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Sejo Ice Cream
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The Al-Tro park program from 1909 included this ad for Sejo Ice Cream, which made us curious because we’d never heard of it. Perhaps we never heard of it because it was sold only at the ice cream cone stands at Altro Park (it was styled both with and without hyphens; and if you…
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Uncle Sam
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Just in time for Independence Day, Gettysburg Flag Works sent us a note highlighting their recent blog entry with a brief history of ol’ Sam Wilson, who put the “Sam” in “Uncle Sam.” The full entry is here. Gettysburg Flag Works is located in East Greenbush, not too far from the encampment where, during…
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A dust-up among bakers
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Just one of those things that catches the eye: an article from the Sept. 14, 1927 Albany Evening News described a fight between bakers: “Mixing fists and a rolling pin, instead of dough, brought John Novak, thirty-two, 26 Bassett street, a baker employed at the Star bakery, into police court today charged with assault,…
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The Mystery of Ivanhoe Bland
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Happened to be looking through the 1920 Albany City Directory, as one does, and looked up an address where I spent a lot of time over the past couple of decades. I knew that the building currently there had not been there that far back, and that there had been a little neighborhood of…
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Troy, 1836: The Salubrious City
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In 1836, J. Disturnell of New York City published “The Traveller’s Guide through the State of New York, Canada, &c.” The title wound on for a while, as was the fashion at the time. In addition to its description of Albany, the guide had a little bit to say about Troy as well. Troy,…
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Albany 1836: One of the greatest thoroughfares in the union
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In 1836, J. Disturnell of New York City published “The Traveller’s Guide through the State of New York, Canada, &c.” The title wound on for a while, as was the fashion at the time. The guide gave a thorough description of travel up the Hudson, which we may touch on another day, and provided…
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Mrs. Entwistle, Clairvoyant Physician
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In the Troy directory for 1860, we find this listing for Mrs. Mary Entwistle, Clairvoyant Physician. She lived at 611 River Street, and that is all we want to know about her. Jaded readers will be unsurprised to learn that some clairvoyant physicians were subject to malpractice suits. It would be nice to think…
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Where’s my fire bucket?
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So, yesterday we established that if you were a homeowner or landlord in 1800 Albany, you were expected to supply leather buckets in good working order for use in fighting fires, and that the number of buckets you were to supply was essentially N-1, where N was the number of fireplaces in the dwelling.…
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A Law to Prevent Accidents by Fire
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In 1800, the Charter of the City of Albany and the Laws and Ordinances, Ordained and Established the bye Mayor, Aldermen and Commonality of said City were published. First in the section of laws was “A Law to Prevent Accidents by Fire,” which was an elaborate set of rules aimed at preventing one of…
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Outboards Race from Albany to New York City
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From British Pathé, another historic view of Albany’s riverfront, this time from 1931. The title is “Albany to New York — 117 outboards race 136 miles,” but this brief bit of newsreel only shows the first couple of minutes, giving us some fabulous views of both the Albany and Rensselaer riverfronts. On the Albany…