From the porch of the historic "Hopper House," one may imagine a tall, reserved boy looking down Nyack’s Second Avenue towards the Hudson River dotted with boats at work and at play.

At Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center house today, one may easily see much of what intrigued young Edward Hopper in the world around him and what became significant in his mature paintings and drawings. ​In any direction, the village of Nyack retains much of the scale and quality it had when Hopper was a youth. Permeating this locale is a quality of light that Hopper returned to throughout his long career as a painter.
 
Discover, through this walking tour, influences that helped shape this iconic American artist. 

 

LOCATION TOPICS (click link to "skip the scroll" to topic):

1. Hopper Home
2. Miss Dickey's School
3. First Baptist Church
4. "Pretty Penny"
5. "Seven A.M."
6. "The Lee Shore"
7. "Hook Mountain"
     (Historic): Byron W. Church's Boatyard, Smith's Ship Yard
8. "Little Boy Looking at the Sea"
9. Hopper's Friends (on First)
10. Mazeppa Engine Co. #2
11. G. H. Hopper's Dry Goods Store
12. Oak Hill Cemetery
     (Historic): Turn of the Century Nyack: Main Street & Broadway
     (Historic): Neighborhood Notes: Organ Factory, Victorian Houses
     (Historic): Heading toward Hook Mountain
     (Historic): Shipyards & Shoreline: Burd Street Dock, Nyack Rowing Club
     (Historic): Turn of the Century Transport: Trains, Ferries, Coaches, Cars
     (Historic): A Thorough Education: Rockland Female Institute, Liberty Street School, Shoe Factories
     (Historic): Leisure Activities: Cycling, Boats, Y.M.C.A, Staying Cool, Summer Destination

We have also included interesting historical aspects here with illustrative photographs and notes to help contextualize the time in which Edward Hopper lived in Nyack. The sites appearing in RED may not be extant, nor open to the public, and are APPROXIMATELY located. 

WALKING TOUR SITES 1-11

Private Homes spotlighted are NOT open to the public. Thank you for respecting our neighbors' privacy.

 

1 82 N Broadway

82 North Broadway, circa 1882

​Edward Hopper was born and grew up in this clapboard and shingle house. The Federal south wing was built in 1858 by Edward’s maternal grandfather, John Dewint Smith (1806–1871), a farmer in Orangetown, and Martha Griffiths Smith (1817-1892), a daughter of Baptist pastor Joseph W. Griffiths. (John Smith was from the family who once owned the the DeWint House in Tappan, NJ, where George Washington headquartered during the Revolutionary War.) The lot was among the ‘handsome building sites’ advertised  in 1856-57 for $250 to $300 each on a newly subdivided 37-acre tract of land along the road to Hook Mountain and a block from the water’s edge. 

Edward Hopper House in 1912

​In the year Edward was born (1882), his widowed grandmother (Martha) added onto the house to accommodate her expanding family which now included her only child Elizabeth (1854-1935), “Lizzie”’s spouse, Garret Henry Hopper (1852-1913; married 1879) their two-year old daughter Marion (1880-1966), and infant son, Edward.

The Victorian north wing added a parlor and kitchen (completed by 1883/84) on the ground floor, and a second story (begun 1886?) with a bathroom, large bedroom, and smaller space likely for a housemaid. The addition’s façade updated the original Greek Revival house, with modest yet fashionable Queen Ann style details of a front gable, shingles, and bay windows. 

​The house’s location afforded “the would-be artist”—as Edward inscribed on his childhood pencil box—a vantage point to observe and sketch. Set at the T-junction of North Broadway and Second Avenue, the house’s porch and windows offered a direct view of the Hudson River with its bustling traffic. Inside the house, shafts of southern light throughout the day streamed in the windows enlivening the living room, parlor, and Edward’s bedroom.

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Edward's sister Marion lived in the family home throughout her lifetime; Edward and wife Josephine would often return to Nyack even though Edward resided after 1913 at 3 Washington Square North in New York City.

Marion died in 1965, Edward in 1967, and Josephine passed away in 1968. They are buried in a family plot at Nyack's Oak Hill Cemetery. ​After Hopper’s death, the house fell into disrepair. In 1971, Edward Hopper’s birthplace and family home was saved from demolition and founded as a nonprofit organization by people in the community who were devoted to preserving Hopper’s home and legacy in Nyack.

Restoration 1971

Volunteers at Edward Hopper House, circa 1973

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2 Miss Dickey's School
​- 36 Marion Street

​Hopper siblings Edward and Marion received their early education inside this circa 1867 house. While both children had moved on to the local Liberty Street school by the early 1890s, Marion would still stop by and help Miss Dickey. In a letter dating from 1890, Marion’s friend Clarissa Ball writes that she “hopes everything is going well over at Miss Dickey’s.” In addition to providing childcare and education to neighborhood families, the Dickeys were a prominent ship-building, banking, and political family in Nyack (see site 8: “Hopper’s Friends”).

36 Marion Street is a private residence and is NOT open to the public. Please respect our neighbors' privacy. The photo of 36 Marion St. is courtesy Veronica Cordaro at Ellis Sotheby’s International Realty

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3 First Baptist Church
​- 140 N Broadway

Romanesque in style with an unusually tall spire, this church housed the first Baptist congregation organized in Nyack, founded in 1854 by Edward’s great grandfather, Rev. Joseph W. Griffiths. In 1858, the year the “Hopper House” was built, Griffiths helped raise the $3,000 needed to erect, a few blocks north, Nyack’s first church building. Edward's mother Lizzie served on its women’s auxiliary and with the local Temperance Society, while her husband was a church trustee. Edward and Marion's Christian education was through the Nyack Baptist Sunday School, where Garret was assistant superintendent. 

