In the background is part of the old Alexander Smith carpet mill, an industry that vput Yonkers on the map and help make it the third largest city in the state. Across from the mill a dense section of brick tenements and rowhoeses were built between 1881 and 1886.
The housing is still occupied and the extensive mill buildings have been divided up amongst and individual assortment of manufacturing, crafts and, even, art.
From Wiki: “The workers’ housing, known as Moquette Row, North and South, was built between 1881 and 1886. Many workers that lived in this housing originally were immigrants to the United States. They came from Scotland, Ireland, and Ukraine.[2] The carpet works were developed by Alexander Smith (1818-1878) The company closed the Yonkers mills and relocated to Greenville, Mississippi, in 1954.[3] At the time of its closing,” there were 2,400 who worked at the carpet mill.[