Kennedy's boyhood home weeps

1963

In mourning

Flags were lowered to half-staff in Riverdale and the rest of the country in late November, following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Stan Cohen wrote in an editorial, "There is a kind of unity which only sorrow breeds. It comes with a sense of communal mourning, and it has its own language, an awful stillness that is more accurate than words. That's how it was in Riverdale Friday."

Mr. Cohen described people who sat stunned in their cars as radios broadcast the news. A woman carrying a large shopping bag sobbed and said, "We must be crazy, you have to be crazy to do something like this."

Other disasters in 1963 couldn't match the magnitude of Kennedy's assassination, but still shook the community.

Two major fires struck the Riverdale/ Kingsbridge area. A four-alarm blaze erupted in April 1963 at a loading platform at the railroad yards on West 230th Street between Tibbett and Corlear avenues, threatening nearby buildings and sending a cloud of thick black smoke into the air. Two firemen suffered from heavy smoke inhalation, but the flames were contained within an hour.

Another major fire later that summer gutted five Kingsbridge homes before firemen could bring it under control. It reportedly began in an empty wooden house on Heath Avenue. Just minutes later, two entire buildings were engulfed in flames. Smoke from the blaze was visible for miles around, making it difficult for firefighters to battle the flames. At least one of the firemen suffered from severe smoke inhalation. No one was killed.