The First Baptist Church (1910, photo by Norman A. Burke, courtesy Nyack Library).

In 1904, the First Baptist Church had a fiftieth anniversary celebration and the sanctuary was bedecked with flowers. Behind the pulpit stood the pipes and the organ built by F. J. N. Tallman, who had an organ factory on Third Avenue. When the church disbanded, the organ was disassembled and taken to the Chatauqua Institute, where it was rebuilt and is in use today. Courtesy Nyack Library.

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4 Pretty Penny
​- 235 N Broadway

This 1850s Italianate style house, built by Eli Gurnee, was the home of the “First Lady of American Theatre” Helen Hays and her husband, playwright and screen-writer Charles MacArthur. They named the house Pretty Penny because, as they said, ‘that’s what it cost.’ Painted in 1939, it was the only commission Hopper accepted and he did so begrudgingly. Over the years, famous people have owned the home and more have been entertained here, among them Laurence Olivier, F Scott Fitzgerald, Katherine Hepburn, Vivien Leigh, Marilyn Monroe, Ed Sullivan, Rosie O’Donnell, Russel Crowe, and Madonna. 

Edward Hopper, "Pretty Penny" 1939, oil on canvas, 29 x 40 in. Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA

​235 North Broadway is a private residence and NOT open to the public. Please respect our neighbors' privacy. Photo courtesy Nyack Library, by Milt Laster 1984

Aerial view of 235 North Broadway, courtesy Ellis Sotheby's International Realty

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5 Seven A.M. 
​- 318 N Broadway

This building was built 1884/1885. The Hopper’s family butcher once had a store here, and the building inspired Hopper’s oil painting Seven AM, painted in 1948 when Hopper was in his sixties. Responding to the painting’s mysterious quality, Jo quipped that the storefront may have been a “blind pig”- slang for a blue collar speakeasy. 

Local historian Winston C. Perry, Jr, gives more detail about this location: "My grandfather (Harry H. Perry) was storekeeper in this building in the 1890s. It also served as post office: just a set of cubby-holes on the counter. The merchandise was displayed on 2 floors - first and second floors. He went bankrupt after a few years. I guess maybe it was a little too ambitious a business for this little neighborhood." Courtesy "A Walk with Win Perry," Nyack Library Local History Collection.​

Edward Hopper, Seven A.M., 1948, Oil on canvas, 30 3/16 × 40 1/8in. (76.7 × 101.9 cm), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

318 North Broadway is a private residence and NOT open to the public. Please respect our neighbors' privacy.

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6 The Lee SHore
​- 1 Laveta Place

The last home on the south side of the street has a turret and veranda similar to those seen in Hopper’s 1941 oil painting, The Lee Shore. It was build around the time Hopper was a teenager. Hopper may have studied and drawn the house while working on sketches of the nearby “Pretty Penny” house two years earlier. The title of the painting may also be a reference to a chapter from Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick,” a meaningful book to Hopper.

Edward Hopper, The Lee Shore, 1941, Private Collection © Licensed by Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York

1 LaVeta Place is a private residence and NOT open to the public. Please respect our neighbors' privacy.

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7 Hook Mountain
​- as seen from the Corner of Ackerman Place and Gedney Street

Please note: the parking lot is reserved for apartment residents only. Please do not park in the parking lot.

​Looking north, you see 728-ft high Hook Mountain. With artist materials in hand, Edward took regular walks and went on long bike rides along rural roads and trails that ringed Nyack and led to Hook Mountain, the rocky promontory that looks over the lower Hudson’s Tappan Zee. 

Early Dutch sailors who found themselves either becalmed or experiencing sudden storms at the river bend called the area a "tedious angle" (verdrietege hoek), and “Hoek” was anglicized as Hook. 

During Hopper’s boyhood, Hook Mountain was the site of a large-scale trap rock mining quarry. Stone was dynamited from the mountain face, crushed, and shipped on large barges to help build New York City roads, buildings, and train tracks. The quarry can be clearly seen in Hopper’s watercolor as a light brown swath in the middle. Hopper has accurately included some of the quarry-operation's details: buildings that crushed the rock can be seen part way up the rock face. A loading dock stretches out into the river. To the left of the dock is the power station for the quarry. This building remains, it was made over into a bathhouse in the 1930s. The quarry was acquired and preserved by the Palisades Interstate Park Commission in 1908 to become Hook Mountain and Nyack Beach State Parks.

Hook Mountain is now a National Natural Landmark with walking trails, hawk-watching, and stunning views.

Edward Hopper, (Hook Mountain, Nyack), c. 1899, Watercolor and graphite pencil on paper, Sheet: 5 1/16 × 6 7/8in. (12.9 × 17.5 cm), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Josephine N. Hopper Bequest, © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Hook Mountain in 2018, seen from a local's pier

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At the foot of this hill along the shoreline were many shipyards where young Edward spent much of his free time watching boats sail across the Tappan Zee. 

 

The places indicated by a letter code ("BW") and boxed in red are no longer extant, but we include them here to give you a fuller picture of what Edward may have experienced while he was living in Nyack.

BW: Byron W. Church's Boatyard

Byron W. Church's boatyard, circa 1900, at the north end of Gedney Street near the foot of Fifth Avenue and Ackerman Lane. In the background is the spire of St. Ann's Church. Courtesy collection of T. Robins Brown, Nyack Library.

This circa 1907 colored postcard shows the same view of the picture above (Byron W. Church boatyard), with an additional note that the yellow house in the middle is "20 Ackerman Place" (Lane). Courtesy the Historical Society of Rockland County, Nyack Library.

