By Mary Hoar, President Emerita, Yonkers Historical Society, recipient of the 2004 Key to History and President Untermyer Performing Arts Council
Monday, February 28th
February 28, 1948: After NY Governor Thomas Dewey requested all colleges in New York increase teaching facilities by 26%, Sarah Lawrence began negotiations with Yonkers to open a co-ed branch in Getty Square. Sarah Lawrence President Harold Taylor met with City Manager Robert Montgomery and other city officials at the college to start exploring the option; the college hoped to utilize the former Yonkers High School on South Broadway, with Yonkers rehabilitating a portion of the building. The college would provide faculty and facilities to service approximately 200 men and women, but the project was dependent on how much “state aid would be put into the such a project.”
Tuesday, March 1st
March 1, 1928: DeSarlo and Cerrone, attorneys for a fifteen-year-old Yonkers wife, filed papers asking for annulment of her marriage! City Judge Boote performed the wedding ceremony for Nancy Filomena Santos and Paul Santos five months earlier. Not only did the young bride fudge her age, claiming to be 17, the groom disappeared shortly after the wedding. Supreme Court Justice William Bleakley immediately signed guardianship papers, naming Nancy’s father Daniel La Conte as her guardian ad litem.
March 1, 1944: Mr. and Mrs. Edward Berger of Buena Vista Avenue received a first hand account of the fierce battle for the Marshall Islands. Their son, PFC Bob Berger, US Marine Corps, wrote to let them know he was “alive and in one piece.” He continued, telling them he was in the Artillery Forward Observer Party, saying it was a tough battle and many of the enemy had to be killed, but they “had the situation well in hand in a short while.”
Wednesday, March 2nd
March 2, 1928: Governor Alfred E. Smith expressed his belief that eventually Westchester Country would become a city, also revealing he would resume his fight to create a special commission to study the potential consolidation of small New York State counties.
March 2, 1956: Representatives of the City of Yonkers and the Chamber of Commerce appeared at a legislative hearing to speak in favor of the bill to help harness tracks improve betting revenues. City Manager Charles Curran stated it would provide increased revenue for Yonkers from admissions and real estate taxes.
Thursday, March 3rd
March 3, 1945: The Luria Steel and Trading Corporation on Old Nepperhan Avenue was building an all steel portable hangar for the B-29 “Superfortresses:” the company designed; they planned to use the hangar for testing on the grounds of the Empire City Racetrack.
March 3, 1956: Waring Place Padre Pio expert Joseph Peterson left for his third trip to Sao Giovanni, Italy, where Padre Pio served as a Capuchin-Franciscan priest. Peterson met Padre Pio in 1944, one of the many GIs who visited the priest at the Monastery of Maria della Grazi. Peterson had presented more than 200 programs on Padre Pio, the first priest with Christ-like stigmata; all his speaking fees went donated to the padre’s work in Italy.
Friday, March 4th
March 4, 1906: Workmen began to tear down the League Park grandstand and fence on a field at Yonkers and Central Avenues. The lumber from the fence and grandstand was to be used to enclose a Saw Mill River Road field leased by the New York Central Railroad Athletic Association.
March 4, 1921: County Clerk Louis Ellrodt announced the United States Government had removed four hundred Yonkers men from the “alien enemy class;” the men now would be eligible to appear with their witnesses for examination for citizenship.
March 4, 1957: Edward James of the US Census Bureau announced Yonkers was selected to be the testing city for various methods under consideration to collect census information.
Saturday, March 5th
March 5, 1928: Westchester County Democratic leader Benjamin Moore suggested annexation of Yonkers, Mount Vernon and New Rochelle to New York City as an alternative to Governor Al Smith’s prediction of a “City of Westchester.”
March 5, 1942: Women working in the Yonkers Genung’s Department store were given the opportunity to run the store for 3 days, while all male executives were to do their bidding. Appointed to fill these temporary positions were Filomena Torres as president, Margaret Potenza as Vice president, Connie Annunziata as store manager, Selma Engle as assistant manager, and Mary Cannon as personnel manager.
Sunday March 6th
March 6, 1931: An All Star Benefit performance was held for the Colored Citizens Unemployment and Relief Committee of Yonkers NY at Saunders Trade School. This was the premiere performance of Bronze Ballet Plastique, founded by Wolfe Street resident Helmsley Winfield, one of the pioneers of Modern Dance. Among the well known African Americans who performed that night were Helmsley Winfield, W. C. Handy, Drusela Drew and Edna Guy.
March 6, 1940: President of the St. Catherine Welfare Association Sarah McPike of Elinor Place urged the Senate Finance Committee to oppose extension of the reciprocal trade agreements. She stated, “Until a few years ago, Yonkers was listed among the prosperous cities of the country, but government tariff policy has had its part in hampering profitable productions.” She cited the example of the tariff in favor of Cuban sugar causing closure of two Yonkers sugar refineries and unemployment of 1500 people. She added reduced tariffs on rugs had “forced the Alexander Smith and Sons Carpet Company to operate at one-fourth its former capacity, causing demolition of buildings and throwing the tax burden on apartment buildings and homes.” This early suffragist founded St. Catherine Welfare Association to lobby for remedial legislation benefitting women workers and their children; McPike was the first woman Secretary of the NYS Labor Department, serving from 1923 to 1930.
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