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Podcasts

Rockland History: 2014-15 Radio Programs

Crossroads of Rockland History - HSRC on the Radio

The Antrim Playhouse Girl Scout History Project 

Originally aired on December 21, 2015. To listen to the program, click here.

The Antrim Playhouse in Wesley Hills, also known as the Little Theater in the Woods, has been providing entertainment to our community since since its first season in 1936. Thanks to four young history enthusiasts, the varied and interesting history of eight decades of performances at this theater is now on display.

Clare Sheridan talks with four local Girl Scouts, who describe how they spent their summer preparing an exhibition of entertainment history at the Antrim Playhouse. In addition to creating wonderful displays that had previously been out of public view, their efforts earned them each a Silver Award from the Girl Scouts. Learn about their project and hear about what they uncovered.

Bibsy by Brenda Ross 

Originally aired on November 16, 2015. To listen to the program, click here.

Clare Sheridan welcomes Brenda Ross, the author of the new historical novel Bibsy. The story takes a peek into a corner of Rockland history that has been little explored: "Up the Beach" in Haverstraw. Set in the 1950s, Bibsy captures a community being impacted by suburbanization and the importance and fragility of family.

Brenda Ross will be making personal appearances at the following events:

• November 11, 2015,1-3 pm, Book Signing/Reading at the Haverstraw King's Daughters Public Library, Village Library Community Room, 85 Main Street, Haverstraw
  
• January 16, 2016, 2-4 pm, Book Signing/Reading, Haverstraw King's Daughters Public Library, Community Room - 301, 10 West Ramapo Road, Garnerville
  
• January 31, 2016, African American Historical Society Event at RCC, details are to be announced
  

Bibsy is available in paperback or Kindle format at Amazon.com and AuthorHouse. 
To learn more about Brenda Ross and her new book visit: http://www.authorbrendaross.com.

The Cleary-Newman Trial of 1914

Originally aired on October 19, 2015. To listen to the program, click here. 

"Killed by Father of Secret Bride: W. V. Cleary, Town Clerk of Haverstraw, Shoots Eugene M. Newman," reported a New York Times headline on July 24, 1914. Newman, eighteen, who had secretly married Cleary's daughter, was killed instantly. 

Clare Sheridan welcomes the grandnephew of Eugene Newman, who shares the story of what has been called a major scandal involving political and legal corruption in New York State. 

For Cheryl Slavin's 2014 Rockland County Times article commemmorating the 100th anniversary of this event, visit www.rocklandtimes.com/2014/07/24/haverstraw-political-boss-shoots-newspaper-publishers-son.

"From Holland to Here"

Originally aired on September 21, 10:10 am. To listen to the program, click here.

"From Holland to Here," the exhibition on view at the Orangetown Historical Museum and Archives, examines the Dutch heritage of the Town of Orangetown through the collection of George Way, America's premier collector of 17th century Dutch art. We’ll discuss this, the Tappan Patent, the Blauvelt family legacy, and much more. Clare Sheridan interviews Elizabeth Skrabonja, curator of the exhibition on view at the Orangetown Historical Museum and Archives "From Holland to Here." The exhibition examines the Dutch heritage of the Town of Orangetown through the collection of George Way, America's premier collector of 17th century Dutch art. We’ll discuss this, the Tappan Patent, the Blauvelt family legacy, and much more.

To learn about George Way and his collection, visit http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/05/arts/design/a-collection-of-dutch-artifacts-50-years-in-the-making.html?_r=0.
To learn more about the Orangetown Historical Museum and Archives, visit http://www.orangetownmuseum.com. 

John Green  Preservation Coalition

Originally aired August 17, 2015. To listen to the program, click here.

This unique two-and-a-half-story sandstone structure is the oldest house in Nyack, and a group of grassroots volunteers called the John Green Preservation Coalition is working to preserve it. Guests will include Winston Perry, historian for the Village of Upper Nyack and president of the Historical Society of the Nyacks, who will shed light on the importance of John Green to Rockland history, as well as the architectural importance of this building. In addition, representatives from the John Green Preservation Coalition will speak about their efforts and how we as a community can help with this valuable historic preservation project.

Town of Ramapo Challenger Learning Center

Originally aired July 20, 2015. To listen to the program, click here.

