Category: Troy

Another great local postcard from the Boston Public Library, from a past date known only to those who are skilled in car-bonnet-dating. This is from Third Street, looking east up Fulton Street. On the left, you can see a cigar store, the Fanny Farmer store, and a store called Weinberg’s. The lovely buildings in…

At least to me, this trade card for Frear’s “Again Enlarged and Improved Troy Cash Bazaar” seems a bit, well, bizarre. The card, printed by T. Newcomb of New York City and perhaps used by other merchants as well, features a dandy (or is he a fop?) contemplating a sunflower, and the odd bit…

While we’re on the subject of the trade cards of Troy merchants in the 19th century (yes, that is the subject we were on), here’s another one from the Boston Public Library collection on Flickr. This one is from Julius Saul, the clothier of Troy whom we’ve profiled before. It’s safe to assume that…

So yesterday we said we didn’t know much about Hugh McCusker, dealer in carpets, oil cloths and more. But we did run across this cabinet card photo that captures the Troy merchant and his impressive beard. The photograph was taken by Zeph Magill, a photographer who worked in the Keenan Building at Third and…

Hugh McCusker was a dealer in carpets and oil cloths late in the 19th century, with a store at 261 River Street in Troy. His trade cards are still around, as you can see here, but beyond a couple of directory listings, I haven’t learned much about Hugh McCusker. The front of this card…

Troy’s Hendrick Hudson Hotel building dates back to 1926, and has been such a central part of the Collar City’s life ever since that I’ll forgive it for the hollandization of English explorer Henry Hudson’s first name. (Yes, he sailed on a Dutch ship for a Dutch company. His name was still Henry.) With…

Last week we saw what a village post office is supposed to look like. Here we have Troy’s fine example of what a city post office is supposed to look like. It was built in the mid-1930s as a Depression-era construction project and, like other post offices of that era, has the good taste…

Not surprisingly, I don’t write Hoxsie to get rich. I do it because I love the history of our humble little cities that helped create this country. And I do it because by telling those stories, sometimes I really connect with others who love the past as much as I do. Ages ago I…

Not big on reporting what happened on this day in other years, but every now and then it’s fun. So this is what was reported in the Troy Local Budget (sometimes called the Northern Budget) on January 25, 1885, in the “Local Brevities” column. Ice for all. To-day’s length 9 h, 53 m. The…

Don’t really know a thing about H.L. Greywack, the piano dealer with the stony name in Troy. But I do know that someone put a lot of effort into this ad from the Troy Northern Budget in 1885, because arranging all that lead was no small task. Troy’s street numbering has remained fairly consistent…