|
|
|
|
Click to visit the
Official Town Site
|
|
|
|
|
|
General News: Frank Vogel Shares Village Memories
|
| Frank Vogel in 2008 |
|
| George Schaffer, Sr. was a slugger. The building on the left was Wu's Laundry. |
|
| Rose's Pharmacy on the corner of Duncan and Hudson. |
|
| The Town Diner sat in the village square. |
|
| Frank Vogel's elementary school class on an outing in the square. |
|
| The 1948-49 varsity basketball team. Al Longinott is on the right. |
|
| Can you find Cornwall high school basketball coach Glen McGinnis in this photo taken in the late 1950s? |
|
| Winnie Swenson, a popular businesswoman who ran an insurance company, carries the flag in a parade through the village square. |
|
| The Storm King Fire Engine Company's first fire apparatus as it drove through the square in the early 1900s. |
|
| This postcard was created by Barton & Spooner. |
June 04, 2009
Frank Vogel, an ad-hoc village historian, passed away this week, just days after the death of his wife, Ruth. We run here a 2008 article that shows part of the contribution he made to the community.
Take a stroll back in time about seventy years, before the second world war, when Cornwall-on-Hudson's central area was lined with stores. The huge coal docks and related industries on the Cornwall Landing riverfront fed a thriving business community along Hudson Street that no longer exists today.
Frank Vogel was born in 1931 and grew up on lower Duncan Avenue. Frank has been carrying a pocketful of memories around with him recently – black and white photos that he shares with readers here. In the photos you get a glimpse of a time when you could stop in at any one of several neighborhood store – and when kids found simple fun outside their doors.
Vogel’s mother was the local taxi driver and the railroad made her a constable so that she could transport people to jail from Cornwall Landing, as needed. Vogel notes that court was in the back of Cock’s store (now Butterhill Antiques), and the judge was W.B. Cocks.
Outside Vogel’s home on Duncan Avenue, kids played baseball in the street. There were no Little League fields back them.
Also on that block, Vogel recalls, was a Chinese laundry run by Uncle Harry Wu, and Jagger Lumber’s, which shared a building with Hoosier store, a Mom & Pop place that made home deliveries. Nearby, a small factory, Barton & Spooner, made Americana and wooden products and printed up local postcards, like the one of Boulevard, pictured below.
The intersection of Hudson Street and Duncan Avenue buzzed with commercial activity. Pictured at right is Rose’s drug store. Vogel recalls that there was also a Grand Union grocery store, Max Yonker's candy store, and Bevin's Funeral Home, all in that block. Across the street, in the building that is now the Hudson Valley Gallery, was Whitney’s Drug Store.
The town diner was a popular eating spot, strategically located on the spot where the village bandstand is today. Vogel says the diner was on its last legs when the VE celebrations erupted throughout Cornwall. The remains of the diner were torn apart and used in a bonfire that night in the village square, he says. (VE Day was Victory in Europe, May 8, 1945, when the Germans surrendered to the Allied forces.)
The building where Splitz Ends hair salon is today was an insurance company and candy store. Santoro’s, which stood where the G&H Jewelers is, was an A&P grocery store, then a bar and soda fountain. Vogel says that a lot of important people walked in to Santoro’s including Marth Raye, USO-singer/entertainer. It was a gathering place for people old and young before they went across Idlewild Avenue to see a movie at the Storm King Theater.
Down Hudson Street, between the post office and the fire station, was Carmen’s, a store that sold ice cream, paper, and one year sold more R & H Beer than any place in the entire state of New York, Vogel says.
Frank Vogel, who served a total of 38 years in the police departments of Cornwall and Cornwall-on-Hudson, has more photos, like that of the 1948-49 Cornwall high school basketball team or the local fire department marching in a parade before he was even born. For him, each photo captures a piece of the village he cherishes, his life-long home.
CLICK ON ANY IMAGE FOR A LARGER VIEW.
Comments:
|
Mark Santoro was my Grandfather and I have many fond memories of walking down Spruce Street and visiting his store for a grilled cheese and a root beer float. He would frequently allow us to taste new candies to see what we thought to see if they were worth selling.
posted by mark campis on 09/17/16 at 3:01 PM
|
Add a Comment:
Please signup or login to add a comment.
|
 |
|
|
|
