-
Phoenixville Phriday: Phoenixville Knits!
•
We know much about the history of iron and steel in Phoenixville – it was the Phoenix Iron Works that gave the borough its name, after all (prior to incorporation in 1849, the village was known as Manavon). But there was also a significant textile industry, including a number of knitting mills, which are…
-
Albany’s Public Bath No. 1
•
Municipal Journal and Engineer from July 1902 featured a thorough overview of Albany’s first public bath, Public Bath No. 1, located at 665 Broadway (smack in the middle of the east side of the block between Orange and Quackenbush), hailing a public bath as a “step in the interest of public morals, clean living…
-
Police Battle Maniac on Smith’s Special
•
In his Nov. 4, 1950 column in the Knickerbocker News, Charles L. Mooney recounted days of long ago – Oct. 21, 1928, to be exact, and in doing so gave us a peek into the working of political campaigns, railroads, police work and the press, back in the days when the Knick Press was…
-
The Albany Country Club
•
The Albany Country Club used to actually be in Albany, for many years, until it was chased out for the purpose of higher education. A Knickerbocker News, November 4, 1950, article noting that the Albany Country Club was celebrating its 60th anniversary says that the Club received its corporate seal in 1890 as the…
-
Phoenixville Phriday: Free rent and cannons
•
A volume called “Chester County and Its People,” by W.W. Thomson in 1898, relates that during the War of the Rebellion, “At Phoenixville David Reeves, president of the Phoenix Iron Works, gave notice that any of his employes [sic] enlisted in the army they should have the houses they lived in, owned by the…
-
From Albany to China – Stewart Dean
•
Howell’s Bi-Centennial History of Albany tells us that in the mid-1700s, there were a number of sloops and schooners trading between Albany, New York and Boston, and sometimes beyond, but that none had ventured to foreign ports. In 1770, Captain Abraham Bloodgood made the first voyage from Albany to the West Indies carrying a…
-
Van Doren’s Patented Sewing Machine Motor
•
This ad from the Troy Daily Times in 1917 touts the patented factory sewing machine motor of E.I. Van Doren of River Street. “Saves one-third of current because motor stops and starts automatically every time sewing machine does.” Imagine! In an article on the same page (not an uncommon practice in those days for…
-
Careers, 1911
•
We now live in a place that still uses an ancient occupation tax, and as a result its list of occupations includes a number of jobs that don’t exist any more, such as IBM Key Punch, Paste-Up Artist, Teletypist and Photolithographer. It also lists a number of jobs that technically may still exist but…
-
Wagar’s Confectionery
•
Thumbing (digitally — although thumbs are digits, too, one supposes) through the 1909 Troy City Directory, we ran across this ad for Wagar’s Confectionery, which sounded vaguely familiar despite its way-backness. Turns out there’s a reason. At this time, the name of D. Lester Sharp was attached to Wagar’s Confectionery, “Manufacturer of Absolutely Pure…
-
Schneider’s Blood Purifier
•
You’re a resident of the Collar City in 1909, and you feel like your blood is just a little . . . impure. Perhaps a dose of Schneider’s Blood Purifier would be just the thing! Made up of sarsaparilla, cherry, dandelion, burdock, mandrake, prickly ash, “&c.,” three tablespoons a day probably couldn’t do much…