RARE Old Photograph
Advertising for Hoover Body Company
of York, PA
E.N. Corwin Auto Bus Corp.
Newburgh, New York
8 x 10
ca 1920s
For offer - a very nice old image! Fresh from an estate in Upstate NY. Never offered on the market until now. Vintage, Old, antique, Original - NOT a Reproduction - Guaranteed !! Rare image, showing a newly produced bus made by the Hoover Body Company of York, Pennsylvania. Photo measures 8 x 10 with extra piece on side that folds back. Canvas backed, Hoover information on back. In good to very good condition. Light wear at edges, creases at corner edges, small amount of loss. Please see photos. If you collect 20th century history, American, Americana, photography images, etc., this is a nice one for your paper or ephemera collection. Combine shipping on multiples purchases. 2397
Newburgh (/ˈnuːbɜːrɡ//NOO-burg) is a city in the U.S. state of New York within Orange County. With an estimated 2019 population of 28,177,[3] it is a principal city of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown metropolitan area,[4] which belongs to the larger New York megacity. Located 60 miles (97 km) north of New York City, and 90 miles (140 km) south of Albany on the Hudson River within the Hudson Valley Area, the city of Newburgh is located near Stewart International Airport, one of the primary airports for Downstate New York.
The Newburgh area was first settled in the early 18th century by the Germans and British. During the American Revolution, Newburgh served as the headquarters of the Continental Army. Prior to its chartering in 1865, the city of Newburgh was part of the town of Newburgh; the town now borders the city to the north and west. East of the city is the Hudson River; the city of Beacon, New York is across the river and it is connected to Newburgh via the Newburgh–Beacon Bridge. The entire southern boundary of the city is with the town of New Windsor. Most of this boundary is formed by Quassaick Creek. In May 2016, the city requested help for its PFOS contaminated water supply under Superfund.[5]
Newburgh is the location of numerous preserved landmarks, including Washington's Headquarters, the David Crawford House, New York State Armory, the Dutch Reformed Church, and Newburgh Colored Burial Ground. George Washington and Franklin Delano Roosevelt had ties to the city; Ulysses S. Grant, Robert Kennedy, and Theodore Roosevelt also visited, the latter delivering a famous speech at a nearby shipyard. The city served as a planning ground for the early Gothic Revival architectural movement in America, headed by native Andrew Jackson Downing with English architects Calvert Vaux and Frederick Clarke Withers.
Mount Saint Mary College is a private liberal arts college stimulating the city's population and economy. Major corporations with significant operations in the city of Newburgh are Stop & Shop, M&T Bank, Chase Bank, Verizon Communications, Charter Communications, Dunkin', McDonald's, Metro by T-Mobile, Boost Mobile, and Marshalls.
History
At the time of European contact the area of Newburgh was occupied by the Waoranek, a branch of the Lenape. The area that became Newburgh was first explored by Europeans when Henry Hudson stopped by during his 1609 expedition up the river that now bears his name. His navigator, Robert Juet, is said to have called the site "a pleasant place to build a town",[6] although some later historians believe he may actually have been referring to the area where Cornwall-on-Hudson now stands.
Around 1683 provincial governor Thomas Dongan purchased the land from the Woaranek people. The first settlement was made in the spring of 1709 by fifty-four Palatine refugees, sponsored by Queen Anne of Great Britain. The settlers named it the Palatine Parish by Quassic. In 1743 a ferry at the foot of First Street had been established between Newburgh and Fishkill Landing (now Beacon, New York).[7] In 1752 the land had been surveyed by Cadwallader Colden and named "Newburgh" after Newburgh in his native Scotland.[6] Shipyards were established and docks and warehouses lined the waterfront.
