Yonkers, New York

Philipse Manor Hall

The land on which the city is built was once part of a Dutch 24,000-acre (97-square-kilometer) land grant called Colen Donck. It ran from the current Manhattan-Bronx border at Marble Hill northwards for 12 miles (19 km), and from the Hudson River eastwards to the Bronx River. In July 1645, this area was granted to Adriaen van der Donck, the patroon of Colendonck. Van der Donck was known locally as the Jonkheer or Jonker (etymologically, "young gentleman," derivation of old Dutch jong (young) and heer ("lord"); in effect, "Esquire"), a word from which the name "Yonkers" is directly derived.[6] Van der Donck built a saw mill near where the confluence of Nepperhan Creek and the Hudson. The Nepperhan is now also known as the Saw Mill River. Van der Donck was killed in the Peach War. His wife, Mary Doughty, was taken captive by Native Americans and later ransomed.

Near the site of van der Donck's mill is Philipse Manor Hall, a Colonial-era manor house owned by Dutch colonists. Today the manor is preserved and operated as a museum and archive, offering many glimpses into life before the American Revolution. The original structure (later enlarged) was built around 1682 by Frederick Philipse and his wife Margaret Hardenbroeck. Philipse was a wealthy Dutchman who by the time of his death had amassed an enormous estate, which encompassed the entire modern City of Yonkers, as well as several other Hudson River towns. Philipse's great-grandson, Frederick Philipse III, was a prominent Loyalist during the American Revolution. He had many economic ties to English businessmen, which also resulted in political ties. Because of his political leanings, he was forced to flee to England. The victorious rebels in New York state confiscated all the lands and property that belonged to the Philipse family and sold it.

For its first 200 years, Yonkers was a small farming town with an active industrial waterfront. Yonkers's later growth rested largely on developing industry. In 1853, Elisha Otis invented the first safety elevator and the Otis Elevator Company opened the first elevator factory in the world on the banks of the Hudson near what is now Vark Street. In the 1880s it relocated to larger quarters (now adapted and used as the Yonkers Public Library). Around the same time, the Alexander Smith and Sons Carpet Company (in the Saw Mill River Valley) expanded to 45 buildings, 800 looms, and more than 4,000 workers. It was known as one of the premier carpet-producing centers in the world.

The community was incorporated as a village in the northern part of the Town of Yonkers in 1854 and as a city in 1872. In 1874 the southern part of the town, including Kingsbridge and Riverdale, was annexed by New York City as part of The Bronx. In 1898, Yonkers (along with Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island) voted on a referendum to determine if they wanted to become part of New York City. While the results were positive elsewhere, the returns were so negative in Yonkers and neighboring Mount Vernon that those two areas were not included in the consolidated city and remained independent.[7] Still, some residents call Yonkers "the Sixth Borough," referring to its location on the New York City border, its urban character, and the failed merger vote.

During the American Civil War, 254 Yonkers residents joined the US Army and Navy. They enlisted primarily in four different regiments. These included the 6th New York Heavy Artillery, the 5th New York Volunteer Infantry, the 17th New York Volunteers, and the 15th NY National Guard. During the New York City Draft Riots, Yonkers formed the Home Guards. This force of constables was formed to protect Yonkers from rioting that was feared to spread from New York City, but it never did. In total, seventeen Yonkers residents were killed during the Civil War.[8]

From 1888, the New York City and Northern Railway Company (later the New York Central Railroad) connected Yonkers to Manhattan and points north. A three-mile spur to Getty Square operated until 1943.[9]

Aside from being a manufacturing center, Yonkers played a key role in the development of sports recreation in the United States. In 1888, Scottish-born John Reid founded the first golf course in the United States, Saint Andrew's Golf Club, in Yonkers.[10]

"Typical homes of New York business men" in the Colonial Heights neighborhood of Yonkers, 1911.[11]

