BRONX SCENE
In 1885 two parades were held for St. Patty’s Day
REPRINTED FROM 3-17-2011
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BRONX TIMES REPORTER, D BTR ECEMBER 6-12, 2019 67
The year 1885 was an odd year for
the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New
York as there was a confl ict within the
units of the Ancient Order of Hibernians
(AOH) that year leading to two separate
parades.
One went south from 23rd Street,
past City Hall and then over the Brooklyn
Bridge to join up with the Brooklyn
parade. The other went uptown
from Cooper Union to Jones’s Wood.
This was the year that Owen Joseph
Clinton the blacksmith from today’s
Westchester Square was chosen to lead
the Westchester contingent of the parade
uptown.
Jones’s Wood was a popular recreation
area that ran north from East
66th Street for about a half mile and
east from Third Avenue to the East
River. It was not offi cially a park but
became the unoffi cial meeting place
for much of the city’s residents seeking
fresh air and entertainment, especially
the Germans as beer gardens, bowling
alleys, shooting ranges, and the like
sprang up along the way.
There was even a hotel for those revelers
who wished to remain a while. It
was immensely popular and therefore
chosen as the fi nishing site for the big
parade.
The following year, 1886, there was
but one New York St. Patrick’s Day
Parade and that one went uptown to
Jones’s Wood.
Owen Joseph Clinton was 63 years
old when he was chosen as the leader
of the Westchester contingent and it
should be remembered that the area
now known as Westchester Square was
still part of Westchester County at the
time.
Clinton was a longtime member
of the AOH and active in a variety of
other organizations. He was, in short,
one of the most well-known members of
the community and county.
He was born in Ardee, a small farming
town on the Dee River near the center
of County Louth, Ireland. It is still
a small town of perhaps 5,000 residents
and farming is still an important part
of their culture although tourism is beginning
to grow in the area.
He immigrated to America circa
1852 just as the Irish Potato Famine,
known as the Gorta Mór (the great
hunger) in Ireland, was coming to an
end. He was born on March 23, 1842
so was just ten years old and came to
New York to live with his uncle, Peter
Clinton, who ran the blacksmith shop
at the corner of today’s St. Peter’s and
St. Raymond’s Avenues.
The shop handled the horses from
most of the grand estates that once dotted
the area. These would include the
Frederick Havemeyer estates; there
were two, one on today’s Schurz Avenue
which was sold to Collis and Arabella
Huntington in 1883 and another
in today’s Silver Beach. Contrary to
popular belief and published sources,
Frederick Havemeyer’s cousin, William,
a former mayor of New York did
not own or reside at either of these estates
opting to remain in his New York
City mansion.
Another grand estate who utilized
the Clinton shop was the Cooley Estate
on today’s Pelham Parkway South and
that is the family who donated the horse
trough that graced Westchester Square
for many years. Some big estates, of
course, had their own smithies.
Ron Schliessman took this photo of the site of Clinton’s Blacksmith Shop in January of
1956. It was located at the junction of East Tremont Avenue and Williamsbridge Road at
Westchester Square.
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