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SY: Smith's Ship yard

J. E. Smith's Ship Yard appears on the June 1887 "Sanborn" map (a copy of which is located in Edward Hopper's Bedroom at Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center). This shipyard no longer exists; where it was located, large apartment buildings now sit. 

"Nyack Store at Smith's Ship Yard, Nyack, N. Y." Smith's shipyard sat at the bottom of Fourth Avenue, Nyack. Courtesy The Bob Knight Postcard Collection owned by his estate, digitized with permission by the New City Library.

1870: Twelve shipbuilders and a young boy, along with a wagon and mule, are arrayed in front of several boats under construction at Smith's Shipyard at the foot of Fourth Avenue in Nyack. The yacht, Gracie, for more than five years the swiftest boat of her kind in America, was built here in 1868 for William Voorhis, prominent Nyack businessman and yachtsman. Boatbuilding was a major industry in Nyack for much of the nineteenth century. Courtesy Nyack Library.

Smith's Ship Yard, 1890, was located on Gedney Street, between Third and Fourth Avenues, just north of the present-day Nyack Boat Club. Courtesy Frank Brush, Nyack Library

Edward Hopper, "Smith's Dock" 1900, ink on paper

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8 Little Boy Looking at the Sea
- NEAR 59 Gedney St

The charming building at 59 Gedney Street existed when Hopper was a 5-year-old in 1887; in 1914, the Nyack Boat Club bought the site (with an orchard on its south side) for its clubhouse.​

Hopper said once in an interview (Arlene Jacobowitz, Brooklyn Museum, 1966), “I thought at one time I’d like to be a naval architect because I am interested in boats, but I got to be a painter instead.”

Hopper grew into a mature artist who painted not only on the shores of the Hudson in Nyack, but also on the banks of the Seine in Paris, and on the sandy ocean beaches of Maine and Massachusetts. 

(1880?) Six boys and seven men pose in front of a boat that they are building in Upper Nyack. Another man sits on top. A few letters, UTOR, can be seen on the right side, above the two propellers. The main part of the boat is sheathed in polished wood; the upper deck has many windows. Photo by Frank Brush. Courtesy Winston C. Perry, Jr. Collection, Nyack Library.

Edward Hopper, model boat, c. 1894-1900, Wood with metal and cloth fittings, Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center; Sanborn-Hopper Family Archive

Little Boy Looking at the Sea was drawn on the back of a report card (dated October 23, 1891) when Hopper was nine years old. It is an early example of one of the many solitary, contemplative figures that Hopper would draw and paint for the rest of his life.​

Courtesy Collection of Steve Oifer

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9 Hopper's "FIRST" Friends
​- on FIRST Avenue

NOTE: These are private residences and are not open to the public. Please respect our neighbors' privacy.

​The Hopper's house was one of many residences being built which created a new neighborhood within the village of Nyack. The homes on First Avenue were built around the same time as Hopper’s house.  Some of Edward's friends lived nearby on First Avenue. Many of the houses along First to Third avenues appear the same as they did when Hopper was a youth.

The house at #16 First Avenue was built circa 1850 by William Dickey (see site 1: “Miss Dickey’s School”). #8 was built by the Burr family who owned a shoe factory, #12, an Italianate-style house, was built by Dr. Davison, and #16 was built in a carpenter gothic style by the Dickey family who later moved to Marion Street.

#8, #12, and #16 appear much as they did when teenage Hopper visited friends at #16 and #24. 

(1907?-1915?) First Avenue, looking towards the Hudson River.

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10 Mazeppa Engine Co. #2 - 68 Main Street

While traversing the village as a youngster, Hopper’s drawings reveal a fascination with the dynamics of fire engines, steam powered locomotives, and horse-drawn vehicles of his day. Organized in 1852, Mazeppa Engine Co. #2 remains an active volunteer firestation today.

Members of Nyack’s Mazeppa Engine Company No. 2 pose in front of the firehouse, ready for a parade in 1893. Courtesy Nyack Library.

The firemen from Empire Engine Company display their new pumper pulled by horses in front of their firehouse on Piermont Avenue in 1895. Courtesy Nyack Library.

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11 G. H. Hopper'S Dry Goods Store
​- 10 S Broadway

At the time of Hopper’s birth, Nyack’s economy was evolving from traditional local manufacturing and maritime businesses towards a new commercial economy tied more closely by the railroad to metropolitan New York and to seasonal tourism and recreation.

Edward’s father, Garret Henry Hopper, owned a dry goods emporium located at 10 South Broadway in the “Commercial Building” from 1890-1906 (now Grace’s Thrift Shop; while the 4-story original Commercial Building is now gone, the adjoining 8 South Broadway "Everett Hotel" is still intact).

Garret started his operation by buying out Morris & Minnerly in 1890, then William O. Blauvelt in 1892, and ran his retail operation until retirement in 1906. 

Mr. Hopper's Dry Goods Establishment In Fine Condition. (Rockland County Journal, 9 March 1895)
 
“Mr G.H. Hopper has just completed extensive alterations and improvements in his dry goods establishment, on Broadway, and the store is now more attractive than ever before. Painting and decorating have been done on a large scale, new fixtures have been added, and a number of notable changes made. The store is bright and cheerful looking in its new dress, and expressions of admiration are heard on every hand. New goods are being received daily, and Mr. Hopper is fully prepared for the Spring trade. Drop in and take a look at the popular establishment.”

While Edward was a teenager attending high school in Nyack, Edward also worked at the store selling flannel, muslin, blankets, men’s shirts, ladies’ vests, corsets, and socks.  

