By Mary Hoar, President Untermyer Performing Arts Council, President Emerita, Yonkers Historical Society and recipient of the 2004 Key to History
Monday, July 20th
July 20, 1912: Yonkers School Superintendent Charles Gorton laid blame for students’ lack of spelling ability at the feet of their mothers. He said mothers were too eager to have their children “excel in special lines and are overlooking the necessary rudimentary training that means so much for the all-around development of boys and girls.” He thought less time should be spent teaching music, arts and manual training.
July 20, 1924: Yonkers’ Vincent Richards was the first American to win gold in the Olympic Men’s Tennis singles, and the second Yonkers native to win an Olympic medal. Just one week earlier, Alan Helffrich won the first Yonkers Olympic medal, gold!
Tuesday, July 21st
July 21, 1924: Returning from Maine, sisters Frieda and Elsa Schlobohm of Warburton Avenue were passengers on the Steamship Boston when it was rammed in dense fog by the tanker Swift Arrow. Although the liner had 1,000 passengers and180 crew members, only four people lost their lives. The Schlobohms escaped in a leaky lifeboat missing its rain plug; they and their fellow passengers bailed water desperately for two hours until another steamer rescued them. The girls safely arrived in Yonkers two days later.
July 21, 1942: The irresistible party dance of choice at the Yonkers USO was… the “Hokey-Pokey!” First introduced by visiting British sailors, it became so popular, the Hokey-Pokey had to be danced at least once every session.
Wednesday, July 22nd
July 22, 1927: Water Bureau Superintendent James Curran had a personal run-in with an adventurous local fish. The mischievous creature decided to go exploring, leaving the Grassy Sprain Reservoir to travel through Yonkers water mains. Unfortunately for Curran, it ended up in his home system, costing the Superintendent $188 for repairs to this plumbing.
July 22, 1943: Yonkers learned that one of our own played a part in building the highway linking Canada to Alaska. Staff Sergeant Albert, operator of a McLean Avenue dairy store, was attached to a Fort Nelson Engineers Regiment. They worked 24-hours a day, despite weather that ranged from intense heat to -30 below zero, often without sleep or food. Despite all the hardships, Albert said, “Each man took pride in every inch of the road.” What made him really proud? The men and the officers became buddies, unlike life in the typical garrison. He wrote, “I feel very proud of American, when I can see a mass of men—Gentile and Jew, Black, White and Red—getting along as well as we do.”
Thursday, July 23rd.
July 23, 1910: Thomas Broadbent of North Broadway was honored by the British Government for rescuing 3 sailors on the English trading steamer Fantel, off Cape Palmes, in 1909. He was awarded the King’s Medal and a British Government Letter of Commendation. Members of the Fantel crew mutinied and local pirates tried to take over the damaged ship for its cargo; but were repelled by the sailors’ revolvers. On the 4th day, crewmembers were overcome in the lower hold by gas coming from flasks with loosened corks. Broadbent volunteered to rescue them, was lowered into the hold and brought up 3 sailors. Unfortunately, trying to recover bodies of additional crewmembers, Broadbent was overcome himself; he did not revive for 5 days. Doctors at the time felt he would never fully recover his health. The British government also had awarded Broadbent a medal for bravery several years earlier.
July 23, 1943: A father-son combination assisted a Runyan Heights couple when their house caught fire. Dad, Acting Fire Chief William Garvin, and son William Jr., an intern at St. John’s Hospital sprang into action when paraffin, being melted for canning, caught fire and spread to the next room. Dr. Garvin later became one of Yonkers leading Ophthalmologists.
Friday, 24th
July 24, 1921: Motion picture star Hope Hampton purchased a home at 85 Rockland Avenue and planned to move from her Riverside Drive apartment shortly. Hampton’s “meteoric rise” to stardom was the talk of Hollywood and film fans.
July 24, 1926: The newly formed Yonkers Broadcasting Association announced plans to build a $100,000 radio broadcasting station.
July 24, 1937: Seabiscuit ran in the Yonkers Handicap, breaking his fourth record at the track. This was his last race at Empire City.
Saturday, July 25th
July 25, 1928: Yonkers Post 7, American Legion, protesting the charges at Playland, announced the Westchester County Park Commission could not legally operate Playland, the $5,000,000 amusement center at Rye Beach. They stated, the fees had “gone beyond the pale of reason and fairness.”
July 25, 1928: City Clerk John Kettell announced the Iron Steamboat Company applied for permission to make regular stops at the Yonkers Pier on its regular trips to Coney Island and Rockaway.
July 25, 1937: Dancing in the moonlight in the sylvan dells of Grassy Sprain Road so upset area residents, they called the Yonkers Police! Apparently couples regularly would park, turn on their radios, and waltz, foxtrot and “truck” up and down the road!
Sunday, July 26th
July 26, 1904: Construction was completed on the granite wall on the south side of Washington Park along Nepperhan Avenue. It was built in similar manner to the one on the east side and extended to the entrance of the old Nesbit House, about 240 feet long. This later would be the location of Yonkers City Hall!
July 26, 1928: Common Council President John J. Fogarty became Yonkers 22nd Mayor at 9 a.m. due to the death of Mayor Thomas Larkin. At the age of 30, Fogarty was the youngest man to hold the office of Yonkers Mayor. Yonkers, shocked by Larkin’s death, began planning tributes to the late mayor.
July 26, 1933: Wilfred George of the NYS Emergency Relief Administration told Yonkers Welfare Commissioner Nicholas Ebbit that our subsistence gardens were among the “finest in the state.”
For more information on the Yonkers Historical Society, Sherwood House and our upcoming events, visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/YonkersHistoricalSociety. We also are on LinkedIn and Twitter @YonkersHistoric. For information on membership in the Yonkers Historical Society, please call 914-961-8940 or email yhsociety@aol.com.