John Huibregtse, director of the Town of Ramapo's Challenger Learning Center, speaks about the early days of the space program, as well as the efforts of our local community to bring a Challenger Center to Rockland County. The Challenger Learning Center in Airmont is living testimony to the dream of the Challenger astronauts. On January 28, 1986, the seven crew members of the Space Shuttle Challenger/STS-51L “Teacher in Space” mission set out to broaden educational horizons and advance scientific knowledge. Their mission exemplified humans' noblest and most wondrous qualities: to explore, discover and teach. 

To the nation’s shock and sorrow, the shuttle exploded seventy-three seconds after liftoff. In the aftermath of the accident, the families of the crew members came together and made a firm commitment to honor the spirit of their loved ones by continuing their educational mission. In April 1986, they created the Challenger Center for Space Science Education (Challenger Center) as a place where children, teachers and citizens can touch the future by manipulating equipment, conducting experiments, solving problems, and immersing themselves in space-like surroundings. The goal of the program is to spark interest and joy in science and engineering and change young people's lives. In June 1994, Kristina Rodriquez, then a senior at Suffern High School, led a project that proposed turning a vacant school building into a Challenger Learning Center. The concept lit a fire in the community, and the result was the creation of the second Challenger Center in New York State. Today, there are more than forty Challenger Learning Centers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and South Korea

The July 2015 episode of Crossroads of Rockland History is sponsored by the Town of Ramapo, Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence, and the Ramapo Town Board. We are grateful for their support.

"One Person, One Vote"

Originally aired June 15, 2015. To listen to the program, click here.

"One Person, One Vote": Although this powerful sentiment rings with the same distinctively American call for equality and individual empowerment as "All men are created equal," it did not become a core principle of local government until the 1960s, when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Rockland to reapportion and reorganize the structure of its county government based on the landmark decision in Abate v. Mundt. The Hon. Veronica DeMeo Boesch, former mayor of Airmont and a lifelong history teacher, will join Clare Sheridan to discuss how "one person, one vote" affected government here in Rockland County in the second half of the 20th century. As a direct result of Abate v. Mundt, the county changed from a five-member Board of Supervisors, in which each town supervisor had one vote, to a County Legislature comprising legislators elected by the voters based on town population. Under the new system, the Town of Ramapo, with the largest population, would have the most legislators, and Stony Point would have the fewest. 

The Brink's Robbery: Bob Baird

Originally aired May 19, 2015. To listen to the program, click here.

Clare Sheridan welcomes Bob Baird, who was the managing editor of the Journal News on the day homegrown terrorists from the Weather Underground and Black Liberation Army attacked a Brink's truck in Nanuet, trying to finance their private revolution. Baird discusses the circumstances that led up to the tragic event, in which one Brink's guard was killed, another was gravely wounded, and two Nyack police officers were slain in a hail of automatic gunfire. The events of October 20, 1981, shook a county already reeling from a year of horrific crimes. It launched Rockland on a decade of dramatic change, with implications that are still unfolding nearly thirty-five years later. The Brink's Robbery is featured in our current Golden Anniversary exhibition, "A Half-Century of History, 1965-2015: Events that Shaped Our Community."? We are grateful to the Rockland County Sheriff's Office for lending many interesting artifacts to the HSRC for the duration of the exhibition. 

To learn more about the exhibition, visit: https://www.rocklandhistory.org/program.cfm?page=423.

Nyack's Bench by the Road

Originally aired April 20, 2015. To listen to the program, click here.

The Bench by the Road Project is a memorial history and community outreach initiative of the Toni Morrison Society. Bill Batson, artist, author and Trustee of the Historical Society of the Nyacks, returns to the radio program to discuss the exciting news that Nyack has been selected as a location for inclusion in this globally significant project commemorating African American history. On May 18, 2015, the commemorative monument, in the form of a bench, will be installed in Memorial Park in Nyack honoring Underground Railroad conductor Cynthia Hesdra (1808–1879), a Nyack woman who rose from slavery to become an entrepreneur and abolitionist. Toni Morrison, the Nobel Prize-winning author and resident of Grand View-on-Hudson, inspired the Bench by the Road Project and will be invited to the dedication ceremony in Nyack, which will become the fifteenth Bench by the Road location around the globe. In conjunction with this important monument, the Historical Society of the Nyacks will mount an exhibition titled "An Underground Railroad Monument Comes to Nyack," inspired by Toni Morrison and honoring Cynthia Hesdra. The exhibition will be open on 1-4 pm on Saturdays from March 14 through May 30. The Historical Society of the Nyacks is located at 50 Piermont Avenue. The exhibition will be curated by Bill Batson and Jennifer Rothschild. The April 2015 episode of "Crossroads of Rockland History" is sponsored by the Town of Ramapo, Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence, and the Ramapo Town Board.

