Where We Live - Ossining, New York : Tony and Pooa Bloomberg

Mystic Mansion

We  live in Ossining NY, which is about 30 miles north of New York City. Our house is a semi-detached unit of a condominium that is perched on a rise directly next to the Hudson River.

From the back of our house we see the Hudson River, the railway line and Croton Point Park. We regularly see bald eagles, hawks and interesting birds that use the Hudson as a migratory path in spring and autumn.

In the stretch of land between our house and the river can be found deer, racoons and recently the occasional coyote.

We are at the most northerly part of Ossining next to the mouth of the Croton River as it enters the Hudson. On the north side of the Croton River is the village of Croton-on-Hudson where I lived for 19 years with my family. 

We moved to Ossining after I was posted to Africa in 1997, since a condominium takes care of all external maintenance and we could more easily rent it out whilst living overseas. Croton was historically an artist colony and then became the main transfer point between New York City commuter trains and main line trains going north and west to places including Montreal and Chicago. In the beginning of the 20th century the Mt. Airy district of Croton, known as ‘Red Hill’ was the center of the American Communist Party.  My son Daniel lives on Mt. Airy with his family, and whilst I would not say he is ‘red’, he is decidedly liberal pink.  

About 4 miles up the Croton River is the Old Croton Dam behind which is the Croton Reservoir, first built in the mid 19th century and rebuilt with stone at the beginning of the 20th century. It is the largest masonry stone structure in the western hemisphere. Thousands of Italian stone masons and Irish laborers were brought to Croton for the construction project, and after its completion these immigrants settled in the Croton-Ossining area. An aqueduct brought fresh water to New York City before new water sources were arranged from the Catskills and the Delaware basins. 

Visiting Croton Dam just after the Storm Ida downpour in the area beginning September.

A nature trail now covers the Old Croton Aqueduct and I like to bike up it to visit the Croton Dam at least once a week. 

Croton Dam - Side View

Croton River from Dam

                                                    

My son Amos and his family also live in Croton-on-Hudson, and each July we forage in the woods near Croton Dam for wineberries and make Chateaux Bloomberg Wineberry wine. So far, 2015 was the best vintage.

Ossining derives its name from the Sint Sinck Indians from whom the Dutch settler Frederick Phillipse bought the land in the 17th century.  The town went through a series of name changes and was called Sing-Sing when a prison of that name was built there in the early 19th century. New York City gangsters were ‘sent up-river’ to Sing-Sing and the prison was the New York State site of ‘electric-chair’ executions; amongst alumni of Sing-Sing were Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executed in 1953 for giving away nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union. 

The town wanted to disassociate itself from the negative image of the prison and changed its name to Ossining, whereupon the prison changed its name to Ossining Correctional Facility; they say there is no escape from Sing-Sing.

 My wife and I sometimes bring our grandchildren to a park next to Sing-Sing on the Hudson.