Why is yonkers called yonkers

Many businesses soon began to emerge; saw mills and grist mills multiplied, land development increased and blacksmith shops, taverns and general stores evolved. The land was divided under New York State Law and sold. The state of New York was divided into 16 counties in , and Yonkers became one of the 16 towns into which Westchester County was divided. In , Yonkers formally became a town in the County of Westchester.

A stone mill possibly the city's first industrial site was built during in the Tuckahoe area of Yonkers, and was used as a cotton factory until when the Hodgman Rubber Company bought it and began producing rubber products.

Hat manufacturing was another thriving business in Yonkers in the 's. The industrial era in Yonkers was enhanced by innovations in water and land travel. In , the first railroad station was built contributing to the establishment of more diverse occupations and trade in the area. Inventors such as Elisha G. Otis, who developed and manufactured the first elevator safety devices, which eventually made modern skyscrapers possible, called Yonkers home.

Otis Elevator and its "made in Yonkers" stamp was one of the first industries to bring international recognition to Yonkers. Carpet manufacturing was revolutionized by the Axminster and Moquette power looms invented in Yonkers. In , Alexander Smith Carpet Shops was established and joined the ranks of multi-million dollar businesses born in Yonkers. Incidentally, Alexander Smith was elected to Congress in , but died on the night of his election.

Other industrial firsts included the sugar industry in and the first elevated mass transit system in the world, invented by resident Charles T. Yonkers's later growth rested largely on developing industry. In , Elisha Otis invented the first safety elevator and the Otis Elevator Company, opened the first elevator factory in the world on the banks of the Hudson near what is now Vark Street.

It relocated to larger quarters now the Yonkers Public Library in the s. Around the same time, the Alexander Smith and Sons Carpet Company in the Saw Mill River Valley expanded to 45 buildings, looms, and over 4, workers and was known as one of the premier carpet producing centers in the world. The community was incorporated as a village in the northern part of the Town of Yonkers in and as a city in While the results were positive elsewhere, the returns were so negative in Yonkers and neighboring Mount Vernon that those two areas were not included in the consolidated city, and remained independent.

Still, some residents call the city "the Sixth Borough" referring to its location on the New York City border, its urban character and the failed merger vote. A three-mile spur to Getty Square existed until Aside from being a manufacturing center, Yonkers also played a key role in the development of entertainment in the United States. Andrew's Golf Club, in Yonkers. Bakelite , the first completely synthetic plastic, was invented in Yonkers circa by Leo Baekeland, and manufactured there until the late s.

Today, two of the former Alexander Smith and Sons Carpet Company loft buildings located at and Nepperhan Avenue have been repurposed to house the YoHo Artist Community, a collective group of talented artists that works out of private studios there. Early in the 20th century, Yonkers also hosted a brass era automobile maker, Colt Runabout Company; despite the car's seemingly glowing performance, the company went under.

Yonkers was also the headquarters of the Waring Hat Company, at the time the nation's largest hat manufacturer. After World War II , however, with increased competition from less expensive imports, Yonkers lost much of its manufacturing activity. The Alexander Smith Carpet Company, one of the city's largest employers, ceased operation during a labor dispute in June In , the Otis Elevator Factory finally closed its doors.

With the loss of jobs in the city itself, Yonkers became primarily a residential city, and some neighborhoods, such as Crestwood and Park Hill, became popular with wealthy New Yorkers who wished to live outside Manhattan without giving up urban conveniences. Yonkers's excellent transportation infrastructure, including three commuter railroad lines now two: the Harlem and Hudson Lines and five parkways and thruways, as well as its minute drive from Manhattan and picturesque prewar homes and apartment buildings, made it a desirable city in which to live.

Yonkers's manufacturing sector has also shown a recent resurgence. Runyon, a co-experimenter. Yonkers also had the longest running pirate radio station, owned by Allan Weiner during the s through the s.

In , a short subway connection was planned between Getty Square and the IRT Broadway — Seventh Avenue Line , which terminates in Riverdale at nd Street just slightly south of the city line, but the plan was dropped.

In , the Census Bureau reported Yonkers's population as The city's struggles with racial discrimination and segregation were highlighted in a decades-long federal lawsuit. After a decision and an unsuccessful appeal, Yonkers's schools were integrated in The federal judge, Leonard B. Sand ruled that Yonkers had engaged in institutional segregation in housing and school policies for over 40 years and tied the illegal concentration of public housing and private housing discrimination to the city's resistance to ending racial isolation in its public schools.

In the s and s, Yonkers developed a national reputation for racial tension, based on a long-term battle between the City of Yonkers and the NAACP over the building of subsidized low-income housing projects.

The city planned to use federal funding for urban renewal efforts within Downtown Yonkers exclusively; other groups, led by the NAACP, felt that the resulting concentration of low-income housing in traditionally poor neighborhoods perpetuated poverty.

Yonkers remained in contempt of the courts until September 9, , when the City Council relented in the wake of library closures and sanitation cutbacks and while looking at massive city layoffs, which would have been required to continue its resistance to desegregation. First-term mayor Nicholas C. Wasicsko fought to save the city from financial disaster and bring about unity. Yonkers's youngest mayor elected at age 28 , Wasicsko was a lonely figure in city politics, which was scarred with the stigma of the "Balkanization of Yonkers".

He succeeded in helping to end the city's contempt of the courts, but was voted out of office as a result. The Irish-American community is prominent in Yonkers, and the city hosts one of the nation's oldest St. Patrick's Day parades. It is also home to a large Italian-American community, and the city hosts a large Columbus Day festival with a Miss Italian-American pageant.

Yonkers also has a significant Portuguese population. Another large community is the Slavic community. In the early and mid 20th century a large number of people emigrated from Poland , Ukraine , Czechoslovakia , Russia , and Croatia.

Recently a large number of immigrants from the former Yugoslavia have called Yonkers home. The Slavic community is centered around St. Michael's Ukrainian Catholic Church.

As times and the economy changed, so did Yonkers. Today, the Otis Elevator factory is home to industry leaders such as Kawasaki, which builds rail cars for the MTA, Metro North, Long Island Railroad and transit systems around the world; Mindspark, one of the leading app developers on the web; and the bio-engineers of ContraFect Corp.

The carpet mill is home to dozens of artists, artisans, musicians and new media professions who make up the YoHo Artist Studios. Please enable JavaScript in your browser for a better user experience. Jump to subpage Our story continues into the 21st Century and we want you to be a part of it.

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