A Skeleton Key to Reading

The first general catalogue of the New Rochelle Public Library was published in 1897; in it there were but four books listed on the subject of native Americans. Within a few years that collection grew to include many of the reports of the Bureau of American Ethnology whose mission was to organize anthropological research of indigenous cultures. One young reader of these massive reports was a neighborhood boy named Joseph Campbell, who lived just nearby the library, then situated at the corner of Pintard Avenue and Main Street. Young Campbell’s intellectual fascination for the native peoples of North America launched his career as a writer, professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College, and author of path-breaking studies in comparative mythology and religion. His most famous and enduring work is The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) first issued by the Bollingen Foundation, which published the collected works of psychiatrist Carl Jung in English translation. 

Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) was also co-author of A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake (1944), the earliest thematic interpretation of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, which came out in book form in 1939. Finnegans Wake (aka “the Wake” for avid fans of Joyce) is likely one of the most difficult and perplexing reading experiences one might ever encounter. That’s putting it mildly, for Campbell introduced Joyce’s masterwork as a “monstrous enigma,” a strange book that is a “compound of fable, symphony, and nightmare.” Unraveling the multiple meanings twisted into each word of the Wake demands unusual dedication to the art of reading. As a scholar of world mythology Campbell arrived early at a fortuitous position for illuminating the riddles, teasing out the obscurities, and formulating tactics to explicate the inexplicable in Joyce’s fantastic apotheosis of word craft. Campbell and Robinson’s Skeleton Key has provided much-needed leverage to jiggle out a bit of foggy clarity from what has been deemed “the terminal book.”

However, reading the Wake is also a lot of fun – much more fun than Wordle or the Saturday crossword puzzle, as exciting as translating Shakespeare from Esperanto to Volapuk, and certainly more enriching than, say, golf.  Though one may need to consult encyclopedias and vast libraries for help, the single prerequisite to the study of the Wake is not the Skeleton Key, but rather Joyce’s earlier novel Ulysses (1922), one hundred years old this year. Ulysses is the quintessential modernist novel, widely appreciated for the endearing humanity of its protagonist, Leopold Bloom. The time frame of the novel is a single day: June 16, 1904, and hence we have Bloomsday, a secular holiday devoted to the art of reading. Both Ulysses and Finnegans Wake are challenging, to be sure; and Joseph Campbell leapfrogged over the former to excavate the multiple layers of meaning in the latter, a step that began to focus his investigation of world mythologies. 

In fact, Campbell borrowed a word – monomyth – that Joyce invented in the Wake, this to describe the hero’s journey as a model of story-telling and myth-making. Just as the physicist Murray Gell-Mann plucked the word quarks from the Wake to label a subatomic particle that is the constituent ingredient of protons and neutrons (putting Joycean spin on the matter), so too Campbell deployed monomyth to explain a narrative motif universal in myths and stories across many cultures. Not surprisingly, Campbell found Finnegans Wake to be a treasury of myth whose intricacies, with some study, serve to develop and improve our abilities in reading and writing. Focusing here on the Wake is not to abandon our celebration of Ulysses, but to suggest that Joseph Campbell, in his wide-ranging studies of psychology and comparative mythology, has helped develop our abilities to enrich the understanding of life and the problems of the world from the experience of reading books. It is tempting to believe that Campbell would have appreciated these literary slogans:

Reading is experience for the imagination.

Literature is equipment for living (Kenneth Burke).

What we read governs how we think. 

A poem is a machine made of words (William Carlos         Williams). 

Great writers demand great libraries. 

There are no good readers, only good re-readers

(Nabokov). 

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to

read them at all (Thoreau). 

Joseph Campbell well knew what the best books are, and he gave us a skeleton key to unlock one of the greatest. If you have yet to read Ulysses or Finnegans Wake, June 16th is the perfect time to begin.  These masterworks continue to fascinate because they lead us deep into worlds of story throughout the entire universe of books. 

Happy Bloomsday!

June 16, 2022 / David Rose / NRPL Archive 

The Land of Enchantment: Exploring the Norman Rockwell Museum

Did you know the Library owns an original Norman Rockwell painting? This treasured piece of art is now on view in the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge MA? Barbara Davis, New Rochelle City Historian and former NRPL Community Relations Coordinator, recently visited the museum and shares this illustrated brief with us:

If you have an opportunity to travel to the Berkshires, be sure to visit the museum to see NRPL’s magnificent painting, Land of Enchantment, prominently on display in the exhibit, Real and Imagined: Fantastical Rockwell. (It will return to its permanent home, above the desk in the Children’s Room at the main library, once the exhibit concludes on October 30, 2021.) 