Newburgh was the headquarters of the Continental Army from March 1782 until late 1783.[6] While the army was camped at Newburgh, some of its senior officers began the "Newburgh conspiracy" to overthrow the government. General George Washington was able to persuade his officers to stay loyal to him. The army was disbanded here in 1783. Washington received the famous Newburgh letter from Lewis Nicola proposing that he become king here. It drew a vigorous rebuke from Washington. In honor of his refusal of that suggestion, Kings Highway, the north–south street on which the Newburgh headquarters is located, was renamed Liberty Street.[8]
Municipal growth
Woodcut of Newburgh skyline from Hudson in 1842, with Dutch Reformed Church, then with its original dome and lantern
Water Street in Newburgh, photo taken circa 1906; the buildings on the street were demolished as part of urban renewal efforts in the 1960s and 1970
Christopher Columbus Statue on Newburgh's Waterfront
The year 1793 saw Newburgh's first newspaper, The Newburgh Packet. The hamlet of Newburgh was incorporated as a village in 1800. At the time of its settlement it was in Ulster County and was that county's seat. When Rockland County was split from Orange County in 1798, Newburgh and the other towns north of Moodna Creek were put in a redrawn Orange County. Newburgh thus lost its status as the county seat to Goshen, but as a political compromise supreme court sessions continued to be heard in Newburgh as well as the county seat of Goshen, the only place in New York State this is permitted. Although technically still permitted by statute, this practice was discontinued in the mid 1960s. The former County courthouse still stands as Newburgh's old city courthouse building (currently used as municipal office space).
By 1793 there were four sloop lines operating out of Newburgh. As new turnpikes opened trade extended into the interior, passenger coaches and farm wagons raveled as far west as Canandaigua. This was the shortest route from the Hudson to Western New York. By 1819 a steamboat on Cayuga Lake connected Newburgh stage lines with Ithaca. Streets leading to the river were often blocked for hours with farmers' wagons waiting to be unloaded at the wharves. With the opening of the Erie Canal much of the traffic from the Southern Tier was diverted. In 1830 Richard Carpenter of Newburgh had the steamboat William Young built at Low Point; it ran between Newburgh and Albany.[9] Prosperity returned with the arrival of the railroads.
On the evening of September 24, 1824, beacon fires in the Hudson Highlands announced the arrival of the Marquis de Lafayette. Having been feted in New York, he sailed upriver on the chartered steamer James Kent. The next day, people came from the surrounding towns to catch a glimpse of the general as he made his way to a reception at the Orange Hotel. The Rev. John Brown of St. George's Episcopal Church was part of the welcoming committee. At 2 am., Lafayette sailed from Reeve & Falls dock for Poughkeepsie.[9]
The Erie Railroad charter was amended April 8, 1845, to allow the building of the Newburgh Branch, running from the main line near Harriman north-northeast to Newburgh, also on the Hudson River. The branch opened January 8, 1850.[9] It was later used as a connection to the New York and New England Railroad via a car float operation across the river to Beacon, New York.
Newburgh was chartered as a city in April 1865.
Newburgh became quite prosperous during the Gilded Age that followed. Newburgh had telephone service in 1879.[7] In 1883 there was a steamboat landing on Second Street. The United States Hotel was on Front Street opposite the landing. Also on Front Street near the landing was the Union Depot.[10] In 1883, the West Shore Railroad inaugurated service to the Pennsylvania Railroad Depot at Jersey City[11] and by 1886 was traveling to Weehawken Terminal, where passengers transferred to ferries to Manhattan.[12]
With its situation on the Hudson River, midway between New York City and Albany, it became a transportation hub and an industrial center. Its industries included the manufacturing of cottons, woolens, silks, paper, felt hats, baking powder, soap, paper boxes, brick, plush goods, steam boilers, tools, automobiles, coin silver, bleach, candles, waterway gates, ice machines, pumps, moving-picture screens, overalls, perfumes, furniture, carpets, carburetors, spiral springs, spiral pipe, shirt waists, shirts, felt goods, lawn mowers; shipyards; foundries and machine shops; tanneries; leatherette works; and plaster works.
J. J. Nutt made this comment about Newburgh:[13]
The year 1891 finds us the most thriving city on the Hudson, with citizens full of spirit of public enterprise, with public institutions comparatively unequalled, and with apparently every factor and requisite to ensure its bright future as a manufacturing and commercial city of importance...
— J. J. Nutt
Newburgh was home to the second Edison power plant which installed and powered 126 lamps at the Orange Woolen Mill, and was the second American city (after New York's Pearl Street) to have a street lit using electricity.[7] Broadway, which at 132 feet (40 m) in width is one of the widest streets in the state of New York, runs through the city culminating with views of the Hudson River.