Circa 1900, South Broadway from Burd Street, looking north. On the left is the original Commercial Building with a mansard roof. An ice wagon is making a delivery to the Moeller Block on the right. Courtesy Nyack Library.

Looking south from Main Street, every building is both a business and a residence. On the left is #1 South Broadway, the first three-story commercial building in Nyack, which housed Abram Merritt’s dry goods and furniture store. Next to it was Blauvelt’s pharmacy. On the right is the newly built Rockland County Trust Company bank, and at the end of the block, the four story Commercial Building.

Ad in the Nyack Evening Star, 1897. Courtesy Nyack Library

Garret Henry Hopper, Courtesy Nyack Library

Garret Henry Hopper and son Edward Hopper

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12 Oak Hill Cemetery
​- 140 N Highland Avenue

The Rev. Arthayer Sanborn, minister of the local Baptist church, presided at Edward Hopper’s funeral at Jo’s request. He cared for parishioner Marion and for Edward & Josephine in their waning years, The funeral was invitation only and Jo chose the few who attended. Marion (d. 1965), Edward (d. 1967), and Josephine (d. 1968), are buried in a family plot overlooking the Tappan Zee. Local luminaries Helen Hayes and Charles Prevost MacArthur, assemblage artist Joseph Cornell (whose sister fondly remembers the Nyack art classes Edward taught) and Carson McCullers (author of “The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter” 1940) are also buried in Nyack's Oak Hill Cemetery. 

(Circa 1900) The superintendent's house at Oak Hill cemetery in Nyack. Highland Avenue (Route 9W) is in front of the house. Courtesy Norman A. Burke, Nyack Library.

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TURN OF THE CENTURY NYACK

The sites contained in this section may not be extant. We have pointed to interesting historical aspects here with illustrative photographs and notes to help contextualize the time in which Edward Hopper lived in Nyack.  These sites appear on the "Discover Edward Hopper's Nyack" Google map in RED, and are located approximately. Please respect our neighbors' privacy. 

Aerial View of Nyack, circa 1900. Courtesy Dr. J. T. Gilchrest, Nyack Library.

Hopper’s key Nyack years extend from the late 1880s to 1899, when he graduated from Nyack’s high school. He then began commuting from his family home to New York City to attend school for illustration, then fine art with Robert Henri. In 1908, he relocated to New York to pursue his career.

When the 1858 Hopper residence was built, the village hosted makers of shoes, hats, and agrarian markets; foundries alongside farmers and boat builders. By Edward’s birth, Nyack’s thriving economy brought with it the typical turn-of-the century low-rise brick buildings with storefronts on street level and walkup apartments. Hopper regularly walked and cycled the corridors of Broadway and Main streets. Here, he headed to school, attended church with family, shopped with his mother, helped at his father’s dry goods store, exercised at the Y.M.C.A., and caught the ferry or train for New York City.

Hopper investigated and rendered his surroundings. His early drawings make clear an emerging attraction to themes of storefronts, lone workers and figures, and interiors.

North Broadway, c. 1905: The brick Voorhis Building (built 1878) on the corner of Main and North Broadway held several businesses, from a clothier to a gaslight and fuel company. Courtesy Nyack Library.

Lower Main Street was unpaved in 1890, lined with businesses and houses, many of which are still standing today. On the left, Mazeppa Fire Company remains an active volunteer firestation. Courtesy Nyack Libary.

Main Street, 1890, looking west near the corner with Broadway. On the right, signs read: Fabbrini Fruits, Schmitts Candy and Ice Cream; on the left, Venekamp’s Cigar Store. Courtesy Nyack Library.

Ebersole Brothers Grocers on Main Street in Nyack, c. 1900. Courtesy Nyack Library.

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Neighborhood NOTES

In 1887 streetlamps and utility poles carrying new technology of electrical and telephone service shot up across the town. By 1900, the Hopper family’s house was now nestled in a mixed residential-commercial area (as the village hub of Nyack remains today) with a piano and organ factory across the street and seasonal hotels at the river’s edge which accompanied the nearby docks and boat yards.

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TF: ORGAN FACTORY

From the 1893 to 1904, Francis John Newton Tallman operated his pipe organ factory across the street (on the NE corner) from Hopper's home. F. J. N. inherited the business from his father, John Tallman, who began building pianos in Nyack in 1832. Mr. Tallman was secretary of the Nyack Board of Education in 1902 (Edward Hopper had completed high school in 1899). 

Tallman was a famous organ builder and the inventor of the tracker organ. In 1893, Tallman & Co. built a "Tallman Tracker Organ" for the sanctuary of the Hopper's church (#3). (The organ was given to Chautauqua Institution's Hall of Christ in 2000.)

​The organ was #34 of the 50 organs that F. J. N. Tallman built. The larger pipes were held up by hand-carved bowls on either side of the console, and the wood carving was done by Katherine Morse, an artist and long-time member of the First Baptist Church. Katherine's husband, George F. Morse, was the church organist for a time and was the Sunday school superintendent from 1878 until 1904 (this was while Edward and Marion attended Sunday School). 

This three-story building housed Francis John Newton Tallman's Piano and Organ Factory on North Broadway between Second and Third Avenues, date unknown. Courtesy Nyack Library.

Tallman Tracker Organ as seen in the Hall of Christ at Chautauqua Institution. Photo courtesy Steve Godowns.

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MORE THAN JUST 'PRETTY PENNY'

Not only was "Pretty Penny" (235 North Broadway) a beautiful home in Edward Hopper's neighborhood, but also along North Broadway were many particular Victorian homes with bargeboards, brackets, gingerbread, cupolas, towers, and wraparound porches. Further north were many estates built by wealthy Nyackers. 

