Life-Long Local Residents Share Their Insights and Memories of Early Years in the Town of Mamaroneck

By Nina Recio Cuddy

At its May Breakfast Program, the Local Summit of Larchmont/Mamaroneck welcomed Valerie O’Keeffe, Jack Coughlin and Jim Whittemore, three well-known and well-respected long-time Town of Mamaroneck residents, and invited them to share their memories and perspectives on the changes they’ve seen in the Town over the last fifty or more years. The program proved to be a charming mix of both personal recollections and Town history from the perspective of individuals who grew up together in the Town, established businesses here and participated in local civic activities.

O’Keeffe is a well-known and well-respected community resident. She served as the Supervisor of the Town of Mamaroneck from 1999 until 2012, after having served for six years on the Town Council. She explained that she first moved to the Town of Mamaroneck with her parents in 1950 and described how different every-day life in the Town was at that time.

O’Keeffe attended Murray Avenue School, which was built around 1923, and described how “every student walked to school each day, regardless of weather conditions,” and that most also walked home for lunch and back again. She also remembered that the school had originally been constructed with separate entrances for boys and girls, but those restrictions were not in effect while she was there. However, an informal dress code for students was enforced, as was typical of the era.

Speakers Jim Whittemore and Jack Coughlin also spent their entire lives as residents of the Town. Both Whittemore and Coughlin became involved in local civic affairs and went on to establish successful businesses here.

Coughlin told the audience that he moved to the Town in 1935, when he was 10 years old, and first lived on Rockingstone Ave. He attended Mamaroneck High School (MHS), graduating in 1943, and later attended Iona College. He served in the United States Army during WWII, and, after returning home, began a career in insurance, founding Coughlin Insurance in 1963. The company, still in business today, maintains its offices on Myrtle Blvd. Coughlin has been involved in many aspects of community life, but especially the Boy Scouts, the American Legion and the Lions Club.

Whittemore, also a life-long resident, described how, when he first moved to Mamaroneck, he “lived on the brook” (on Brookside Drive East). The brook, he said, “is really not a brook at all, but the Sheldrake River”. It is located in the Larchmont Gardens section of the Town, an area developed by Clifford Harmon, thus the local road there is named Harmon Drive.

Whittemore reported that he was one of the first kindergarten students at Sts. John and Paul School (SJP), which was established in July 1949. At the time he attended SJP, there were 56 students in each class. Like Coughlin, Whittemore later graduated from MHS. Thereafter, he attended the University of Maryland. After a stint in the Navy, he returned to Mamaroneck where he began a career in real estate at his local family-run realty firm, Sutton and Whittemore, which later merged to become Burbank Whittemore, now Sotheby’s International Realty. He remains active in the local real estate business.

The speakers discussed the many changes they have seen in the Town during their lifetimes as it evolved from a rural to a true suburban commuter community. O’Keeffe recalled that there had been a goat farm behind the Stonecrest Apartments (21 North Chatsworth Ave.) resulting in an occasional “goat on the loose” on Chatsworth Ave. According to O’Keeffe, the goatherd owner was an Italian immigrant who would sell the goat milk to New Rochelle Hospital for newborn infants in need of milk. A small Italian immigrant community developed on North Chatsworth Avenue near Edgewood and Murray Aves. In later years, the Larchmont Hills Development Corp torn down the old houses and developed the area.

The speakers agreed that one of the most significant events for the Town was the construction of the New England Thruway (I-95) in approximately 1954. (New England Thruway construction occurred from 1950 – 1958). “The Thruway radically changed Larchmont,” said Coughlin. According to Coughlin, before the Thruway was built, Myrtle Blvd. was home to a Gristedes store, Plaza Pharmacy and an electronics and radio repair shop, as well as several very large homes

The Thruway separated the Town at Myrtle Blvd., but the speakers explained that many residents welcomed the change because it substantially reduced the traffic, noise, and soot problem caused by the trucks that crowded the Boston Post Road. The Boston Post Rd, O’Keeffe said, was the main truck route north from New York City.

