Category: Miscellany

Albany’s first Erastus Corning was only mayor for four years, not the 40-odd years his namesake great grandson would serve. He could be forgiven, one supposes, since he was busy founding and running the Albany State Bank, The Rensselaer Iron Works, the Utica and Schenectady Railroad, the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, some other banks…

In 1858, steam was king. In order to make steam, you needed a boiler. To make something move with steam, you needed an engine. John Punshon’s North River Engine and Boiler Works made engines and boilers at 16 and 17 Quay Street, which is one of the streets that sort of still exists but…

From the 1858 Albany City Directory, an interesting advertisement for H.W. Churchill, Wood Engraver. And stove engraver. Creator of views of buildings, animals, fowls (perhaps the original Hoxsie?), and this thing, which appears to be some kind of dog with a beard. Churchill also published a “Guide through the Albany Rural Cemetery,” apparently.

Hoxsie takes a rare step outside the Albany area, but only because he was asked. There’s an effort afoot to get funding to preserve Bannerman’s Castle, one of the most-recognized and least-understood landmarks of the entire Hudson River. If you’ve ever taken the extremely scenic Amtrak ride along the river and wondered why there’s…

Just a quick side note, since our story on the proposed Sheridan Park made mention of the oddly named “Road Street” in Albany. Road Street is, for most of its length, nothing more than a footpath on the map, but one with a history that Paula LeMire dug up a couple of years back. …

Arnold Brunner, in proposing a vast series of improvements to the city of Albany nearly a century ago, took a good look at what had been a wasted hillside leading down to Sheridan Hollow and proposed a grand promontory. “The peculiarity of Sheridan Park, which extends from Dove to Swan Streets and from Elk…

Sunken Garden wasn’t the only vision of Arnold Brunner that didn’t come to fruition. He also presented a plan for Sheridan Park that would almost certainly have transformed Sheridan Hollow. When he drew up these plans in 1914, there was already a Sheridan Park. It’s still there today, a nearly forgotten slab of concrete…

  Amputation saw, with bow frame, similar in design to a hack saw. Has fancy wing nut holding blade in place and scalloping to the furthest pointing side of the frame and smooth ebony handle. Made by Lesueur. Typical of eigthteenth century amputation saw designs. Very similar style of saw to that in the…

Since we’ve been talking about Albany publisher and author Joel Munsell all week, let’s touch on a non-Albany volume he put out in 1858, “The Every Day Book of History and Chronology.” It’s a massive, day-by-day collection of what happened in history on each day of the year. And by “in history,” I mean…

This has nothing whatsoever to do with Albany, Schenectady or Troy history. However, my first two bicycles were Columbia bicycles, and so I was delighted to find this ad for Columbia Safety Bicycles, from the Pope Manufacturing Company of 77 Franklin Street, Boston, Massachusetts, in an 1890 edition of Scribner’s magazine. How fortunate that…