Archives for Local History

Street Maps and Family Pictures

Street Maps and Family Pictures

The local history community in White Plains has been busy over the past few months! We are proud to share the Streets of White Plains, an interactive map created by Cliff Blau that explains the history of many street names in our city. Cliff thoroughly plumbed the White Plains Collection at the Library, then doggedly followed leads to the County Clerk's Office and beyond. View the map on our Atlases and Maps page and use the share button to show it to friends or family! Back in December, we had a Community History Day where we scanned photographs, documents, or
Read More

March 1, 2016 10:13 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Local History.
Tags: African-American History, Black History, community history, Culture In Transit, DCMNY, Jewish History, local history, postage stamps, postcards, Urban Renewal, white plains history, and workshops.

People & Stories Goes National!

People & Stories Goes National!

Kevin Tidmarsh and Saahil Desai, students at Pomona College in California, investigate the stories of early students of color at their school in the first episode of Hidden Pomona, “Stranger In A Strange Land.” Drawing on Leola Bryant's oral history in our People & Stories Collection, Tidmarsh and Desai chronicle the impact White Plains native and Pomona alumnus Eileen Johnson had on the lives of African-Americans.
Read More

February 20, 2016 10:49 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Local History and Oral History.
Tags: African-American History, Black History, Eileen Johnson, General Foods, Leola Bryant, local history, oral history, People & Stories, podcast, Pomona College, and white plains history.

People & Stories Oral History Project: Dennis Polanco

People & Stories Oral History Project: Dennis Polanco

Probably known to most White Plains residents as “Mr. Polanco,” since that is what students in his English classes at White Plains High School call him, Dennis Polanco is in fact much more than a teacher. He is a father, musician, and community leader who has great insights into our city.
Read More

February 4, 2016 2:34 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Español, Local History, and Oral History.
Tags: español, family, guitar, Hispanic-American History, local history, malls, music, oral history, People & Stories, poetry, poetry slam, reading, teacher, White Plains High School, and white plains history.

History, Art, & Community

History, Art, & Community

People have been using our White Plains Collection and local history programs to create some great projects lately! Students from a Community Design class at Purchase College taught by Warren Lehrer partnered with the White Plains Business Improvement District and the Library to create designs for poems written by Judith Sloan. Art In Vacant Spaces can be seen filling the windows of storefronts along Court Street, Martine Avenue, Main Street, and Mamaroneck Avenue. Inspiration for the poems was drawn in part from historic photographs in the White Plains Collections (check some out online!) and oral histories from People & Stories.
Read More

January 22, 2016 2:46 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Local History.
Tags: art, events, local history, oral history, People & Stories, white plains history, and White Plains History Roundtable.

A Sense of Place: Research Workshop

A Sense of Place: Research Workshop

January's edition of the White Plains History Roundtable will be A Sense of Place: Research Workshop on Wednesday, January 20, from 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM. Ever wondered what the layers of history and human experience are that combine to create White Plains? Join Librarian Ben Himmelfarb and student of White Plains history Cliff Blau to learn how to research the history of any address, building, business, house, or spot in White Plains. Maps, directories, photographs, and online resources from the White Plains Collection will be available for everyone to use. Come prepared with a favorite place to research and
Read More

January 17, 2016 5:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Events and Local History.
Tags: adults, all ages, families, historical research, local-history, teens, white plains centennial, white plains collection, and white plains history.

People & Stories Oral History Project: Peter Stone

People & Stories Oral History Project: Peter Stone

In this interview, Peter Stone and interviewer Rod Carlson show us what People & Stories is all about. Stone has been in White Plains since September 1950. He grew up in a house his family built in North White Plains and, when he was a kid, walked the five miles into downtown. White Plains' rich ethnic mix made a strong impression on him. Stone served as Chairman of the Humans Rights Commission from 1995 to 2008 and also worked as a management consultant in freight transportation. He describes himself as a “middle class, happily married grandfather viewing the world as
Read More

January 4, 2016 4:44 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Local History and Oral History.
Tags: civil rights, diversity, Human Rights Commission, local history, Movie Theaters, oral history, People & Stories, Restaurants, and white plains history.

People & Stories Oral History Project: Kevin Doherty

People & Stories Oral History Project: Kevin Doherty

Kevin Doherty grew up in White Plains as part of the post-WW II baby boom, a group that, in his words, “causes problems wherever we go.”  Doherty has done much more than just cause problems though-he raised a family in White Plains and spent many years as an educator with BOCES.  A member of Union Hook & Ladder and a blues aficionado, Doherty also has strong connections to fascinating political and cultural strands of White Plains history.
Read More

December 16, 2015 3:24 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Local History and Oral History.
Tags: bars, blues, childhood, community history, Kevin Doherty, local history, music, night clubs, night life, oral history, People & Stories, social history, and white plains history.

