This billhead is from what was then one of Schenectady’s most prominent businesses, G.G. Maxon & Son. They owned a large grain elevator right up against the Erie Canal, and dealt in flour, grain, meal, feed, produce, lime, cement and more. The elevator was right up against the canal at the corner of Pine and Jefferson streets, pretty much where the Grossman’s Bargain Outlet on Erie Boulevard is today. In fact, I have often wondered if part of the building on that site was part of the original Maxon complex. (The naming of Maxon Road, which is now an eastern continuation of Erie Boulevard, might lead one to mistakenly believe the Maxon elevator was further east than it was. Larry Hart wrote that the road was so-named because it connected to Maxon’s “country” estate, well outside the city at where Van Vranken meets Anthony Street today.) Maxon also had a flour and seed store on Wall Street next to the old train station, in a building known as the Maxon Block. In addition to bulk goods, Maxon started the Schenectady Insurance Company, housed in the Maxon Block, and he served as president of the Mohawk National Bank.
George G. Maxon was born in 1818, and died in 1886. His once-fine home at 404 Union Street, not far from the grain elevator, later became Physicians’ Hospital, then Mercy Hospital, and later was home of the Spencer Business Institute. It still stands.
This billhead from 1873, part of The Biggert Collection, depicts the elevator with a canal boat docked alongside.
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