I love this sign at the entrance to Schenectady at the Western Gateway Bridge. Love it so much. Because where else will you find a metal silhouette of a massacre? The sign itself should be a national landmark. It says, “Welcome to our city! People were once brutally murdered here!” The only thing this sign lacks is the apocryphal snowmen guarding the gates of the Stockade.
There were originally two other signs around town, one depicting a stagecoach, the other I believe depicting the first railroad. They disappeared fairly early on, and it is thought they were just scrapped. Can you imagine?
The lettering portion of the sign was actually remade when the sign was moved, at the opening of the new Western Gateway Bridge, around 1973. Unfortunately, it was recently redone again, not restored, and I can’t say I like the way it looks.
Here’s the short version of the story of the Schenectady Massacre.