Rockland Lake with Rob Maher

Originally aired March 16, 2015. To listen to the program, click here.

The commercial history of Rockland Lake dates back to the 18th century, when the area was known as Slaughter Landing because of the natural ravine in the Palisades just north of Verdriegete Hoek, the name the Dutch gave to Hook Mountain. The Hook was known as the "Troublesome Point," where a hotel and ferry landing to Tarrytown stood from the time of the Revolution until the 1900s. During the 19th century, ice was harvested from the pristine waters of Rockland Lake, and rock was quarried from the cliffs overlooking the Hudson River. Later, the lake became a popular resort area and amusement park, attracting people from New York City by steamboat and train. In the 20th century, with the invention of refrigeration, the ice industry collapsed,and preservation of the Palisades cliffs began. The state acquired most of the property andcreated Rockland Lake State Park as we know it today.

Special guest Robert Maher is the president and co-founder of the Friends of Rockland Lake and Hook Mountain, Inc., an organization established to support the preservation of the cultural, historical, and environmental resources of Rockland Lake, Hook Mountain, and Nyack Beach state parks. Maher is also the author of Rockland Lake (Arcadia Images of America series). He lives in his family home at Rockland Lake.

3d Annual HSRC High School Local History Conference

Originally aired February 16, 2015. To listen to the program, click here. 

Learn all about how Rockland history honors students from all of the county’s high schools will participate in the HSRC's 3rd Annual High School Local History Conference.  

Doug Carey, HSRC Trustee and a history teacher at Spring Valley High School, joins Clare Sheridan in the studio to talk about this exciting educational program that puts students at the head of the class. Mr. Carey is this year's conference co-chair, with HSRC Trustee Judge William Sherwood

To view a video of a past conference, click here: http://vimeo.com/85037975.

To learn more about this year's conference, click here: https://www.rocklandhistory.org/event.cfm?page=411.

Jim Cassetta's Pearl River

Originally aired January 19, 2015. To listen to the program, click here. 

For the past eighteen years, James Cassetta, a member of the HSRC, has been the adult reference librarian and local history librarian at the Pearl River Public Library. In addition, he is a writer and tour guide. He joined host Clare Sheridan to talk about his new book, Pearl River, published as part of Arcadia Publishing's Images of America series, which celebrates the history of neighborhoods, towns, and cities across the country. Using archival photographs, each title presents the distinctive stories from the past that shape the character of the community today. Arcadia is proud to play a part in the preservation of local heritage, making history available to all. 

For a list of archived episodes, click here: http://www.rocklandhistory.org/page.cfm?page=323.
To find out more about the Images of America series, click here: http://www.ArcadiaPublishing.com/series/Images-of-America
For more information about the Pearl River Public Library, click here: http://www.PearlRiverLibrary.org/pearlriver

Nyack Sketchlog: Bill Batson

Originally aired December 15, 2014. To listen to the program, click here. 

Special guest Bill Batson, artist and author of Nyack Sketchlog: An Artist and Writer Explores the History of a Hudson River Village, talks to host Clare Sheridan about his essays and sketches, which capture the history of Nyack like never before. The book includes fifty-five of Batson’s sketches and essays, together with a foreword by Art Gunther III.  The book arrived at bookstores on December 4 and is certainly a great holiday gift choice for the history buff on your list.  

In addition to his new book, Batson has released a beautiful 2015 calendar with the African-American Historical Society of Rockland County. A

To learn how to get a signed copy of the book or for more about Bill Batson, click here.

The Newsroom Confessions: Bob LeMoullec

Originally aired November 17, 2014. To listen to the program, click here. 

Are you ready for the 50th episode of "Crossroads of Rockland History"?

