MANHATTANVILLE, MILK, & TWO WOMEN

Located from W.123rd to W.135thSts. on the west side of Manhattan, Manhattanville was settled by waves of foreign, religious, and racial groups over the decades. Early on, it was a center of milk processing in New York City.Positioned at a nexus of transit networks, industry, and population hubs, the neighborhood served a crucial role in public health in the metropolis at a time when procuring healthy pasteurized milk was literally a matter of life and death, especially for children. Sheffield Farms opened the first milk pasteurization plant in the nation in 1893 on what is now W.125th St. And by 1926 it was the largest dairy products company in the world. Why was Sheffield so very important? Over earlier decades, when cow pastures were pushed farther and farther from New York City,during transit to the city milk could spoil and too often causesickness and even death. Manhattanville residents went to work! Ethel M. Wagoner Hooke and Minnie M. Cook, both residents of 552 Riverside Drive, founded the International Pure Milk League in 1910 promoting pasteurization and otherhealth measures.They are gone but not forgotten!