Everyone’s a Historian: Community History Day

Everyone’s a Historian: Community History Day

At White Plains Public Library, we believe in sharing historical authority with the community.  So last Saturday, we created a space in which everyone was a historian.  No one person has a monopoly on the past and no single narrative could possibly tell all our stories.  We all have knowledge of the past, it's just a matter of sharing and using it! Several community members brought items from their personal collections to be digitized and added to our online collection.  We had a diverse group of people, from life-long White Plains residents to current and past members of government to
Read More

December 15, 2015 10:04 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Local History.
Tags: African-American History, Black History, community history, digitization, local history, oral history, People & Stories, postcards, Urban Renewal, white plains collection, and white plains history.

People & Stories Oral History Project: Shirley Acevedo Buontempo

People & Stories Oral History Project: Shirley Acevedo Buontempo

Shirley Acevedo Buontempo, Founder and Executive Director of Latino U College Access, is People & Stories' first multi-lingual oral history!  Below are interviews conducted by Ben Himmelfarb and Mariel Perez–one in English, one in Spanish. In both interviews, Buontempo discusses emigrating from Puerto Rico to the Bronx at age ten.  Education and service have always been important to Buontempo, and when she attended Pace University she was introduced to White Plains (through trips to the Galleria!).  She had a career in advertising focused on reaching Latino people, and developed an interest in connecting Latino youth with higher education through her
Read More

November 17, 2015 3:51 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Local History and Oral History.
Tags: bi-lingual, Entrepreneurs, Higher Education, Hispanic-American History, Immigration, Latino History, Latino U College Access, Local Business, oral history, People & Stories, Puerto Rico, Spanish, Spanish Language, white plains history, and Women's History.

Hiking The Hills at Silver Lake

Hiking The Hills at Silver Lake

On Saturday, November 14, I joined a group of history-minded individuals in a hike guided by Bice Wilson through the archeological remains of The Hills, an African American community that existed between the 1790s and the early 20th century.  In her book, Freedom Journey, Edythe Ann Quinn estimates that the population of The Hills reached its peak in the 1860s, with about 200 people living in numerous dwellings.  Most of these homes were located along Stony Hill Road, which begins off Lake Street in West Harrison and disappears into woods.  As recently as one hundred years ago, these woods were
Read More

November 16, 2015 12:16 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Events and Local History.
Tags: African-American History, Black History, Hiking, local history, Silver Lake Preserve, the hills, West Harrison, and white plains history.

White Plains Collection Now Online!

White Plains Collection Now Online!

We are happy to announce the launch of the White Plains Collection on the Digital Culture of Metropolitan New York!  This project was a partnership between the White Plains Public Library, the Metropolitan New York Library Council, and Culture In Transit. The White Plains Public Library is a prime site for community memory and we hold a rich set of materials in the White Plains Collection. We have fascinating and informative photographs of buildings, people, events, and landscapes. Many are part of special collections like the John Rosch Collection, featured here. Rosch owned a photography studio in White Plains and
Read More

November 7, 2015 9:41 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Library News, Local History, and Research.
Tags: collection, digital collections, John Rosch, local-history, photographs, and white plains history.

People & Stories Oral History Project: Harold Mercer

People & Stories Oral History Project: Harold Mercer

Harold Mercer is a lifelong White Plains resident whose roots go back to the arrival of his grandfather in the 1890s. His grandfather was an English artist who settled on the east side of White Plains and helped start the Eastside Engine Company. His father, also named Harold Mercer, was the Westchester County Clerk and became the White Plains Civil Defense Director. Mercer remembers attending RKO Keith's on Main Street to see vaudeville acts like Peg Leg Bates and the Three Stooges. He remembers driving his Model A Ford around White Plains during World War II, when recruiters came to
Read More

October 31, 2015 10:35 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Local History and Oral History.
Tags: business, East Side Hose Co., football, local history, oral history, People & Stories, Union Hook and Ladder Co., volunteer firefighters, Von Rein's Market, White Plains High School, white plains history, and White Plains Politics.

Battle of White Plains on YouTube

Battle of White Plains on YouTube

We are happy to present “The Battle of White Plains” in honor of the 239th anniversary of the battle, which occurred in October 1776. This video is an overview of the Battle of White Plains and the larger Invasion of New York in 1776, one of the largest engagements of the American Revolution. Learn how the newly formed Continental Army fought under the command of George Washington to prevent the British Army from taking over the Hudson Valley.  The British hoped to cut in the colonies in half at the Hudson Valley, and the Battle of White Plains was an
Read More

October 20, 2015 4:09 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Local History and Teens.
Tags: battle of white plains, local history, Revolutionary War, The Edge, white plains historical society, white plains history, and youtube.

Meet the Author: Edythe Ann Quinn and “Freedom Journey”

Meet the Author: Edythe Ann Quinn and “Freedom Journey”

Join us on Wednesday, September 30 at 7:00 PM as Dr. Edythe Ann Quinn shares from her new book Freedom Journey: Black Civil War Soldiers and The Hills Community, Westchester County, New York. Through wonderfully detailed letters, recruit rosters, and pension records, Quinn tells the story of thirty-five African American Civil War soldiers and the United States Colored Troop (USCT) regiments with which they served. The men all came from The Hills, an African American community near present-day Silver Lake. Their ties to family, land, church, school, and occupational experiences at home buffered the brutal indifference of boredom and battle,
Read More

September 23, 2015 6:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Events, and Local History.
Tags: African-American History, author event, Black History, civil war history, local-history, military history, silver lake, the hills, and white plains history.

