Episode 189 began streaming on Monday, August 17, 2026 at 10am.

Host Clare Sheridan welcomed Peter Bush of Friends of Harmony Hall for a conversation about a fascinating new exhibition now on view at the Jacob Sloat House in Sloatsburg: The Seven Taverns Which Saved the Ramapo Pass.

Harmony Hall’s new exhibition explores the historic taverns that once lined the Clove Road from Suffern to Highland Mills. Stephen Sloat’s Tavern in Sloatsburg, Suffern’s Tavern, Sidman’s in Sloatsburg, Galloway’s in Southfields, June’s at Harriman, Smith’s between Central Valley and Highland Mills, and Earl’s in Highland Mills were far more than places to rest and refresh. They were centers of news, politics, travel, and community life during a pivotal era in American history. Timed to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, the exhibition at the Jacob Sloat House highlights the often-overlooked role of the Ramapo Pass corridor in the fight for independence.

We’ll also hear a preservation update on Harmony Hall, including its restored front porch and freshly painted exterior. The restoration of the Jacob Sloat House is a remarkable story of perseverance, dedication, and community commitment.

The exhibition The Seven Taverns Which Saved the Ramapo Pass is on view now at the Jacob Sloat House in Sloatsburg. Visits are available by appointment. To schedule a visit, contact Friends of Harmony Hall at (845) 712-5220, or visit Friends of Harmony Hall | Jacob Sloat House, Sloatsburg, NY for more information.

The exhibition is based in part on a five-part series of articles by Richard J. Koke, published in volumes 19 through 23 of the Orange County Historical Society Journal between 1990 and 1994. Those articles are being made available on the Orange County Historical Society’s website HERE.

This episode of Crossroads of Rockland History is sponsored by the Town of Ramapo, Supervisor Michael Specht, and the Ramapo Town Board. We are grateful for their generous support of this program and of the Historical Society of Rockland County.

Crossroads of Rockland History, a program of the Historical Society of Rockland County, starts streaming new episodes on the third Monday of each month at 10am.   From October 2010 to May 2025, the program aired after the morning show on WRCR radio 1700 AM and www.WRCR.com. 

Join host Clare Sheridan as we explore, celebrate, and learn about our local history, with different topics and guest speakers every month. Our recorded broadcasts are also available for streaming on all major podcasts platforms and at our website.

The Historical Society of Rockland County is a nonprofit educational institution and principal repository for original documents and artifacts relating to Rockland County. Its headquarters are a four-acre site featuring a history museum and the 1832 Jacob Blauvelt House in New City, New York.

www.RocklandHistory.org

The July, 2026 episode of "Crossroads of Rockland History" begins streaming on Monday, July 20, at 10am on all major podcast platforms and on the HSRC website.

We turned our attention to the ironmaking villages that existed on Rockland's western border during the American Revolution.

In the decades leading up to the Revolutionary War, rich deposits of iron ore were discovered in the Ramapo Mountains. Early entrepreneurs who sought to capitalize on this resource by mining and smelting the ore into products, however, were thwarted by British laws that prohibited the manufacture of finished goods in the American Colonies.

HSRC Executive Director Susan Deeks will join host Clare Sheridan to discuss the ironmaking villages, the challenges they faced to protect their facilities, operations, and laborers; and their role in helping George Washington prevail over the British in the Hudson Valley.

About the speaker: Susan Deeks is the executive director of the Historical Society of Rockland County and a former director of the Friends of Long Pond Ironworks in West Milford, NJ. She has a master's degree in history, with a concentration in the industrial history of the Lower Hudson Valley and specialization in the historical iron mines, forges, and furnaces that operated in the Ramapo Mountains from 1764 to 1888.

Susan Deeks's presentation will take place Sunday, July 26, 2026, at 1:00 pm SHARP in the Lower-level Community Room, HSRC History Center, 20 Zukor Road, New City. Admission is $5.00 (Space is limited, and reservations are required).

Crossroads of Rockland History, a program of the Historical Society of Rockland County, starts streaming new episodes on the third Monday of each month at 10am.   From October 2010 to May 2025, the program aired after the morning show on WRCR radio 1700 AM and www.WRCR.com. 