LV: Victorian residences line the east side of North Broadway, where La Veta Place cuts down to the river. (Photo may be likely taken from between 188-198 North Broadway.)

Circa 1900, East side of N Broadway, and LaVeta Place. Nyack has electrical power and sidewalks, but Broadway is still a dirt avenue. This photograph is on a cardboard displayed in the Ackerman & Dutcher shop, showing customers photographs that were for sale. Advertisements on the back of the cardboard are for J. N. Wesel, Painter and Decorator - and there is a picture of the store; Nyack Steam Laundry; and Collins Brothers, Fresh Fish, Oysters, and Clams. These were Nyack businesses. Courtesy Ackerman and Dutcher, Nyack Library.

NB: A lofty view looking south (from perhaps 309 N. Broadway) where 301 N. Broadway appears prominently with its 2-story octagonal unit. The house with the pointed tower may be the north neighbor of Pretty Penny (235). 

1895, 301 N. Broadway appears prominently with its 2-story octagonal unit. A note added to the picture says, "George C. Woodward, clerk, lived at Broadway near Tallman, 1897 directory." Courtesy Noel Ousler Collection, Nyack Library.

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HEADING TOWARD Hook Mountain

EV: Ellen & Van Houten Streets
SC: Old Stone Church
CG: Crumbie's Glen

A small cluster of houses and outbuildings lines the roadsides at the intersection of Ellen and Van Houten Streets in Upper Nyack in 1890. A light on a tall pole stands at the left. Frank Brush was a photographer who lived in Upper Nyack on Van Houten Street near Broadway. In the 1890 Directory he's listed as a shoe cutter, but in 1906, as a laborer. Courtesy Frank Brush, Nyack Library

The "Old Stone Church" in 1889 on North Broadway in Upper Nyack was the first home of the Nyack Methodist Episcopal congregation, and it is the oldest church building in Rockland County (built 1813). Congregants worshipped here served by circuit clergy riders from 1813 until 1842. Courtesy Winston C. Perry Jr. Collection, Nyack Library.

Crumbie's Glen, Upper Nyack 1905. Frank Crumbie, the owner, was mayor of Upper Nyack from 1912-1937. Courtesy Nyack Library

Upper Nyack, NY, in 1910 (Hook Mountain faintly appears in the background). This very neat homestead has a house, a large barn which may be partly a residence, and behind a fence, and an outhouse. Courtesy Frank Brush, Nyack Library

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SHIPYARDS & SHORELINE

BD: Burd Street DOCK

A frozen Hudson River enabled the photographer to take this scene showing the ferry house at the foot of Burd Street with the ferry "Rockland" and freight boat "Raleigh" tied up for winter. Up the hill can be seen the Commercial Building, then four stories high. At the right is the Ofeldt factory. On the left is the Nyack Rowing Association building. In the Nyack Business clippings file is a note about this picture: "This is a picture of Nyack, NY, taken from the frozen Hudson River in 1895." The picture has also been dated 1925. Another note identifies a great-great grandson of F. W. Ofeldt: Ronald E. Ofeldt, Monroe, NY 10950. An additional comment was "This is when Hudson River really froze over." Courtesy Bob Goldberg / David Croll, Nyack Library.

A pleasure craft and a barge are tied up at the foot of Burd Street in Nyack, circa 1900. The dock was the property of the North River Steam Ship Company. The sloop was the "Spray," in which Joshua Slocum sailed alone around the world. The letters PRAY are visible. On the sepia copy historian Virginia Parkhurst has written: "Old Raleigh [Ferry] dock at foot of Burd Street - Lighthouse Boutique stood there - Raleigh was a freight boat that ran daily excepting Sundays and holidays - identified by Kenneth Mooney." Courtesy of Zabriskie Collection, Nyack Library.

NR: NYACK ROWING CLUB

Circa 1890: The Nyack Rowing Association Boat House was one of the finest club houses along the Hudson River when it opened in 1882. The bowling alleys were the finest in the area. It was the scene of many social events. The lower floor was for the storage of boats, etc. On the second floor was an office, judges' balcony, and smoking and reception rooms. Many Nyack residents were members. The building was destroyed by a nor'easter in 1950. Courtesy Nyack Library

The north side of the Nyack Rowing Association Boat House, circa 1885. Courtesy Isaac M. Van Wagner, Nyack Library

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TURN OF THE CENTURY TRANSPORT

Hopper took routes to view the flow of well-dressed visitors disembarking from steamboats and yachts or arriving by carriage from the railroad station. Such comings and goings were likely entertainment for the artist who was developing an eye for water and sky, costume and bearing, and his hallmark voyeurism.

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TRAINS

NT: The Nyack Station was sited just north of the T-junction of Elysian Ave and South Franklin Street. Here the the tracks came to an end, and there was a turn-table to reverse the engines. The railyard is now home to Nyack's Community Garden (who have a nice article about the history of the property). 

1901, the Nyack Station sits to the east of the tracks (looking north). In the background are the turnabout for the engines and the sewing machine factory. Courtesy Nyack Library.

The Nyack Station, and Park (this photo likely taken from where the playground now sits in the park). The twin Erie Railroad stations of Nyack are nearly identical, with double windows and gray roofs. On the left, a passenger train waits on the tracks. In the background is the huge sewing machine factory, a large employer of men and boys in the area. Courtesy Nyack Library

SN: The South Nyack station (Mansfield Avenue & probably South Broadway) was demolished when the NYS Thruway was built. The "Old Erie Path" and "Raymond G. Esposito Trail" is now a rail trail where the Northern Railroad of New Jersey tracks used to be. ​

The South Nyack Station in 1910, with caption: “School’s out in South Nyack and the bicycle brigade is on hand to see what the photographer is up to.” Courtesy Nyack Library

TR: The railroad station in Tarrytown was conveniently located steps away from the Nyack Ferry dock. ​Edward Hopper made an etching of a "House in Tarrytown" (1923).   

