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Salamander and Albany Fire Brick Works
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Palmer, Newton & Company’s Salamander and Albany Fire Brick Works provided the specialized brick needed for stove linings, furnaces, and various manufacturing processes. That they were located on Rathbone St. (now no more than an alley footpath, and appropriately named for any one of a number of the stove-building Rathbones) is no surprise; they…
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S.H. Ransom – again with the stoves
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Somewhere along the line one of the partners in the Rathbone family stove business was S.H. Ransom. John Rathbone and Samuel Ransom were only partnered from 1841 until 1844, when they split into separate firms. Ransom made stoves and hollow ware in their foundry on the south end of Broadway. The business remained until…
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Rathbone, Sard & Co. – The Acorn Line
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The first Rathbone in the stove business in Albany, Joel, was highly sucessful; his country estate, Kenwood, later became a Catholic convent and girls’ academy. His nephew John also went into the stove business, and with Grange Sard manufactured the Acorn line of stoves and ranges. Not only can you find their advertising ephemera…
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R.C. Reynolds Furniture
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R.C. Reynolds was once a major furniture store in both Albany and Troy, selling carpets, stoves, upholstery, china, glass, etc. When Mr. I.H. Vrooman of 294 Hamilton St. in Albany picked up 5-1/3 yards of linoleum remnant in 1914, Reynolds had stores at 36-38 N. Pearl Street in Albany and in the landmark McCarthy…
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Pruyn, Vosburgh & Co.
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Another wonderful billhead from The Biggert Collection, this one from 1855 showing the venerable establishment of Pruyn, Vosburgh & Co., No. 39 State Street, importers of hardware. In 1829, John Pruyn, hardware merchant, gave over his business to Lansing Pruyn, Isaac Vosburgh and Abraham Wilson. In his 1866 “History of the County of Albany,…
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Price & Weatherhead
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This billhead from The Biggert Collection is from the first year of operation of Price & Weatherhead, dealers in brandies, wines, cigars, ale and porter. Not to mention family groceries, fine teas, java coffee, oliv oil, foreign pickles, sauces, preserved fruits, and Mumm and Heidsick champagnes. Constantly on hand! According to Howell’s “Bi-Centennial History…
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Letters from Keeler’s
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Yesterday Hoxsie got so wrapped up in Keeler’s story of ice and fire that I didn’t get to focus on the letterhead from the Biggert Collection. This letter on hotel stationery from 1901 sends Friend Hatcher some directions: “I get to write you today to say that I will not be at home until…
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Keeler’s Hotel
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For a long time, Keeler’s was the hotel in Albany, even among other highly respected establishments such as The Kenmore and The Ten Eyck. As Dr. William Henry Johnson wrote in 1900, “Keeler’s Hotel, corner Broadway and Maiden lane, is one of the finest hotels in the State, complete in every particular.” Keeler’s was…
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John G. Myers
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John G. Myers’s dry goods store was one of the long-time anchors of the North Pearl Street shopping district in downtown Albany. The store was founded in 1870 and was rivaled only by Whitney’s. Today it’s probably best remembered for its terrible collapse in 1905, which killed at least 13 people. The store was…
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Gloeckner & Co. Furniture
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Another glorious billhead from the Biggert Collection, this one from B. Gloeckner & Co., Inc., a furniture dealer at 81-83 South Pearl St. in Albany. It would appear that on Feb. 24, 1915, Mr. J.H Vrooman, Jr. of 294 Hamilton Street bought a refrigerator (#942) for the princely sum of $28.00. In 1870, the…