In and Around

Kendal Purim, 2026

If you know Purim, you know joy. In the celebration, the Book of Esther (the Megillah) is read aloud, with great shouting, noise-maker rattling, and foot stomping with each mention of the villain’s name: Haman, the evil prime minister to the king of Persia. Haman plotted to wipe out the Jews of Persia in a single day. But with the courage of Queen Esther and the wisdom of her adopted father Mordecai, Haman was thwarted and done away with. Costumes are customary for children and adults alike. Donations of both food and money in the broader community is customary—and, of course, hamantaschen: traditional triangular-shaped, filled pastries or cookies made with a cookie dough and filled with poppy seeds, fruit jam, or chocolate. They’re designed to resemble Haman’s three-cornered hat.

And, of course, there’s a Kendal Purim celebration!

Naomi Gross, reading the Megillah

Bright costumes are traditional

Hope Springs Eternal

Photo by Carolyn Reiss

The First Sunset of Daylight Savings 2026

Photo by Philip Monteleoni

Out and About

Strolling the Old Croton Acqueduct—NYC Branch

On a visit to The Big Apple, Carolyn Reiss decided to check out a piece of history: the NYC end of the Croton Aqueduct. Starting at 94th Street, she strolled in the park to the top of what was the top of the old aqueduct, then made her way down to the 42nd Street library where you can still see vestiges of the old reservoir. Want to know more about the Old Croton Aqueduct? Check out Hubert Herring’s article in the recently released March-April 2026 issue of Kendal View.

Heading downtown

The promise of spring, behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art

In Central Park

Last stop

Photos by Carolyn Reiss

For Those Who Love Writers and Writing

A New Opportunity Brought to You By the Lifelong Learning Committee

Located nearby in the old Philipse Manor train station, the Hudson Valley Writers Center invites you to explore their wide range of writing and reading classes. Some are held in person at their Sleepy Hollow center; many are offered online. New courses are added regularly, and you’ll find everything from 2 and 4 hour intensives to multi‑week workshops.

For March and April 2026, all Kendal residents receive 20% off any class.
Use code KENDAL20 at checkout.

A few upcoming offerings among the many workshops offered:

Memoir with David McLoghlin: a supportive space to begin shaping your own story.

click here for more information on "Memoir with David McLoghlin"

The Book of Ruth: Gleanings from Many Corners with Jessica Greenbaum—a reading class pairing the Book of Ruth with contemporary poetry.

You can browse their full schedule of workshops on the Hudson Valley Writers Center website, by clicking here.

Questions? Contact Dominika Wrozynski, HVWC Program Director at dominika@writerscenter.org.

They’d love to welcome you into one of our classes online or at 300 Riverside Drive, Sleepy Hollow.

Marilyn Bottjer Exhibit

Waste to Weave in Textile Art: On Exhibit Now

Don’t throw out that worn-out tee shirt! That stained tie. That moth-eaten sweater. Turn them in to art! That’s what Sleepy Hollow weavers—practiced and new, and some Kendalites, too—did in 2025 in a Community Weave project throughout Sleepy Hollow, creating art from said “trash.” Marilyn Bottjer partnered with Kersten Harries, members of the Sleepy Hollow Arts Collective (SHAC), attracted community members of all ages to make “potholders” out of tee-shirt yarn (tee shirts cut into strips) along with other spent items. Sewn together, they made wonderful wall hangings. Kendalites joining in were Florence Walker, Alice Clague, Meera Srinivason, Carolyn Klinger, Susan Yao, Sally Costa, and Marianne Bloomfeld, all led by Marilyn

Why do all that? Fact: 92 million tons of textile waste are produced each year? Only 12% of textiles are recycled globally, while 57% go to landfills and 25% are incinerated. Why not turn it into art instead? That’s just what the Community Weave project did. And the results are now on exhibit at the Warner Library for the month of March.

Photos by Marilyn Bottjer

I Never Knew That

Ben Franklin Proposed Something Like Daylight Saving Time as a Joke

In most US states, the clocks get set forward an hour on the second Sunday in March, making Monday morning arrive just a little too soon. While daylight saving time can seem like a cruel joke to groggy night owls, the concept is logical enough that even Benjamin Franklin suggested, albeit humorously, maximizing daylight by getting up earlier.

In 1784, when Franklin was living in Paris, he submitted a satirical letter to the Journal de Paris called “An Economical Project.” In it, he wrote that he was up late discussing ways to save money on lighting and went to bed around 3 am or 4 am, before “[an] accidental sudden noise waked [sic] me about six in the morning, when I was surprised to find my room filled with light.”

Franklin, who was the author of Poor Richard’s Almanack, noted that he consulted his almanac and was “astonished” to find that the sun “was to rise still earlier every day till towards the end of June.”

In the letter, Franklin calculated that Parisian families could save millions of pounds by waking up with the sun and swapping candlelight for sunlight. He jokingly suggested levying a tax on closed shutters, setting limits on candle purchases, and ringing all church bells right as the sun rises—switching to cannons if the bells proved ineffective.

Franklin did not, even as a joke, suggest changing the time, but his letter was still somewhat prophetic. Ultimately, when countries started implementing daylight saving time, the main argument for doing so was fuel savings.

