There were three parts to my walk. The walk along the Old Croton Aqueduct was the longest. This part was the shortest, but the most difficult. The problem is the my house is on top of a hill and at the end of the walk I always have to go up this hill. On this particular day I had walked the dog for one hour earlier and had walked for 2.5 miles until I reached the church (Scarborough Presbyterian Church) you can see in the background in the second picture. Since there were some benches outside the church I decided to take a brief rest while deciding what to do. I almost gave up and called for an Uber to take me home, but I decided to tough it out and walk up the hill. All told I walked for about four hours on that day. My legs/feet hurt for days afterwards.

Above: The former entrance to to the Frank A. Vanderlip, Beechwood. While Vanderlip was vice president of the First National City Bank (later Citibank), he had two fluted smoked granite columns from the headquarters 55 Wall Street shipped to Beechwood (55 Wall Street was being remodeled and the columns were re-spaced, with two left over). He had the columns placed two-thirds above ground in Beechwood’s entranceway off of Albany Post Road , an entrance which was later closed due to increasing traffic volume on Route 9 (the current entrance is off Scarborough Station Road).

Historical Marker on Route 9, Scarborough Presbyterian Church in the background. For more on The Battle of the Hampton Roads see here. It was significant in the it was the first battle between two ironclad warships. The Union ship was the USS Monitor. The Confederate ship was the CSS Virginia. For some reason (as in this sign) it’s sometimes referred to as the “Merrimack”. It had, indeed, once been the USS Merrimack, a scuttled steam frigate. But CSS Virginia had been substantially remodeled (Only the original lower hull and engines remained) during it’s conversion that it should really be known by it’s designation (CSS Virginia) at the time of the battle. Note also that the original Union ship was called “Merrimack” and not “Merrimac” as in the sign.

Sign on Scarborough Presbyterian Church. In light of present circumstances this seemed apt.

Forsythias. For some reason I have difficulties getting a decent picture of these. This one isn’t too bad though.

Taken with a Canon EOS 5DII and Canon EF20-105mm f3.5-4.5 II USM