• A postcard of the Hotel Florence, Tarrytown, New York, with several early 20th century cars park out front.
    Local History & Interest,  Postcards,  Vanished Sleepy Hollow

    The Florence Inn

    From 1819 to 1964 the northwest corner of the intersection of South Broadway (Route 9) and Franklin Street was occupied by a rambling old house that for much of its existence was a popular inn. Known first as the Franklin House and later as the Vincent House, Florence Inn and Hotel Florence, it served locals and travelers along the Albany Post Road. In their History of the Tarrytowns, local historians Jeff Canning and Wally Buxton record a parade of notable visitors to the Florence: President Martin Van Buren often stopped while in transit from his home in upstate Kinderhook, NY to Washington, DC; Woodrow Wilson lodged there while giving a series…

  • Local History & Interest,  Postcards

    Russell and Lawrie Post Cards

    Founded by Frederick A. Russell and James T. Lawrie, the Russell & Lawrie drugstore originally occupied the first floor of the Washington Building at Main Street and Broadway in Tarrytown, a Tudor-style building which in 1894 replaced the pre-Revolutionary Edward Covenhoven inn. The drugstore moved a couple blocks up Broadway after fire swept the building in 1965. Like their crosstown rival, Farrington’s Drug Store, Russell & Lawrie published a series of souvenirs post cards, some of which we collect here. Russell & Lawrie card numbered A5888 shows Tarrytown’s Depot Square with the Orchard Street district intact. The entire row of buildings behind the train station were demolished in the name…

  • Local History & Interest,  Postcards

    Farrington Post Cards

    Like his rivals at Russell & Lawrie in Tarrytown, drugstore owner Edward Farrington had a line of souvenirs. Farrington’s Drug Store was located in the corner of Beekman Avenue and Washington Street in North Tarrytown. Farrington employed a numbering system for his images, typically a six digit code on the image side of the card. In the mid-2000s former Rockefeller archivist Lucas Buresch catalogued Farrington’s “Lost Postcards of the Rockefeller Estate” with notes on each. 404,416 Residence of J.D. Rockefeller, Pocantico Hills, N.Y., showing Sunken Garden and Japanese Tea House. Farrington is incorrect. The Rockefeller family refers to it simply as the “tea house”. The interior is in the style…