The works of four other (former) New Rochelle artists – all members of the New Rochelle Art Association – are also on view! They are part of the corresponding exhibit, Enchanted: A History of Fantasy Illustration.

 

"The Other Side" by Dean Cornwell with exhibit label at the start of the "Enchanted" exhibit.

"Vampire Girl" by Coles Phillips with exhibit label

"Pan" by J.C. Leyendecker with exhibit label

"The Submarine Menace Again!" by Orson Lowell with exhibit label

Never been to the Norman Rockwell Museum? You can meet many of his New Rochelle models there, as they are featured on the covers of Saturday Evening Post Magazines exhibited on the museum’s lower level. This space also features a video on the life of Norman Rockwell which, regrettably, omits the fact that he came into prominence while working and living in New Rochelle. He was an active member of our community for over 25 years, from 1913 – 1939.

And – he was a great supporter of New Rochelle’s extraordinary history, as evidenced in this letter found in NRPL’s archives.

 

Do You Rhumba?

Castle Society Dance Folio

Do you rhumba? Groucho Marx famously asked this question in the zany movie A Night at the Opera. Groucho took special pleasure in spoofing ballroom dancing. But along with the rhumba there was the foxtrot, the bunny hug, the hesitation, the maxixe, the Boston, the one-step, the tango, the turkey trot, and most especially the Castle walk, named for New Rochelle’s lively dance couple Vernon and Irene Castle (1893-1969). 

Irene was born Irene Foote on April 17, 1893 in New Rochelle. Her father was a local physician. Her romance with Vernon – born William Vernon Blythe – began at the New Rochelle Rowing Club in 1910. Within a year they were married and launched in a career that put them in the forefront of the ballroom dance craze in America and Europe.

Irene was a fashion trend-setter in many aspects of pop culture beyond dance – her bobbed hair style was a hit and copied widely; she appeared in silent films; and many women envied or emulated her elegant lifestyle. She traveled to Paris with Vernon and achieved instant popularity in ragtime dance. In 1914, the couple opened a dancing school, and the two illustrations here (from the Library’s Archive) of the Castle Society Dance Folios are evidence of their popularity – everyone wanted to dance like the Castles and step out to their music. 

Castle Society Dance Folio No. 2 

The jazz historian Phil Schaap has pointed out that the ballroom dance craze of the 1910s and 1920s was a major factor in the breakthrough of jazz to the very pinnacle of pop music. Before jazz and swing, ballroom dancing ruled pop music in America. Dancers were the music stars, and the ballroom styles of dance fostered an orchestral concept. Jazz merged with the social ballroom phenomenon to create the jazz orchestra in the 1920s, usually with the extra vitality of a hot tempo. Not only that, paired couples like Irene and Vernon Castle countered sexism in instrumental music at the time by bringing the talent, grace, and audacity of female performers to the forefront. 

The Castles made ballroom dancing respectable and fostered much enjoyable entertainment during the years of the Great War. Tragically, Vernon lost his life in an aviation accident in 1918, but Irene went on to star in many silent films. For more on the Castles, see the 1939 film, The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (another famous dance couple), and the biography by Eve Golden, Vernon and Irene Castle’s Ragtime Revolution (2007).

March 1, 2021 / David Rose / New Rochelle Public Library Archive

Two African American Philanthropists of New Rochelle

The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) stands as one of the most successful philanthropies in American history. Its incisive slogan – a mind is a terrible thing to waste – is etched into our collective memory because it challenges us to fulfill every promise of human improvement. We must never believe this principle can be reduced only to a branding exercise or advertising tagline, for it resonates with the necessity of seeking social justice through the immediate needs for higher education. The mind is a wonderful thing to nurture, cherish, and protect.