Join host Clare Sheridan as we explore, celebrate, and learn about our local history, with different topics and guest speakers every month. Our recorded broadcasts are also available for streaming on all major podcasts platforms and at our website.

The Historical Society of Rockland County is a nonprofit educational institution and principal repository for original documents and artifacts relating to Rockland County. Its headquarters are a four-acre site featuring a history museum and the 1832 Jacob Blauvelt House in New City, New York.

www.RocklandHistory.org

This episode (187) began streaming on June 15, 2026.

On the June 2026 episode of Crossroads of Rockland History we turned our attention to the complex story of Peggy Shippen Arnold. Historian Char Weigel joined host Clare Sheridan to discuss the wife of America’s most notorious traitor, Benedict Arnold. Char's research centers entirely on primary source documentation, offering a nuanced and fascinating look at Shippen's role in the infamous plot to surrender West Point to the British.

Char Weigel will be coming to the Historical Society in September to speak about Peggy Shippen, so this will be an interesting sneak preview for that upcoming program.  

About the speaker: Char Weigel is the vice-president of special projects for Revolutionary Westchester 250, Westchester County’s nonprofit working to encourage and amplify commemoration of the upcoming Semiquincentennial. She presents regularly and is the author of numerous articles on Westchester County history, the most recent of which, “Boot Papers: Double Betrayal in Documents Found in John André’s Footwear,” was published in New York State Archives Magazine. She is widely recognized for her primary-source research.  Weigel is also a member of the board member of the Friends of Odell House Rochambeau Headquarters

Crossroads of Rockland History, a program of the Historical Society of Rockland County, starts streaming new episodes on the third Monday of each month at 10am.   From October 2010 to May 2025, the program aired after the morning show on WRCR radio 1700 AM and www.WRCR.com. 

Join host Clare Sheridan as we explore, celebrate, and learn about our local history, with different topics and guest speakers every month. Our recorded broadcasts are also available for streaming on all major podcasts platforms and at our website.

The Historical Society of Rockland County is a nonprofit educational institution and principal repository for original documents and artifacts relating to Rockland County. Its headquarters are a four-acre site featuring a history museum and the 1832 Jacob Blauvelt House in New City, New York.

www.RocklandHistory.org

The May, 2026 episode of "Crossroads of Rockland History" began streaming on Monday, May 18, on all major podcast platforms and here on the HSRC website.

In this episode, we revisited an interview from 2011 with the historian and author Robert A. Mayers (1930-2025) about his book The War Man: The True Story of a Citizen-Soldier Who Fought from Quebec to Yorktown. The book offers a unique opportunity to follow the course of the American Revolution through the eyes of a front-line volunteer from Haverstraw, NY.

In 1775, the first year of the American Revolution, Congress made an appeal for troops. The resulting army of citizen-soldiers began what for many would be more than five years of battle and deprivation. Their consolation, however, was that they would ultimately defeat the most powerful army of the age and win independence for the new country of America. John Allison, a New York farmer, answered the call to arms in 1775, joining the Continental Army’s 3rd New York Infantry. Allison was surrounded by likeminded volunteers, yet all were equally unprepared for campaigning. Despite the lack of training, equipment, and clothing, Allison and the rest of his company found themselves marching toward Quebec knee-deep in snow as part of the unsuccessful American invasion of Canada.

So begins the remarkable story of the wartime experiences of a foot soldier of the American Revolution. Using letters, muster rolls, orderly books, service records, and oral family history, Robert Mayers reconstructs the campaign life of John Allison. What makes his life remarkable is that he participated in many key events across the colonies for the duration of the war. Allison fought at the gates of Montreal, the battle of Fort Montgomery on the Hudson—where most of his company was either killed or went missing—the decisive Sullivan-Clinton operation against the Iroquois, endured the bitter winter at Morristown, New Jersey, and helped man the frontline at the American victory at Yorktown, Virginia. During Allison’s eight-year military career, he survived numerous skirmishes and battles across the colonies, was promoted to the rank of corporal, and returned home a local hero.

