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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…
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Motor Boat Beats Express Train
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Well, that’s the title of this brief film from British Pathé in 1925. The description is “Motorboat beats express train. Over 142 mile run from Albany to New York. Harmon N.Y. the Express changes from steam to electric power, but boat still leads. USA (U.S.A.).” Here we see only 39 seconds, 10 of which…
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More of Albany’s New York State Men
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More biographical sketches of Albany notables from 1910’s “New York State Men: Biographic Studies and Character Portraits.” These are names that fans of Albany history run across from time to time, but may not really recognize. Andrew Sloan Draper – Commissioner of Education, was born at Westford, N.Y., in 1848. he was graduated from…
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New York State Men (from Albany)
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In 1910, editor Frederick Hills put out a tome through the Argus Press titled “New York State Men: Biographic Studies and Character Portraits.” It opens with a slightly pompous foreword by Bishop Doane (“One reads the life story, often, in a face….”) and goes on to list any number of men of accomplishment, those…