Saturday, November 23, 2024

THE CROTON CHRONICLE--BRUCE DOLLAR--A TOUR OF MOUNT AIRY ROAD AND "RED HILL"

Welcome to Everything Croton, (while the New One is down) a collection of all things Croton--our history, our homes, our issues, our businesses, our schools, our houses of worship--in short, EVERYTHING CROTON.

A tour of Mount Airy Road and "Red Hill"

A former realtor, and now Managing Editor of The New Croton Review, would take his clients to see these historic houses--and sold a number of them himself.

Nov 23, 2024--BRUCE DOLLAR--THE CROTON CHRONICLE


Early in the last century – the Twentieth, that is – Croton-on-Hudson became a Mecca for New York’s artsy, leftist crowd. Easy access from the City via the new electric trains (which switched back to steam at Harmon, now Croton-Harmon station) enticed both leading lights and fellow travelers – actors, writers, poets, painters and left-wing intellectuals – to build or buy summer or year-round cottages in the hills above the village. By the 1920s there was a thriving Bohemian community centered in Croton, which became known as “Greenwich Village on the Hudson.”

The focal point for this community was Mount Airy Road, which starts in the village downtown and climbs up what old timers still call “Red Hill” for the political leanings of these very particular settlers. A few years ago, long-time Croton resident Cornelia Cotton, artistic and political scion and chronicler of the history of this group, gave a lecture and slide show on historical Mount Airy houses to a standing-room-only audience at the Croton Free Library. She had to stop after 2½ hours and two full carousels of slides, not half-way through her program.

As a realtor with family roots in Croton, I was always fascinated by this history. READ AND SEE MORE AT A tour of Mount Airy Road and "Red Hill"

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