Some Unfortunate News

We haven't been active lately. Mainly our vision for Yonkers isn't the same that many people "in power" have. A bit discouraging? Yes, but we are coming back because of some very unfortunate news. One of Yonkers' most historical sites is currently threatened to be destroyed.

   

Yonkers Teutonia Built 1891

In typical Yonkers style, the Teutonia (a German singing hall), is under threat from developers and a city government that works with them. In his state of the city speech last week, Mayor Spano proposed a new school and large residential building for the site. Also the city wants to build ANOTHER parking garage. Essentially the plan is supposed to emulate NYC schools/high-rise development.  

This historical building used to host large German-speaking crowds as they would celebrate their culture. The Teutonia was essentially the hub of German culture in Yonkers and the Bronx. At the time of its construction there were 10 million Germans in the U.S. and this site is key to their history. Check out this site for more info on it: http://www.victoriansource.com/id27.html. 

Over the past years, though, the hall as remained vacant. Here are some pics courtesy of Hudson Valley Ruins by Rob Yasinsac: http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/yasinsac/yonkers/teutonia-1.html. 

Anyway, in an already overdeveloped downtown area, the preservation and use of historic buildings are key to attracting people to the area whether for the day or to live there. In many ways, downtown Yonkers has characteristics similar to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which has become a very trendy neighborhood. With the Yonkers Metro-North Station, Yonkers has the ability to become the next hot neighborhood in the NYC area.

However, the City of Yonkers is obsessed with building up rather than sprucing up. The downtown Yonkers redevelopment has been a mixed bag. You have X20s and the Science Barge. The use of the Yonkers City Victorian Pier for X20s is a bit of a shame, but it is attracting many people so the cost-benefit analysis makes it a success. The Science Barge attracts a very large amount of people, especially younger people. There are a few other success examples in the area, but there have been MANY flops and they have involved development on a larger scale. Most important example are the residential buildings on the Hudson that are now rentals and not Coops. 

Places like Boston, Baltimore, and now Brooklyn boomed because it used its history to connect with the present. The destruction of the Teutonia will, firstly, show disregard for a very important past and, secondly, not be sensible.

We are back! Some updates.. Also Korean War Memorial

We are back. After a few week break we now have gotten things together and are ready to post a lot of new things. Also, http://www.beautifulyonkers.com/ is in the process of being remade. Our first version was a little bit low budget, but now with some new software its going to be pretty nice. We will let you know when its done.

Anyway, here is some pictures of the Korean War Memorial. The Korean War Memorial is very well kept and is located near Dunwoodie Golf Course and Saunders High School on Palmer Road. It is a beautiful tribute to the forgotten war..

St. Vladimir's Orthodox Seminary

When somebody refers to the seminary in Yonkers almost everybody assumes they are refering to St. Joseph's Seminary in the Dunwoodie section. There is however another seminary in Yonkers, one that actually has more students than Roman Catholic one. St. Vladimir's Seminary is the seminary for the Orthodox Church in America which is an offshoot of the Russian Orthodox Church. Their seminary for all of their soon to be priests is located in Crestwood. The grounds are very well maintained and the buildings are beautiful.

The history of the Orthodox Church in Yonkers is very interesting. Many Eastern Europeans moved to Yonkers in the early 20th Century. They brought with them their Orthodox Christianity faith. Unfortunately over the past 50 years, their numbers have dwindled. There are many Orthodox and Eastern Rite Catholic churches in Yonkers though and we reccomend you check them out.

Tibbetts Brook Park and other news..

First, the other news. We have updated beautifulyonkers.com! We offer a calendar now as well as a services section (no, not the craigslist type of services lol). We also switched up the colors a little so thats coolish looking (whatever).

Some more news, the Greystone Castle is hosting a movie! I think Sharon Stone (blast from the far past) is starring in it. We have gotten a lot of questions about where it is. It is off North Broadway around Sacred Heart on Shonnard Terrace.

Anyway, the post! We are doing Tibbetts Brook Park this week. Tibbetts Brook Park is located in a valley between Park Hill and Dunwoodie. It is a very nice park with many recreational activities including a waterpark which may be the biggest shame of all of Yonkers.

The old pool at Tibbetts was very old and was one of the only public pools in the whole area for many years. As a matter of fact, the old pool at Tibbetts was one of the oldest pools in the U.S. before they decided to renovate and turn it into a waterpark... Oh well. AT LEAST, the county of Westchester did not tear down the historic bathhouse there...

There are two beautiful parts of the park. One is the gazebo, the other is the waterfall. Enjoy.

The New Students at the Boyce Thompson Institute

The Boyce Thompson Institute was founded in 1912 and was in operation in North Yonkers until 1978 when it was absorbed into Cornell University and was moved up to Ithaca. The institute's main purpose was to do experiments on plants. Many important discoveries were made here. Now the building and the greenhouses connected to it are abandoned.

The other day we were driving in Executive Park and were about to pull up to Dunkin Donuts when we noticed a few creatures milling about near the entrance.

Das Deutsche Teutonia Hall (The German Teutonia Hall)

Es gab einen Platz für deutsche Musik in Yonkers!

For those of you who do not know German the first sentence says "There was a place for German music in Yonkers!" Unfortunately, this place is now closed and abandoned, but a very important culturual and historic relic right next to the Waterfront.