Source: Sarah Anne Lloyd, historyfacts.com Contributed by Jane Hart

Art by Hart

A close-knit family, the Wylies liked to greet the sunrise together

The Starbucks lines were getting longer every morning

Elmore vowed to stop buying cheesy cars

Margery wished the neighbors would quit double-parking

If you saw a piece of sky missing, it was Woofy’s fault, but he says he’s sorry

Art and photos by Jane Hart

Out and About

Recently, Kendalites traveled to Yonkers to visit the Philipse Manor Hall, the city’s last connection to the 17th century. Built starting in the 1680s as a frontier trading post, by the 18th century it had become the central hub of the massive Philipse Manor, which spanned 52,000 acres of Westchester County. All on the trip declared it an excellent site to visit.

A retired professor of history was the group’s docent. Good choice!

Not only could the group view the decorated ceiling, but were told the details of how such a ceiling came to be.

Spelling Bee

In a field of 11 teams, Kendalites Carol Monteleoni, Mike Kornfield, and Philip Monteleoni—as team Ten Thousand Words—battled word by word, letter by letter, for the championship of the Irvington Spelling Bee. Words like scyntilla, efflorescence, quixotic, and pulchritude. They made it to the sudden-death final round with three other teams. One by one the others fell. The final two: Ten Thousand Words vs Reservoir Dogs. They fought it out until the word list was exhausted. Gone. Finished. The Bee leader scrounged for more words, finally coming up with the last one: kakistocracy: “government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state.” And the Ten Thousand Words team won! Our heroes left the stage victorious, with Kendal pride justifiably intact. You could say that got an A in Bee.

And if you’d like to see The Hudson Independent article on the Bee, click here.

The KoH Team

The First Round (yes, there were costumed teams—here you see the Spell-quins) Photo by Amanda Slattery

The Final Round: Ten Thousand Words vs Reservoir Dogs—the tension is at its peak! Photo by Ed Lannert

And the winners are: Ten Thousand Words! And the audience jumps to its feet to applause. (Please note the charming bee-bedecked children who served as helpers in distributing prizes.) Photos by Amanda Slattery.

Kendal’s Pride and Joy—and the word that took them over the top (also, a young lady clearly enthusiastic to meet real celebrities). Photo by Ed Lannert

The (Second) Blizzard of '26

So . . . how’s the Winter of ‘26 shaping up snow-wise in Sleepy Hollow?

January: 15”

February: 20.1”

Let’s hope March is not competitive-minded.

Tne February Blizzard of ‘26

And Thus It Begins

February 22, by Carolyn Reiss

Photo by Carolyn Reiss

View from my window—by Joe Bruno

Will it never end? Photo by Amanda Slattery

And the Results . . .

Photo by Alice Clague

A strange snow-white buffalo appeared on Barbara Kornfield’s patio. He seemed happy to stay where he was. Photo by Barbara Kornfield.

Photo by Alice Clague

Photo by Carolyn Reiss

Dusk, by Edward Kasinec

The Kendal Crew Has the Situation in Hand

Monday-night dinner: The staff may be short-handed, but they are great problem-solvers, by Joe Bruno

And, Anyway, Who Cares?

Nothin’ beats a good cup of coffee, by Joe Bruno

Art Show

The Winter Art Show formally opened on Wednesday, February 25, in the hallways of Robert Fulton. But the planning and organizing had started well beforehand. A photo story of some of those who made it all happen.

The Show Team interfaces with the artists: they make announcements, receive artwork, return artwork, ensuring labels are correct. They make sure that all pieces are accounted for

Framing takes patience

Vitrine curators select the small work and arrange it

Early on the designer makes posters, flyers and invites, as well as show signage

Labelers put labels on the final installation

Getting it j-u-u-ust right: The curators select the pieces for the show, install the pieces, and sometimes tweak the frames if they are not hanging properly

Hospitality arranges the opening setup with maintenance, orders wine, and plans the food with dining

Now It’s Time to Party

Strolling by the art—and commenting on it

The art of enjoying oneself

Celebrating the artist alone with the art

Photos by Carolyn Reiss

I Never Knew That

New York City Once Had Miles of Hidden Underground Mail Tubes

In October 1897, construction of a high-speed network designed to service an ever-expanding city was underway beneath the streets of Manhattan. No, it wasn’t the subway; that would take a few more years. This was a pneumatic tube mail system, developed using engineering principles that dated back more than two centuries and had already been put to the test with working models in London, Paris, and Philadelphia.

Built by the Tubular Dispatch Company and leased to the US Post Office Department, the New York City system was powered by rotary blowers and air compressors that shot steel mail-carrying canisters through cast-iron tubes at speeds of approximately 30 mph. The tubes were largely installed between 4 and 6 feet underground, with a noticeable outlier following the length of the Brooklyn Bridge, while the canisters they supported measured approximately 2 feet long by 8 inches in diameter. The network eventually connected 23 post offices through 27 miles of tubing, its early success paving the way for systems in Boston, Chicago, and St. Louis.

As one might suspect, a canister would occasionally get stuck, shutting down that particular pathway until it could physically be removed. But a bigger problem was the exorbitant costs that came with the endeavor, an issue that became more pronounced as the network continued circulating the same volume of mail even as the need for a larger, faster system increased with the growing population.

Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield finally put the kibosh on New York City’s mail tubes in late 1953, reasoning that the addition of two trucks would be just as effective and far cheaper to maintain, and this once-futuristic service was left to become a hallmark of the city’s past.

© Kendal on Hudson Residents Association 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 all rights reserved.  Please do not reproduce without permission.

Photographs of life at Kendal on Hudson are by residents.