Clare Sheridan welcomes Bob LeMoullec, author of The Newsroom Confessions (Page Publishing). Among his many assignments during his long career, Bob was news director at WRKL right here in Rockland. She reminisces with Bob and Steve Possell about what it was like "back in the day" on Rockland radio.

"Crossroads of Rockland History," a program of the Historical Society of Rockland County, airs on the third Monday of each month at 10:10 am on WRCR radio 1300 AM (live streaming at www.WRCR.com). Join host Clare Sheridan as we explore, celebrate, and learn about our local history, with different topics and guest speakers every month. For a list of archived episodes, click here: http://www.rocklandhistory.org/page.cfm?page=323.

The November 2014 episode of Crossroads of Rockland History has been made possible by a generous contribution from the Town of Ramapo, Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence, and the Ramapo Town Board. We are grateful for their support of local history and the HSRC.

To learn more about The Newsroom Confessions, click here: http://www.thenewsroomconfessions.com.

Haunted History

Originally aired October 20, 2014. To listen to the program, click here. 

Did you ever wonder about the haunted history of Rockland County?

Clare Sheridan and special guest Linda Zimmermann explore the spooky side of the history of Rockland County. Topics include the Last Witch of Rockland and the Legend of Spook Rock. 

"Crossroads of Rockland History," a program of the Historical Society of Rockland County, airs on the third Monday of each month at 10:10 am on WRCR radio 1300 AM (live streaming at www.WRCR.com. Join host Clare Sheridan as we explore, celebrate, and learn about our local history, with different topics and guest speakers every month.  

For a list of archived episodes, click here: http://www.rocklandhistory.org/page.cfm?page=323.

The Andre-Arnold Affair

Originally aired September 15, 2014. To listen to the program, click here.

On September 22, 1780, Benedict Arnold and Major John Andre met in the woods along the Hudson shoreline in Rockland County and there began an act of treason that would become a pivotal point in the Revolutionary War. In this program, Clare Sheridan explores the history of the Andre-Arnold affair and esdiscuss the people and places involved in this fascinating story of betrayal, secrecy, and deception with local historian Thano Schoppel of Tappan

 
Shared History: 2014 Historical House Tour

Originally aired August 18, 2014. To listen to the program, click here.

Two hundred years ago, the Reverend Stephen Goetschius left his home in New Paltz, New York, to move to the Saddle River Valley to serve the Old Stone Church as minister. The families who worshiped there came from the Ramapo region of Rockland and northern Bergen counties. The Shared History of this region is the feature of the 2014 Historical House Tour, which is being prepared by the HSRC in collaboration with the Upper Saddle River Historical Society and the USR Historic Preservation Commission. Clare Sheridan and special guest Kay Yeomans (Upper Saddle River Historical Society) discuss the self-guided historical house tour scheduled for Saturday, September 13, 2014, and the Shared History of the Saddle River Valley that will be featured on the tour. 

Tickets are on sale now for Shared History: 2014 Historical House Tour: Shared History scheduled for September 13. For more information on the tour or for ticket information, click here: www.rocklandhistory.org/event.cfm?page=381.To learn more about the Upper Saddle River Historical Society visitwww.usrhistoricalsociety.org.

Rockland County Summer Reading

Originally aired July 21, 2014. To listen to the program, click here.

Summer’s here! Have you picked out your summer reading yet? Kerry Potter (sitting in for Clare Sheridan) interviews Brian Jennings, History Librarian at the New City Library, about books that include Rockland County History. 

This episode of Crossroads of Rockland History is made possible by a grant from the Town of Ramapo, Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence and the Ramapo Town Board. 
 

Dutch Garden

Originally aired June 16, 2014. To listen to the program, click here.

Clare Sheridan and guests, including Rockland County Legislator Harriet Cornell and Allan Beers of Rockland County’s Division of Environmental Resources, discuss the past, present and future of Dutch Garden in New City. This little-known “secret” Works Progress Administration (WPA) park project was designed by the renowned landscape architect Mary Mowbray Clarke, a native of West Nyack, and executed by the master brick mason Biagio Gugliuzzo of Garnerville. Dutch Garden received a Better Homes and Gardens magazine "Garden of the Year" designation in 1935 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

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