Bakelite, the first completely synthetic plastic, was invented in Yonkers circa 1906 by Leo Baekeland, and manufactured there until the late 1920s. Today, two of the former Alexander Smith and Sons Carpet Company loft buildings located at 540 and 578 Nepperhan Avenue have been repurposed to house the YoHo Artist Community. This collective group of artists works out of private studios there.[12]

During World War I, a total of 6,909 Yonkers residents entered military service. This was approximately seven percent of the population.[13]^:vi Most Yonkers men joined either the 27th Division or the 77th Division.[13]^:6 In total, 137 Yonkers residents were killed during the war.[13]^:77 Among the survivors of the USS President Lincoln, a Navy transport ship sunk during the war, were seventeen sailors from Yonkers.[13]^:15

Civilians helped in the war effort by joining organizations such as the American Red Cross. In 1916, there were 126 people in the Yonkers chapter of the Red Cross. By the end of the war, 15,358 Yonkers residents were members of the chapter. Mostly women, they prepared surgical dressings, created hospital garments for the wounded, and knit articles of clothing for refugees and soldiers. Besides joining the Red Cross, residents of Yonkers donated to various war drives. The total amount raised for these drives was $19,255,255.[13]^:23–24

Early in the 20th century, Yonkers also hosted a brass era automobile maker, Colt Runabout Company.[14] Although the vehicle reportedly performed well, the company went under. Yonkers was the headquarters of the Waring Hat Company, at the time the nation's largest hat manufacturer. During World War II, the city's factories were converted to produce items for the war effort, such as tents and blankets by the Alexander Smith and Sons Carpet Factory, and tanks by the Otis Elevator factory. After World War II, however, increased competition from less expensive imports resulted in a decline in manufacturing in Yonkers, and numerous industrial jobs were lost. The Alexander Smith Carpet Company, one of the city's largest employers, ceased operation during a labor dispute in June 1954.

In 1983, the Otis Elevator Factory finally closed its doors. With the loss of such jobs, Yonkers became primarily a residential city. Some neighborhoods, such as Crestwood and Park Hill, became popular with wealthy New Yorkers who wished to live outside Manhattan without giving up urban conveniences. Yonkers's excellent transportation infrastructure, including three commuter railroad lines (now two: the Harlem and Hudson Lines), and five parkways and thruways, made it a desirable city in which to live. It is a 15-minute drive from Manhattan and has numerous prewar homes and apartment buildings. Yonkers's manufacturing sector has also shown a resurgence in the early 21st century.

On January 4, 1940, Yonkers resident Edwin Howard Armstrong transmitted the first FM radio broadcast (on station W2XCR) from the Yonkers home of C.R. Runyon, a co-experimenter. Yonkers had the longest running pirate radio station, owned by Allan Weiner, which operated during the 1970s through the 1980s.

In 1942, a short subway connection was planned between Getty Square and the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line, which terminates in Riverdale at 242nd Street slightly south of the city line. The plan was dropped.[15][16]

In 1960, the Census Bureau reported Yonkers's population as 95.8% white and 4.0% black.[17] The city's struggles with racial discrimination and segregation were highlighted in a decades-long federal lawsuit. After a 1985 decision and an unsuccessful appeal, Yonkers's schools were integrated in 1988. Federal judge Leonard B. Sand ruled that Yonkers had engaged in institutional segregation in housing and school policies for over 40 years. He tied the illegal concentration of public housing and private housing discrimination to the city's resistance to ending racial isolation in its public schools.

Yonkers Public Library

In the 1980s and 1990s, Yonkers developed a national reputation for racial tension, based on a long-term battle between the city and the NAACP over the building of subsidized low-income housing projects in the city. The city planned to use federal funding for urban renewal efforts within Downtown Yonkers exclusively; other groups, led by the NAACP, believed that the resulting concentration of low-income housing in traditionally poor neighborhoods would perpetuate poverty. Although the City of Yonkers had been warned in 1971 by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development against further building of low-income housing in west Yonkers, it continued to support subsidized housing in this area between 1972 and 1977.[18]

Yonkers gained national/international attention during the summer of 1988, when it reneged on its previous agreement to build promised municipal public housing in the eastern portions of the city, an agreement it had made in a consent decree after losing an appeal in 1987. After its reversal, the city was found in contempt of the federal courts. Judge Sand imposed a fine on Yonkers which started at $100 and doubled every day, capped at $1 million per day by an appeals court,[19] until the city capitulated to the federally mandated plan.

