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More on Ethelda Bleibtrey
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The Knickerbocker News of July 30, 1952, had an article by Julius J. Heller reminding readers of the important career of championship swimmer and Olympic gold medalist Ethelda Bleibtrey, who was born in and grew up in Waterford. When a slim, 16-year-old [sic: she was 18] girl plunged into the water at Antwerp, Belgium,…
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Waterford’s Own Ethelda Bleibtrey
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I couldn’t count how many times I must have biked past this historical marker in the park at the end of the Troy-Waterford bridge without ever noticing it until a few weeks ago. Maybe a construction detour that forced me onto the sidewalk made the difference. In any event, it was the very first…
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Neat and Intelligent Plumbers
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1900: Horace F. Westcott of 27 Howard St. in Albany. Neat and intelligent plumbers. Up to date! And, apparently, quite dapper. And I’m reminded of this wonderful image that used to hang in the window of Farrell Bros. Plumbing on Delaware Avenue. The plumber protects the health of the nation!
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The Elevated Highway That Would Ruin Albany
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Discussions about the tangle of aerial concrete that serves as downtown Albany’s highway system inevitably center on the blindness of the planners and urban “renewal” advocates who saved our cities by making it much easier to commute to them and much harder to live in them. And so we curse the visionaries of the…
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Viacide?
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Seems like wherever there’s a tall structure, people will end up flinging themselves off of it. The Hawk Street Viaduct was no exception. From the Albany Evening Journal, March 6, 1900: “The body of Harvey M. Hidley, jr., was found on Sheridan avenue under the Hawk street viaduct this morning. “Mrs. John Grogan, who…
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True Crime, 1914 Albany Edition
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Make no mistake, the Albany of a century ago was a tough town. There was murder, drunkenness, and larceny of all kinds. And there was also at least a little rabbit-related crime, as related in this Albany Evening Journal story from April 11, 1914: “Coogan Worried Over an Unexpected Easter Gift “It might be…
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No women flatfoots for Albany, see?
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In the newspaper world, there’s a thing called “burying the lede,” where you gloss over what is actually the most newsworthy part of the story because you’re focused on something else. Well, in my excitement yesterday over the possibility of a Hawk Street Viaduct elevator, I kinda buried the lead on the actual story…
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The Hawk Street Viaduct Elevator
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Every now and then we get on the topic of the Hawk Street Viaduct, the once graceful structure that connected Clinton Avenue to Elk across Sheridan Hollow. But I don’t believe we’ve ever before run across the idea that the viaduct should have had an elevator. The Albany Evening Journal of April 11, 1914…
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The Plan for the Downtown
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So the Temporary State Commission on the Capital City had a whole bunch of recommendations, plans, schemes and dreams, all meant to further the goal of creating a new center of government (then called the South Mall, a little confusing as the word “mall” was then increasingly being applied to those newfangled enclosed shopping…
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The Retail Core Project
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There were many, many recommendations by the Temporary State Commission on the Capital City back in early 1963. On their face, they mostly made sense, and if they had all come together in concert with the development of the Empire State Plaza, it really might have been a wondrous thing. But very few of…