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Amsdell Brothers Brewery
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Back when Albany Ale was king, Amsdell Brothers were a major brewer and distributor. Their brewery stretched from 135 to 145 Jay Street, in a time when hyphenating addresses was apparently not in vogue. “The Empire State: Its Industries and Wealth” explains that: “An opinion once prevailed among certain classes of the community, that…
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The rural school nurse
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In 1916, Schenectady County schools were dissatisfied with the use of physicians to give students medical inspections: “cards were filled out and filed and nothing further was done; no attempt was made to correct defects discovered and no emphasis placed upon healthful habits of living, diet and sanitation.” So they appointed Miss Mildred B.…
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Sturgess Governor Engineering Company
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John Sturgess was a British citizen working in Troy who developed a series of innovative hydraulic water wheel governors, devices that regulated the speed with which hydropower dynamos turned. Trust us, it’s important. Here is his 1907 patent diagram for one of the devices. “The principal objects of the invention, when used to control…
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Mrs. Hattie Stufflebeam
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Hoxsie interrupts the pursuit of interesting facts about local history to present what it believes is the greatest name ever to appear in the Troy city directory: Mrs. Hattie Stufflebeam. I don’t know anything more about her other than that she was a stitcher, likely in one of the collar factories, in 1916. And…
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State Street Methodist Episcopal Church
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We ran across this lovely drawing of Troy’s State Street Methodist Episcopal Church; for once we can report a building has hardly changed since it was opened in 1871. Still, it’s one of Troy’s lesser-noticed grand edifices, perhaps because from the street it’s almost entirely obscured by trees. This beauty was built of blue…
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The tomb that oil cans built
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Ran across this lovely tomb in Troy’s historic Oakwood Cemetery a few weeks back. It’s a monument to Elmer Strope, and it seemed to me that someone with a monument this grand ought to be better known to me. Usually there’s a town or a street or a park or something that you can…
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Don’t see much of that anymore
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You know what you don’t see much of anymore? Packers of pork, and makers of churns. In 1863 Albany, these were not exceptional businesses. Joe Cary and his boys were packing the pork down on Broadway, while Sam Harris was churning out tubs, pails, and, well, churns up on Washington Avenue.
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Colvin’s portable canvas boat
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The “Maria Theresa” made by Troy’s Waters & Sons isn’t the only Capital District boat somewhere deep in the Smithsonian’s collection. Famed Adirondack surveyor Verplanck Colvin, whose adventures measuring the wilderness certainly called for a lightweight method of travel, patented a portable canvas boat that was, like the Maria Theresa, displayed by the Smithsonian…
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