N. Y. Central Railway Station, Tarrytown, N.Y., between 1900 and 1915, photograph, courtesy Library of Congress

Tarrytown Train Station Depot Square, 1907, Russell and Lawrie Post Card, courtesy SleepyHollowCountry.com

Edward Hopper, "House at Tarrytown" 1923, drypoint, courtesy Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Josephine N. Hopper Bequest. © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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Ferries, Coaches, Cars

To travel between New York City and Nyack, Hopper could have taken a ferry across the Hudson River. There were nearby ferries from Piermont to Irvington, and Sneden's Landing to Dobb's Ferry, as well as many ferries to New York City from Hoboken and Jersey City. The "Tappan Zee" Bridge (now the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, constructed 2017) was established in 1955; the George Washington Bridge was erected in 1931.

CH: North River Steamboat Co. 

The ferry 'Rockland' heads towards the Nyack shore in 1900. "Rockland" began its runs across the Hudson in 1888. Courtesy of Marion Wanamaker, Nyack Library.

1890, A stagecoach is stopped by the ferry landing at the end of Main Street in Nyack. In the background is a huge piece of steam equipment. Courtesy Winston C. Perry, Jr. Collection, Nyack Library.

1902, many young boys wait at the Nyack ferry landing, standing in the mud between the ramp to the boat and the terminal building which says 'Chrystenah.' The Hudson River is in the background; it looks like high tide. Courtesy Ackerman and Dutcher, Nyack Library.

The “Chrystenah” was built in Nyack by William Dickey in 1865-66. It was one of the best known steamboats on the Hudson River, providing ferry service from Peekskill to New York City until 1925. She was named for the mother of the Smith Brothers shipbuilders. Courtesy Nyack Library, Bob Goldberg.

This advertising flyer appeared in the 1899 Nyack Hospital "Kirmess" program. The Kirmess was a fundraiser for the hospital. The handbill described three ferry boats: The "Chrystenah" sailed to Yonkers, Tarrytown, Nyack, Rockland Lake, Haverstraw, Grassy Point, Verplanks, and Peekskill daily except Sunday, from West 10th Street and West 22nd Street, New York City. The freight boat "Raleigh" sailed daily to Hasting, Dobbs Ferry, Nyack and Haverstraw. The Nyack and Tarrytown ferry "Rockland" made ten trips daily, including Sundays, and could be chartered for evening excursions. All were owned by the North River Steamboat Company. Courtesy Nyack Library.

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LH: Tarrytown / Kingsland Light House (now Sleepy Hollow Lighthouse)

1910: A view of the Tarrytown Lighthouse and Kingsland Point. Courtesy Norman A. Burke, Nyack Library.

(1912?) Two early automobiles pause on the ice of the frozen Hudson River in front of the Tarrytown lighthouse. Fred Koenig and Bob Hopkins in one car and a Mr. Maxwell and Mr. Chadwick in the other were racing to Albany. They had to turn back at Newburgh because the Newburgh-Beacon ferry kept the channel open. Hook Mountain is visible in the background. Courtesy Collection of John Scott, Nyack Library.

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"S.T.E.A.M." in the Twentieth Century

OF: The Ofeldt family were builders of launches (sloops/boats), boilers, and (steam-powered) automobiles (which ran at 10 mph) in the early part of the twentieth century. 

The Ofeldt family were builders of launches (sloops/boats), boilers, and (steam-powered) automobiles (which ran at 10 mph) in the early part of the twentieth century. (Possible date of photograph: 1895, or 1825) Courtesy Nyack Library.

(circa 1895?) Before the Ofedt firm opened a business in Nyack in the old Seabury building, it had one in Brooklyn. Courtesy David Croll, Nyack Library.

1900: The Ofeldt steamer was built by Frank Ofeldt of Nyack. Cars were constructed like carriages so as not to scare horses. Ofeldt and his brother George had a factory on Main Street where they built steam boilers and launches. Courtesy of Mrs. Jennie Russell, Nyack Library.

(1895?) Five workmen are aboard a two-masted sloop or launch built by F. W. Ofeldt and Sons. Courtesy David Croll, Nyack Library

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A Thorough Education

The education Edward received was undergoing rapid changes across America. Nyack had free public schools since 1859. By 1876, the village of 3,800 offered robust choices for public and private primary, secondary, professional, and finishing schools. 

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RF: Rockland Female Institute

Edward's mother, Elizabeth "Lizzie" Griffiths Hopper was educated at Rockland Female Institute (est. 1856) in South Nyack. It was located in South Nyack between Piermont Avenue and the Hudson River, near what are now Mansfield and Cornelison Avenues. 

The Institute, modeled after Mount Holyoke, lasted until 1899. During the summers from the 1870's to 1907, the facility was a prestigious and elegant summer resort, the Tappan Zee Inn. From 1899 until 1907, the Wilson Military Academy( a prep school for male youths, later called the Hudson River Military Academy) occupied the building. The Nyack Club, later named the River Club, used the building until 1929. Vacant for three years, building was destroyed by fire in 1932 and subsequently demolished.  

Rockland Female Institute (postcard, 1890); courtesy Bill Diebold Collection, Rockland Library.

