Clarence Chamberlein in 1920
By Mary Hoar, City of Yonkers Historian, President Emerita Yonkers Historical Society, recipient of the 2004 Key to History, Member of the Yonkers Landmarks Preservation Board, and President Untermyer Performing Arts Council
Monday, January 8th
January 8, 1925: Post Street resident and outstanding Yonkers’ tenor Ellis Doyle joined the cast of “Rose Marie” at the Imperial Theater. The biggest musical success of the Broadway season, the operetta style musical’s book and lyrics were by Oscar Hammerstein II and Otto Harbach, with music by Friml and Herbert. It ran for 557 performances in New York, 581 in London, and the Paris production ran for 1,250 performances.
January 8, 1943: To meet the great demand for more space for “war purposes in City Hall,” City Manager William Walsh ordered Dr. Ward Cook, Director of the city’s Bureau of Laboratories, to move them to offices and rooms in the Health Center.
Tuesday, January 9th
January 9, 1910: Two policemen answered a call to a Warburton Avenue house because they heard an intruder. They arrived in time to send two squirrels scurrying into a nearby tree!
January 9, 1921: Senator Holland S. Duell of Yonkers was named Chairman of the New York State Senate Committee on Labor and Industry. Duell, first elected to the NYS Assembly in 1907, served in 1909 as the Chair of the Committee on Federal Relations. He fought in World War I, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel; he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, the Croix de Guerre and the Distinguished Service Cross for “extraordinary heroism in combat near Vinarville, France.” Until his divorce in 1925, he lived at Ardenwold on North Broadway.
Wednesday, January 10th
January 10, 1897: Rev. James Freeman, Rector of St. Andrew’s Memorial Episcopal Church, made a presentation before the New York State Church Temperance Society, speaking about the “Hollywood Inn as a Substitute for the Saloon.” Theodore Roosevelt, in attendance, warmly and enthusiastically praised the plan.
January 10, 1906: Answering objections raised by Yonkers residents and City Attorney Francis Winslow, New York City Corporation Counsel Delaney stated the proposed Hillview Reservoir would look like a “hanging garden of Babylon.”
Speaking before the New York Board of Water Commissioners, Winslow expressed the city’s fears Yonkers would need to bear additional expenses to provide expanded police protection for the neighborhood during the construction and concern real estate values would fall as plans for the reservoir showed it would be “unsightly.”
January 10, 1936: District Attorney Frank Coyne told members of the Yonkers Legal Forum crime significantly had decreased since the repeal of Prohibition.
Thursday, January 11th
January 11, 1917: Yonkers thought it experienced an earthquake! An explosion at the Canadian Car and Foundry Company near a Kingsland NJ munitions plant caused rumblings, reverberations, shocks, and buildings vibrating in many sections of Yonkers. A fire started in its 40-building facility went out of control when it reached the half-million shells produced for the Russian government. Explosions continued during the night, shaking buildings throughout Yonkers. Windows rattled; dishes shook and chattered like cold children. Residents could see a thick canopy of bluish black smoke to the southwest; the glow of flames from the burning plant could be seen from the highest points in Yonkers. City employees on the top floor of City Hall said they felt the building shake when the detonations were at their worst. It was not until after 6 pm that rumblings decreased in volume, but all through the evening, occasional dull roars gave testimony explosions were still happening.
January 11, 1932: The Herald Statesman formally opened its new four-story building on Larkin Plaza.
Friday, January 12th
January 12, 1929: Yonkers Rotary inaugurated “Better Understanding Week” at a gathering at the Elks Club. More than 100 men representing our city’s many races and creeds, men prominent in many varied walks of life. This meeting launched Rotary’s campaign against hatred and prejudice.
January 12, 1942: Yonkers buzzed when the picture of former Heavyweight Boxing Champion Jack Dempsey appeared in the papers undergoing his physical to enlist in the Army. It was not just Dempsey’s uncovered body that caused the stir; Yonkers’ Army Medical Officer Captain John Greene, son of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Greenberger of Highland Avenue, was performing the examination!
Saturday, January 13th
January 13, 1926: The Council of Yonkers Civic Associations reported the Yonkers water supply was “heavily polluted,” especially that coming from the upper Saw Mill River. They asked the city give “due consideration” to Yonkers purchasing all its water from New York City.
January 13, 1947: The Central Committee of War Veterans unanimously voted to support Public Safety Commissioner O’Hara’s thirty-day campaign for veterans to turn their souvenir war weapons into police so they could be made inoperable. The deactivated weapons were returned to the former service members. Vets were asked to call YPD headquarters; an officer would pick up the weapons so owners would not violate the Sullivan Law prohibiting concealment of weapons. At the end of the thirty days, violators would be pursued.
Sunday, January 14th
January 14, 1864: President Abraham Lincoln and his cabinet sent a letter to Yonkers’ Sanitary Fair to raise money for the wounded Civil War servicemen. After being raffled, the letter was donated to the people of Yonkers by the winner, now is on display at Philipse Manor Hall!
January 14, 1928: At noon, Clarence Chamberlin finished the fiftieth hour of his effort to break the aerial endurance record in a plane owned by Yonkers banker A. R. Martine. Chamberlin’s record of 51 hours, 11 minutes set nine months earlier had been broken by a German duo a few months later.
Questions or comments on this column? Email YonkersHistory1646@gmail.com. For information on the Yonkers Historical Society, Sherwood House and upcoming events, please visit our website www.yonkershistoricalsociety.org, call 914-961-8940 or email info@yonkershistoricalsociety.org.