20th-21st century
Newburgh played a pivotal role in television history. In October 1939, RCA chose to test-market televisions in Newburgh, which was within range of the television signal of RCA's experimental station W2XBS. 600 sets were sold in Newburgh at a deep discount. The test-marketing campaign's success encouraged RCA to go forward with developing the new medium. Additionally, with consumer television production ceasing during World War II, those Newburgh households which purchased televisions during 1939 and 1940 were among the few to enjoy television (albeit with a greatly reduced programming schedule) during the war.[14]
Newburgh was one of the first cities in the country to fluoridate its water in 1945.[15][16]
In the late 20th century the industrial base of the city declined as industries relocated operations south or to other locations with cheaper labor costs and lower taxes. The Hudson River, which previously served as the main means of transporting goods, lost much of its shipping traffic to trucking. The city's trolley system was shut down in 1924 in favor of buses. The nation moved to the automobile for transportation and, as with many other cities, there was a resulting migration to the suburbs. In 1963 the Newburgh–Beacon Bridge was opened, carrying Interstate 84 and spanning the Hudson River, bypassing the Newburgh waterfront and the city of Newburgh altogether. The ferry closed down soon thereafter—it was not revived until 2005—and the waterfront area declined rapidly.
In 1962, Lloyd's Department Store became the first major shopping center in Newburgh. Its motto was "Years Ahead". Many features of Lloyd's, including widely divergent ministores under one roof, did not become common in other shopping centers for many decades. Lloyd's successfully drew a great deal of retail business away from the downtown area. In 1964, the Mid Valley Mall opened, also outside of the city limits in Newburgh, and attracted many long-established local businesses away from the waterfront and downtown city of Newburgh. Other retail shopping malls soon sprang up, all also outside the city of Newburgh, and the retail industry of the city declined further. The city continued to lose its previously well regarded retail sector along Water Street and Broadway to the suburban shopping malls, which did not share the city's congested parking and traffic problems or the perceived rising crime rate.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the city's response to the economic decline was an ambitious urban renewal plan. The city's historic waterfront area, an area composed of several square blocks which included numerous historically significant buildings, was completely demolished between 1970 and 1973. Residents were relocated, or were supposed to be relocated, to newer housing projects around Muchattoes Lake in the city's interior.
A grand complex that was planned for the urban renewal area was never built when state and federal spending began to dry up after the 1973 oil crisis. To this day, the blocks which slope down to the river remain open, grassy slopes, offering sweeping views of the Hudson but generating no property taxes for the city. Public sentiment is mixed on whether they should be built on again at all, and the city's view-protection ordinances make it less likely. Below, the waterfront was developed in the late 1990s after the city was once again able to secure grants from the state's Environmental Protection fund for riprap (a type of stone) to stabilize the shoreline.
City manager Joseph Mitchell attending the Newburgh City Council in 1961
In the early 1960s, city manager Joseph McDowell Mitchell and the council attracted nationwide attention and the admiration of political conservatives when they attempted to require welfare recipients to pick up their payments at police headquarters. Mitchell later announced a program aimed largely at Blacks and African Americans on welfare, whom many in the community blamed for its economic problems. The program would have denied welfare payments to all after three months except the aged, the blind and the handicapped. Those affected would have largely been single mothers of young children, the only category in which blacks were predominant. After opposition by both state and federal officials, the program created a national controversy and never went into effect. Along with the failed urban renewal, the mid to late 1960s in Newburgh were also marked by race riots and other tensions.
Newburgh in the early 21st century is more racially diverse than it used to be, as a growing Latin American immigrant population (mainly of Mexican descent) complements the city's sizable African American contingent. Economic development has been a major concern, but poorly realized, as the good jobs once found in the local manufacturing sector have not been replaced. Pockets of poverty persist in the city, often mere blocks away from its many historical and architectural landmarks. In addition to this, the city has been facing issues regarding illegal immigration, like many other cities across the United States, ranging from overcrowded apartment buildings to mild racial conflict.
