Ruben P. Mendez

A History of the Riverdale Yacht Club Ruben P. Mendez

The Riverdale Yacht Club is a small private association on the shoreline of the Hudson River in the Riverdale section of New York City's borough of The Bronx. While author Ruben Mendez furnishes a chronicle of the institution, he also discloses valuable historical information about Riverdale, the Hudson River, the building of what is today the Metro-North railroad's Hudson Division, and the creation of the New York-New Jersey Palisades into an interstate park.

Founded in 1931, the yacht club's first decade coincided with the Great Depression. During World War II, over sixty of its members served in the military.

Mendez not only describes the sports and other activities that occurred on the club's ground, he also provides thumbnail sketches of some noted members. They include Nobel Prize laureates; professors, deans and presidents of institutions of higher education; journalists; authors; diplomats; medical doctors; lawyers; and other figures of historical importance. Thus he has produced a work recounting a little-known, but essential part of the history of The Bronx and of New York City.

Lloyd Ultan Bronx Borough Historian