Old School
Riding the trolley -- everywhere
Madison Ave in Albany sometime during the 1940s. Courtesy of The College of Saint Rose Archives.
There's something about trolleys that lights people up -- even though a lot of people weren't even alive the last time a trolley rolled through Albany. It's been almost 70 years since the lines stopped.
We were thinking about trolleys again this week after seeing this photo from the College of St. Rose Archives. It's Madison Ave at Partridge, facing west, sometime in the 1940s, right about the time the trolleys stopped. We love the way the tracks lead away covered by the canopy of trees.
That photo prompted us to dig through some of the history of trolleys in Albany -- which is like looking through some alternate transit universe.
The other Albanies
Okay, we all know we're not the only Albany in the United State. Though we are the oldest Albany in the US, and still the biggest.
And, as it turns out, many of those other Albanies were named in honor of this Albany...
What is the oldest business in Albany?
R.B. Wing and Son once had a claim to the title.
Over at Hoxsie I recently unearthed a 1905 ad for Danker Florist, which is still going strong today. And that led to the question: What might be the oldest business still running in Albany?
There are a few contenders.
The Rotterdam Square Mall cemetery
Rotterdam Square Mall -- where you can pay your respects on the way to Macy's.
Sure, some shopping malls can be compared to graveyards (insert Latham Circle Mall joke here), but one local mall actually contains a graveyard. Brings new meaning to "shop 'til you drop."
Not only is Rotterdam Square Mall the home of Macy's and T.J.Maxx, it's also the final resting place for several members of the Vedder family, Dutch pioneers who had inhabited Schenectady County since the late 1600s.
So how does a mall get built around a graveyard? The story behind the cemetery in the Rotterdam Square mall structure is a gripping tale of drinking water, business interests, human remains, and a 10-year struggle with ticked-off citizens.
Historic floods in Troy
The 1913 flood in Troy.
Flooding from Irene was bad in parts of the Capital Region. Really bad. But in Troy and Albany, the flooding has been worse -- though not by a lot.
The Hudson River reached crested at 27.05 feet at Troy this past Monday afternoon, which ranks as the fourth highest flood on record in the Collar City.
Here's the story behind the worst.
Albany, academic fashion trendsetter
Bright.
Albany didn't really have a full-fledged university until the 1960s -- it missed its chance when the Albany Rural Cemetery board miffed Leland Stanford.
But by that time, the city had already left a lasting mark on American academia: the standardized cap and gown.
The longstanding New York tradition of "investments in legislators"
Among the many paths used to influence in this chamber over history: "the society of young ladies."
Andrew Cuomo and state legislative leaders are expected to officially announce a collection ethics reforms today. In a late Friday press conference about the deal, Cuomo called the proposals "tough and aggressive."
Advocates of legislative ethics reform can take pride in being part of a long tradition. Nothing is new under the sun -- and even less is new in the New York State legislature.
A future in plastics and billiard balls
One word: Plastics.
"There's a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?"
That's what Mr. McGuire said to Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate. That classic movie line was uttered almost exactly a century after John Wesley Hyatt first envisioned a future in plastics -- right here in Albany.
It started with an accident -- and a billiard ball.
The Moses fountain in Washington Park
And thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink.
Anyone in Albany knows the Moses fountain in Washington Park. But few know how this biblical tableau came to be one of the most striking features of the park, or why it is called the King Memorial Fountain.
So, why is this splendid fountain there -- and whom does it memorialize?
What Abner Doubleday isn't famous for -- but actually did do
Tuesday was the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, which prompted a bunch of stories about Abner Doubleday. Yep, the guy who supposedly invented baseball (but didn't).
The Ballston Spa native was second-in-command at Fort Sumter in April, 1861 -- and fired the first Union shot in the war (after a night of bombardment by the Confederacy) [NYS Military Museum]. Wrote Doubleday years later in a memoir:
In aiming the first gun fired against the rebellion I had no feeling of self-reproach, for I fully believed that the contest was inevitable, and was not of our seeking. The United States was called upon not only to defend its sovereignty, but its right to exist as a nation. The only alternative was to submit to a powerful oligarchy who were determined to make freedom forever subordinate to slavery. To me it was simply a contest, politically speaking, as to whether virtue or vice should rule.