Crossroads of Rockland History, a program of the Historical Society of Rockland County, starts streaming new episodes on the third Monday of each month at 10am.   From October 2010 to May 2025, the program aired after the morning show on WRCR radio 1700 AM and www.WRCR.com. 

Join host Clare Sheridan as we explore, celebrate, and learn about our local history, with different topics and guest speakers every month. Our recorded broadcasts are also available for streaming on all major podcasts platforms and at our website.

The Historical Society of Rockland County is a nonprofit educational institution and principal repository for original documents and artifacts relating to Rockland County. Its headquarters are a four-acre site featuring a history museum and the 1832 Jacob Blauvelt House in New City, New York.

www.RocklandHistory.org

The April episode of "Crossroads of Rockland History" began streaming on Monday, April 20, 2026 at 10:00am, on all major podcast platforms and on the HSRC website.

Most people don’t know Nat Fein’s name—but they know his work. Fein, who lived in Tappan for many years, captured one of the most iconic images in American sports history: Babe Ruth’s final appearance at Yankee Stadium, a photograph that earned Fein the 1949 Pulitzer Prize and became known as "Babe Ruth Bows Out." (The actual title of Fein's photograph is "#3 Bows Out.")

Host Clare Sheridan welcomed journalist and filmmaker Frank LoBuono to discuss his documentary Nat Fein: A Talent for Living - The Man Behind an Iconic Photograph. The documentary tells the story of a self-made photojournalist working during the golden age of journalism, whose career at the New York Herald Tribune earned him more New York Press Photographers Association awards than any of his peers. Through interviews with leading experts from AP, Time Life, and journalism history, the film explores Fein’s lasting influence on generations of photographers.

More than a photographer, Fein was a singer, an artist, and a person who brought joy to others—a man who truly had a talent for living. This is his remarkable and largely untold story.

About the filmmaker: Rockland County’s Frank LoBuono is a journalist with more than forty years of experience in the television news profession. He writes a column for Nyack News and Views and hosts a podcast on Hudson River Radio.

Crossroads of Rockland History, a program of the Historical Society of Rockland County, starts streaming new episodes on the third Monday of each month at 10am.   From October 2010 to May 2025, the program aired after the morning show on WRCR radio 1700 AM and www.WRCR.com. 

Join host Clare Sheridan as we explore, celebrate, and learn about our local history, with different topics and guest speakers every month. Our recorded broadcasts are also available for streaming on all major podcasts platforms and at our website.

The Historical Society of Rockland County is a nonprofit educational institution and principal repository for original documents and artifacts relating to Rockland County. Its headquarters are a four-acre site featuring a history museum and the 1832 Jacob Blauvelt House in New City, New York.

www.RocklandHistory.org

This episode began streaming on Monday, March 16, 2026. 

On this episode we turned our attention to the new exhibition at the Haverstraw Brick Museum, “The Remarkable Landscape Design of Mary Mowbray-Clarke.”

The museum’s Executive Director Rachel Whitlow and Educator Luke Spaltro joined host Clare Sheridan for a preview of this interesting and informative exhibition. They will also share the Brick Museum’s plans for the future and how Mowbray-Clarke’s Dutch Garden (New City) served as inspiration for its architectural design.  

A pioneer in every sense of the word, Mary Mowbray-Clarke’s story and contributions to the fields of preservation, art education, and landscape design continue to have a lasting impact today. As the mother of the modern arts movement, she organized art exhibitions, ran an influential bookstore, and became the only known female foreman of a WPA landscape design project.  

The Haverstraw Brick Museum is dedicated to preserving the cultural and historical past of the Village of Haverstraw and the vibrant brick industry that created it. The Haverstraw Brick Museum and Center for Historic Preservation is located at 12 Main Street, in the Village of Haverstraw, NY 

The Museum is open on Saturdays and Sundays 1:00-4:00 and BY APPOINTMENT 10:00-4:00 Tuesday, Thursday & Friday. They have a suggested donation of $6.00. We appreciate your support. More than ever, we are grateful to have such a wonderful and supportive community.  Their web address is HaverstrawBrickMuseum.org.