In spite of this Newburgh is experiencing a spurt of new businesses on its historic Liberty Street near Washington's Headquarters. An art supply store, a gourmet food market, an antiques store, a used furniture shop, a souvenir shop, a flower shop, a bakery and a restaurant have joined an existing café, a graphic design shop and two additional antiques stores in the final months of 2008 and January 2009. This is all in the midst of the redevelopment of East Parmenter Street in a partnership with Habitat for Humanity and a private developer to build 24 new houses. The city has completed the overhaul of the infrastructure of the street.
Geography
A city on a slope over a body of water with larger buildings at the left and center right. There are low hills in the distance
View of Newburgh from the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, 2006
Barge in frozen Newburgh Bay, 2011
Newburgh is situated in the Northeastern United States, in Downstate New York's Hudson Valley Area. It is located within Orange County bordering the Hudson River on the west bank. The town of Newburgh borders the city to the north and west, and the town of New Windsor borders the south.
Adjacent to Newburgh, the land rises at first sharply to a bluff, where many historic structures are located due to the sweeping views it offers on the Hudson Highlands to the south; Mount Beacon to the east and the Newburgh—Beacon Bridge to the north; then more gradually to a relatively level western half. There are some notable hills in outlying areas such as the Washington Heights section in southeast Newburgh and Mount St. Mary's at the northeast. The lowest elevation in the city is at sea level along the river; the highest is roughly 690 feet (210 m) on Snake Hill along the city's boundary with the town of New Windsor.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city is located at the following coordinates: (41.503193, −74.019636). Newburgh has a total area of 4.8 sq mi (12.4 km2) per the U.S. Census Bureau. 3.8 sq mi (9.9 km2) of it is land and 0.97 sq mi (2.5 km2) of it (20.08%) is water. Newburgh makes up a part of the Poughkeepsie—Newburgh—Middletown metropolitan area, which is a part of the New York megacity.
Nearby :
Cities
Middletown
Newburgh
Port Jervis
[23]
Towns
Blooming Grove
Chester
Cornwall
Crawford
Deerpark
Goshen
Greenville
Hamptonburgh
Highlands
Minisink
Monroe
Montgomery
Mount Hope
New Windsor
Newburgh
Palm Tree
Tuxedo
Wallkill
Warwick
Wawayanda
Woodbury
Villages
Chester
Cornwall on Hudson
Florida
Goshen (county seat)
Greenwood Lake
Harriman
Highland Falls
Kiryas Joel
Maybrook
Monroe
Montgomery
Otisville
South Blooming Grove
Tuxedo Park
Unionville
Walden
Warwick
Washingtonville
Woodbury
Census-designated places
Balmville
Beaver Dam Lake
Firthcliffe
Fort Montgomery
Gardnertown
Mechanicstown
Mountain Lodge Park
New Windsor
Orange Lake
Pine Bush
Salisbury Mills
Scotchtown
Sparrow Bush
Vails Gate
Walton Park
Washington Heights
West Point
Hamlets
Amity
Arden
Bellvale
Bullville
Carpenter's Point
Central Valley
Circleville
Highland Mills
Howells
Little Britain
Michigan Corners
Mountainville
New Hampton
Pine Island
Ridgebury
Slate Hill
Sugar Loaf
Thompson Ridge
Westbrookville
York-Hoover Body Corp, and its predecessor, York Body Co. are best remembered today as a prolific supplier of wooden depot hack and station wagon bodies for the Ford Model T. Still in business today, the York Group, remains the nations premiere manufacturers of burial caskets, a line introduced by York-Hoover in the early 30s.
The firm began as the York Wagon Gear Co., founded in 1892 by Peter Keller, a York, Pennsylvania carriage maker, to supply the area’s buggy and wagon builders with a locally produced source of bodies in the white, carriage gears, axles and other wood and metal parts and sub-assemblies.
York Wagon Gear‘s offices, showroom and main factory were located adjacent to the Pennsylvania Railroad at 700 Linden Ave. at the corner of Belvidere Ave.
A March 18, 1915 fire caused by a defective electric light destroyed a large portion of the York Wagon Gear Co.’s plant, but the loss was covered by insurance and the factory was rebuilt.
