-
Perfect $2.00 Shoemaking – in accord with new ideas!
•
In 1909, Millard of Broadway in Troy boasted of perfect $2.00 shoemaking: “My $2.00 ‘Helen’ Shoes for women are perfection in $2.00 shoemaking. The new styles in both ‘Helen’ boots and oxfords now on my shelves are as near to the most stylish $3.50 shoe models as ingenuity and skill can make them. The…
-
The Livingston Avenue Bridge
•
This article originally appeared at All Over Albany; somehow I never posted it here at Hoxsie. The Livingston Avenue Bridge, the graceful and anachronistic swing bridge that carries trains across the Hudson River at Albany and still swings open to let larger ships reach Troy, has been part of the landscape longer than anyone…
-
Albany, Troy, and the bridge
•
In 1841, the residents of Albany were still hoping for a bridge, and the residents of Troy were still hoping they wouldn’t get it. Troy and Waterford had the only bridges across the Hudson at the time, which were considered a tremendous commercial advantage. In addition, it was certain that a bridge at Albany…
-
Merry Christmas!
•
What would Hoxsie like for Christmas? Perhaps the first commercial Christmas card in the U.S. Printed right here in Albany, of course. Learn about it from All Over Albany. Then read about how the legendary poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas” was first published right here in Troy. Then think about what it would…
-
‘Tis the night before Christmas…
•
…and there’s no better time to remind folks that the legendary poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” penned by Rev. Clement Moore of New York City on Christmas Eve, 1822, was first published right here in Troy, in the pages of the Troy Sentinel. A family friend obtained a copy and passed it to…
-
Numbering streets: Ur doin it wrong
•
Visitors to modern Troy, New York are frequently perplexed by the one-way streets, and by the fact that First through Fourth are streets, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth are avenues, and Seventh has mostly disappeared. Fine. That’s nothing compared to the confusion of olden Troy, say 1895, when Fourth Street ran between Sixth and Eighth.…
-
Map Week: Van Schaick Island and Lansingburgh
•
So, now, where was this map a couple of weeks back when I was writing about the powerful Powers family of Lansingburgh? Here, the family estates are prominently featured on this 1891 Watson map. Today, part of their plot remains as Powers Park. Rensselaer Park, with its horse track, is now a school complex,…
-
Map Week: RPI Hill
•
In 1891, there was a whole lot less RPI than there is today. And more College Pond, apparently. This map shows the western edge of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Eighth Street in Troy, when the venerable technical academy was still neighbored to the north by the Troy Hospital, and to the south by…
-
Map Week: Troy Factories
•
Hoxsie’s busy with storm duty this week. (I suppose if one is into history, one must be into historic storms.) So, it’s Map Week. Look at pretty pictures. These are from an 1891 map by Watson & Co., which made maps with such detail that in the areas out of the cities individual homes…
-
H.B. Nims globes
•
From 1893, an ad showing the offerings of H.B. Nims & Company, in their 43rd year as globe manufacturers. Nims was the successor company of Merriam, Moore & Company, located in the Cannon Building in Troy.