The action at Fort Sumter followed an invitation from the Confederate forces, arrayed to pummel the fort with shells, to surrender -- the Union commander very politely declined. The Union troops eventually did surrender. [NYT]
Doubleday would go on to become a major general and fight at the Battle of Gettysburg. He took over command of his corps after its general had been killed, and his outnumbered men held off Confederate forces long enough for backup to arrive. [Saratogian]
After the war, Doubleday was sent to San Francisco to head up recruitment efforts there and was involved with the founding of the city's first cable car company. He was later stationed in Texas before retiring in New Jersey. [Military History About]
The house where Doubleday was born in Ballston Spa is still there. [Saratogian]
About not inventing baseball: John Thorn, baseball's official historian, writes in a new book that the myth of Doubleday being the inventor of baseball was the work of "unprincipled advocates with ulterior motives" -- in Doubleday's case, the sporting goods magnate Albert Spalding. [Baseball America] [TU] [NPR]
An entire library of Albanians
Cuyler Reynolds, Joseph Henry, Henry James
Last week, AOA wrote about Bill Pettit, whose library consists of Moby Dick. Lots of Moby Dick.
A century ago, a prominent Albany institution suggested a slightly broader collection -- an entire library of books written only by Albanians.
The highway that was almost buried under Washington Park
What could go wrong?
Ever wondered why the Dunn Memorial Bridge provides a ramp to thin air? Why the Livingston Avenue exit of I-90 is so overbuilt, and ends so abruptly? Why there are extra tunnels underneath the Empire State Plaza? Or why Corporate Woods has its own highway exit?
They're all vestiges of a highway system that was never built.
The Livingston Avenue Bridge
It's spanned the Hudson a long time. How long? Well...
The Livingston Avenue Bridge, the graceful and anachronistic swing bridge that carries trains across the Hudson River at Albany and still swings open to let larger ships reach Troy, has been part of the landscape longer than anyone now alive. It is often cited as dating to the Civil War.
Like many local legends, that's partly almost true.
Six bits of trivia about the six presidents from New York State
Van Buren, Fillmore, Arthur, Cleveland, TR, FDR
Six US presidents hailed from the Empire State.
Here are six things about them that you probably didn't learn in school...
Why Abraham Lincoln arrived in Albany with "huge whiskers"
Paul Grondahl's story today marking the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's visit to Albany -- especially the part about Lincoln arriving "tired, sunburned, adorned with huge whiskers" -- made us think of a totally charming story involving the great president and New York State.
We were driving on the Thruway south of Buffalo a few months back when we needed to stop for gas, and somehow ended up in Westfield. As far as we can tell, the village is famous for two things: 1) it's the self-proclaimed "grape juice capital of the world" and 2) the following story.
In the fall of 1860, Lincoln received a letter from 11-year-old Grace Bedell of Westfield, urging him to "let your whiskers grow":
... you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husband's to vote for you and then you would be President.
Jump ahead to February 16, 1861. Lincoln is riding a train from Springfield, Illinois to Washington, DC -- and the trip takes him through western New York (and, a few days later, to Albany).
Saints vs. The State for Washington Avenue
The fifth largest cathedral in the US -- if you can see around the State Ed building.
Nestled behind the State Education Building on Washington Avenue is a -- what is that? Is that a church?
Yes. And that sound you hear is William Doane rolling over in his grave.
The Cathedral of All Saints, Albany's Episcopal cathedral, is on a cramped lot behind its massively columned neighbor. The building is quite beautiful, and it seems odd that such a grandiose structure should be tucked away on a side street. Why didn't they get a bigger lot? We're not that pressed for building space here in Albany. What's the cathedral doing back there?
Well, there's a story behind this. And it's a story of lifelong ambitions and bitter feuds, of superlatives and dreams, played out along Albany's Washington Avenue.
Dissected Maps
Made in Troy.
Before he moved to Springfield, Massachusetts to publish the famous dictionary with his brothers, Homer Merriam had a little business in Troy. Merriam, Moore & Co. made globes, maps, and something called a "Dissected Map" -- a type of puzzle that's still popular today.
The Albany Penitentiary
The Albany Penitentiary once stood near what today is the V.A. hospital.
From petty thief to Lincoln assassination conspirator, if you were a criminal in Washington D.C. in the 1860's -- you were going to be sent up the river.
Way up the river. To Albany.
The Albany Penitentiary served for decades as the prison for the District of Columbia.
The world's first television drama
The cast of the world's first television drama, on set in Schenectady.