As residents of the Town know, there is no southbound exit and no northbound entrance in Larchmont. According to Coughlin, the original Thruway plans included an exit behind Chatsworth Gardens, but some residents, including Owen Mandeville, an early business associate of Coughlin who served as Town Supervisor from 1943 to 1956, did not want the Thruway near their property. Coughlin claimed that Mandeville and others vigorously and successfully opposed this proposed construction, but the result was the elimination of the southbound exit and northbound entrance.

Coughlin’s insurance business, which remains on Myrtle Blvd., is next door to the building known as the Clock Tower Building. He told the story of how, in 1940, after the draft was implemented, troops were housed in the Clock Tower Building because the Army had run out of space at Fort Slocum. After WWII, Coughlin was appointed to the community committee tasked with erecting a WWII Memorial. He was the youngest member of the committee and was instrumental in having the memorial placed at the park on Myrtle Blvd, instead of at Constitution Park opposite St. Augustine’s Church.

In another interesting note of local history, O’Keeffe and Jeff Meighan, Summit member and breakfast host, described how the Leatherstocking Trail, a 2.5 mile foot trail running through the Town of Mamaroneck from New Rochelle, was originally a county owned parcel that was intended to become an alternate highway to the Hutchinson River Parkway. Instead, O’Keeffe explained, former Town Supervisor Christine Helwig ( serving from 1969 – 1975) “purchased it from the County for the Town”.

In recalling his childhood, Whittemore described how residents used the Duck Pond during the winter for ice-skating. He described the pond as “the most famous place in town” and went on to explain how during his childhood there was a man-made island in the center. According to Whittemore, there could be as many as 300 people skating on the frozen pond during the winter and the skaters would later build a bonfire and enjoy hot cocoa on the pond’s center island. He also described how the Mott family owned a cotton mill at the top of the falls leading to the pond (110 East Hickory Grove Drive). That structure later became a clubhouse for the Gardens area and today it is a private residence.

Drawing on his many years in the real estate business, Whittemore revealed a bit about the history of the Elkan Park section of the Town. He said that after WWII, forty-four returning vets pooled their money to buy the parcel currently known as Elkan Park in order to build housing for returning vets. The returning vets wanted the section to be called Foxhole Estates. The Elkan family refused to accept the vets’ money. In exchange, however, the section was to be named Elkan Park. “It was the first cluster housing development in Westchester County,” stated Whittemore.

In recalling another development in the Town, Whittemore explained that Rouken Glen was developed by C. W. Moody and Althea Lane was named for Moody’s wife. The development itself, Rouken Glen, was named for a train stop in Scotland that Moody observed while on a trip through Scotland, according to Meighan.

In addition to remembrances of the way the town appeared years ago, the participants also recalled famous residents of the Town. O’Keeffe remembered that Richard Dannay (pen name Ellery Queen) lived on Byron Lane, as did Shirley MacLaine’s family. Whittemore told the audience that Denver Broncos wide receiver Billy Van Heusen was a member of the Mamaroneck High School Class of 1964 and Whittemore’s cousin, Tom Trevor (the voice of Mighty Mouse) lived on Valley Stream Road. Coughlin reported that Lou Gehrig lived in the Stonecrest Apartments for a while.

This breakfast forum was hosted by The Larchmont-Mamaroneck Local Summit, an informal community council that seeks to make life better for all in the tri-municipal area. Its monthly public meetings are held at the Nautilus Diner in Mamaroneck at 7:45 a.m., usually on the third Tuesday of the month. The next breakfast meeting with take place on June 16, and the topic will be summer recreational opportunities in our local Villages, Town of Mamaroneck and the County. Prior programs can be accessed for viewing by using the link on the Larchmont/Mamaroneck Local Summit Facebook page.