A Sign For the Times

(November 28, 2011) Thanks to the School 16 Parent-Teacher Association, a beautiful new sign identifies the schoolhouse on North Broadway that has been educating Yonkers children since 1902. The PTA raised the funds to purchase the sign, and the school community turned out to dedicate it at a festive ceremony last week with Superintendent of Schools Bernard P. Pierorazio and principal Cynthia Eisner.

The beautiful masonry building in the northeast corner of Yonkers overlooks the Hudson River, where the school's first students had a bird's eye view of history in the making when a vicious autumn storm lashed the river, sinking a barge of coal headed for the Greystone Estate that was purchased by Henry Untermeyer from Samuel Tilden just three years before.

On the day of the sign dedication last week, the school children could gaze upon a calm Hudson, and the city's residents could enjoy the splendor of Untermeyer Park. The school, the river, the park and more than a century of children - treasures all in the unfolding history of Yonkers.