By Mary Hoar, President Emerita Yonkers Historical Society and President Untermyer Performing Arts Council
Monday, August 8th
August 8, 1945: The Securities and Exchange Commission released a report listing the salary of Frederick Klein, President of Alexander Smith and Sons Carpet Company, as $82,750. The median annual salary for American workers that year was $2,595.
August 8, 1947: People were startled by what was described as a moose call sounding off on Bashford Street off Larkin Plaza. It was not as ominous as many feared; in reality it was a phone ringing! The winding machinery at a small wire factory on Bashford was so noisy, no one could heard the phone ring during business hours. The strange, loud signal was the phone company’s solution; a special signal device was connected to the phone so workers could hear and answer the company’s phone calls!
Tuesday, August 9th
August 9, 1776: Colonel Frederick Philipse was arrested at Manor Hall on order of George Washington. He was held in Connecticut until December, when that state’s Governor Trumball paroled him. A few months later, he tried to warn the British garrison at Knightsbride of a planned Colonial raid. He received word his note was intercepted, and both he and his family fled to England, never to return to their Yonkers estate again.
August 9, 1936: James O’Rourke and John Lysak of the Yonkers Canoe Club represented the United States in the 1936 Olympics, the 11th Olympiad at Gruenau, Germany. They placed seventh in the Men’s Folding Kayak Doubles 10 kilometers race at the 11th Olympiad.
August 9, 1956: The Yonkers Keys, the New York State Junior Champions of the American Legion, played an exhibition game at Fleming Field against the Elizabeth NJ Legion team; defeating them a score of 6-2.
Wednesday, August 10th
August 10, 1916: The Purdy Estate sold the property at the northwest corner of Ashburton and St. Joseph’s Avenues to the Yonkers Homeopathic Hospital; sale price for the parcel at 127 Ashburton was $35,000.
August 10, 1946: Riverdale Avenue’s Brigadier General Frederick Hopkins Jr., former Chief of Staff of the famous B-29 unit, twentieth Air Force in Guam, was temporarily attached to the Army’s Pacific Air Command Headquarters in Tokyo.
August 10, 1946: Captain George Fried, just retired from his long and successful career on the sea, returned to his home on Gramatan Drive to celebrate his 69th birthday! He retired as District Chief of the Inspection and Navigation Bureau in the Coast Guard; he was in charge of maintaining safety and discipline standards on American ships. “One of America’s top-flight ship masters,” he captained some of America’s greatest liners, credited with several ocean rescues.
Thursday, August 11th
August 11, 1933: After outsmarting a woman and young boy employed as lookouts, Detective Sergeant Henry Murphy and Police Chief Edward Quirk broke up a “big money” gambling ring operating out of “an expensive house” on First Street.
August 11, 1945: Sear, Roebuck and Company signed a ten-year lease for the first floor and basement of the Marshall-May building on Main Street.
August 11, 1940: President Adolph Friedman announced the Jerome Knitting Mills at 71 South Broadway had doubled the number of employees; the company had received an order from the Army Quartermaster Corps to supply 6,000 dozen gloves.
August 11, 1945: Merchant Seaman Constanine Korwatch of Van Buren Street, was featured in the movie short, “Snapshots of Boys in the Merchant Marine.” He spoke about his experiences delivering supplies, munitions and men needed to win the war, and made a personal appeal for experienced seamen to join the Merchant Marines.
Friday, August 12th
August 12, 1919: Members of the United Slovak Societies at Holy Trinity Church, Franklin and Walnut Streets, learned that one of the boxes of clothing they regularly sent overseas made its way to Yonkers resident Charles Malone! Malone, a former Lieutenant in the French Lafayette Flying Corps, at the time was in Prague, Czechoslovakia.
August 12, 1920: George McLean of Dunwoodie qualified for the national professional golf championship tournament by winning on the Flossmoor links at Chicago. He would represent the New York district.
August 12, 1937: Former Mayor Leslie Sutherland and other members of a citizens’ committee proposed plans to continue the junior college run for three years at the Jewish Community Center. They wanted it to be a “permanent educational institution” in Yonkers.
Saturday, August 13th
August 13, 1887: A new electric locomotive invented in Yonkers by Stephen Field using Rudolph Eickmeyer’s dynamo, was placed on the tracks of the Hudson River Railroad.
August 13, 1919: A hydroplane landed in the river off Peene’s Wharf for “inspection” by Yonkers residents; most people had never seen an “air machine.” The plane was brought by the Yonkers Ferry and sponsored by the Sweet-Orr Company’s branch factory on Riverdale Avenue.
August 13, 1941: Yonkers learned Todd Shipyards was exploring Yonkers as a potential site for a shipyard according to a report given to the Common Council by City Manager Whitney. John Reilly, head of the internationally known shipbuilding company, just happened to be a “Special Deputy Public Safety Commissioner,” appointed by Whitney. Reilly had started at Todd as a clerk thirty years earlier, and rose up through the company. He became the CEO in 1931 when William Todd passed away.
Sunday, August 14th
August 14, 1927: Former Yonkers resident Ralph Lowes was the navigator of the “City of Peoria” biplane, in an air race from Oakland California to Hawaii. The first and second prizes of $25,000 and $10,000 were awarded by Hawaiian pineapple magnate James Dole.
August 14, 1937: Westchester County Judge Gerald Nolan upheld the constitutionality of the Yonkers anti-shorts ordinance; this ordinance banning wearing shorts on the streets of Yonkers, was sponsored by Alderman William Slater and made national headlines.
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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 yhsociety@aol.com.