Yonkers remained in contempt of court until September 9, 1988. The City Council relented in the wake of having to close the library and cutback on sanitation measures because of paying the fines. It also was considering having to make massive city layoffs which would have adversely affected its ability to provide services to the upper classes it was trying to retain. First-term mayor Nicholas C. Wasicsko fought to save the city from financial disaster and bring about unity. Yonkers's youngest mayor (elected at age 28), Wasicsko struggled in city politics. It was scarred with the stigma of the "Balkanization of Yonkers". He succeeded in helping to end the city's contempt of the courts, but was voted out of office as a result. His story is the subject of a miniseries called Show Me a Hero, which aired on HBO in 2015. It was adapted from the 1999 nonfiction book of the same name by former New York Times writer, Lisa Belkin.

A Kawasaki railroad cars assembly plant opened in 1986 in the former Otis plant. It produces the new R142A, R143, R160B, and R188 cars for the New York City Subway, and the PA4 and PA5 series for PATH.

In the 2000s, some areas of Yonkers that border similar neighborhoods in Riverdale, Bronx began seeing an influx of Orthodox Jews. Subsequently, Riverdale Hatzalah Volunteer Ambulance Service began serving some neighborhoods in the southwest section of the city.[20] There is also a small Jewish cemetery, the Sherwood Park Cemetery.[21]

Northeast Yonkers is a primarily Irish-American and Italian-American area. House sizes vary widely, from small houses set close together, to larger homes in areas like Lawrence Park West and mid-rise apartment buildings along Central Avenue (NY 100). Central Avenue (officially named Central Park Avenue) provides an abundance of shopping for Yonkers residents. Shopping centers along Central Avenue include stores such as Best Buy, Burlington Coat Factory, Kohl's, Bob's Furniture and Barnes & Noble, as well as many other stores and restaurants. Notable former residents include Steven Tyler (born Steven Tallarico) of the rock band Aerosmith, whose childhood home was located at 100 Pembrook Drive.[28]

Northeast Yonkers contains the upscale neighborhoods of Crestwood, Colonial Heights, and Cedar Knolls, as well as the wealthy enclaves of Beech Hill and Lawrence Park West. It also contains a gated community off the eastern edge of the Grassy Sprain Reservoir known as Winchester Villages. Landmarks include St Vladimir's Seminary, as well as Sarah Lawrence College, and the Tanglewood Shopping Center (one-time home of The Tanglewood Boys gang). Northeast Yonkers is somewhat more expensive than the rest of the city, and due to the proximity of several Metro-North commuter railroad stations, its residents tend to be employed in corporate positions in Manhattan.

The "Blue Cube", a former factory turned television production facility on the Northwest Yonkers waterfront, as seen from across the Hudson River

Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church

Riverdale Avenue looking north from the Bronx line

Messiah Baptist Church

Northwest Yonkers is a collection of widely varying neighborhoods, spanning from the Hudson River to around the New York State Thruway/I-87 and from Ashburton Avenue north to the Hastings-on-Hudson border. With the Hudson River bordering it to the west, this area has many Victorian-era homes with panoramic views of the Palisades. An interest in historic preservation has taken hold in this area in recent years, as demonstrated on streets like Shonnard Terrace, Delavan Terrace, and Hudson Terrace.

Neighborhoods include Nepera Park, Runyon Heights, Homefield, Glenwood, and Greystone. Landmarks include the Hudson River Museum, the Lenoir Nature Preserve, and the nationally recognized Untermyer Park and Gardens. In fact, Untermyer Park and Gardens is not only Yonkers hidden gem but is the number one attraction in Westchester County. The significant amount of surviving Victorian architecture and number of 19th-century estates in northwest Yonkers has attracted many filmmakers in recent years.

