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Biden Visit: Here's Last Time Sitting President Stopped By Irvington

President Joe Biden's impending visit to a village in Westchester is set to make history. It will be the first time a sitting president has visited that municipality in over half a century.

Presidents Joe Biden (left) and Richard Nixon (right). 

Presidents Joe Biden (left) and Richard Nixon (right). 

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons via Department of Defense, Adam Schultz

Biden will arrive in the county on Thursday afternoon, April 25, when he is scheduled to appear at a fundraising event in the village of Irvington-on-Hudson hosted by actors Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. 

According to Irvington Mayor Jon Siegel, a sitting president's appearance in the village is rare and has not happened since October 23, 1972, when President Richard Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon traveled through Westchester.

On that day, the pair briefly stopped at the corner of Main Street and Broadway in Irvington. 

According to the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, during Nixon's visit, he rode in a motorcade with Gov. Nelson Rockefeller through these areas:

  • White Plains at Main Street and Mamaroneck Avenue;
  • Mamaroneck on Boston Post Road;
  • Larchmont on Boston Post Road;
  • New Rochelle at the New Rochelle City Hall on North Avenue;
  • Eastchester, where they participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Eastchester War Memorial;
  • Tuckahoe, where they received the Key to the City from then-Mayor Robert D'Agostino;
  • Yonkers at Getty Square;
  • Hastings-on-Hudson, where they greeted a crowd at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall on Warburton Avenue;
  • Dobbs Ferry on Main Street between Elm and Cedar Streets;
  • Tarrytown on North Broadway between Neperan and Mildy Streets.

The motorcade ended at the Rockefeller family's Kykuit estate in Sleepy Hollow, where an event with guests was held.

Biden's visit on Thursday is expected to impact traffic during rush hour. 

Motorists are advised to avoid traveling in the area beginning at 2 p.m. and continuing through rush hour, Siegel said.

Major thoroughfares are expected to close, and secondary roads are expected to bear the impact of these traffic blockages. Several school districts in the area have announced early dismissals to account for traffic impacts.

President Barack Obama visited neighboring Tarrytown on May 14, 2014, and spoke before a crowd at the Washington Irving Boat Club.

Biden has made two previous trips to Westchester during his presidency, giving speeches at Westchester Community College in Valhalla last year and at Sarah Lawrence College near the Yonkers-Bronxville border before the 2022 elections.

He will be arriving in Westchester after a stop in Syracuse.

After the fundraiser in Irvington, he will take the Marine One helicopter to Manhattan, where he will stay overnight.

Check back to Daily Voice for updates on Biden's visit. 

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