Frederick Douglas Patterson

The UNCF (https://uncf.org/) today follows a threefold mission of student scholarships, financial support for historically Black colleges and universities, and advocacy for minority education. Two of its most prominent leaders, Frederick Patterson and Christopher Edley, were long-time residents of New Rochelle. Frederick Douglas Patterson (1901-1988) was President of Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) from 1935 to 1953. His many educational attainments culminated in a Ph.D. in Veterinary Pathology from Cornell University. Named for the famed abolitionist leader Frederick Douglas, Dr. Patterson recognized the need for collaborative fund-raising among colleges serving Black students and founded the UNCF in 1944. Under his leadership, the UNCF became the largest independent source of financial support for the nation’s private, historically Black colleges and universities. Dr. Patterson went on to create the College Endowment Funding Plan in 1976, and after a long life of activism and leadership in education and philanthropy he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1987.

Christopher Fairfield Edley, Sr.

Christopher Fairfield Edley, Sr. (1928-2003) became President and CEO of the UNCF in 1973 just after the Advertising Council, a public service organization, coined its famous slogan. He had graduated magna cum laude from Howard University in 1949 and received his law degree from Harvard University in 1953. He then joined the Human Rights Commission of Philadelphia and became a law partner of the firm of Moore, Lightfoot & Edley. Over the course of a 17-year career with the UNCF, Mr. Edley developed it into one of the most widely recognized charitable organizations in the nation, increasing the visibility of the needs of Black colleges. Leveraging the UNCF mission into further prominence through strategic marketing, Mr. Edley broadened its campaign to television in an annual telethon with the singer Lou Rawls as host. His work set new standards in public service advertising. Further, he orchestrated the largest individual donation in the history of Black philanthropy – a $50 million challenge grant in 1990 from publishing magnate Walter H. Annenberg.  

The achievements of African American professionals in the struggle for racial justice in the U.S. have lasting importance to this day. The innovative leadership of Frederick Patterson and Christopher Edley of New Rochelle stand high among many signal achievements, and we salute their lives of service and activism during Black History Month as we study and learn African American history throughout the year.

February 1, 2021 / David Rose / New Rochelle Public Library Archive

A Tribute to the League of Women Voters of New Rochelle

A Tribute to the League of Women Voters of New Rochelle 

August 18, 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote. This success of the women's suffrage movement stands as a transcendently important moment in the history of American democracy. Carrie Chapman Catt, who led the movement as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, also established the League of Women Voters in 1920 to continue to educate on all the social and political issues bearing on the rights and responsibilities that come with voting. Four years later, in 1924, New Rochelle established its own branch of the League of Women Voters, and the fact that Ms. Catt was a resident of the city ensured that their challenges, their power, and their successes would be intertwined. The New Rochelle Public Library was also part of the equation as a venue for lectures, meetings, and programs sponsored and organized by the League. 

An inconspicuous part of the League's legacy has been the preservation of its own history. The art and practice of keeping documents often happens unseen, but League officers have carefully preserved the record of its work over the years as the most knowledgeable curators of its history. However, let this important work be inconspicuous no longer! The League of Women Voters of New Rochelle has utilized the Library for the storage of its records, and its entire collection is now formally organized as part of the Library's Archive. An archival finding guide to the collection is available here. This is a rich and wonderful collection of documents that provides, in great detail, not only the history of the League but a political history of the City of New Rochelle itself. The League of Women Voters of New Rochelle has been a formidable actor in the field of education, and with the organizatino of its historical records its legacy as a nonpartisan political organization is again revealed as a vital leader in the education of the community. Kudos to the League of Women Voters of New Rochelle!  

It is interesting to know that other local branches of the League have maintained archival collections, such as the one at Columbia University Libraries documenting the League of Women Voters of the City of New York. And, there are archival collections of Carrie Chapman Catt papers at the Library of Congress and the NY Public Library. Ms. Catt's work as an advocate for world peace as also deserves renewed attention. In 1930, she participated in a "World Affairs Conference" in her honor held in New Rochelle that focused on the possibilities for lasting peace. With the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment, and with availability of the archival collection at the New Rochelle Public Library, there will be many occasions to study the work of Carrie Chapman Catt and the League of Women Voters even further. 

August 13, 2020 / David Rose / New Rochelle Public Library Archives

Seven Things You Might Know about Carl Reiner, The Dick Van Dyke Show and New Rochelle

Remarks by Barbara Davis, City Historian at the 2018 event for the honorary re-naming of Bonnie Meadow Road to Dick Van Dyke Way

1. In 1953, Carl Reiner and his wife, Estelle, and their two children, 6-year old Rob and 3-year old Annie moved from an apartment in the Bronx to their first home, at 48 Bonnie Meadow Road, in New Rochelle. They paid about $30,000.
   