The two block section of Palisade Avenue between Chase and Roberts Avenues in northwest Yonkers is colloquially known as "the north end" or "the end." It was and still is the only retail area in northwest Yonkers, and was well known for its soda fountain, Urich's Stationery, and Robbins Pharmacy. It was once the end of the #2 trolley line, which has since been replaced by a Bee-line Bus route. One part of Yonkers that is sometimes overlooked is Nepera Park. This is a small neighborhood at the northern part of Nepperhan Avenue on the Hastings-on-Hudson border. Nepperhan Avenue in Nepera Park is also a major shopping district for the area.

Southeast Yonkers is mostly Irish-American (many of the Irish being native born) and Italian-American. Many of the businesses and type of architecture in southeast Yonkers bear a greater resemblance to certain parts of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, or Staten Island than to points north. Southeastern Yonkers is largely within walking distance of the Woodlawn and Wakefield sections of the Bronx. Many residents regard eastern McLean Avenue, home to a vibrant Irish community shared with Woodlawn, to be the true hub of Yonkers.

Similarly, a portion of Midland Avenue in the Dunwoodie section has been called the "Little Italy" of Yonkers. Landmarks of southeastern Yonkers include the Cross County Shopping Center, Yonkers Raceway, and St. Joseph's Seminary in the Dunwoodie neighborhood, which was visited by Pope John Paul II in October 1995 and later by Pope Benedict XVI in April 2008.

Getty Square is Yonkers's downtown and the civic center and central business district of the city. Much of southwest Yonkers grew densely along the multiple railroads and trolley (now bus) lines along South Broadway and in Getty Square, connecting to New York City. Clusters of apartment buildings surrounded the stations of the Yonkers branch of the New York and Putnam Railroad and the Third Avenue Railway trolley lines and these buildings still remain although now served by the Bee-Line Bus System. The railroad companies themselves built neighborhoods of mixed housing types ranging from apartment buildings to large mansions in areas like Park Hill wherein the railroad also built a funicular to connect it with the train station in the valley. This traditionally African-American and white area has seen a tremendous influx of immigrants from Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, South Asia, and the Middle East. Off South Broadway and Yonkers Avenue one can find residential neighborhoods, such as Lowerre, Nodine Hill, Park Hill, and Hudson Park (off the Hudson River) with a mix of building styles ranging from dense clusters of apartment buildings, blocks of retail with apartments above, multifamily row houses, and detached single-family homes.[29]

Other neighborhoods of these types, although with a larger number of detached houses, are Ludlow Park, Hudson Park, and Van Cortlandt Crest, off Riverdale Avenue next to the border with Riverdale.

The area is also home to significant historical and educational institutions including the historic Philipse Manor Hall (a New York State Historic Site that houses one of three papier-mache ceilings in the United States), The Science Barge, Beczak Environmental Education Center, and a 2003 Yonkers Public Library.[30]

Many residents are of African, Caribbean, Italian, or Mexican descent while an influx those from other cultural backgrounds has continued to shape a culturally diverse community. Some neighborhoods right on the Riverdale border are increasingly becoming home to Orthodox Jews. The revitalization of the Getty Square area has helped to nurture growth for Southwest Yonkers.

In the early 2000s several new luxury apartment buildings were built along the Hudson. There is also a new "Sculpture Meadow on the Hudson," renovation of a Victorian-era pier, and a new public library housed in the remodeled Otis elevator factory. Peter Kelly's award-winning fine dining restaurant X₂0 - Xaviars on Hudson is located at the renovated pier with much success.[31][32] There are new proposals along with the current projects which are intended to revitalize downtown Yonkers.