People & Stories Oral History Project: Dr. Olivia J. Hooker

People & Stories Oral History Project: Dr. Olivia J. Hooker

Dr. Olivia J. Hooker turned 100 in 2015. She is a fascinating, brilliant, fun person, and White Plains is lucky to count her among its residents. Her life started in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where her father owned a successful department store. His store and the neighborhood known as The Black Wall Street were destroyed in what Dr. Hooker called “the terrible catastrophe in Tulsa.” “Other people called it the Tulsa Riot. It really wasn't a riot–we were the victims,” said Dr. Hooker. The Greenwood district of Tulsa was devastated by the racist violence, and news of the injustice was under-reported in
Read More

September 4, 2015 11:56 am | by | 15 Comments
Categories: Local History and Oral History.
Tags: African-American History, Black History, Dr. Olivia J. Hooker, local history, oral history, People & Stories, US Coast Guard, white plains history, and Women's History.

August History Roundtable: Affordable Housing

August History Roundtable: Affordable Housing

Join the Librarian for White Plains History and a panel of local housing advocates for the White Plains History Roundtable on Wednesday, August 26th, at 7:00 pm. August’s Roundtable is called Affordable Housing: Past, Present, and Future. The Roundtable is an educational, participatory, and social event where participants learn about events from White Plains' past, examine primary source materials from the White Plains Collection, and engage in discussion with others.
Read More

August 19, 2015 2:28 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Events and Local History.
Tags: affordable housing, city history, housing, local-history, panel discussion, public housing, white plains history, and White Plains History Roundtable.

People & Stories Oral History Project: Cecilia Bikkal

People & Stories Oral History Project: Cecilia Bikkal

Cecilia Bikkal has called lots of places “home” around the world, but has been in White Plains since the 1980s. In this oral history, recorded in her office overlooking the corner of Hamilton and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Bikkal shares her personal story and her perspective on White Plains. Bikkal came to White Plains on the day the Galleria opened, and went to work for the County Clerk in the 1980s. She became a lawyer after intending to be an architect. Through her place on the Zoning Board of Appeals and work as a lawyer specializing in immigration,
Read More

August 11, 2015 1:26 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Local History and Oral History.
Tags: city planning, Immigration, local history, oral history, People & Stories, residential, retail, white plains history, and zoning.

People & Stories Oral History Project: Al Surya Peterson

People & Stories Oral History Project: Al Surya Peterson

Al Surya Peterson has deep roots in the White Plains area and is a knowledgeable and ardent proponent of black history in Westchester County. His grandfather came to work on the Rockefeller Estate in the early 20th century and settled on land owned by a former slave on Saxon Woods Road. In this oral history, Peterson describes growing up in a close-knit black community on the White Plains-Scarsdale border. Although he attended school in Scarsdale, he spent (and continues to spend) lots of time in White Plains. He visited family and friends here during his childhood, was the first African-American
Read More

July 28, 2015 9:49 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Local History and Oral History.
Tags: African-American History, arts, Black History, Fisher Avenue, local history, oral history, People & Stories, post office, saxon woods road, and white plains history.

People & Stories Oral History Project: Lee Palmer

People & Stories Oral History Project: Lee Palmer

Lee Palmer and the White Plains Public Library are inseparable.  Lee has worked at the library in one way or another since 1966.  After Lee took a class on storytelling at the library in the mid-1960s, a librarian hired her to be a children's storyteller.  In this oral history, you can hear her enthusiasm for that job and the library's central place in White Plains.  Lee also discusses her reasons for moving to White Plains, her reasons for staying, and the fulfillment she gets from her current work as a Friend of the Library.
Read More

July 7, 2015 2:42 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Local History and Oral History.
Tags: Friends, library history, local history, oral history, People & Stories, and white plains history.

People & Stories Oral History Project: Leola Bryant

People & Stories Oral History Project: Leola Bryant

Leola Bryant sat down with Teddy Lee and Ben Himmelfarb to record this oral history.  Bryant's memory and wit are crisp, and her stories about White Plains are highly informative. She recalls life for children in downtown White Plains and the distinct geographic and ethnic character of the neighborhoods. Bryant is especially insightful about how segregation and discrimination affected black citizens of White Plains. Although she recalls being discriminated against in her job, she feels the schools were free from the prejudice that affected so many other areas of her life. Eileen Johnson, daughter of a White Plains doctor, was
Read More

June 13, 2015 4:53 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Local History and Oral History.
Tags: African-American History, Alexander's, Black History, civil rights, Employment, General Foods, IBM, Leola Bryant, local history, oral history, People & Stories, and white plains history.