HISTORY & MYSTERIES
If you have an extra $8,000 to $12,000 to spend* you should bid on a magnificent painting of the Croton area by Robert Havell, Jr. being auctioned at Sotheby’s tomorrow. The painting has been owned by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts since 1935 and is being sold to fund future acquisitions. When we first saw View … Continue reading View of the Hudson from Horton’s Road Near Croton
During a walk along the beach on the north side of Croton Point we spotted some old bricks, encased in a piece of concrete. "IX" could be seen stamped on one of them and "XL" on the other. As we wrote in this previous post, these bricks were made at the William A. Underhill Brickyard … Continue reading History on the Beach
Croton filmmaker, journalist and history-buff Ken Sargeant has shared with us a disk of images he acquired many years ago when he was doing some work with the late Roberta Arminio at the the Ossining Historical Society. Ms. Arminio was a long-time director of the OHS, as well as the Ossining town and village historian. … Continue reading Croton’s First Train Station
For the second time in a month we are pleased to have helped the Westchester County Historical Society acquire an important piece of Croton-related history. Last month WCHS purchased an 1804 bible owned by Abraham I. Underhill, one of the three Underhill brothers who started the flour mill on the Croton River. Today the organization … Continue reading A Van Cortlandt Manor Treasure—on eBay!
Here’s a nice route map of the Hudson River Line steamers Albany and Chauncey Vibbard during the Golden Age of steamboats. The New York State Education Department has a fascinating account of Hudson River steamboat travel which includes descriptions of both boats and what was then called the Day Line. Of the many Hudson River … Continue reading Map of the Hudson River Line Steamers, 1883
Here is a detailed map of what Croton looked like in 1872. Known then as Croton Landing, the village consisted mainly of houses and businesses along what we know today as Grand Street, Brook Street, and Riverside Avenue. If you look at the top left side you can see that Riverside Avenue got its name … Continue reading Croton Landing, 1872
Clement C. Moore, author of the beloved poem ’ Twas the Night Before Christmas, had a family connection to what was then called the village of Sing Sing. According to the biography by Samuel White Patterson, Moore “had once contemplated making a summer home on the Hudson. In 1839, he bought a beautiful estate at Sing … Continue reading ’Twas the Night Before Christmas in Sing Sing
At first glance you might think this beautiful print is an etching made by a Hudson River painter—looking north from Scarborough, showing a sweeping, placid panorama of the widest section of the river, stretching from Rockland Lake to the mouth of the Croton. The artist has depicted a sailboat in the foreground—representing the romantic, natural … Continue reading View of Haverstraw Bay, circa 1868
Here’s the perfect follow-up to our recent post on bird’s eye view maps of the Croton Aqueduct—an interactive mashup of an 1836 map of Manhattan, georeferenced with satellite images of the city today.1 Using a “spyglass” map viewer you can switch back and forth between the two maps and explore 177 years of growth and … Continue reading The Ultimate Bird’s Eye View of Manhattan
Here are two priceless “bird’s eye” views of the Croton Aqueduct, made eight years apart during the period when New York City was rapidly outgrowing the capacity of what we now call the Old Croton Aqueduct. One map looks north, showing the burgeoning metropolis in 1879—straining the water supply system with its unrelenting growth. The … Continue reading Bird’s Eye Views of the Croton Aqueduct, 1879-1887
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