Irvington’s Immigrant Roots

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Part of Irvington's rich immigrant history ion display at McVickar House

October 4, 2023

By Barrett Seaman—

Visitors to McVickar House, headquarters of the Irvington Historical Society (IHS) at the top of Main Street, should enter the society’s most recent exhibit through the second door along the corridor if they are to absorb the full import of what they are about to see.

The exhibit overview on a white sign above the transom will inform them that in the 40 years between 1860 and 1900, Irvington’s population grew almost fourfold, from 600 to 2,231, and that by that later date, slightly more than half the heads of households in the village were first generation immigrants.

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Much of what has been written about Irvington’s past has concentrated on the fin du siècle tycoons who built the string of opulent mansions on the hilltops overlooking the Hudson River. Too often overlooked in the chronicles of millionaires like Cyrus Field., Jay Gould and Louis Comfort Tiffany were the men and women who served them as maids, gardeners and coachmen, as well as the shopkeepers and grocers who kept their larders well stocked.

Many of these working-class residents were recent arrivals from Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, Germany and later Poland and other eastern European countries. Visitors to McVickar can read about Gottfried Friberg from Sweden, Hermann Petri and Elizabeth Schneider from Germany and Irishmen Peter Laffan and Michael Kiernan from Ireland.

They tended to settle in three different sections of the village, the exhibit tells us. Many of the immigrants who settled along Main Street and its tributaries were shopkeepers. There were several grocers, a tailor, a barber, a small lumber yard, saloons, and at one point four hotels in what is now the village center.

Further to the south, land speculators bought up farmland on which they constructed what was to be a community unto itself called Abbotsford. Described as “a busy, bustling place with multifamily homes on small lots,” Abbotsford marketed its modest homes to the servants working at the grand estates, often as part of their employment arrangements. Eventually the enclave was absorbed into Irvington.

A life-size image of Irish immigrant Michael Kiernan

One of the larger immigrant communities was in East Irvington, dubbed “Little Dublin” for obvious reasons. Over the years, however, Italians, Swedes and Germans moved there as well. Pat Ryan, who with her husband John played a seminal role in the creation of the exhibit, was struck as she did her research by “how quickly these immigrants (and their children) integrated into the village. I believe this was different from other villages where immigrants often lived and worked in one part of town and so became physically separate.” While there was a clear separation between the rich estate owners on the one hand and the working class families on the other, the immigrants from different nations “often became absorbed into the community within a generation,” she observed. “They served on village boards and committees, owned property and established businesses.”

In addition to photos and documents, the exhibit displays period clothing and artifacts, workmen’s tools, washboards and irons.

Tap into the QR code for more in-depth information

One new exhibit feature, thanks to historical society board member and technology committee chair Chet Kerr, is the use of QR codes placed next to material to allow smartphone users to access more in-depth material from the IHS archives.

Plans for the Immigrant Irvington exhibit have been in the works for well over a year but work on it grew intense beginning last June with the previous exhibit on the Gilded Age was dismantled to make room. Throughout the summer, in addition to the Ryans, board members Sue Robinson and Barbara Carrozzi as well as Elizabeth Remsen and Marion Osmun helped build the displays.

The exhibit will be open to the pubic throughout the fall at McVickar House, 131 Main Street, on Thursday and Saturday afternoons from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

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