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Marshall and Wendell Pianos
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When we talk about long-standing Albany piano makers, the name of Boardman and Gray comes up the most frequently. But there was another piano maker that lasted for about a century that hardly gets any attention at all, even though to this day their pianos are loved, played and sold – Marshall and Wendell.…
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A Phototypesetting Mystery
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Hoxsie departs from its love of Albany, Schenectady and Troy history for a brief foray into offset printing history – Someone recently reached out to a page I administer for the AM Varityper Phototypesetters, sending along some pictures of something that had been in his house since he bought it ten years ago. And…
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Francis P. Burns, Albany Piano Maker
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As we have mentioned, Albany had a very, very rich history of piano manufacture. There are many little rabbit holes to go down, but a lot of the names are at least a little familiar. So we were surprised to find one we didn’t know, prominently featured in “Pianos and Their Makers – Men…
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Meacham Pianos of Albany
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Someone recently responded to an old article we wrote about all the pianos that were once manufactured in Albany. While the Boardman & Gray pianos are probably the best known of the Albany manufactured instruments, they were asking about pianos by John and Horace Meacham, who started it all around 1829. Pianos had just…
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Patton & Hall
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For at least 64 years, Patton and Hall was a well-known business name in Schenectady and beyond, and even today there is evidence of their success, in faded signs on the building that housed them from the start. Jesse Patton was born in the town of Florida in 1870, and was moved to Amsterdam…
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No More Ragtime in Schenectady!
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What was going on in Schenectady on March 30, 1906? Well, not ragtime! This article from the Amsterdam Evening Recorder tells of Mayor Jacob Winne Clute’s displeasure with street musicians that were proliferating at the time. The headline was “No More Ragtime in Schenectady,” with a subhead of “Mayor Clute Passes on All Itinerant…
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Clute & Reagles: Barrow-maker to the ’49ers
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One of those odd little items that catches the eye caught our eye in going over an article from the Schenectady Gazette in 1948. “Barrows From Here Carried California Gold,” it proclaimed, apropos of pretty much nothing. (Well there were some other stories on local history in the section, but still . . .…
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Upper Nickey’s and Lower Nickey’s
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We were covering some of the ten original historical markers that were initially put up in Glenville through the efforts of its original historian, Percy Van Epps, in 1935. One was for Van Patten’s hotel, also known as “Upper Nickey’s.” The marker read: An Early Hotel Known as “Upper Nickey’s” Built and Kept by…
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That Wasn’t Hoffmans Ferry!
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Just one last mention of Hoffmans Ferry – a story from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Oct. 31, 1894, in which our favorite largely lost community figures at least slightly. The Eagle tells the tale of the history of the Post Office, as it was related by Postmaster Andrew T. Sullivan. Part of the story…
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A Legendary Local Business that Began in Hoffmans
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So we talked about the entirely lost community of Hoffmans, and then then we talked about Hatcher’s greenhouses that used to be there. But there was another business that got its start in Hoffmans, and went on to be one of the Capital District’s legendary enterprises in certain circles. Thanks to Dean Splittgerber, who…