The Hastings Historical Society

18 Jun 2021

Minnijean Brown of the “Little Rock Nine”

June 18, 2021
The Hastings Historical Society
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1960s, Remembrances

by Mark Sameth

Minnijean Brown — one of the historic “Little Rock Nine” — lived in Hastings in 1958 and 1959. Minnijean came to Hastings when she was 16, after having been harassed, threatened, and ultimately expelled (for “verbal retaliation”) from the Arkansas high school she helped integrate […]

03 Apr 2021

Hillside Kids’ Q&A About Hastings History

April 3, 2021
The Hastings Historical Society
9869 Views
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Hastings History

by Natalie Barry

For the last several years, I’ve been asked to come into Hillside School and talk to the 2nd graders about Hastings history. I always look forward to it, as the kids are always great fun and so appreciative of learning about our village’s past. This […]

19 Feb 2021

Abraham Lincoln’s First Passage through Hastings

February 19, 2021
The Hastings Historical Society
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1860s

By Mark Sameth

Abraham Lincoln was here. More precisely, he passed through here. Four times. This winter marks the 160th anniversary of Lincoln’s first passage through – as it was known then – “Hastings-Upon-Hudson,” as President-elect aboard The Inaugural Express a little after 2:30 PM on the afternoon […]

06 Oct 2020

Uniontown: The American Dream in Hastings

October 6, 2020
The Hastings Historical Society
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1800s, 1900s, Uniontown

First conceived in the 1830s, Uniontown is the oldest neighborhood in Hastings outside of the original downtown.

02 Sep 2020

Firemen’s Bazaar (of Yesteryear)

September 2, 2020
The Hastings Historical Society
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1950s, 1960s, Remembrances

For several years in the late 1950s and early 60s, one of the most anticipated summer events in Hastings was the Firemen’s Bazaar.

22 Jun 2020

Hastings’ Hidden Waterway

June 22, 2020
The Hastings Historical Society
10875 Views
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Nature, Pre-history

Largely invisible today as a result of construction and development over the years, Scheckler’s Brook runs through the heart of Hastings and was a central feature of the village’s landscape and daily life for centuries.

26 Jul 2019

The Evolution of HoH’s Official Seal (No, Not the Animal)

July 26, 2019
The Hastings Historical Society
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Hastings History

by Natalie Barry

Several months ago, our new mayor Niki Armacost was asked to speak to the 3rd/4th and 5th graders at Hillside and Farragut Middle School, respectively. During the Q&A segment, one child asked whether our village has an official animal. That got Mayor Armacost thinking about […]

01 Jun 2019

Hillside Students as Urban Planners – Visions of Downtown and the Waterfront

June 1, 2019
The Hastings Historical Society
4439 Views
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Neighborhoods, Waterfront

This past January, Hillside teacher Dianna Clarke invited me to speak to the 2nd grade about Hastings history. I had a great time talking about early industry in the ravine, our waterfront factories, plus sharing “then and now” photos of important buildings from Hastings’ past.

As I was […]

23 Jan 2019

Telephone Booths and Numbers

January 23, 2019
The Hastings Historical Society
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Hastings History, Reminiscences

In “On This Day in History,” featured in The New York Times, it mentioned that on January 7, 1951, the minimum price of a coin-box telephone call rose to 10 cents from 5 cents in the state of New York.

This made me think about those coin-box telephone booths that were located […]

09 Sep 2018

Immigration to and Emigration from Schwäbisch Hall

September 9, 2018
The Hastings Historical Society
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1900s, 1910s

One of Hastings’ early shopkeepers, Frederick Breyer, was included in a book recently published by the city archive of Schwäbisch Hall in Germany. The translated title of the book is “Immigration to and Emigration from Schwäbisch Hall: 1600-1914.” For those of you who speak German, we now have a […]