Visiting Yonkers in 1939


Today we're time-traveling to Yonkers, New York in 1939. The photo is from the wonderful collection of the Duke University Digital Libraries, ROAD (Resource of Outdoor Advertising Descriptions). Yes, their scholarly interest is in the advertising, but I just like looking around. Come on!

We're at Main Street and Riverdale, looking east. It's just an ordinary day in Yonkers in 1939, but everything in this photo fascinates me!


I mean, look at those cars, especially the beautiful little runabout in the foreground. Just ordinary cars then, but all collector's items now! Even the cobblestone streets fascinate me!

It looks like it's two twenty-two according to the clock at Ward's Jewelers and Optician. I don't suppose that it's too late to grab some lunch at the King Chow Co. Restaurant? Maybe we could stop into Georges Sport Shop. A raincoat might come in handy!

But it's the other side of the street that has so much going on! Looks like that's a drugstore that the girls are leaning on. I see Harris Prescriptions, also Soda, Luncheonette. I wonder what they're looking at? The guy with the suspenders seems to be looking in the same direction, too. All I see is the runabout! Maybe it's going too fast? My best guess about the man in the foreground, with the hat, is that's he's a cabbie. I remember seeing those things that made change, and hung from your belt, back when I was a kid in the '60s.

And here's a closer view of the street sign. There's also Dick Shay Men's Sample Shoes. I wonder what sample means here? There's also Credit Royal Jewelers, home of Royal Diamond and Watch. Actually, I think you're supposed to read a sign like that as Royal Credit Jewelers. I wonder what the stuff piled up there on the sidewalk is? Maybe boxes? They can't be mattresses, which is the first thing I saw. And I just love those beautiful old street lights!

Well, I guess we're done walking around Yonkers in 1939. Thanks for coming along!

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