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LS: Liberty Street School
​- DePew Avenue & Liberty Street

After attending Miss Dickey’s School for girls and young boys located a block from home, the Hopper siblings moved to the Nyack public schools for elementary through twelfth grade. In 1887, the principal John Demarest directed his professionally trained teachers to demonstrate “a love for the work, a power to interest.’’ In 1891, drawing was taught to every class in the school. Newspapers reported, “Miss Minnie Alburtus, one of the most competent and finished artists in the place, has been engaged to look after this department, and she spends two days each week in the school.”

In 1890, a large class is arrayed in front of the school on Liberty Street, Nyack. Second row, third from the left, is Edward Hopper, and rear center is principal John Demarest. Courtesy Nyack Library.

Likewise, Edward was diligent, engaged, and studious. His artistic talent was noticed in grade school and his notebooks, filled with detailed illustrations and impeccable penmanship, further attest to his skill. In 1899 he earned honors for drawing and plane geometry in his New York State Regents exams. For his high school Class of 1899, he was the artist of its graduation newspaper and on a committee appointed to select pins, colors and a motto for the ceremony.

Edward Hopper's high school graduation photo: 1899

Edward Hopper attended elementary through high school in this building, which was located on Depew Avenue at Liberty Street. The public school building was closed in 1968 and torn down in 1977 in an urban renewal project. Courtesy Nyack Library.

The west side of Liberty Street School, in 1900. The hills of Westchester County can be seen across the Hudson River. Courtesy Nyack Library

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SHU: Nyack's Shoe Factories (R.E. King)

The 1890 map of Nyack shows numerous manufacturers of shoes. In this picture of R. E. King's shoe factory, children are photographed alongside coworking adults. At the turn of the century, not every child was obliged to attend school. Some were still employed by factories. 

A dimly lit factory interior at R. E. King Shoe Factory in Nyack in 1900, with a workbench on the left and shelves of boots on the right. In the center are the workers: twelve men, and boys. Courtesy Nyack Library.

"Shoe Manufacturers on Washington Street." The building was at the corner of Washington and Jackson Avenues. Courtesy collection of Dorothy Boreman, Nyack Library.

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LEISURE ACTIVITIES

Hopper’s generation of middle-class youth was among the first to embrace a phase of life called ‘adolescence’ as twelve- to fifteen-year-old children (except from lower-class families) were beginning to move away from being part of the labor force. By 1900, states varied considerably in whether they had child labor standards and in their content and degree of enforcement (The University of Iowa Labor Center).* The public high school, now with athletics, music, and other extracurriculars, made Hopper’s peer group socially visible as a specific ‘generation’ in the community. During adolescence, Hopper was drawn to the leisure and social world of summertime.

“Child Labor in U.S. History.” The University of Iowa Labor Center, 27 December 2022, https://laborcenter.uiowa.edu/special-projects/child-labor-public-education-project/about-child-labor/child-labor-us-history.

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CYCLING

In addition to long walks, Edward was an enthusiast of cycling - an activity in which females could now also fully engage. With artist materials in hand, Edward took regular treks along rural roads and trails that ringed Nyack and led to Hook Mountain, the rocky promontory that looks over the lower Hudson’s Tappan Zee. 

Nyack still boasts a thriving cycling culture, as 9W remains a picturesque route through the lower Hudson Valley. 

RB: Rockland Bicycle Works was in a one-story building at 137 Main Street (where M&T Bank is now located).

(1902?) Rockland Bicycle Works: Arthur Blauvelt, the owner, later had an Oldsmobile dealership and automobile supply station in the same place. Courtesy J. T. Gilchrest, Nyack Library.

Members of an 1898 bicycle club rest on the side of a dirt road, possibly on the hill between Upper Nyack and Rockland Lake. Courtesy Nyack Library.

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BoyHOOD BOATS

Hopper was fascinated by the maritime world and enjoyed watching local yachts get fitted for the season on shore just below his house. Together with his friends Harry MacArthur and Louis Blauvelt, they made up a “secret association” (1896-1898) called the “Three Commodores” which revolved around sailing and other boat related activities complete with official insignia flags, meetings, minutes and club rules. 

Edward Hopper as a child seated in a rowboat, New York (c. 1890-93), silver gelatin print. The Sanborn Hopper Archive at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Frances Mulhall Achilles Library, Gift of The Arthayer R. Sanborn Hopper Collection Trust

While a teen, he kept a rowing machine and tethered punching bag along with an easel in the attic. In this loft, Hopper attempted to build a full-sized cat boat, which, once on the water, displayed leaks.

Edward Hopper, detail Attic in Nyack (Hopper House), 1899, Charcoal on cream wove paper, Art Institute of Chicago, IL

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Y: Y.M.C.A.
​- Main Street

Hopper had access to the Y.M.C.A. as his father was a board director. Local activist, artist and writer Bill Batson notes in Nyack News and Views that "a boys’ division and a Women’s Auxiliary were formed in 1890." In 1890, the Y.M.C.A. was located on Main Street near Broadway; the current Y.M.C.A. building at 35 South Broadway was built in 1927. 

A membership card, certifying Mr. F. Blauvelt's associate membership in 1877-1878. Courtesy Nyack Library

Y.M.C.A., on Main Street, 1890. Courtesy Nyack Library

Main Street 1911, looking towards the Hudson River. A sign for Horton's Ice Cream is set on the sidewalk near Harrison and Dalley's Department Store (burned 1915, and replaced by W. Woolworth Co.). Across the street is the YMCA (its original location; the original building is no longer extant) and Hill & Hubbell Paints at 93 Main Street. Courtesy Nyack Library

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StayING Cool

ICE: While electrical poles may have distributed current to the neighborhoods, people still had "ice boxes" in the late 1800's and the Nyack Ice Company wagon delivered. The business headquarters were in the Commercial Building - the same building where Garret Hopper had his dry goods store. The ice pond was located at the top of the hill (which no doubt helped the ice wagons to distribute the ice to homes on their way down the hill). 