Crossroads Episode 116 also featured Mary Mowbray-Clarke and the Dutch Garden with an interview with her biographer Justin Duerr.

Crossroads of Rockland History, a program of the Historical Society of Rockland County, starts streaming new episodes on the third Monday of each month at 10am.   From October 2010 to May 2025, the program aired after the morning show on WRCR radio 1700 AM and www.WRCR.com. 

Join host Clare Sheridan as we explore, celebrate, and learn about our local history, with different topics and guest speakers every month. Our recorded broadcasts are also available for streaming on all major podcasts platforms and at our website.

The Historical Society of Rockland County is a nonprofit educational institution and principal repository for original documents and artifacts relating to Rockland County. Its headquarters are a four-acre site featuring a history museum and the 1832 Jacob Blauvelt House in New City, New York.

www.RocklandHistory.org

The February episode of "Crossroads of Rockland History" started streaming on Monday, February 16, at 10 am.

On this episode of Crossroads of Rockland History, host Clare Sheridan welcomed author Eve Kahn as she returns to discuss her latest work ahead of her March presentation at Sloatsburg's Harmony Hall. The focus will be on Kahn's new book, Queen of Bohemia Predicts Own Death: Gilded-Age Journalist Zoe Anderson Norris (Fordham University Press).

If you’re unfamiliar with Zoe Anderson Norris (1860–1914), a notable journalist of the Gilded Age, you’re not alone: Eve Kahn is on a mission to bring her story to light. Norris was known for blending fact and fiction in her writings, often weaving autobiographical elements into her stories, which led to criticism for using her personal relationships as material. Despite this, she was deeply committed to exposing the struggles of New York’s poor through East Side, the magazine she launched and ran from 1909 to 1914. Remarkably, its final issue included Norris’s own prediction of her death, inspiring the dramatic title of Kahn’s book.

Eve Kahn’s presentation at Harmony Hall will take place on Sunday, March 8, at 2 pm. Tickets are $20 and benefit the restoration of the historic Jacob Sloat House.

Information and tickets are online here: https://www.friendsofharmonyhall.org/events-2/queen-of-bohemia-predicts-own-death-eve-kahn-returns

__________________

Crossroads of Rockland History, a program of the Historical Society of Rockland County, starts streaming new episodes on the third Monday of each month at 10am.   From October 2010 to May 2025, the program aired after the morning show on WRCR radio 1700 AM and www.WRCR.com. 

Join host Clare Sheridan as we explore, celebrate, and learn about our local history, with different topics and guest speakers every month. Our recorded broadcasts are also available for streaming on all major podcasts platforms and at our website.

The Historical Society of Rockland County is a nonprofit educational institution and principal repository for original documents and artifacts relating to Rockland County. Its headquarters are a four-acre site featuring a history museum and the 1832 Jacob Blauvelt House in New City, New York.

www.RocklandHistory.org

The January episode of "Crossroads of Rockland History" started streaming on Monday, January 19, at 10 am, on all major podcast platforms and here on the HSRC website.

Host Clare Sheridan welcomed Timothy Englert, co-founder of Rockland County's Knickerbocker Ice Festival - he cofounded it with Rob Patalano (1964-2025).  Tim  shared the history of Rockland Lake's illustrious past as the ice box of New York City and how it became world famous a century before it became a state park.

With the Knickerbocker Ice Festival returning on January 24-25, Tim will share how he Robert Patalano created the ice festival that thrilled thousands from 2007 to 2013 with huge ice sculptures along the banks of the Rockland Lake.

To read more about the Rockland Lake Ice Industry, visit the HSRC archived issue of South of the Mountains:    https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/hsrc/id/4926/rec/3

To listen to another podcast about Rockland Lake with Robert Maher of the Friends of Rockland Lake and Hook Mountain, click here:  https://on.soundcloud.com/3GjntJD0P2ycEjJajs

About the presenter: Timothy Englert is the creator of the Knickerbocker Ice Festival at Rockland Lake, as well as The Knickerbocker Bench, a modern interpretation of the venerable log bench, which can be found along trails and in parks throughout the Hudson Valley and beyond. He was a development executive for the Palisades Interstate Park Commission (PIPC) and a documentary filmmaker with a career spanning two decades. His favorite films are the many shorts he made about the PIPC's illustrious history.

