Having grown up in Schenectady and Scotia, I’ve always had an incredible fondness for the New York State historical markers that dot our landscape. In just a few words, they remind us that something came before us, and that the history of this area is significant. One of my favorite books when I was young was called “The Markers Speak,” which explained the story behind the markers in Schenectady. So for the next week or two, let’s just take a look at historical markers from around the area – some no doubt familiar, some obscure.
We start with a simple one, right in front of Schenectady’s City Hall:
Schenectady
Settled by the Dutch in 1661
Under Arendt Van Curler
Borough in 1765
City chartered 1798
County seat 1809
On the north side of City Hall is another marker commemorating the original location of Ellis Hospital: “Ellis Hospital / Built 1893 on this site, / Replacing 1885 dispensary. / It became City Hall Annex / In 1906 as hospital moved / to Nott Street location.” Ellis Hospital was originally the Schenectady Dispensary, opened in a two-story building at 408 Union Street in 1885. The immediate cause of its opening, according to a 1992 article in the Daily Gazette, appears to have been concern over the death of a canal worker, Patrick “Paddy” Ryan, whose leg was crushed between a barge and the canal bank, and who had to endure amputation in a local hotel room. When Charles G. Ellis, president of the American Locomotive Company, died in 1890, he bequeathed $25,000 in the name of his father John (also a president of ALCO) to create a new, better hospital, which opened in 1893 on the site where City Hall now stands.