X. L. ‘SPECIAL’ Brick Machine” that may have made these
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bricks. The manufacturer of this machine was William Edward Tallcot, who was born in 1852. William’s father, Richard D. Tallcott, owned a brick manufacturing company at Croton Landing and the family was related by marriage to the Underhills. Map of
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Croton Point in 1868 from the “ Atlas of New York and vicinity from actual surveys by and under the direction of F.W. Beers ,” showing the R. D. Tallcot Steam Brickyards on the northern tip. We can walk along the beach at Croton Point and rejoice
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when we find bits of Croton’s history, but what we see is only what’s been left after massive changes to the landscape. A visitor in 1890 described Croton as a “quiet hamlet, whose inhabitants have been for several generations industriously digging
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up the fields and pressing the soil into bricks, until it looks as though the place had stood a siege, and the enemy had exploded mines all round its borders.” Read more here . Share this: Print (Opens in new window) Print Email a link to a friend