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The battle of the porch
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Newspaper used as insulation has been able to tell me what no civic records ever could: exactly when my house was built. For the most part, it was put together in 1939, by a family named Lodge that was living in Menands at the time. Mr. Lodge worked for the phone company, and parts…
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Let your vital force flow
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1923: Patent medicines were still going strong, and the practice of chiropractic, often tinged with quackery, claims that nerve pressure prevents the all-important Vital Force from reaching your organs. It has a diagram, so it must be scientific. The Friedman Building, where L.S. Blair practiced in Schenectady, is long since gone. It’s now the…
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Bureaucracy, 1844
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Back in 1844, the Mayor of Albany was Friend Humphrey, a leather merchant whose home in Colonie still exists. The City Council was made up of two aldermen per ward. That much sounds pretty much like government today. But among the city officers were a number of positions that, for better or worse, no…
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What to Wear on the Head
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Apparently in 1894, what to wear on the head was a very important question with ladies, just at present. Frear, of Frear’s Troy Cash Bazaar, was quite willing to enlighten, if only you would pay a visit to his new and popular millinery department. And with every purchase over $5: souvenir spoons! A Google…
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Frear’s Spring and Summer lines, 1894
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Last week we showed off the billhead from Frear’s in Troy, now we’ll take a peek at the catalog for 1894. Here we have two lovely capes. But don’t forget that ladies’ bicycle suits were a specialty!
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Cooking with gas!
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Just imagine what it was to cook in the days before electric or gas stoves. Feeding wood or coal into a stove, cleaning out the ashes, never being able to control the temperature. Gas ranges must have seemed like a miracle. And made that “break-in” period on a new bride that much shorter. …
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Woodward & Hill, Albany’s actual oldest business
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Here’s our final Hoxsie entry from the endlessly fascinating Biggert Collection of Architectural Vignettes on Commercial Stationery, courtesy of Columbia University. This receipt from 1884 features a lovely rendition of their building at Broadway and Hamilton, and details the sale of a dozen salt rollers (?) to a George W. Clark of Salisbury, Connecticut;…
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Frear’s, before it became Bazaar
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Any sharp-eyed fan of the Collar City will recognize the landmark edifice of Frear’s Cash Bazaar, whose lovely marble facade still graces Third Street . . . except of course that this billhead shows the just-as-landmarky Cannon Building in Monument Square. Yes, for a long while, Frear’s was not where Frear’s is. This billhead…
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