In its early days, York Wagon Gear's best customers were George W. Hoover and Sons and the Martin Carriage Works of West York, two of the most prominent carriage makers in the area. Both firms would later play a role in the region’s automobile and commercial body manufacturing business.
The emergence of the automobile, and in particular, Henry Ford’s Model T did not go unnoticed by Keller and in the mid-teens, the firm began offering commercial bodies for the popular horseless carriage.
Although some very early Ford trucks were sold with commercial bodies, Ford discontinued the program in 1913; leaving the field wide open for enterprising commercial body builders through 1924 when the first factory-built Ford Model T pick-ups were introduced.
The firm’s commercial bodies proved so popular that in 1917 Keller reorganized the firm as the York Body Corp. to better reflect their line of work.
When the region’s largest carriage manufacturer, the York Carriage Co. went out of business in 1919, its modern Franklin St. factory was purchased from the receivers, more than doubling the Body Corp.’s manufacturing capacity.
York Carriage Co had been established in 1890 by Samuel E. Bailey at 238-242 N. George St., in York. Bailey specialized in the manufacture of light and business wagons and his S.E. Bailey Co. was a respected Lancaster, PA carriage manufacturer. A ware room was subsequently established in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at 203 and 205 N Broad St. resulting in a move to larger quarters at 158-188 N. George St. in York. By 1896, Bailey had outgrown his second factory and a new facility was erected at the corner of Franklin and Hay Sts. employing 150 hands. Unfortunately the firm’s directors did not anticipate the success of the automobile, and in the mid-teens the region’s largest manufacturer was forced into bankruptcy.
George W. Hoover & Sons was another long respected York carriage builder with a factory located in downtown York at 9 E. Philadelphia St. Following a name change to the Hoover Wagon Co., the firm became known for their smart-looking route delivery vehicles, hearses and invalid coaches.
In 1911 Hoover built a handful of electric-powered 1500-lb delivery trucks for a regional retailer – quite possibly for the Wannamaker Department Store chain. During the teens, a new factory was erected on Wheatfield St., adjacent to the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad, giving the firm easy access to new customers located in Baltimore, MD and Washington DC.
A little-known fact is that in most small towns, the owner of the local funeral home typically ran the local furniture store as well. In very small communities some funeral parlors did double-duty, operating as a furniture store Monday through Friday and as a funeral home when the need arose.
Hoover was one early firm which catered to the funeral home/ furniture store marketplace. Starting in 1914 they offered a combination motorized funeral coach, furniture delivery car using a stretched Model T chassis. This utilitarian vehicle would prove popular in the early years of motorized coaches and numerous manufactures soon offered similar models.
These early multi-purpose vehicles look much like the flower cars that would become popular starting in the late 1930s and some big-city funeral directors used them for transporting floral tributes in large corteges. The unusual Hoover casket-cars were made through the early 1920s.
Some directors used them to transport chairs, altars, and supplies to the cemetery grounds while others used them as a first call car, the vehicle which was sent to the home of the deceased. In the 19th and early 20th century, some families kept the body in the house and the funeral director did the embalming on site. A number of manufacturers offered embalming or first call cars, which typically contained a casket and all supplies needed for embalming.
For 1918 Hoover offered a long wheelbase funeral coach on an extended Ford Model TT Chassis. This low-priced maker offered curved-glass corner windows at the front, making their closed coaches look like miniature trams or trolley cars. Hoover also offered a more traditional carved-panel 8-column hearse in either a modern light grey or tradition black lacquer finish.
For urban hospitals and ambulance services, Hoover's wide delivery van-like ambulance body could carry two gurneys and was available on a number of heavy-duty chassis from manufacturers like Cadillac, Dodge or REO.
Hoover offered its own assembled 1-ton gasoline truck starting in 1917. It had a 20 hp Continental 4cylinder engine and bevel drive. In 1919 the chassis cost $1,435 and it disappeared from the roster of US truck manufacturers in 1920. Many of Hoover’s assembled trucks were fitted with van bodies and sold to the US Post Office.
