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From canal to boulevard
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Imagine giving a weeklong exposition, with parade and fireworks, to celebrate the opening and lighting of a new street.
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James Knight Moves His Tavern
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So many things to stare at on this beautiful map of Rexford and Aqueduct Crossing, from somewhere after 1842 when the original Erie Canal was expanded. The first aqueduct, now too narrow for the new specifications, was replaced by an entirely new aqueduct, and the narrow old lock was replaced by a double-lock, the…
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A Map of Beauty
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We worry sometimes that in this digital age, knowledge of the world as it is is ephemeral. Perhaps this will change and there will be a realization of the need to document what we know and what we think we know in something other than alterable electrons. When our children and grandchildren want to…
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The Markers Speak: Aqueduct
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When the Erie Canal was originally constructed, it didn’t use any of the existing rivers – natural waterways didn’t work well with the need for predictable water levels and mule paths for hauling barges. But the layout of the canal required crossing rivers, and so there were aqueducts. One of them was at a…
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G.G. Maxon
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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…
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Whatcha gonna do when the rent comes round?
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My grandfather once, for a very short time, ran a drive-in restaurant on Aqueduct Road outside of Schenectady. it was right about where the bike path crosses Aqueduct Road, where there is now an auto parts business. His landlord (Ken Williams?) didn’t know how to spell my grandfather’s last name (he wasn’t the only…
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Where the Erie Canal met the Hudson
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Once, it might have been the most important transportation intersection in the United States: the spot where the Erie Canal opened into the Hudson River. Here, barges carrying grain and hundreds of other products from the Great Lakes region had to be lifted from mule-drawn packet boats the plied the canal and moved onto…