Week of October 17
October 16, 1875 – 150 YEARS AGO
Rockland County Journal
LARGE: CATTLE SALE
On the 20th inst., at the farm of James A. Dorman, Thiell’s Station, on the N.J. & N.Y. Railroad, will be sold a large lot of the finest cattle ever offered for sale in this county. The herd consists of milk cows, steers, oxen, and fat cattle. Dairymen, farmers and butchers will find at the sale something to suit, and as it is positive, rain or shine, the figures will undoubtedly range very low.
In order to enable those of our readers who desire to attend this sale, to get to Thiell’s Station, we would say that the following trains connect with the N.J. & N.Y. Railroad train which leaves Jersey City at 8 o’clock A.M., viz: 8:25 from Sparkill to Spring Valley: Orange County Express to Suffern, at 8:20, and from Suffern by way train to Spring Valley, at 8:40 A.M. arriving at Spring Valley junction at 9:15 A.M. and at Thiell’s Station at 9:52 A.M.
October 17, 1925 – 100 YEARS AGO
Rockland County Times
PHANTOM OF THE OPERA COMING TO HAVERSTRAW
The Universal Film Company ha[s] selected Haverstraw for the Rockland County premier run of their super-production, ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ featuring Lon Chaney.
This photoplay is now making a phenomenal run on Broadway, New York City, at top prices and will probably run in Haverstraw very soon during the New York run. It is to be presented exclusively in one town in each county for a pre-run before being released to other theaters, and Haverstraw is very fortunate in being selected for our county.
Representatives of the company claim it is a bigger and better production than ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame,’ while the New York press says it is Lon Chaney’s greatest achievement.
It is without doubt the biggest production now before the public and should play to capacity in Haverstraw and will be offered to the theater-going public at your leading theater in November.
October 19, 1975 – 50 YEARS AGO
The Journal News
CROWNING TOUCH
Cupola is placed on roof of new museum of The Historical Society of Rockland County on Zukor Road in New City. Building Committee Chairman James Stoner watches. The Museum is scheduled to open May 1, 1976. Photograph by Warren Inglese, Journal News.
200 PREVIEW POOR EHIBITION
A star-studded cast gathered Saturday night at the Rockland Center for the Arts to kick off a retrospective exhibition of the works of Henry Varnum Poor, the late South Mountain Road artist.
Actor John Houseman, a recent Academy Award winner who lives in a house that Poor built on New City’s South Mountain Road, was there, along with puppeteer Bill Baird and artists from the county, New York City and the Skowhegan School of Art in Maine.
About 200 in all mingled in the arts building in West Nyack, viewing his paintings, pottery and sketches, films, and slides and listening to taped conversations.
Included among friends and colleagues was John Clancy, Poor’s agent and director of the Rehn Gallery in New York City.
The invitation-only reception was a preview to the exhibition which opens today from 2-5 P.M. at the Rockland Center for the Arts on South Greenbush Road. It runs through Dec. 5.
“It is an enormous turnout and a success beyond anything we would have imagined,” said exhibition coordinator Martica Sawin. “Henry Varnum Poor was, of course, known nationally, but it’s so nice to see so much local support.”
“People who knew him were absolutely devoted to him,” she said.
On view are 50 of his paintings, borrowed from museums and private collections and from his daughter, artist Anne Poor, who still lives in the house her father built on South Mountain Road.
An in-depth look at the life and works of Henry Varnum Poor, who died in 1970, is in today’s Scene Magazine.
This Week in Rockland (#FBF Flashback Friday) is prepared by Clare Sheridan for the Historical Society of Rockland County. © 2025 by The Historical Society of Rockland County. #FBF Flashback Friday may be reprinted only with written permission from the HSRC. To learn about the HSRC’s mission, upcoming events or programs, visit www.RocklandHistory.org or call (845) 634-9629.
