By Mary Hoar, President Emerita, Yonkers Historical Society, recipient of the 2004 Key to History and President Untermyer Performing Arts Council
Monday, March 7th
March 7, 1945: Under orders from DA Elbert Gallagher, Yonkers detectives led by Det. Lieut. William Comey staged a major gambling raid on the AC Garden Center, 365 Tuckahoe Road. Gallagher called Comey at 1:30 in the morning to instruct him to head there with three or four trusted men to break up a “large crap game.” Comey, with Sgt. Kennedy, Det. Sgt. Christopher and Det. Will, arrived about 2 am, and approached from Grassy Sprain Road. Kennedy stopped several men who tried to use an escape hatch leading to the back of the building. Police Chief William Kruppenbacher had not been notified of the raid until after it happened.
Two men were arrested—the president of the nursery and the game doorman. The seventy-nine men questioned were released; by the time police actually entered the game, no gambling was in progress. All the men questioned were from New York City and brought to Yonkers to gamble. Judge Charles Boote held the two arrested men on $1,000 bail.
Tuesday, March 8th
March 8, 1930: Fairlawn was auctioned. The North Broadway property just north of Colonel Stilwell’s Ardenwold, owned by the Max Nathan family, featured a twenty-five-room home with a baronial hall, open staircase, large open fireplaces, a picture gallery, music room, library, servants’ quarters and completely equipped kitchen. The outbuildings on the estate were greenhouses, gardener’s cottage and a large garage with chauffeur’s quarters. Bluestone drives, broad lawns, mature trees and shrubbery completed the package. The Nathan family considered the high bid wasn’t high enough, so they bought it for $138,000. The Stilwells bought the property a few months later and demolished the mansion.
March 8, 1946: Samuel Hayward, leading Rotarians in a rousing chorus of “Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland,” revealed to the club the very song they were singing was written by a Yonkers resident! Songwriter John Hayes of Glenwood had been paid $25 to write the beautiful tune.
Wednesday, March 9th
March 9, 1925: Helen Frances Thompson, the Warburton Avenue resident with a national reputation as a writer for the Kay-Jean service, ran her first column in the Yonkers Statesman. Her “Femitorials,” a daily family page feature, were bright, witty, and quickly became a Yonkers favorite. Thompson began her literary career while working as a librarian in the Yonkers Public Library; shortly after penning the book “Do’s and Don’ts for Women, she began contributing articles to women’s magazines.
March 9, 1955: Yonkers suddenly found the Saw Mill River, usually one of the main sources of our water, was green! Fortunately, river water was not being used for our drinking at the time. On investigation, they found dye in trash dumped in Hastings; it seeped into small streams on the property. The streams ran into the river and the dye floated down to our city.
Thursday, March 10th
March 10, 1945: City Manager Robert Montgomery met with DA Elbert Gallagher and Sheriff Edward Ganter for two hours discussing law enforcement problems in Yonkers, especially the recent gambling raid. Montgomery wanted the DA’s help prosecuting the two men arrested a few days earlier, a suggestion made by Lieutenant Comey.
March 10, 1955: Yonkers Water Bureau Chemist James Neary referred the green dye in the water problem to the Corporation Counsel’s Office for investigation. After speaking to Hastings Police, Neary learned they stopped a man dumping the trash the night of March 8th.
Friday, March 11th
March 11, 1936: After learning Alfred Grayson, a Westchester African American sentenced for disorderly conduct after picketing the film “Riff-Raff,” the Yonkers Branch of the American League Against War and Fascism passed a resolution to give him financial aid and moral support.
March 11, 1947: The Central Committee of War Veterans Organization protested an order by Public Safety Commissioner Patrick O’Hara to stop selling raffle tickets on the street.
Saturday, March 12th
March 12, 1936: Health Commissioner Louis Waldron declared a citywide emergency because of the potential rabies epidemic. He urged all animal owners to muzzle their pets and get them vaccinated against the disease. On this day in Yonkers history…
March 12, 1946: Lieutenant Andrew Hicks MD, US Army, son of the former rector of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, was awarded the Czechoslovak Military Cross for his “military merit earned in the battle for the liberation of the Republic of Czechoslovakia.” Dr. Hicks was married to the Barbara Buttenheim from North Broadway.
March 12, 1956: Ten thousand people marched in Yonkers St. Patrick’s Day Parade honoring both the saint and the Yonkers Irish community; this was the city’s first parade in several years.
Sunday March 13th
March 13, 1912: Damage from severe rainstorms a day earlier cause the rivers of New Jersey and Westchester County to swell way beyond its usual spring levels. The floods caused a huge cave in just before Greystone; trapping a large milk wagon in it. Thousands of dollars of damage was done to residents’ property, and twenty thousand dollars of damage was done to Yonkers streets. The flooding not only burst a sewer, it flooded a house on Jefferson Street and nearly drowned two of its occupants—Claudia Ingram and Clara Bangs—in their beds. The Nepperhan flooded so badly, 5,000 men were out of work.
March 13, 1945: Yonkers Service Club Chairman Samuel Hayward announced they had sent 15,640 scrolls to the families of Yonkers servicemen.
March 13, 1955: Yonkers Mayor Kris Kristensen presented Ireland’s New York Irish Consul General John Conway eight tiny shamrock plants, grown right here in our greenhouses! Parks Superintendent Louis Tartaglione grew these plants each year to brighten city offices for St. Patrick’s Day.
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.
