Croton Historical Society

05/14/2026

CROTON WATERFRONT HISTORY WALK
Join Village Historian Marc Cheshire for an engaging walking tour of Croton’s picturesque Hudson River waterfront. Discover the rich history of the 18th-century docks, the brickyards that changed the landscape, Croton’s first train station, the early 20th-century Osborn boat building operation, the destruction of the waterfront business district to build Route 9, and much more. The tour will last approximately one hour, along a flat, easy-to-navigate path.

Registration is required for the free tour taking place Sunday, May 17 at 1:00 p.m.

Click the link to register. Note that the walk begins at the parking lot on Elliott Way near Half Moon Bay. https://www.crotononhudson-ny.gov/recreation-parks/webforms/2026-croton-historical-society-presentations

04/04/2026

After the 1776 Battle of White Plains, Westchester became known as the “Neutral Ground” — a region claimed by neither side, yet marked by constant conflict. With militias, bandits, and rival forces clashing across the county, neutrality was nearly impossible.

Join historian Stephen Paul DeVillo on April 8 for a talk based on his book Westchester County in the American Revolution, exploring this turbulent chapter of our region’s past.

Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site
April 8 | 7–9 PM | Free!

Reserve your spot and view event details: https://www.visitwestchesterny.com/event/the-neutral-ground%3a-westchester-county-in-the-american-revolution/98/

04/03/2026

North Riverside Avenue in the 1930s.

03/29/2026

Inez Milholland lived in the house on Alexander Lane in Croton that was built as the administration building for opera diva Lillian Nordica’s planned opera house and school. Milholland moved there in 1913, after her marriage to wealthy coffee importer, Eugene Boissevain. She died just three years later in California at the age of 30, her husband at her side.

Boissevain was remarried in 1923 to poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. The private ceremony took place in the garden at the home of artist, Boardman Robinson on Mt. Airy Road South in Croton.

Inez Milholland, a Vassar grad and fighter for woman's suffrage. She once stopped a campaign parade for President William Howard Taft by speaking through a megaphone from a window over the route. In 1909, Milholland applied to law school at Yale, Harvard and Columbia but was rejected because she was female. Eventually she enrolled at the New York University School of Law, earning her degree in 1912. The next year she led a suffrage parade in Washington, D.C., wearing a crown and white cape and navigating on a white horse through crowds of drunken men.
By Ezekiel Sanger

03/27/2026

Gloria Swanson owned her estate in Croton for 3 years (from May/June 1924 to June 1927). She sold the estate to artist George Biddle and his first wife, Jane Belo.

Note that there is no “Kitchawan Hill” in Croton. Someone probably picked that up from a 1924 NY Times article about Swanson buying her Croton estate which said “The Colonial farmhouse on the property is situated on the very top of Kitchawan Hill and commands views of the surrounding country for a range of fifty miles.”

The house was actually located on Hessian Hill. The error likely originates because Ralph Waldo Trine, who lived nearby and owned most of the surrounding land, started a real estate company called “Kitchawan Hills Estates” in 1912.

Gloria Swanson, a very successful early American film star, was born on March 27, 1899. She began her acting career in her hometown of Chicago, later purchasing homes in New York City, New Jersey, and California. In 1924, Swanson called Westchester County home when she purchased a 40-acre estate in Croton-on-Hudson where she spent summers with her children. In the mid-1920s, it is reported that Swanson was one of the highest paid actors in all of Hollywood.

03/11/2026

"A Raisin in the Sun" premiered in the Barrymore Theatre on Broadway on this day in 1959. This original poster is in the Library's collection. It was the first Broadway play written by a Black woman, Lorraine Hansberry, who was only 28 at the time.

03/08/2026

A section of this film has views of the Croton North Station, the Croton Dock operations, the asphalt plant at Croton Landing and the old Croton-Harmon Station. To watch the film on YouTube use the link below. The Croton section starts at the 12 minute mark.

https://youtu.be/3BRXieiIrG0?si=ECg1frYcOphiN86H&t=717

The Croton Historical Society has one of the large metal Croton North Station signs and a similar Croton-Harmon Station sign.

03/02/2026

A number of women (and a man) who lived in Croton are included on this Greenwich Village Women's Suffrage History Map.

Louise Bryant
Crystal Eastman
Max Eastman
Marie Jenney Howe
Inez Milholland
Ida Raugh

Village Preservation - Greenwich Village Society For Historic Preservation

02/10/2026

, February 10, 1776, George Washington wrote to Pierre Van Cortlandt (of Van Cortlandt Manor), chairman of the New York Committee of Safety. He wrote, “Sir, Being in the greatest want of Arms at this alarming and important crisis for the Army under my command without the most distant prospect or hope of getting more from these Governments, than what I already have, I beg leave to sollicit the favours of your Committee of Safety in this Instance, and earnestly request that they will use their exertions to get and send to me in the most expeditious manner all that they can possibly procure—I immagine that there are several belonging to the Colony, and have been Informed of many Tories being disarmed, and therefore expect that It will be in their power to Obtain me a considerable supply.”

Washington was in the midst of the Siege of Boston and suffering from extreme shortages of black powder, ammunition, muskets, and bayonets. He wrote four letters on February 10th to try to secure arms, including to the Massachusetts General Court, writing in the postscript, “I have heard that there are Several King’s Muskets in the Country—for each with a Bayonet, that are good & have not been abused, I will readily give 12 Dollars—& in proportion for Other Guns fit for service.”
But New York Patriots had already tried to disarm Loyalists on Long Island less than a month earlier in January and had largely failed.

The New York Provincial Congress received his letter on February 20, and replied that the Committee of Safety was “extreamly sorry they have it not in their power to supply You with the Article You mention; as the Army raised here last Summer have entirely drained them of the Arms belonging to the Colony which have never been returned,” and continued noting, “with respect to the Arms taken from the Tories in this Colony [the committee] inform You are neither in their possession or at their disposal hence You will perceive that they cannot give You any relief, which they would most chearfully do was it in their Power.”

Washington would have to find arms for the Continental Army some other way.

Image: “A plan of the town of Boston and its environs, with the lines, batteries, and incampments of the British and American armies” by Sir Thomas Hyde Page, 1776. Library of Congress.

01/01/2026