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I received an email inquiry about Soong Mei-ling (Madame Chiang Kai-Shek) and her time in Riverdale. There was not very much written about her in the Riverdale Press in the 40s. Understandably, she probably kept a pretty low public profile. She lived at 4645 Delafield Ave–one of the Fieldston homes that are visible from the Henry Hudson Parkway.
I did find a connection she had to a local restaurateur, Tommy Hsu, who had previously been a liaison between nationalist Chinese forces and the US Navy in WWII.
7/14/1958 Riverdale Press In addition to the restaurant on Lexington referenced above, Tommy Hsu also ran “Ah Ping Restaurant” on Riverdale Avenue:
The June 30, 1960 Riverdale Press covered a trip Tommy Hsu took to Asia, where he rendezvoused with Madam Chiang Kai-Shek:
Riverdale Press read like a small-town paper in those days:
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In the 1950s when I was a boy, I thought Madame Chiang lived at 3900 Greystone Avenue, the apartment building where I grew up. She certainly visited there, and gave my parents an ornate bowl from China, which my mom proudly displayed in the living room for as long as she lived.
Incidentally, The Riverdale Press of the 1940s was a short-lived publication that had no relationship with today’s Riverdale Press, founded by my father David Stein in April 1950. Ah Ping was an early advertiser, and Tom Hsu and my father became friends. Mr. Hsu traveled to China frequently, and claimed to be working with U.S. intelligence. On one of his trips, he brought back a bolt of silk brocade fabric for my mom.
Their friendship ended when Mr. Hsu fell afoul of the law. In 1968, he was convicted of defrauding eight victims of $250,000 by claiming to be an aide to Madame Chiang’s husband Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek. He was furious that The Press reported his conviction. My father never ceased to regret the story and its consequences, but he always remained convinced of the necessity of reporting the news.
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Thanks for the follow up. Interesting about Tommy Hsu but also the history of the Riverdale Press. It is certainly great for local history to have access to those stories. I use the Fulton Search site to read back issues.
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Tom, could you double-check your photo. I can’t seem to match it to what is shown in Google Earth and Google Maps – Street View of 4645 Delafield Ave. (though it is, in itself, a beautiful home).
In the early 1950’s, during our nocturnal wanderings in the neighborhood, we would sometimes stop at Ah Ping to eat an egg roll to assuage our nighttime teenage hunger. Who knows, Tommy Hsu might have taken my order! (although I doubt it, lol).
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I have long understood that she visited the house opposite Wave Hill that was then owned by H.H. Kung, a banker who helped set the economic policies of the Chinese Nationalists. He had to flee when the Chinese Communists came to power and moved to the house in Riverdale now owned by Yeshiva of Telshe Alumni School (their main building, the former Anthony Campagna House, is across the street).
Kung was married to one of the three Soong sisters, the two of whom were marries to Sun Yat-Sen and Chiang Kai-Shek. -
Here’s an article that helps clarify the history of Madame’s residence in Spuyten Duyvil:
New York Daily News, July 19, 1945
“Mme. Chiang, Convalescing, Plans China Social Security
Ten miles north of Times Square, in a rambling English Tudor mansion at 4904 Independence Avenue, Riverdale, Bronx, China’s First Lady, Mme. Chiang Kai-shek, lives a secluded life these days. She is convalescing from an illness which drove her from China more than a year ago and working on a plan which she hopes eventually will bring social security to millions of Chinese workers.
Since May, when she was released from Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center after eight months of treatment, the Generalissimo’s wife has occupied the 17-room estate, River Oaks, leased for her by her nephew, L. X. Kung.
She still returns to the hospital for treatment, both in a few months, The News was informed, Mei-ling Soong Chiang will be going back to Chungking.
Reports that she is estranged from the man who had led China’s long war against Japan and that their marriage is heading toward a divorce are blasted as false, vicious and poorly-thought-out propaganda by Chinese official spokesmen here.
“She and the Generalissimo are on the best of terms,” Dr. Ching Lin Hsia, director of the Ministry of Chinese Information in America told The News. “Mme. Chiang left China only because of the truly desperate state of her health.
The cooling breeze from the nearby Hudson, blowing over the Riverdale Heights are a boon to the visiting First Lady, who suffers from chronic urticaria–better known as hives.
On her return from the United States in 1943, following the American tour on which she made many public appeals for aid to China, Mme. Chiang became ill from nervous exhaustion, insomnia and hives. Cmdr. Frank Harrington, assistant U. S. Naval attaché, who acted as her physician, told her she would never be cured if she remained in the intense, humid heat of Chungking.
Even now, she still is highly nervous and finds eating and sleeping a problem. Sometimes, when sleep eludes her, she writes or studies far into the night. She is familiar with Britain’s Beveridge Plan and the United States Social Security system and has gone far afield in her search for security measures which might serve her country.
She is seldom alone, however. In her household at River Oaks are her nephew, who acted as her secretary on the 1943 tour, a Chinese cook and three Americans, a butler, gardener, and nurse. Her niece Mrs. Raymond Chen, daughter of Dr. R. H. Kung, China’s Minister of Finance, also is here much of the time.
In addition, there are Secret Service men. Two of them emerged from a side-door to turn back a News reporter who called at the acre-and-a-quarter estate the other day. “Mme. Chiang sees no one,” the federal men said. One took in the reporter’s card, but returned shaking his head. “Any information will have to come from the Chinese Embassy,” he said.
From Chinese sources, it was learned that Mme. Chiang receives old friend occasionally. These have included both wives of Chinese diplomats and Americans who were her schoolmates at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.
Her nearest neighbor is Arturo Toscannini, the maestro. His house is only about 100 yards to the north, but thus far there has been no visiting, not even to borrow a neighborly cup of sugar.
The other residents of Riverdale rarely get a glimpse of the distinguished visitor. She spends most of her time in a shrubbery-screened garden at the rear of River Oaks. Only late in the day, sometimes, does she emerge to read on the high walled front terrace of the Independence Avenue side of the house, overlooking the Hudson.
Around the house, she wears comfortable Chinese clothing but when doing out she changes to American sports garb. She doesn’t go shopping. Mrs. Chen selects any clothes or accessories she needs. The butler buys food for the household and handles the ration books.
She is fond of American radio programs and while hospitalized listened in a great deal. But on the afternoon of April 12, she experienced a severe shock–the radio’s announcement of the sudden death of President Roosevelt, whom she admired and revered for his sympathy and assistance to China.
The shock retarded her recovery. Since then, Mme. Chiang rarely turns on the radio, except to hear a specific program.
River Oaks was leased, furnished, from its owner, W. E. Ditmars, head of the Gray Manufacturing Company, 230 Park Ave. He offered it for sale or rental last year. Its assessed valuation is about $150,000 according to realty people.
Her stay there and at the Medical Center has brought a marked improvement in the M’issimo’s health. How it will react when she returns to Chungking remains to be seen. On the outcome many things of importance to China may depend.”
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Regarding Madame Chiang’s River Oaks residence in Riverdale: It was built by my grandfather Walter E. Ditmars. He and his bride Jennie Ann Johnson, daughter Arthur Gale Johnson and May Middleton Stewart, traveled to England on their honeymoon in 1920 and saw a country manor house after which they designed River Oaks. Arthur Gale Johnson was the General Manager of Issac Gale Johnson’s Iron Works and Steel Rolling Mills in Spuyten Duyvil. Issac Gale built Edgehill Church for the workers in his enterprise. He donated the land for establishing Henry Hudson Park. My father Walter E. Ditmars, Jr. grew up in River Oaks.
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