   
   This is how their son, Rob, later described New Rochelle:
   "There was a 'Leave it to Beaver' aspect of suburban life, we went sleigh riding and played ball. There was a lot of unbuilt land in that area where my friends Steven Rabin, Michael Leeds, Paul Schindler and I played army."
   
   
   In another article, Carl remembered buying fresh corn from the Hutchinson Farm, down the street.
   
   
2. In 1959, Carl produced a pilot in 1959. "Head of the Family" as it was called, based on his own life living in the suburbs and working as a writer for a variety show. He played the lead; his wife was played by Barbara Bitton. It did not fly. An actor by the name of Dick Van Dyke was recommended for the lead by Sheldon Leonard, a TV comedy producer.
   
   
3. Although they had no intention of leaving their home in New Rochelle, Carl once told a reporter that the film industry mecca of the West Coast beckoned him in 1960.
   
   
4. The first episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show aired on October 3, 1961.
   
   
5. After the first year, the show was due to be cancelled. The sponsors convinced CBS to continue for at least another season. By its third episode of its second season, the Dick Van Dyke Show became the 2nd most watched show in America. The first? The Beverly Hillbillies. 
   
   
6. After four more seasons, with 157 episodes, the last Dick Van Dyke Show aired on September 7, 1966.
   
   
7. Today, it is considered one of America's "most beloved" sitcoms. The show won more Emmy's than any other during the 1960s. The first was received after the first season, when Carl Reiner was awarded for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy. It was nominated a total of 23 times and was awarded 15 Emmys by the Television Academy. TV Guide ranked in #13 out of the 50 greatest TV Shows of All Times.
   
   
   Now, here is something we all know – New Rochelle is proud and honored to have been the setting of The Dick Van Dyke Show!

Benjamin Eli Smith and the Simplified Spelling Board

The Simple Speller booklet

At the turn of the 19th century the citizens of New Rochelle were graced by the presence of a scholar who deserves to be remembered and appreciated. The man was Dr. Benjamin Elli Smith (1857 - 1913), the Managing Editor of The Century Dictionary, said to be the American rival of the prestigious Oxford English Dictionary. Dr. Smith lived in New Rochelle from the 1890s until his death in 1913, and he was a lively and productive member of the Board of Education, a personal friend of Superintendent Albert Leonard. Dr. Smith was the motivating force behind the creation of the Rochelle Park Association, an early civic and property improvement association of one of the city's prominent and handsome suburban neighborhoods. Our Archives holds a fascinating collection of his personal papers.

Letter to Dr. Smith from Andrew Carnegie

Dr. Smith also had a role in the promotion of spelling reform through the work of the Simplified Spelling Board. A brainchild of the industrialist Andrew Carnegie, the Board was organized to promote the gradual simplification of English spelling. Established in March 1906, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle devoted a full page to the announcement of the Board's formation with the headline: "The American Spelling Reform Financed by Andrew Carnegie." As Dr. Smith explained, during a dinner meeting with a "spelling reformer," Carnegie put out a challenge that "if you will secure thirty gentlemen of prominence who will agree to put into practice the changes you suggest I will finance the movement." Dr. Smith and friends secured 700 names and Carnegie's challenge was met. 

Foreseeing that English would become a global language, Carnegie believe a phonetic alphabet would guarantee its world acceptance. For his Board, he asked for "gentlemen of prominence," and he got them. They included a Supreme Court Justice (David J. Brewer), the Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary (James A.H. Murray), the creator of the Dewey Decimal System (Melvil Dewey), the preeminent American author (Mark Twain), the President of the U.S. (Theodore Roosevelt). It had long been noted that English spelling is beset with many inconsistencies; the most famous may be the construction "ough," pronounced variously in the words tough, through, and although. Rationalizing these inconsistencies formed the work of the Board, but progress was exceedinly slow. Yet even Justice Brewer vowed to use phonetic spelling in his opinions issued by the Supreme Court, and the New York World spoofed him with the headline: "Justis Brewer Telz How He Uzez Nu Speling in Hiz Opinyunz."