Here's a little something to think about while you're watching Mad Men on one of the hundreds of channels on your HDTV: The very first television drama was filmed in Schenectady in 1928.
It was a little play called The Queen's Messenger, a British drama with more special effects technicians than there were television sets in the Capital Region.
More on how it was filmed, plus a neat clip that shows how it worked, after the jump.
Elkanah Watson and the paving of State Street
Albany - Pre Watson
Elkanah Watson was a forward thinker. When he came to Albany from Massachusetts as a trader back in 1789 he had some big plans for making his adopted city a better place to live.
But Elkanah Watson learned very quickly that in Albany, no good deed goes unpunished.
Ichabod Crane: the Capital Region connection
Ichabod Crane just sounds scarier than Jesse Merwin.
Washington Irving, perhaps the first great American writer, is still well-remembered in his Hudson Valley haunts. Irving created Rip Van Winkle, the legend of the Headless Horseman and more. His home along the river in Tarrytown, "Sunnyside," is a tourist attraction, and in 1996, North Tarrytown decided to rename itself Sleepy Hollow.
It is said that it was among the old Dutch of Tarrytown that Irving first heard the tale of the ghost of a Hessian soldier who had lost his head to a cannonball during the Revolution. But it was in the Columbia County village of Kinderhook, that Irving found his model for Ichabod Crane, the timid schoolteacher who is frightened off by the headless apparition.
On the origins of apple pie a la mode
It seems obvious. But someone had to do it first.
While skimming through some info for the post earlier this week about the Philly's Apple Pie ice cream at Stewart's, we came across a story about the origin of pie a la mode -- which has a local connection.
The story goes that it was invented (if that's the word) in Washington County in the 1890s (the exact date is unclear) at the Cambridge Hotel by a regular diner there named Charles W. Townsend, who liked to eat his apple pie with vanilla ice cream.
Why Stanford isn't in Albany
Leland Stanford of Watervliet
The University at Albany surely has its fine points, but even its greatest advocates would agree, it's no Stanford.
But it could have been Stanford.
Literally.
Uncle Sam Wilson
This weekend the Collar City celebrates its most famous son -- Uncle Sam -- with its annual Uncle Sam Parade and Festival.
You can't drive through Troy without seeing all kinds of monuments to Uncle Sam: a statue, a bus depot, a bowling alley. (You'd think he was some sort of pork distributing state senator.) And, of course, there's the famous image.
But the inspiration for that image was a businessman and meat distributor who probably didn't look a thing like the famous recruitment poster.
Running on Albany time
The first Dudley Observatory, in north Albany.
In our global civilization, we're accustomed to dealing with time zones and standard definitions -- Greenwich Time, Eastern Time, Daylight Savings Time.
If one plan from before the Civil War had succeeded, the Northeast might have been on Albany Time.
It started in 1851, with the founding of the Dudley Observatory.
Albany bashing has a long history
Was Pearl Street dead back in the day?
The recent item proclaiming Albany to be one of America's 10 dead cities was just the latest in a long tradition of bashing our capital city.
Who knows when Albany-bashing began, but I found evidence of it that dates back to 1789, and is a kind of reminder that in all criticism, you have to consider the source.
The Normanskill's Norman
Delaware Ave above, the Normanskill below.
Around Albany, many of our most familiar place and street names come from notable local figures.
Louis Menand was a noted horticulturist of his time; Daniel Manning published the Albany Argus and became US Secretary of the Treasury. Slingerlands was named for farmer Teunis Slingerland.
So, who was the "Norman" of the Normanskill?
Where Menands got its name
What do exotic flowers have to do with this Albany County village?
If you live in the Capital District, you hear the name Menands on a regular basis. You may live there, drive through the Albany County villiage, or just hear it on the news and in conversation.
So what is a Menand?
Well, the question really is who was Menand?
For the answer, you'd have to look back to the late 1800s, when everyone from well-to-do collectors of exotic flora, to prosperous homeowners with gardens, to cemetery visitors who wanted to pay tribute to a loved one -- would go to Menand's.
Al-Tro Park: the Capital Region getaway in Menands
Al-Tro Park: "Pleasure Island" in Menands.
A century ago, Albanians looking for summertime fun didn't get in the car and drive for hours to a Six Flags or a water-park.
They got on board a trolley car or steamship and headed to Menands to find the finest in 19th-century entertainment.
... said chrisck about The alligator man