Hudson Valley Ruins: Yonkers by Rob Yasinsac

YONKERS - GALLERY 3
COMMERCIAL DOWNTOWN: GETTY SQUARE AND VICINITY

The Herald Statesman, Larkin Plaza. December 2006.

The homogenization of our culture is represented in the newspaper industry. Once-numerous local dailies have folded or consolidated under one banner. In the case of Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties, the Journal News has taken the place of hometown papers such as the Herald Statesman. Built in 1933, the home of what was once Yonkers' oldest published newspaper was designed by Midwest-firm of Frank Davis Chase & Company. The Statesman building "blend(s) the streamlined aesthetic popular in the 1930s with the restrained and unadorned functionalism of the early International style" (Rebic, Landmarks Lost and Found, p. 123)

The W. T. Grant Building, now home to C. H. Martin's department store. March 1, 2007.
(All other photos on this page taken March 1, 2007.)

In 2002, the City of Yonkers announced plans to condemn a large number of buildings in its downtown commercial district in order to build an independent minor league baseball stadium. At the crossroads of the vibrant district stands the W. T. Grant building, now home to one of ten stores in the C. H. Martin department store chain (and apparently the most successful store as well.). The owners, the Goldman family - who were previously told by the city that proposed alterations tot he building must adhere to preservation standards - were then told that their neo-Gothic, granite-clad building was of no redeeming value and must be torn down. The owners resisted such plans and have attempted to place the building on the National Register of Historic Places. The Goldmans have also applied for Yonkers City Landmark status. It seems that for now, the Grant building may survive and be incorporated into the redevelopment project. Preservation Magazine ran an article about the plight of the Grant building in 2004 - read here.

Proctor's Theater, Broadway.

The downtown redevelopment would likely bring in new entertainment outlets. It's too bad that the city doesn't care to see the Proctor's Theater brought back to its original incarnation. I'd thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to see a film in a true movie palace. (The redevelopment parcel also includes a parking lot behind the Grant Building. The lot is historically known as Chicken Island. The new development would be called River Park Center. How generically bland and boring. How many rivers and parks are there throughout the country? Now Chicken Island - that's true local flavor and easily remembered.) For more info about this theater, read Cinema Treasure's file on Proctor's.

Multiple layers of paint show through on the side of this North Broadway building.

Across North Broadway, two-dimensional animal figures grace the ghostly interior of a vanished building.

A ruin off North Broadway.

McCann's Fireproof Storage Warehouse, vacant in 2007. Main Street.

Genung's Department Store, 5-9 Main Street.

Built in 1928, Genung's later housed the Yonkers Public Library until ca. 2004 when the Riverfront branch moved a few blocks away to a renovated Otis Elevator factory building. Genung's awaits yet another reincarnation. Previously, Yonkers had a Carnegie Library - unfortunately that building was demolished long ago.

The Germania Hotel is dwarfed by the trouble-plagued construction of 66 Main Street.

The Way to Save, but has Yonkers found the way to its salvation? Germania Hotel entrance.

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