Crossroads of Rockland History, a program of the Historical Society of Rockland County, starts streaming new episodes on the third Monday of each month at 10am.   From October 2010 to May 2025, the program aired after the morning show on WRCR radio 1700 AM and www.WRCR.com. 

Join host Clare Sheridan as we explore, celebrate, and learn about our local history, with different topics and guest speakers every month. Our recorded broadcasts are also available for streaming on all major podcasts platforms and at our website.

The Historical Society of Rockland County is a nonprofit educational institution and principal repository for original documents and artifacts relating to Rockland County. Its headquarters are a four-acre site featuring a history museum and the 1832 Jacob Blauvelt House in New City, New York.

www.RocklandHistory.org

The December 2025 episode of "Crossroads of Rockland History" started streaming on Monday, December 15, 2025 at 10 am, on all major podcast platforms and on the HSRC website.

Host Clare Sheridan welcomed Pearl River librarian and local historian James Cassetta for a discussion of his newly published book, When God Awakens in the Hinterlands: A History of Religious Worship in Pearl River, New York. 

The book explores Pearl River's spiritual heritage and tells the stories behind the different denominations that have helped shape the Pearl River community.

Learn more about James Cassetta's books and appearances at the Pearl River Public Library

Crossroads of Rockland History, a program of the Historical Society of Rockland County, starts streaming new episodes on the third Monday of each month at 10am.   From October 2010 to May 2025, the program aired after the morning show on WRCR radio 1700 AM and www.WRCR.com. 

Join host Clare Sheridan as we explore, celebrate, and learn about our local history, with different topics and guest speakers every month. Our recorded broadcasts are also available for streaming on all major podcasts platforms and at our website.

The Historical Society of Rockland County is a nonprofit educational institution and principal repository for original documents and artifacts relating to Rockland County. Its headquarters are a four-acre site featuring a history museum and the 1832 Jacob Blauvelt House in New City, New York.

www.RocklandHistory.org

The November episode of "Crossroads of Rockland History" starts streaming on Monday, November 17, 2025 at 10 am, on all major podcast platforms and on the HSRC website.

Host Clare Sheridan revisited an earlier episode featuring Rockland County Historian Craig Long during which we discussed the importance of the Ramapo Pass in the American Revolution.

In addition, host Clare Sheridan shared a summary of this important piece of New York State Revolutionary War History written by the former Rockland County Historian, the late Thomas F. X. Casey. Casey’s summary was part of his remarks at the 225th anniversary of the Camp Ramapough Entrenchments in Hillburn in 2001.

This episode is sponsored by the Town of Ramapo. We are grateful for their support of the Historical Society of Rockland County and the "Crossroads of Rockland History" podcast.

Further Reading:  

225th Anniversary of the Camp Ramapough Entrenchments,  South of the Mountains 2002-01, Vol. 46, No. 1.  Available online here: https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/hsrc/id/4294/rec/1

Corridor Through the Mountains by Richard J. Koke.  Published by the Orange County Historical Society.  https://www.lulu.com/shop/richard-j-koke/corridor-through-the-mountains/paperback/product-24465744.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Crossroads of Rockland History, a program of the Historical Society of Rockland County, starts streaming new episodes on the third Monday of each month at 10am.   From October 2010 to May 2025, the program aired after the morning show on WRCR radio 1700 AM and www.WRCR.com. 

Join host Clare Sheridan as we explore, celebrate, and learn about our local history, with different topics and guest speakers every month. Our recorded broadcasts are also available for streaming on all major podcasts platforms and at our website.

The Historical Society of Rockland County is a nonprofit educational institution and principal repository for original documents and artifacts relating to Rockland County. Its headquarters are a four-acre site featuring a history museum and the 1832 Jacob Blauvelt House in New City, New York.

www.RocklandHistory.org