Known as the Teutonia Hall, it was opened by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1892 so that Germans living in Yonkers could celebrate their culture via this singing hall. The building is abandoned now, but stands as a testament to many German immigrants who came to Yonkers in the late 1800's. If you go to Woodlawn Cemetary, just south of Yonkers, you will see many German names, many who lived in Yonkers.  Unfortunately there is very little left of the German culture in Yonkers. We have included a Deutsches Volkslied (a German folk song) so that you would have an idea of what was sung at the Teutonia Hall. The song is, "In Einem Kuhlen Grunde" (In a cool place). This is in honor of the German people who called Yonkers home and one time made the Teutonia Hall an active place.

It seems that a developer has bought the hall... It will only be a matter of time when this historical building meets the wrecking ball unless we all do something about it. The current policy of knocking down history to create nothing is going to make Yonkers lose its identity. 

The Ruins of Untermyer

The other day we went over to the Aqueduct Trail off of Odell Ave. in order to visit the entrance house to the former Untermyer Estate. The trail is interestingly very quiet but the sites become interesting. The house itself has been abandoned for quite some time and has become a hangout spot for druggies and gangs. There is some very beautiful aspects of the house though. The entrance has a statue of a lion keeping guard of the entrance. Then there is the archway that one must go through in order to see the actual house which is quite old (and unfortunately covered with graffiti).

This one place in Yonkers is shamefully in a state of disrepair. It is the wish of us that this area is restored. Will it happen? Definitely not.. The politicians down at city hall are only interested in building new things and not taking care of what is already here. Either they fail to recognize that Yonkers has a cultural heritage or they just do not care. Beautiful Yonkers is trying to recognize Yonkers' heritage, which has simply been pulverized by self-interested politicians. This area of Yonkers is key to the future. Either the City of Yonkers' will knock it down or they will restore it (or they could just leave it the way it is). Who really knows the answer to this question.

The current lion keeping guard

As always check out the unofficial tourist site of Yonkers, http://www.beautifulyonkers.com/

Adopt a Friend

The Yonkers Animal shelter is a municipal shelter located on 120 Fullerton Ave.  It has many new friends to offer, so stop by any day of the week and give these pets a chance and a loving home!  Monday-Friday 11:00am-3:30pm and Weekends 12:00pm-3:30pm.

This is Darby!  He is a 7 month old Pointer/American Staffordshire Terrier Mix.  He LOVES people and seems very friendly towards other dogs.  Scratch his back and he'll love you forever.  Give Darby a home!

The shelter has a cat room filled with beautiful cats of all different types.  At the moment, there are also an array of kittens.  How can you say no to those faces?!?

To browse other adoptable pets, see these links:
Dogs
Cats

If you are unable to adopt, you can still help the cause.  Old blankets, dry/wet cat/dog food, cages, toys can all be donated.

You can also donate, and even put your name on a brick, towards the construction of the New Yonkers Animal Shelter:

Plans are also in the works for Yonkers to build a new animal shelter.  The current one was built 50 years ago as purely a temporary holding place, not one for adoption.  The shelter is near capacity, only able to hold 140 animals.  Therefore, the conditions are very cramped and the cages small.  Plans for a new animal shelter are in the works but they are over 2 million dollars from their goal.  This shelter will be able to hold 50% more animals and will have grassy areas for them to run around.  With such a large city like Yonkers, there is no other option!  It needs a large shelter with a focus on adoption rather than just a holding place.  Bring Yonkers into the future and donate to the cause.

This picture is from the yonkersny.gov.

Donate at:
http://www.newyonkersanimalshelter.org/

St. Casimir's Church

Welcome to our favorite church in Yonkers, St. Casimir's! Very few people have really ventured into this large, Polish church on Nepperhan Ave, but those who have understand what we mean when we say: this church is extraordinarily unique and is unlike any other church in the area.

St. Casimir's is the center of Polish culture in Yonkers. The Polish people are not a large ethnic group in the Northeast United States, but Yonkers became home to many Polish immigrants. To this day, Polish-Americans are heavily involved in how Yonkers operates. Most of these people called St. Casimir's their community and religious center.

St. Casimir's is a type of gothic only found in Poland. The interior is very ornate, but also inviting. There are many pieces of art in the church including its ceiling and its windows. St. Casimir's also has a pulpit similar to the one at Immaculate Conception-St. Mary's which is extremely unique.

We were lucky enough to get into St. Casimir's. Its never really open and I have gone countless times to try to photograph it. I included a picture of a Polish deli located next to the church.

I apologize for the poor quality of some of the photos. Being ornate= impossible to photograph!

The Castle of Yonkers

Yes. There is a castle in Yonkers. It is very hidden and very few people know of its existance. There have been many recent news articles about the "Castle of Yonkers" as the current owner, Kohle Yohannan, is trying to sell it for $5 million.

The castle is very interesting. According to the New York Times, half of the castle's twenty rooms were imported from Europe (wall and all!)  The official name of the castle is Greystone Point and has an extraordinary view of the Hudson. It is an UNBELIEVABLE site...

Check out this article on it.. Article

In order to see the castle, you must be comfortable driving on a windy road. If you are, then turn onto Shonnard Terrace from N Broadway and then just go down and follow the road. You can also access Shonnard Terrace from Warburton Ave near the Hudson River Museum.