Nyack Ice Company around the turn of century. Courtesy Winston C. Perry Jr. Collection, Nyack Library.

The ice on the Nyack Pond is ready to cut and more than a dozen workmen are wielding long tools, a step in the ice cutting process. Many of the men are wearing long boots; they must have anticipated the risks of the job. The second man from the left has only one leg. Ice cutting provided a winter job for many laborers. Photo made from a John Scott slide, courtesy Nyack Library.

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Summer Destination

PH: Prospect House Hotel, Nyack, NY

For two decades in the late 1800s, Nyack was a well-known summer resort, and the Prospect House (also known as the Palmer Hotel) was the most glamorous of the many boarding houses and hotels. Grover Cleveland stayed there twice in 1889, between his two terms as US President. This renowned hotel was high above the village, on site of north campus of Nyack College. (It burned down on June 1, 1898.) 

Nyack News and Views has a nice article, written by friend of Edward Hopper House and Board Member Mike Hays, about a couple erstwhile resort hotels in Nyack. ​

The front entrance of the four-story Prospect House (prior to 1898) with center tower and covered porch shines in the morning sunlight. Courtesy Dorothy Hand Crawford Collection; Zabriskie Collection, Nyack LIbrrary.

A view of the hotel with a lawn in the foreground. A man sits on grass in the lower right. Prospect House was on South Boulevard at the corner of South Highland Avenue. Courtesy Nyack Library.

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HOPPER NEAR & FAR

In addition to living in Nyack and New York City, Hopper traveled to Cape Cod and Gloucester in Massachusetts, South Royalton in Vermont, Ogunquit, Rockland, and Portland in Maine - even Wyoming and Mexico. He painted scenes documentary, and imaginary, everywhere he went. 

Edward Hopper, Jo in Wyoming, 1946, Watercolor on paper, 13 15/16 x 19 15/16 inches (35.4 × 50.6 cm), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Josephine N. Hopper Bequest

Edward Hopper, Saltillo Mansion, 1943, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

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Apartment & Studio ​- 3 Washington Square N, New YorK, New York

Hopper lived and worked here from 1913 until his death. Jo moved in after their marriage in 1924. At the time Jo was established as an artist in New York and she helped launch his career; she was also the sole model for many of his paintings. (See caricatures Edward drew of their relationship at Edward Hopper House; Edward and Josephine are also buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Nyack.) NYU Silver School of Social Work now owns the studio; it is open by appointment. 

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House by the Railroad
​- 357 Conger Avenue, Haverstraw, New York

Edward Hopper, House By The Railroad (detail), 1925, oil on canvas, Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art © 2022 Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, NY

Shadowed by the highest peak in the Hudson Palisades (High Tor State Park) and standing watch over the once bustling brickmaking hub of Haverstraw, this house inspired Hopper’s 1930 painting. Alfred Hitchcock once stated that the house which appeared in his 1960 film “Psycho” was based on the one in Hopper’s painting. The imposing structure’s legacy also influenced British artist Cornelia Parker’s roof-top sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Transitional Object (PsychoBarn) in 2016.

Vertical Divider

WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART
​- 99 Gansevoort Street, New York, NY

Edward Hopper, New York Interior, c. 1921, Oil on canvas, Overall: 24 5/16 × 29 3/8in. (61.8 × 74.6 cm) Frame: 27 1/2 × 32 1/8 × 2in. (69.9 × 81.6 × 5.1 cm), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Josephine N. Hopper Bequest © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Just months before her death, Josephine Nivison  bequeathed the Hopper’s artistic estate to the Whitney. This painting, New York Interior, painted in 1921, may be seen at the Whitney. The fireplace depicted IN the painting can be seen at Edward Hopper House.

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Edward Hopper, The Mansard Roof, 1923. Watercolor over graphite on paper, 13 7/8 x 20 in. (35.2 x 50.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Collection Fund, 23.100. © artist or artist's estate

GLOUCESTER ​- Massachusetts

The many watercolors Hopper painted while in Gloucester (summers 1923 - 1926) were the source of his first critical and commercial success. Distilling the sunlight as it danced across this coastal town’s Victorian houses, Hopper, in 1923, at the age of forty, sold his first work in ten years for $100 to the Brooklyn Museum. The Mansard Roof, 1923, had been included in an exhibition that Hopper entered with the help of fiancée and fellow artist Josephine Nivison. 

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STUDIO & HOUSE ​- (Cape Cod) South Truro, Massachusetts

Purchased with an inheritance from Jo’s uncle, Hoppers made a small cottage designed by Edward their second home, spending summers on the rolling hills and windswept moors of the Outer Cape for over 30 years since 1934. Find out more at the Truro Historical Society.

Edward Hopper, Highland Light, 1930, Harvard Art Museums collections online

Edward Hopper, Cape Cod Evening, 1939, oil on canvas, Overall: 76.2 x 101.6 cm (30 x 40 in.), framed: 106.7 x 132.1 cm (42 x 52 in.), John Hay Whitney Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Edward Hopper, Corn Hill, c. 1930, Watercolor over graphite on watercolor paper, Sheet: 13 5/16 x 20 inches (35.4 x 50.8 cm), Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA

Josephine Nivison Hopper, Corn Hill, 1930, Watercolor on paper, 22 7/8 x 28 1/4 inches (57.9 x 56.5 cm), The Arthayer R. Sanborn Hopper Collection Trust

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Check out other Hopper sites in Maine from our friends at Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

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See our exhibition: A Photographic Journey through Hopper's World by Charles Sternaimolo