Old Croton, New Croton, Future Croton. Time and tide wait for no one.
The loss of several more long-time Crotonites reminds us that the village is steadily changing. There may be limits to how much we can do about it, or want to.
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We’ve lost a lot of senior Crotonites lately, and of course each passing leaves our village and its living history painfully diminished. But judging from the obituary pages in recent issues of The Gazette, our villagers tend to hold to their mortal coils for an impressive length of time. Anne C. Hagen, a 27 year resident, died at age 91, as did Ronald Luposello, Sr., who lived in Croton all his life. And then there’s Vera P. Munson, who passed away at age 106. Vera first moved to Croton when she was 12 years old, and was a member of the first class to graduate from Croton-Harmon High School in 1935.
One of the most notable of these passings was that of John Giglio, who also lived in Croton all his life and died on March 4 at the age of 96. Last January, John’s wife, Louise Giglio, had also passed away. They were high school sweethearts and married in 1949, not long after John left the Army and began working for the New York Central Railroad in the Harmon Yards.
A lot of people in Croton took note of John and Louise’s deaths. That seems to be in part because they volunteered for pretty much everything you can volunteer for in the village. One or both of them were volunteers in the fire department (John), the Croton Historical Society (both), the Recreation Advisory Committee (John), the Croton-Harmon Athletics Booster Club (both), the Croton Seniors Club (both), and the American Legion (John), among others.
Also, because they were widely regarded as very nice and humble people. “He was an amazing man,” says Frank Pusatere, himself a volunteer fireman who moved to Croton in 1979. Pusatere, served alongside John Giglio in the fire department for 35 years, says that Giglio still came into the firehouse when he was well into his nineties.
“John lived a humble life. This is what people aspire to in this village. He didn’t have an agenda, other than to serve the community.”
Another thing we heard about John and Louise Giglio: They were “Old Croton,” through and through. That made us wonder: How do you tell the difference between Old Croton and New Croton, other than that members of the first category are older?
So we asked about a dozen Croton residents of various ages and periods of residence in the village for their opinions. Below are some of the responses. We learned one thing, at least: If you were here in 1960 when Mary DiLiberato sold Mary’s Restaurant on North Riverside to Honey and Irene Waters, you are definitely Old Croton.
Old Croton and New Croton: Villager views.
Ken Sargeant, photographer, artist, jazz impressario, and chair of Croton’s Arts & Humanities Advisory Council:
“Old Croton is tethered to the working class and trade based lifestyles, which evolved out of the rail and water systems, and to a lesser extent, its arts heritage. Old Croton is also uniquely defined by remembering the town’s configuration prior to the [Route 9] highway, which eviscerated much of what used to be the center of Croton. New Croton is in many ways transitory, community driven, and in search of a hybrid of Mayberry and the big city.”
Guy Pardee, ace arborist:
“The difference would be the same that eventually happens to all suburban communities: It’s the loss of the working class… [with] that [goes] their understanding and values. Like governance by a single party, there aren’t societal checks and balances.”
Nora Regis, admin, The Croton Point:
“The meanings of Old Croton and New Croton are defined by the speaker. For some, Old Croton just means that their family has been here multiple generations, but for others it means they’ve been here for over twenty years. New Croton can be synonymous with “city people” (despite the fact that Crotonites have been moving from or commuting to the City for a hundred years) or it can be interpreted as a nostalgic vibe – either for a time when the town was smaller and whiter, or more charitably, when people were friendlier at the post office.
“But my definition is simple: if you were here when there were two Capriccio’s and you preferred the one in the Van Wyck shopping center extension, you’re New Croton, and if you preferred the one by the Mini Deli, you’re Old Croton. Of course, if you were truly Old Croton, you would interject here with a loud lament over the loss of Honey’s. And if you only know the singular new Cappricio’s, welcome! Get the pepperoni rolls.”
Ralph Croteau, long-time chef and restaurateur:
“Old Croton was very tight knit, everyone knew each other, you knew all the families and what house they lived in, what grades all the kids were in... There was no leash law so everyone just let the dog out of the house to roam around all day, so you knew everyone's dog as well. I think we were all pretty accepting of each other although you were classified as a jock, a freak, a nerd, or a greaser. One time I came home for dinner and my mom says, ‘So you were hitch hiking with a girl on 129 today...’ I said how did you know that? her answer, ‘I have eyes ALL OVER this town!’"
