Author: Carl Johnson

  • Patton & Hall

    Patton & Hall

    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…

  • No More Ragtime in Schenectady!

    No More Ragtime in Schenectady!

    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…

  • Clute & Reagles: Barrow-maker to the ’49ers

    Clute & Reagles: Barrow-maker to the ’49ers

    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 . . .…

  • Upper Nickey’s and Lower Nickey’s

    Upper Nickey’s and Lower Nickey’s

    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…

  • That Wasn’t Hoffmans Ferry!

    That Wasn’t Hoffmans Ferry!

    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…

  • A Legendary Local Business that Began in Hoffmans

    A Legendary Local Business that Began in Hoffmans

    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…

  • Hatcher’s Greenhouses at Hoffmans

    Hatcher’s Greenhouses at Hoffmans

    Last time, we talked about the completely lost hamlet of Hoffmans, née Hoffmans Ferry, née Vedders Ferry, and wondered at all the life and business it once held, where now there is barely a trace. One of those businesses was a complete surprise to us – we had no idea that a fairly major…

  • The Lost World of Hoffmans Ferry

    The Lost World of Hoffmans Ferry

    We posted this marker for Hoffmans on our Instagram account (@signsandmarkers) a little while back. Hoffmans is one of those places that, during our lifetime, always used to be a place, a name from history that probably couldn’t have been identified as anything, not even a hamlet, were it not for this historical marker.…

  • Sacandaga Road and the Battle of Beukendaal

    Sacandaga Road and the Battle of Beukendaal

    Where else do you get a triple threat, two NYS Education Department historical markers and a monumental plaque, and with it the story of an ambush and a corpse tethered to a crow? The first: SACANDAGA ROAD CUT THROUGH THE PRIMITIVE FOREST BY EARLY SETTLERS, ALONG AN INDIAN TRAIL LEADING TO THE SACANDAGA REGION…

  • Wolf Hollow

    Wolf Hollow

    Another of the historical markers placed in Glenville in 1935 through the efforts of Percy Van Epps, town and county historian for something like 25 years. This one was for Wolf Hollow, “A rent and displacement of 1,000 feet in earth’s surface rocks. Here in 1669 the Mohawks ambushed their Algonquin invaders.” As we…