By Mary Hoar, President Untermyer Performing Arts Council, President Emerita, Yonkers Historical Society
Monday, January 4th
January 4, 1906: The Morsemere Taxpayers Association requested establishment of a police substation and suggested School Sixteen basement as its headquarters.
January 4, 1906: Police escorted an intoxicated cook from the ship Kerona, docked off the Federal Sugar Refinery, back to his kitchen. The cook had been arrested trying to break into a Buena Vista Avenue home; apparently he “thought the house was the ship.” He spent several hours in our City Jail.
Tuesday, January 5th
January 5, 1912: The American Scenic and Historic Society announced it had no objection to keeping Yonkers’ Civil War Soldiers and Sailors monument in front of the Manor Hall.
January 5, 1927: Paramount-Artcraft star Richard Dix successfully plowed his way through several hundred ardent movie fans outside the Strand Theatre after attending a preview of one of his movies. After he seated himself in the safety of his car, Dix praised the audience to a reporter. “You get the reaction you want in these Yonkers audiences when they preview a picture. They are very expressive, showing by applause the good and bad parts…. I hope the reports I receive later… will predict a success for this new picture.”
Wednesday, January 6th
January 6, 1927: Celine Baekeland of Harmony Park, wife of the world-famous chemist Leo Baekeland, set sail at midnight aboard the Hamburg-American liner Resolute on a cruise around the world. The passengers visited 25 countries before returning to New York, covering a distance of 37,511 miles.
January 6, 1928: Former Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Roosevelt escaped injury when his car collided with a Yonkers truck at Broadway and Main Street.
Thursday, January 7th
January 7, 1903: James Blair and George Eickemeyer of Yonkers won honors at the New York Poultry and Pigeon Show held in New York City. Blair won twelve awards, including seven first prizes. Eickemeyer, who entered 15 pigmy pouters, won 13 first prizes, one second and one third.
January 7, 1918: Superintendent of Schools Charles Gorton urged the opening of schools as soon as possible. Regents exams had to be taken soon, students needed to be property prepared. The schools had been closed due to the coal shortage.
Friday, January 8th
January 8, 1925: Post Street resident Ellis Doyle, one of the best Yonkers’ tenors, joined the cast of “Rose Marie”, the biggest Broadway musical success of the season. Playing at the Imperial Theater, the operetta-style musical with book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein and Otto Harbach, and music by Friml and Herbert. It ran for 557 performances in New York; the London production ran for 581 performances and 1.250 performances in Paris.
January 8, 1925: Allen Doremus of Brooklyn offered $225,000 for the plant, machinery and equipment of the Waring Hat Manufacturing Company. The auctioneers accepted the bid.
Saturday, January 9th
January 9, 1928: The Lions and Rotary Clubs and the Chamber of Commerce held a luncheon as the key feature of “Better Understanding Week” in Yonkers; its purpose was to bring about better understanding between all the “elements of the city’s life.”
January 9, 1924: Scores of workmen started razing buildings at 40, 42 and 44 Main Street to make way for the three-story extension to the New York Telephone Company. Buildings knocked down were the oldest on the street and were two and three stories. An Army and Navy dry goods store, Costello Brothers stationery, Skelly’s Café and Westchester Electrical Equipment Company were displaced. Sunday, January 10th.
January 10, 1935: A modest Boy Scout, who refused to give his name, was credited with saving the life of retired USN Rear Admiral Purnell Harrington. After diagnosing the Admiral with pneumonia, Dr. Littell put in a hurried call to the local pharmacy. No delivery boy could be found and pharmacist Saul Rich was about to give up hope of getting the needed medicine to the patient. A group of scouts from Troop 30 happened to come into the drug store; Rich quickly told the scouts the problem. They all volunteered to deliver the prescription. He selected the tallest of the group, who minutes later had delivered the life-saving medication to the Harrington residence. Littell reported two days later that Harrington was doing “very well.”
By the way… Pharmacist Rich happened to be a former Boy Scout himself!
January 10, 1942: After the Office of Price Management ordered a 50% reduction of wool consumption, the Alexander Smith & Sons Carpet Company reduced the number of daily shifts from three to one. The company had been operating around the clock because of war work; the reduction caused several thousand company employees to receive smaller paychecks.
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.
