Title: BATTLE ON MAY 14, 1781, IN YORKTOWN (THE NASTY AFFAIR AT PINES BRIDGE)
Location: Yorktown Capellini Community Center (Nutrition Rm.), 1974 Commerce St., Yorktown Hts.
Description: Presented by Monica Doherty, past Society President, and Paul Martin III, current Society President. Monica prepared and edited the book, “The Nasty Affair at Pines Bridge”. The full story will be presented of historic events that occurred in what is now Yorktown on May 14, 1781, at Pines Bridge and at the Davenport House that was Headquarters of the First Rhode Island Regiment stationed to protect the crossing. The Pines Bridge was a strategic crossing of the Croton River and the only crossing east of the Hudson River. The Regiment was an integrated unit composed of Black Freemen and Native Americans under the command of Lt. Col. Christopher Greene. The account will review the site, the battle and the casualties which occurred during the attack by British and Loyalist soldiers.
Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2018-10-15

Title: Hudson River Lighthouses
Location: John C. Hart Memorial Library 1130 Main Street, Shrub Oak, NY
Description: The Hudson River’s first lighthouse was built in 1826 at Stony Point. By the early 1900s, more than a dozen lights guided ships past the river’s islands and shallows.

Kevin Woyce, an author, photographer, and lecturer, specializing in regional American history will take the audience on a tour of the Hudson River’s lighthouses, past and present—from the long-lost lights at Coxsackie and Stuyvesant to New York City’s beloved “Little Red Lighthouse.” He will explain how and why these beacons were built and tell the stories of some of the brave men and women who kept them shining. The program is illustrated with original color photographs of Hudson River lighthouses and landmarks, plus vintage images of historic people, places, and events.

Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2018-09-20

Title: MANY TRAILS OF STOCKBRIDGE MUNSEE MOHICANS
Location: Yorktown Hart Library, 1130 Main St., Shrub Oak.
Description: By Jeremy Mohawk member of Stockbridge Munsee’s Tribal Council since 2014 and who is passionate about the Tribe’s culture and traditions. He has often returned to the Tribe’s eastern homelands for responsibilities as needed. Traditional territory of the Mohican and Munsee people includes Yorktown. The presentation will include the history of the Tribe from their original homelands along the Mahicannituck, the “waters that are never still”, to the many removals which resulted in the tribe ending up in its reservation today in northern Wisconsin. The traditions and current state of his people today will be covered as the Tribe continues to be active in its Eastern homelands.
Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2018-03-15

Title: “Lost Annsville”
Location: Hart Library in Shrub Oak
Description: The tiny hamlet of Annsville was home to some of Peekskill and Cortlandt’s first industries. Its lampblack factory was the antecedent to a crayon dynasty and the blast furnace on the shore of Annsville Creek had its own narrow gauge railroad running to the Croft mines of Putnam. The large wire mill at the base of Lampblack Hill was the area’s largest employer, yet not a trace remains of these vibrant industries and others that were central to the existence of this little hamlet.
Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2018-02-15

Title: “LOCAL CLIMATE HISTORY—NORTHERN WESTCHESTER WARMING”
Location: Yorktown Community Center (Nutrition Rm), 1974 Commerce St., Yorktown Hts.
Description: By Yorktown volunteer observers Daniel Thaler (2014-2017) and Jerome Thaler (1964-2014). Northern Westcheter and Putnam National Weather Service (NWS) records since the 1890s show the last two decades have been the warmest. These two dedicated weather observers have recorded weather conditions daily for the NWS. This presentation reveals the weather extremes both on a monthly and annual basis for our local area Other aspects on climate will also be shown. In 2013, Jerome put out a book “Hudson Valley Warming”. His son Daniel is now the local observer for NWS. Is there a ‘Hot Time in the Old Town’?
Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2018-01-18

Title: “THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN”
Location: Yorktown Community Center (Nutrition Rm), 1974 Commerce St., Yorktown Hts.
Description: Captain Dixie Kiefer was the Executive Officer on the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier during what some consider the turning point of WWII in the Pacific, the battles of the Coral Sea and Midway in May of 1942. This makes 2017 the 75th anniversary of these historic battles. In 1944, Kiefer became the first Commanding Officer of the USS Ticonderoga. On November 11, 1945, a Navy plane carrying Captain Dixie crashed in Dutchess County killing all aboard. David Rocco tells the complete story of this hero who inspired the entire nation.
Start Time: 1930
Date: 2017-11-16

Title: “CROTON HEIGHTS—FROM THE REVOLUTION TO 1920s LAND DEVELOPMENT”
Location: Yorktown Community Center (Nutrition Rm), Commerce St., Yorktown Hts.
Description: By Nancy Truitt who has led the Croton Heights Community Association for a number of years. Croton Heights is a community just south of Yorktown Heights and north of the Croton River. During the American Revolution the “Nasty Affair at Pines Bridge” occurred there at what is known as the Davenport House. Several 1700 era houses still remain there. The hamlet started in the 1700s as a rural community and in the 1920s it got caught up by a Real Estate Visionary with “strong minded women” who realized that the Taconic Parkway would open up the Yorktown area. This is a community of distinction with a unique and interesting history.
Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2017-09-28

Title: BEAR MOUNTAIN BRIDGE— BRIDGES OVER THE HUDSON
Location: Yorktown Hart Library, 1130 Main St. Shrub Oak
Description: By Henry J. Stanton, a member of the board of the New York Bridge Authority and a 40 year veteran of New York State and local transportation agencies. When the Bear Mountain Bridge opened in 1924 it was the longest suspension bridge in the world, the first large bridge built to carry automobiles and the first to rely on auto tolls to pay for its construction. It opened the floodgates to an era of American bridge construction. The presentation takes a look at the history of the Bear Mountain Bridge, the historical significance of the site it occupies and the other unique crossings that followed creating the society and prosperity of the modern Hudson Valley.
Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2017-06-15

Title: HORACE GREELEY AND FAMILY
Location: Yorktown Community Center (Nutrition Rm.), Commerce St., Yorktown Hts.
Description: By Gray Williams, New Castle Town Historian and a Trustee of New Castle and Westchester County Historical Societies. Horace Greeley, the editor of one of the foremost newspapers, the New York Tribune, bought property in Chappaqua in 1852. He moved into a larger house later which is now the museum and headquarters of the New Castle Historical Society. Greeley ran for U.S. President against Ulysses S. Grant in 1872. Nationally, Greeley was a famous journalist and political leader. In New Castle, he and his family made lasting and significant contributions. Join us for an interesting presentation about a Westchester individual important in our history.
Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2017-04-20

Title: Hunterbrook Rock Shelter
Location: Peter Pratts Resturant
Description: The Hunterbrook Rockshelter is a prehistoric site in our backyard which illuminates the science of archaeology and the deep past in the Lower Hudson Valley.

In 1976 Roberta Wingerson of MALFA (Museum and Laboratory For Archaeology) excavated a small cave of glacially tumbled boulders in Yorktown, not far from the Croton Dam. Her discoveries shed light on stone tool types as an indicator of culture and age, the local landscape of thousands years ago and the importance of small scale explorations by trained avocational archaeologists.

John Phillips is the Naturalist at Croton Point Park Nature Center and President of the Louis A. Brennan Lower Hudson Chapter of the New York State Archaeological Association.

Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2017-05-16