Board of Education Resolution on death of Dr. Smith

Even with the success of The Century Dictionary, Dr. Smith was reluctant to use it as a tool for spelling reform, claiming that a dictionary "is a record of accepted public usage rather than an arbitrary maker of words and spelling." However, his administration of the Simplified Spelling Board proceeded for several years, and he remained a friend of Andrew Carnegie. With Carnegie's death, the Board dissolved, and Dr. Smith's greater impact remained the legacy of his devoation fo the City of New Rochelle as a member of its Board of Education and the Rochelle Park Association. 

May 7, 2020 / David Rose / New Rochelle Public Library Archives

New Rochelle Birthdays - April 28: Robert Woodruff Anderson and Jay Leno!

Robert Woodruff Anderson

Robert Woodruff Anderson, leading playwright, screenwriter and producer, is probably best-remembered as the author of Tea and Sympathy. He was born on April 28, 1917 in New York City. Soon after, his family moved to a large home in New Rochelle's Residence Park neighborhood. Anderson attended Thornton Donovan School when it was located on Centre Avenue, just a few blocks from his house at 99 Elm Street. His fond memories of attending Junior Garden Club meetings at the New Rochelle Public Library, when it was located at the corner of Main Street and Pintard Avenue, were included in NRPL's 100th Anniversary journal. Anderson had mailed his reminiscences for the 1994 occasion. 

He followed in his brother's footsteps, attending Phillips Exeter Academy. While a student at the New Hampshire prep school he fell in love with an older woman. The experience became the basis of Tea and Sympathy. Anderson earned graduate and master's degrees from Harvard University. 

Serving in World War II, Navy Lieutenant Anderson was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for "meritorious achievement against the enemy" on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. While serving, he also won first prize in the 1945 National Theater Conference playwriting contest, topping the 697 scripts submitted by individuals representing all the armed forces. About Anderson's winning play, theater producer and contest judge Arthur Hopkins wrote, "'Come Marching Home' is the one I like best. The author should be encouraged to continue playwriting."

Anderson's most well-known play, Tea and Sympathy, made its Broadway debut in 1953, and was directed by Elia Kazan, who coincidentally, also grew up in New Rochelle. The successful play was made into an MGM film in 1956. Both play and movie starred Deborah Kerr, John Kerr and Leif Erickson. Between 1959 and 1968, Anderson's hit Broadway shows included Silent Night, Lonely Night; You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running; and I Never Sang for My Father.

During the same decade he wrote the screenplays for Until They Sail, The Nun's Story (which received an Oscar nomination), and The Sand Pebbles. His 1970 screen adaptation of I Never Sang for My Father also earned him an Academy nomination. Anderson also wrote scripts for many television dramas, as well as novels.

Married to Phyllis Stohl from 1940 until her untimely death in 1956, Anderson wed actress Teresa Wright three years later (Interestingly, Wright played the wife of Lou Gehrig in the film Pride of the Yankees. Robert Anderson's childhood home was across the street from the Gehrig's New Rochelle home at 9 Meadow Lane). The couple divorced in 1978. Following a seven-year battle with Alzheimer's disease, Anderson died of pneumonia on February 9, 2009 at his New York City home in Manhattan. 

Late-night television host Jay Leno began his show business career as a standup comedian. He performed his comedy routines around the country making as many as 300 appearances a year. Eventually, he procured a spot as guest host of the popular late-night program the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. With Carson's retirement from the show, Leno stepped in as his successor, beating out other contenders including David Letterman. Soon dubbed the "King of Late Night" by the media, Leno's Tonight Show began topping late-night television ratings in 1995 and became a dominant force by the late 1990s. 

Jay Leno

Born James Douglas Muir Leno on April 28, 1950, in New Rochelle, Jay Leno was the son on an Italian-American father and a Scottish mother whom he claims had a "Gracie Allen type of humor."

He grew up in a house still located at 69 Leland Avenue. Leno attended Trinity School before his family moved to Massachusetts in 1959 but his relatives remained in New Rochelle. His uncle, Anthony, started the popular establishment Leno's Clam Bar (AKA "Greasy Nick's") on Pelham Road (although that side of the family pronounces the name "Leeno"). He apparently has always had a heart for comedy. His fifth-grade report card read, "If Jay spent as much time studying as he does trying to be a comedian, he'd be a big star."

Jay Leno is well known for his philanthropy. He won Emmy Awards in 1995 and 2011, and has been nominated numerous times. Leno has been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was inducted into the New Rochelle Walk of Fame in 2013.