Mark Franzoso, contractor:
“In my opinion, I don’t look at it as others do —old Croton and New Croton. Croton has evolved over the years and I think for the better. It will never be what it once was and that’s just the sign of the times. When you hear that comparison, it’s from people that lived here forever, their families have worked here either on the railroad, police department, or DPW. They even had stores providing goods and services to others. Folks have passed away, or moved on and it is grown into a ‘still nice little town with new young families.’ It’s a pleasure to see.”
Alexis Agosta, 140 Grand:
“I don’t think there is much of a difference. Those ‘Old Croton’ people who have been here long seem to be used to the ‘waves’ of transplants that come to town. It has always been a thing. A lot of the people who seem to have an issue with it are transplants themselves. I think that the breakdown boils down to this: New Croton has chosen this town as a place to live and raise a family because of generations before them that has made it that way. And people should understand and respect that. On the flip side, Old Croton needs to see and accept that change is inevitable, and they have a responsibility to welcome newcomers and show them why this is such a great village.”
The times they are a-changin’
The image below is an artist’s conception of what the affordable housing project now called Maple Commons (formerly often called the “Katz-Regan” development or just the “Katz property”) was supposedly going to look like. Of course, a quick drive or stroll down Maple Street tells us that it doesn’t really look anything like this. This was a fantasy in someone’s imagination, to put it charitably, or a fantasy that village leaders and the developer tried to plant in our imaginations, to be more blunt about it.
For many (but far from all) villagers, this project represents future Croton, and we know for a fact that some Old Crotonites (and maybe a few New Crotonites too) are moving from the village out of fear of what it might mean, including who might be living there. That is very unfortunate. We are not going to say too much about that right now. But once our new neighbors begin moving in,we can hope that the fears and the assumptions will be replaced by reality and a welcoming spirit.
We do know one thing, however, which is that almost everyone who moves into this project (and any other “affordable” projects the village might approve down the line) will not be a current resident of the village. That’s because the applicants are being chosen by lottery, and there are no geographical limits at all to where the applications can come from. Any village leader who implied otherwise—that is, who suggested that these apartments were going to be reserved for empty nesters or people who work in Croton but can’t afford to live here—was, deliberately or not, misleading us. That has been a hard truth for local advocates of affordable housing to swallow, but it is the truth nevertheless.
Yet we do like the sentiments of a commenter on one of our local Facebook pages when we reported that these apartments were not going to end up occupied by current residents of Croton (it would be a statistical fluke if that actually happened.)
“This new development looks great - is close to stores, transportation, traffic routes and schools - and is bringing much needed housing to our village (apartments for commuters, students, divorcées wanting to be near their Croton families, seniors AND future homeowners who fall in love with our village!)
Welcome one-and-all!”
Even if some of this is unlikely to happen, it is nevertheless a very good expression of the kind of welcoming spirit villagers should adopt towards the newcomers. Old Crotonites will continue to pass on to their rewards or leave for cheaper housing or retirement homes, until there are none of them left; New Crotonites will grow older in their houses, their children will grow up and attend our schools, and then that generation too will pass; and the adults and children who move into Maple Commons will go in another couple of generations from being very new Croton to Old Croton in their turn.
Like the good folks who opined about Old and New Croton at the beginning of this post, one day the former children of Maple Commons will reminisce about what it was like growing up in this village by a great and historic river, they will lament the changes the village has gone through (the sky congested with flying cars? The houses on Arrowcrest Drive all zone floated and sold to developers of multifamily housing? The Black Cow lined with automatic coffee grinding and dispenser machines and no one behind the counter?) and tell their children and the Newer Newest New Crotonites about the “good old days.”
No one can stop this, and it’s probably hopeless to try. As we say above, time and tide wait for no one.
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It’s interesting because I am not from Croton but have lived here for 20 years and I never heard these feelings or distinctions made until recently. Croton has always been a commuter town with people coming and going from the city. That’s definitely not new. New people here have always blended right in and become the old people here.
I will add I have heard from the fire department they are having a very hard time recruiting new people here to volunteer. Hopefully that will change in time.
I always thought of "Old Croton" as the descendants of the Italian masons who built the Croton Dam and several stone/stucco houses throughout the village.