Otis Elevator Company, December 2006.
(Historic image here: Yonkers Illustrated.)
YONKERS - GALLERY 2
Otis Elevator Company, December 2006.
(Historic image here: Yonkers
Illustrated.)
In 1954, the Alexander Smith carpet firm deserted Yonkers for a more hospitable (read: more highly profitable) climate in Mississippi. Soon thereafter, the Otis Elevator company used vague threats of similar relocation to extort the most beneficial tax and wage-&-production terms from the city and the company's workers. The city and the Otis employees caved in, but Otis eventually left Yonkers anyway. Today the factory buildings are occupied by Kawasaki, which manufactures subway cars here. However, Yonkers is clearly no longer the factory town it once was. Many of the handsome old buildings survive, offering glimpses of their former incarnations through hints obvious and subtle.
This clothing store adjacent to the Otis
works offered overcoats for the prices between $12.50 and $18 - "none
higher." Although Yonkers is known for the few industries that
once dominated the city and employed thousands of people - the carpet mills, hat
factories, the
elevator factory, and sugar plant - many other small industrial concerns sprang
up around the city, especially near the Hudson River. A few are even still
active today.
Max Braun and Sons, Woodworth Avenue.
Still a going concern, January 2007.
Stevens Paint, with Otis elevator
buildings in distance. Woodworth Avenue, January 2007.
Sign for the demolished Lighthouse Restaurant, Alexander Street. The restaurant
took its name from a nearby pump station's smokestack which was
designed to resemble a lighthouse. February 2007.
The Deane Plaster Company, Ludlow Street.
December 2006.
(Historic image here: Yonkers
Illustrated.)
The National Sugar refinery (presently American Sugar Refining Company)
looms over
Buena Vista Avenue. December 2006. (Historic image here: Yonkers
Illustrated.)
Yonkers Teutonia. 51 Buena Vista Avenue,
December 2006.
Built in
1891, the Teutonia was home to a singing and literary association. The building
features Queen Anne-style details such as sunburst motifs that decorate round
arched windows. The building seems entirely abandoned today, though in recent
decades in had been used as a warehouse. Plans have been bandied about in recent
years for the demolition of this building and adjacent stable; no apparent work
ahs been done as of early 2007. It is located just a few doors up from
the Trolley Barn. The redevelopment of that National Register-listed building
has been poorly managed, but hopefully new owners can succeed. Perhaps the good
work can spread uphill to the Yonkers Teutonia building.
Gate to a house that is not there
anymore.
Buena Vista Avenue, December 2006.
This page copyright © 2007 by
Robert J. Yasinsac.
Reproduction or copying of text and/or photography in any form without
permission of the author is not permitted.