The 1920 Hoover catalog featured a number of 8-column coaches mounted on 31hp V8 Cadillac touring car chassis. Between the columns they offered either windows, carved-drapery panels, or a combination of the two.
Primarily a commercial body-builder, Hoover coaches were stylistically a few years behind the times. While other manufacturers offered limousine-style coaches and ambulances, the 1921 Hoover catalog looked like a reprint of the 1916 catalog.
Although the firm modernized its name in 1922, becoming the Hoover Body Co., its coaches remained five years behind the times. 1922 & 1923 Hoovers were massive, heavy-looking, vehicles with intricately carved columns and panels, although a number of solid color and two-tone paint schemes were available.
The 1924 Hoover catalog included some traditional carved-panel hearses, but included a number of modern-looking limousine-style coaches for the first time. One unusual model featured an intricately carved belt-line molding and three weird-looking 3/4 size beveled-glass rear compartment windows. Another limousine-style coach featured contemporary styling and normal windows which extended from the belt-line to the bottom of the roof.
For 1926 Hoover's limousine-style bodies were a little lower and more modern looking, incorporating the then popular multi-pane windshield with integral visor. A slab-sided 4-column casket car was shown on a Dodge Brothers truck chassis, although Hoover continued to mount their bodies on any customer-supplied chassis presented to them.
Bus bodies were an early specialty and by the early twenties the firm was advertising a line of smart-looking suburban and estate bodies for the Dodge Bros, Ford and Chevrolet chassis in the nation’s leading magazines. Their bodies were popular with wealthy landowners, and the firm maintained a factory service depot and sales office in Long Island City, New York.
While other manufacturers preferred to supply standard catalog bodies, Hoover advertised their custom-built “Hoover Specialized Bodies” that could be built using their patented Stelkote panels, a durable steel-covered insulated panel popular with ice and diary vendors.
Re-usable collapsible bodies were sometimes used when a truck chassis made its initial journey from the factory to the dealer or body builder. York’s model 15 driveway cab was one of the few rudimentary structures that were available to car dealers at the time.
Following the poorly received York Cabriolet for 1925-27 Chevrolet chassis, the York Body Co. decided to concentrate its efforts on the commercial body business. In 1928, it consolidated its holding with those of their cross-town rivals, the Hoover Body Co., forming the York-Hoover Body Corp. giving the new corporation a capacity of 50,000 auto commercial bodies annually.
The officers of the York-Hoover Body Corp were: President, Horace D. Keller; vice-president and general manager, Peter A. Elsesser; secretary, William E. Groft; assistant secretary, Luther A. Dettinger: treasurer, Reuben A. Paules; assistant treasurer, Edwin S. Ziegler. The firm even published their own newspaper, the York-Hoover Herald, into the late 1940s.
Although the new Ford Model A lineup included a factory station wagon, aftermarket builders were still able to come up with interesting products unavailable from Ford. York-Hoover and others offered slip-on cargo bodies that could be fitted in place of the rumble seat/deck lid on Model A Business Coupes. A simple huckster body was also available that could be installed on a bare Mode A chassis/cowl.
In 1929 Congress authorized funding allowing the US Postal Service to replace their aging fleet of surplus WWI Parcel Post delivery vehicles. A line of standardized bodies were eventually agreed upon and York-Hoover produced the smaller 96 cu. ft. versions. Mifflinburg Body Co. built 500 mid-sized bodies for the ½ ton Model A chassis and 550 for the larger Model AA. While August Schubert Wagon Co. of Syracuse, NY produced the largest 200 cu. ft. and 215 cu. ft. bodies. Over 4,000 bodies were produced by the three builders during the 3-year long Postal Body program.
York (Pennsylvania German: Yarrick), known as the White Rose City (after the symbol of the House of York), is the county seat of York County, Pennsylvania, United States,[3] located in the south-central region of the state. The population within York's city limits was 43,718 at the 2010 census, a 7.0% increase from the 2000 census count of 40,862. When combined with the adjacent boroughs of West York and North York and surrounding Spring Garden, West Manchester, and Springettsbury townships, the population of Greater York was 108,386. York is the 11th largest city in Pennsylvania.[4]