13 March 2021 The Hometown News
Imagine please, stepping back in time, 80 years to the early 1940s during WWII. And imagine, then, just 20 years after women had received the national right to vote, business woman Ella Drollinger went out for a drive to explore a budding new neighborhood close to Mines Field, a dirt landing strip surrounded by bean fields that Frank H. Ayres told her would someday become one of the world’s largest airports. At a time when being a real estate developer was not a usual vocation for a woman, pioneering Ella Drollinger took a chance, purchased the land, and in 1944 funded construction of the first three commercial buildings in Westchester.