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The Edison Hotel
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Our recent post on the founding of the Edison Machine Works in Schenectady led to a number of questions about the Edison Hotel, long gone from the downtown scene but once one of the Electric City’s most important public spaces. The site, just east of Erie Boulevard on the north side of State Street,…
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Why Haven’t We Heard of John Kruesi?
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Last time we talked about Col. Robert Furman, who was critical in attracting Edison’s Machine Works to site in Schenectady. Today, his commercial building and his home still stand, and it seems likely enough that Furman street may be named for him. But the man who actually built the works, possibly the most skilled…
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Col. Furman and the Edison Machine Works
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Some of the details of how the Edison Machine Works (now you know it as General Electric – GE) came to be located in Schenectady are lost to time, but it’s very clear that it wouldn’t have happened had it not been for the efforts of Col. Robert Furman, once a real mover and…
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The Science Fiction Writer Next Door: P. Schuyler Miller
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Growing up, my family lived next to a four-unit apartment house in Scotia, one of those places that was oddly transient on a street of homes where people generally lived for decades. There were young couples just starting out, divorcees figuring out their next steps, old people at the end. An interesting mix. And…
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The Klondike Stairs, and the Klondike Ramp
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For almost our entire life, there was an odd remnant of concrete ramp along the hillside in Schenectady, just where I-890’s ramp to Broadway pitched down the hill. It stood until just a few years ago (at least as late as 2012), but had been blocked off by the highway since the 1960s, and…
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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 Ladies Who (Serve) Lunch
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There was a time when every downtown department store had some sort of dining room or lunch counter. The swankier establishments had swankier dining; in some cities they rivaled any of the restaurants as a place for the carriage trade to go for lunch (and catered especially to women). At the other end of…
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Victor Rickard is Fashion Forward
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We recently mentioned Schenectady’s aviation pioneer Victor A. Rickard, who not only managed the airport but gave flying demonstrations and lessons all over the area. But we missed that he was also involved in a fashion first, combining promotion for the nascent Schenectady Airport at Thomas Corners in Glenville with an air express shipment…
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Schenectady’s Premier Aviator, Victor Rickard
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Sometimes we run across a name from local history and have to wonder how it’s possible that the person in question isn’t better known. And then we get vexed by trying to know them better, at the remove of a century or so. Such is the case of Victor Rickard. While Albany had an…