Yonkers has the eleventh-highest rate of public transit ridership among cities in the United States, and 27% of Yonkers households do not own a car.[38]

Bus service in Yonkers is provided by Westchester County Bee-Line Bus System, the second-largest bus system in New York State, along with some MTA Bus Company express routes to Manhattan. Yonkers is the top origin and destination for the Bee-Line Bus service area, including Westchester and the northern Bronx, with the Getty Square intermodal hub seeing passenger levels in the millions annually.[39]

Yonkers is served by two heavy-rail commuter lines. Hudson Line Metro-North Railroad stations provide commuter service to New York City: Ludlow, Yonkers, Glenwood, and Greystone. The Yonkers station is also served by Amtrak. All of the named Empire Service trains except the Lake Shore Limited serve the Yonkers station. Several Harlem Line stations are on or very near the city's eastern border. These include Wakefield, Mt. Vernon West, Fleetwood, Bronxville, Tuckahoe and Crestwood. A third commuter line dating from the late 19th century, the Putnam Division, was shut down in phases with the final passenger trains making their last runs in 1958.[40]

New York Water Taxi formerly operated a ferry service from downtown Yonkers to Manhattan's Financial District, but it ceased in December 2009.[41]

Yonkers began a dockless bikeshare program operated by LimeBike in May 2018.[42]

Major limited-access roads in Yonkers include Interstate 87 (the New York State Thruway), the Saw Mill, Bronx River, Sprain Brook and Cross County parkways. US 9, NY 9A and 100 are important surface streets.

The main line of the former New York and Putnam Railroad running through the middle of Yonkers has been converted into a paved walking and bicycling path, called the South County Trailway. It runs north–south in Yonkers from the Hastings-on-Hudson border in the north to the Bronx border in the south at Van Cortlandt Park where it is unpaved as of 2014 and is referred to as the Putnam Trail.

Yonkers Fire Department headquarters from 1927 to 2015

The historic Croton Aqueduct tunnel has a hard-packed dirt trail, called the Old Croton Aqueduct Trailway, running above it for most of its length in Yonkers, with a few on-street routes on the edge of the Getty Square neighborhood.

According to Yonkers's 2018 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report,[45] the principal employers in the city are;

• Richard Joel, president of Yeshiva University
• John Howard Northrop (1891-1987), co-recipient of 1946 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.[46]
• Charles Proteus Steinmetz, German-American mathematician and electrical engineer

• Elisha Otis, inventor of the safety elevator and Otis Elevator Company
• Alexander Smith, founder of Alexander Smith & Sons Carpet Company

• Carlos Alazraqui (born 1962), actor, stand-up comedian and impressionist[47]
• Joseph Alfidi (1949–2015), classical pianist[48]
• Amanda Ayala, singer and musician
• Edwin Howard Armstrong (1890–1954), transmitted first FM radio broadcast[49]
• Charlie Benante (born 1962), musician best known as the drummer for thrash metal band Anthrax, as well as crossover thrash band Stormtroopers of Death.[50]
• Mary J. Blige (born 1971), R&B singer[51]
• Sid Caesar, actor and comedian
• Cathy DeBuono, actress, psychotherapist, radio personality
• DMX, rapper, actor
• Jadakiss, rapper
• Klement Tinaj, actor
• Ella Fitzgerald, singer
• Thomas Mikal Ford, actor
• Frances Foster, actress
• Michael Fox (1921–1996), character actor who played Saul Feinberg on the daytime soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful.[52]
• Joe Howard, actor
• Immolation, Death metal band
• Ekrem Jevrić, Montenegrin singer, rapper
• Gene Krupa (1909-1973), drummer[53]
• Clayton LeBouef (born 1954), actor[54]
• Stagga Lee (born 1977), musician[55]
• W.C. Handy, composer and musician
• Sheek Louch (born 1976), rapper, member of The LOX[56]
• Linda Lovelace (1949-2002), star of 1972 "porno chic" film Deep Throat[57]
• Richard Masur (born 1948), actor[58]
• Joe Minoso, actor
• Lawrence Monoson (born 1964), actor
• Cathy Moriarty (born 1960), actress who appeared in Raging Bull.[59]
• Outasight, singer, rapper
• Erik Palladino, actor
• Kevin Puts, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer
• Will Rahmer, musician
• Adam Rodriguez, actor
• Robert Shayne, actor
• Avery Storm, R&B singer
• Styles P, Rapper, member of The LOX
• Chip Taylor, songwriter (brother of Jon Voight)
• Paul Teutul Sr., founder of Orange County Choppers and reality television personality on American Chopper
• Steven Tyler, musician, member of Aerosmith
• Jon Voight, Oscar-winning actor, father of Angelina Jolie
• Tom Wolk, Hall & Oates session musician

