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, February 15th
February 15, 1921: New York Giants star third baseman Frankie Frisch led his “Frisch’s All Stars” to a 32-22 victory in a basketball game against the St. Peter’s team at Columbus Hall on Waverly Street. Frisch, a former Fordham College star nicknamed “The Fordham Flash,” played with a team composed of college players. He played for the Giants from 1919 to 1926, then joined the St. Louis Cardinals in 1927, eventually becoming the Cardinals’ manager.
February 15, 1942: City Manager Raymond Whitney announced former NYU track star Curtis Giddings of Warburton Avenue would become Yonkers’ first African American Firefighter.
Tuesday, February 16th
February 16, 1918: A nation-wide patriotic campaign swept into Yonkers when the local unit of the Women’s Committee of the Council for National Defense organized the “Three Minute Women.” The women made three-minute addresses on patriotic subjects at all “ready-made audiences,” including theaters and entertainments. Their work was similar to the “Four Minute Men.”
February 16, 1933: Judge Learned Hand of Palisade Avenue was one of the leaders of the New York Bar who attended the Committee on the Establishment of a Permanent Organization for the Improvement of Law conference, held in Washington. Hand was famous as an avid supporter of free speech and considered to be one of the “most influential American judges never to have served on the US Supreme Court.”
most influential American judges never to have served on the US Supreme Court.”
Wednesday, February 17th
February 17, 1924: Future basketball star and union leader John Acropolis scored 26 points to lead Leake and Watts Basketball team to a 67 -10 victory over the Hebrew national Orphan Home; the game was played on the Leake and Watts court.
February 17, 1929: Dr. A. Newell Benedict, son-in-law of former Mayor and Congressman John E. Andrus, announced a home for the aged would be build on the North Broadway property adjoining the Julia Dyckman Andrus Memorial Home for Children.
February 17, 1941: The Navy Department of Supplies and Accounts awarded an additional $23,622 contract for electric cable to the Habirshaw Cable and Wire Division of the Phelps Dodge Copper Product Corporation. This was the fourth contract awarded just in this month, for a total of $1,058,462. The total contracts awarded to this Yonkers plant since June 1940, when large-scale national defense purchasing got underway, was $3,838,297.07.
Thursday, February 18th
February 18, 1933: Riverdale Avenue resident and internationally known sculptor Isidore Konti was elected President of the Yonkers Art Association, replacing the late Rudolf Eickemeyer.
February 18, 1940: City Manager Raymond Whitney, Acting Public Safety Commissioner, ended the policy of giving special one-month leaves with pay to retiring police officers and firefighters.
February 18, 1944: Female employees of the Cameo Curtain Company were the first volunteer students for the lecture series given by the Nutrition Committee of the Yonkers War Council. Designed for war workers who also had to prepare meals for their families, the series focused on how a busy war worker could prepare could “prepare a nutritious and palatable dinner quickly and easily.” The series was repeated a few times in the Yonkers Electric Light and Power Company auditorium so all Cameo women could attend. Other demonstrations in the course were “preparing a good breakfast,” “attractive and palatable foods for lunch boxes,” soy beans and shopping for food.”
Friday, February 19th
February 19, 1916: Ant House, a new play by Park Hill’s Owen Davis and Robert H. Davis, opened at the Cort Theater in New York, with Edwin Arden and William Mack playing the leading roles. Davis later won the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Icebound.
February 19, 1924: Samuel Hayward, owner of the Hayward Wholesale Paper Company, had a $410 payroll stolen from his overcoat pocket while he was purchasing a cigar in a Getty Square store, the first payroll robbery in Yonkers in many, years. Being a caring employer, he immediately withdrew the money out of his personal account so his workers would not have to wait for their pay.
Saturday, February 20th
February 20, 1885: Tapestry workers at the Smith Carpet Factory walked out in support of female workers fired for joining the Knights of Labor; the company immediately shut the factory down. Interesting side note: At the start of the strike, only two dozen workers were union members. By the end of the strike, because the unit was so enraged the “little girls” were fired, almost 100% of the tapestry workers had joined the Knights of Labor.
February 20, 1920: George Thomas, suspected leader of the policy slip racket in Yonkers, in the Yonkers courtroom to monitor how one of his henchmen fared, Thomas was recognized by the Charles Boote, the presiding judge, who had given Thomas a suspended sentence five months earlier. The judge ordered Captain Ford to arrest the man, who promptly bolted out of the court. In the hallway, Court Interpreter Henry Friedman recognized him, grabbed him, and marched the escapee back into the court by the scruff of the neck. Boote ordered the sentence to start immediately.
Sunday, February 21st
February 21, 1908: John Philip Sousa, the famous conductor and composer, performed at Blaney’s Theater. Soloists performing in the concert were soprano Lucy Allen and violinist J. Powers.
February 21, 1908: Forty guests from the Yonkers YMCA were guests of Commander Robert Peary, USN, North Pole explorer, on the “Roosevelt,” the Commander’s ship.
February 21, 1936: George McCann considered himself an expert shot, so much so he built a shooting gallery under the McCann storage warehouse on Mill Street. He told his secretary she should learn to shoot. Her answer? “Why don’t you?” The two then went down to the gallery to “shoot it out.” At the end of the match, George wished he hadn’t– Anna Solberg, his versatile secretary, scored 93 out of a possible 100, much higher than George!
For more information on the Yonkers Historical Society, Sherwood House and our upcoming events, please visit our website www.yonkershistoricalsociety.org, call 914-961-8940 or email yhsociety@aol.com.
