By Mary Hoar, President Emerita, Yonkers Historical Society, recipient of the 2004 Key to History, and President Untermyer Performing Arts Council
Monday, September 6th
September 6, 1934: Former Fordham Tennis Team Captain, South Yonkers Tennis Club star Eugene McCauliff of Fairfield Place lost to William Allison while competing for the National Singles Championship at Forest Hills. Although Allison was ranked second in the country, the tall Yonkers man, a protégé of tennis phenom Vincent Richards, battled through many sets of fast volleying, forcing the game to 5 sets before he lost.
September 6, 1975: Tawny Elaine Godin, an 18-year-old pianist from Yonkers, was crowned Miss America 1976.
Tuesday, September 7th:
September 7, 1904: Hundreds of Yonkers people gathered daily to watch the progress of the construction of the Philipsburgh Building on Hudson Street. It was being built largely from ferroconcrete, with the floors and column made of that material. Early twentieth century ferro-concrete was a relatively new system, applying reinforced concrete, mortar or plaster over layers of metal mesh and closely spaced thin steel bars.
September 7, 1924: The B. F. Keith Vaudeville Exchange, drawn by her beauty and spirit, off Florence Kreisler, Miss Yonkers of 1924, a contract to appear in a vaudeville show with Miss America of 1924, Ruth Malcomson.
Wednesday, September 8th
September 8, 1943: Patrol service of the US Coast Guard Reserve Auxiliary, which had been working out of Ludlow for two years, was suspended by the Coast Guard district office. They had obtained enough boats for regular patrol, and did not need the hundreds of private yachts and boats, painted battleship gray and wearing Coast Guard numbers. These privately owned boats had seen active duty, with owners and crew serving as uniformed Coast Guardsmen. Many of these men were taken into the Coast Guard Reserve to serve on the regular Coast Guard patrols.
September 8, 1951: Joe Golding, backfield star for the New York Football Yankees, was a guest at the Rockledge Manor Hotel (35 Wellesley Avenue). Owner Gordon French hosted many celebrities in the early 1950s, especially star football players.
Thursday, September 9th
September 9, 1933: Ben Dwight, former Yonkers Recreation Commissioner and Chairman of the National Lawn Tennis Umpire’s Association, officiated at the US Open at Forest Hills. Englishman Fred Perry beat Australian Jack Crawford to win the international competition supervised by our Yonkers man!
September 9, 1950: Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell Amazon, the latest owners of Glenwood Lodge at 390 North Broadway, completed a $35,000 project to renovate and modernize the fifty-room hotel. The Amazons had purchased the lodge from Annie Booth, sister-in-law of General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army.
Friday, September 10th
September 10, 1935: David Hutchison, the Yonkers artist who painted the Ivanhoe mural in the Children’s Room at the Yonkers Public Library, revealed the subject of his second mural, Native Americans on top of the Palisades watching the Half Moon as it sailed up the Hudson past Yonkers. Although there was no funding for the second one, Hutchinson volunteered to continue working if the library gave him a model and the cost of his materials.
September 10, 1964: Yonkers director, writer and filmmaker Michael Roemer won the City of Venice Prize and the San Giorgio Statuette in the Venice Film Festival for Nothing But a Man; the San Giorgio was awarded to films considered especially important for the progress of civilization. The independent drama starred Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln; it focused on the story of African-American railroad worker Duff Anderson’s efforts to maintain his dignity in a a small town near Birmingham, Alabama. The US National Film Registry selected it for preservation in the Library of Congress in 1993 because it was “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”
Saturday, September 11th
September 11, 1941: Six Yonkers companies received government contracts. Cameo Curtain was to manufacture Mosquito Bars and Campbell Hat Company’s contract was for Army hats. Otis Elevator Company’s contracts were for gun recoil mechanisms, elevators, steel castings and plane engine parts. US Industrial Chemicals contract was for ethyl alcohol and the NY Guild for Jewish Blind received a contract to make more than $53,000 worth of pillowcases!
September 11, 1944: Colonel John Stilwell stepped down from the presidency of the National Safety Council to serve as chair of the organization’s new policy making organization. To celebrate his new office… and to show his gratitude to his former staff, he threw a luncheon in their honor at the Sherman Hotel, one of the best hotels in Chicago. Two hundred fifty people arrived to find had only bowls of fruit and paper cups set on the tables; this later was augmented by some cheese sandwiches. Apparently the dishwashers had gone on strike, so there were no dishes for the luncheon! Stilwell’s comment on the snafu? “At least when I was president, there was better food!”
Sunday, September 12th
September 12, 1945: Because the official surrender of Japan lifted naval censorship, the vital part Yonkers played in the war effort was revealed, including the US Coast Guard citation awarded to the Yonkers unit! The Temporary Reserve Unit, Flotilla 203, Lower Hudson Division, US Coast Guard at Yonkers NY, headed by Chief Boatswain Mate H. George Pierpoint, was awarded the honor for using their own boats to patrol the lower Hudson, checking all boats on the river, including the freighters anchored at various moorings in our area. Men over draft age and youths under the draft age manned the unit. At the formal review attended by all the units from New York City north to Poughkeepsie, the unit received both a citation and the Security Shield of Honor “For important contributions to the Port Security program of the United States Coast Guard, thus making possible the safe and uninterrupted flow of our country’s manpower and war materials to the battlefronts of the world and hastening the Day of Victory for the United Nations.” Admiral R. R. Waesche, Commandant of the US Coast Guard, signed both presentations.
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.