These sketches were written by Barbara Davis, City Historian and NRPL Community Relations Coordinator, and Rod Kennedy, founder of the New Rochelle Walk of Fame. 

Woody Woodpecker's Roots in New Rochelle - 120 Years Ago Today

Walter Benjamin Lantz

Walter Benjamin Lantz, animator, producer and director, was born on April 27, 1900 in New Rochelle, New York to Italian immigrant parents. His father, whose surname Lanzas was anglicized to Lantz by a immigration official, was soap maker by trade, but became a butcher when he moved to New Rochelle. The family lived at 169 Washington Avenue.

Lantz was always interested in art, having completed a mail order drawing class at age 12. While working as an auto mechanic, he got his first break when a wealthy customer named Fred Kafka liked his drawings posted on the garage's bulletin board and financed his studies at Art Students League. Kafka also helped him get a job as a copy boy at the New York American. 

In 1927, Lantz moved to Hollywood, where he worked as an independent producer and founded Walter Lantz Productions. His most famous cartoon characters were Andy Panda, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Woody Woodpecker. He is credited with producing the first Technicolor cartoon. 

Woody Woodpecker

It was during Lantz's honeymoon with actress Grace Stafford in 1941 at a lakeside cottage that he found the inspiration for his most famous creation. When the couple heard a woodpecker drilling holes in the shingles of the roof, Grace suggested adapting the bird as a cartoon character. She eventually went on to become the voice of the pesky bird after her husband initially turned her down because Woody was a male character. Undeterred, Grace secretly made an audition tape and submitted it anonymously. Not knowing whose voice was being heard, Lantz picked Grace's voice to do Woody and his raucous laugh. 

Walter Lantz received an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement for his for contributions to the art of animation. His Woody Woodpecker artifacts are part of the collection of the Smithsonian Institution. In 1982, he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2011, Lantz was among the first notables to be inducted into the New Rochelle Walk of Fame. He died on March 22, 1994, at home in California.  

Woody Woodpecker's Hollywood Walk of Fame Star

New Rochelle: Home to Baseball Hall of Famers - Mariano Rivera

Last, but not least in our series of Baseball Hall of Famers with ties to New Rochelle: Mariano Rivera!

"Raised in the Panamanian fishing village of Puerto Caimito - about 15 miles from Panama City - Mariano Rivera began his baseball journey playing with cardboard gloves and tree-branch bats," reads the description on the Baseball Hall of Fame website. A live arm and an athletic body brought him to the attention of the New York Yankees, with whom he signed as an international free agent for $3,000 on Feb. 17, 1990." It continues, "The Yankees won five World Series titles during his 19-season career, advancing to the postseason 17 times. Rivera was named the World Series MVP in 1999 and the ALCS MVP in 2003...In 19 seasons, Rivera posted a record 652 saves with a win-loss mark of 82-60. His career ERA of 2.21 ranks No. 1 among all pitchers who started their careers in the Live Ball Era (post 1919), and his 952 games finished also rank first all time."

In 1995, as a young ballplayer, Rivera became fast friends with Joe Fosina, a pillar of the New Rochelle community and the owner of the company that oversees Yankees' uniforms. Their friendship led to New Rochelle becoming the adopted home of Rivera and his wife, Clara. In 2014, Refugio de Esperanza, "Refuge of Hope," was opened in the former North Avenue Chuch, located next to New Rochelle's Police Headquarters and Courthouse. Clara Rivera is the Senior Pastor of the Pentecostal congregation. The 1901 building underwent a 3 million renovation funded by the Mariano Rivera Foundation.

Rivera was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on July 21, 2019, the first year of eligibility. He was first player ever to be elected unanimously by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. New Rochelle was quick to pay tribute with a "Mariano Rivera Day" on July 27, with festivities that included a special presentation of the Key to the City, a pinstripe parade and a culminating celebration at the Hudson Park Bandshell. "New Rochelle has been my hometown since I came here in '95," Rivera said during an interview before the ceremonies began. "New Rochelle reminds me of my hometown and has been amazing." 

The Riveras have given generously to numerous causes around the world and locally. On May 28, 2015, Mariano donated his time at a book-signing event at NRPL to help the Friends of NRPL raise funds to build their bookstore. When "The Closer" announced his retirement he said, "I would love to be remembered as a player who was always there for others." Rivera has taken those sentiments far beyond the baseball stadium.