• Joseph Stilwell, U.S. Army General during World War I and World War II

• David Berkowitz (born 1953), serial killer known as the Son of Sam[60]
• Michael Burns (born 1947), actor, historian and horse breeder, reared in Yonkers from 1949 to 1956
• James Comey, director of the FBI
• Rudolf Eickemeyer Jr., photographer
• Ron Garan, astronaut
• Lewis Hine, photographer
• Ethel D. Jacobs, thoroughbred racehorse owner
• Henrietta Wells Livermore (1864-1933), women's suffragist leader[61]
• Michaela Odone (c. 1930–1992, née Murphy), mother of Lorenzo Odone, for whom Lorenzo's oil is named.[62]
• Sally Regenhard, community activist
• Joe Ruback, license plate guy
• Barbara Segal, Artist and stone carver[63]
• Betty Shabazz, widow of civil rights leader Malcolm X
• Adriaen Cornelissen van der Donck, (c. 1618, 1655)
• Samuel Untermyer, Prominent lawyer and civic leader known for bequeathing his Yonkers, New York estate, now known as Untermyer Park and Gardens, to the people of Yonkers.

• William F. Bleakley (1883-1969), attorney, judge and politician who was the first Westchester County Executive.[64]
• Alfred DelBello, Mayor of Yonkers
• Mike Spano, Mayor of Yonkers
• Samuel J. Tilden, former Governor of New York and winner of the popular vote in the disputed Presidential Election of 1876
• Nick Wasicsko, mayor during low-income housing controversy, 1988–1989; John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award runner-up
• Malcolm Wilson, former Governor of New York

• James Blake (born 1979), tennis player[65]
• Billy Burch (1900-1950), professional hockey player who was the first American-born player to win the Hart Trophy[66]
• Dave Costa, NFL player, Saunders HS 1957–1959
• Jon Dalzell (born 1960), American-Israeli basketball player
• Doug DeWitt, professional boxer
• Tommy Dreamer, professional wrestler
• Ralph Goldstein (1913–1997), Olympic épée fencer[67]
• Nealon Greene, professional football player (CFL)
• Sean Kilpatrick, professional basketball player
• Eddie Kingston, professional wrestler
• Allan Kwartler (1917–1998), sabre and foil fencer, Pan American Games and Maccabiah Games champion[68]
• Joe Lapchick (1900-1970), basketball coach.[69]
• Ryan Meara (born 1990), professional soccer player[70]
• Joe Panik, professional baseball player
• Floyd Patterson, champion heavyweight boxer[71]
• Eulace Peacock, track and field athlete who defeated Jesse Owens in sprints
• Jim Reilly, (1948-1994) professional football player (NFL)[72]
• Vincent Richards, professional tennis player
• Steve Ridzik, professional baseball player
• Brian Sweeney, professional baseball player
• Salvatore Tripoli, Olympic boxer
• George Wright, baseball pioneer

• Mike Breen (born 1961), sports broadcaster[73]
• Mary Calvi, news anchor
• Robert Celestino, writer and director
• Tiziano Thomas Dossena, writer, editor
• Tawny Godin, Miss America 1976, TV journalist (Tawny Little)
• Patrick Quinlan, author, activist
• Elsie B. Washington, author