McCann Building
In the early 1890’s the closing of the heavily polluted mill ponds and the partial submerging of the Nepperhan River helped transfrom the downtown into a commercial center. New office buildings were constructed such as this neo–classical structure, designed in 1896 by Edwin A. Quick & Son.
Wheeler Block
Over the next decades the commercial sector thrived; its vitality assured by the large consumer markets that surrounded it. Like its neighbor, the Wheeler Bock—actually three separate buildings designed for his family by Charles Wheeler—stands over the flume built to contain the Nepperhan.
Steam power and electrification allowed some pockets of industry to remain in downtown Yonkers, especially along the river front, in the present–day Larkin Plaza area and in Chicken Island.
In 1892, after many attempts to condemn the polluted mill ponds, the City government instructed the police to tear down the dams in stealth late one December night.
