By Mary Hoar, 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, September 26th
September 26, 1906: The Yonkers Board of Police Commissioners issued an order to stop all patrolmen and roundsmen from using YPD horses and wagons for joy riding!
September 26, 1951: Bands of Gypsies in “traditional costumes” camped in their cars outside of St. Joseph’s Hospital on South Broadway. Tina Sameiull, reportedly a Gypsy Princess, had given birth a few days earlier but was in critical condition. They gathered from throughout the metropolitan area and nervously watched Tina’s hospital window.
Tuesday, September 27th
September 27, 1947: Yonkers was abuzz about the large white object flying high over the skies of Yonkers! Turns out it was part of an atomic energy experiment conducted by Brookhaven National Laboratory. Balloons carrying cosmic ray equipment were released from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and spotted over Yonkers 90 minutes later; the balloons were an estimated 65,000 feet in the air.
September 27, 1951: The Yonkers Police Athletic League honored fifteen-year-old John Miksad; when he entered the PAL awards dinner, he received a rousing ovation! Miksad had been seriously injured early August when a bat slipped out of a batter’s hand and hit Miksad’s head, requiring him to have emergency surgery to relieve pressure on his brain. Not only did he receive a trophy that evening for pitching a no-hit, no-run game, he also received the Arthur E. Chambers III Memorial Award for Sportsmanship. Keynote speaker that night was Yonkers native Steve Ridzik, Philadelphia Phillies pitcher; during his speech, Ridzik invited Miksad to be his guest at a World Series game!
Wednesday, September 28th
September 28, 1936: One of the sensations of The Herald Statesman’s Hostess Week was the Men’s Menu Contest! Among the interesting menus submitted was one for toast and another to boil corn. Most men took the contest more seriously and entered recipes for homemade pies, roasts and spaghetti casseroles. First prize was a steam cooker, second a frying pan and the third prize was a chef’s hat and apron.
September 28, 1951: The Elizabeth Seton Academy property at 335 South Broadway at Morris Street was sold to the Accad Company to build a shopping center. The school, at that location since 1902, originally was called the Seton Academic Institute when it was in Holly Lodge, the former Fitzpatrick Estate at 176 Hawthorne Avenue. No plans for its new home were revealed at the time of the announcement, but the school relocated to the Pines on Riverdale Avenue while Alder Manor was rehabbed for classrooms, living quarters for boarders and a convent for the Sisters of Charity running the school.
Thursday, September 29th
September 29, 1927: Mayor Walsh inspected the De Witt Avenue bridge over the Bronx River Parkway with Controller Ferguson and members of the Board of Estimate; they were pleased with its appearance… but not the sign on our side of the bridge reading “This is Bronxville.” Ferguson contacted Jay Downer, Chief Engineer of the Park Commission, asking it immediately be removed. Not only was it misleading, Yonkers had paid a large portion of the cost of the bridge!
September 29, 1947: Eighty-three people attended the first class of the Yonkers Health Department’s food handlers’ course, held in the Health Center Auditorium. Part of the Health Department program to improve sanitation in local restaurants, this class topic was germs, how they behave, and how diseases can be transmitted by the handling of food.
Friday, September 30th
September 30, 1947: Commander Robert McAfee USNR announced bidding to build a waterfront Naval Academy was closed. They planned to break ground by November 1st for the new home of Yonkers US Navel Reserve Organized Surface Battalion 3-30, with more than 400 men. To be built on Alexander Street opposite the City Jail, it was the first time the Yonkers’ Naval Reserve Unit would have its own Armory! The plan was to build the armory from three prefabricated Butler huts used in Pacific combat theaters, and be stocked with surplus government material. It would have radar, sonar, electrical and machine shops, a projection room, library of training films, a radio station, and medical and dental offices.
September 30, 1950: Sadly, twenty-three-year-old Gypsy Princess Tina Sameiull passed away at St. Joseph’s Hospital from post partum eclampsia nine days after the birth of her daughter. When she passed, staff lit a candle in her window to notify the gypsies keeping vigil outside the hospital of Tina’s death. The hospital would keep her baby for a few days while the custody dispute between Tina’s parents and her seventeen-year-old husband was decided.
October 1, 1929: WCOH, Yonkers’ only radio station, announced its move from Riverview Gardens on Highland Avenue to the Strand Theater Building at 35 South Broadway. The station was owned and operated by the Westchester Broadcasting Corporation.
October 1, 1947: The Health Department ended its three-session food handlers’ school with a demonstration of bacterial contamination of a dinner plate by Dr. Aaron Appleby, Supervising Milk and Food Sanitarian. Of the almost 100 people who attended, 72 received cards certifying they successfully completed the course!
Sunday, October 2nd
October 2, 1915: The Yonkers Health Department announced it inspected more than three hundred cows that week.
October 2, 1917: The free public evening schools of Yonkers, offering elementary, secondary and vocational courses, opened at Saunders Trades School and School Twenty on Mulberry Street.
October 2, 1927: The historic Nepperhan Creek began to flow down the new Plaza flume as workers blasted away a 30-year old retaining wall at Warburton Avenue, diverting the stream underground from a course it held for 50 years.
Questions or comments? 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 yhsociety@aol.com.
