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While we’re on lower State Street
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While we’re looking at Barney’s this week, let’s look across the street. Well, if you look there today, you’ll just see a giant hole where the former Robinson’s furniture buildings were. Before Robinson’s, one of the buildings was the Dan A. Donohue men’s clothing chain; the other was Davidson’s. According to the 1888 “The…
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The story of Barney’s
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Howland Swain Barney was born in Greenfield, Saratoga County, March 23, 1822, to Dr. Zadoc and Eliza Swain Barney. (The Swains were among the original nine families of Nantucket.) His parents moved to Minaville, Montgomery County when he was five. He was schooled there and in 1836 came to Schenectady to work in the…
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A remnant of Barney’s
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It’s been more than 40 years since Howland S. Barney’s department store closed. Somehow, however, its sidewalk inset still survives. Sometimes our cities are richer for a little benign neglect, for surely someday soon this artifact will be lost.
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The store that had everything
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Someday soon I’ve got to write about H.S. Barney Co., once Schenectady’s premiere department store. It catered to what was called the carriage trade, the higher end customers. It sold furniture, furs, and everything in between. (Its building still stands.) And apparently it even sold airplane rides, as evidenced by this ad unearthed by…
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The steam ferry comes to Albany
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Until the early 19th century, the only way to cross the Hudson at Albany was by batteau, rope ferry or the newly invented horse ferry. But as Howell notes in his “Bi-Centennial History of Albany,” “In 1827 the subject of procuring a steamboat for the South Ferry began to be agitated.” The horse-ferry lobby…
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One river to cross
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Almost every day of my life, I cross the Hudson River, sometimes several times, sometimes at several points. If I’m feeling devil-may-care, I may throw in a crossing of the Mohawk just for kicks. And if I’m up around Peebles Island, I’m sometimes unsure just what river I’m crossing. Living where we are, we…
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New Year’s Eve: no pernicious discharges allowed
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A gentle and timely reminder from your friends at Hoxsie: Chapter 81 of the Laws of 1785 was passed to restrict your New Year’s Eve celebration options: “Whereas great dangers have arisen, and mischief been done, by the pernicious practice of firing guns, pistols, rockets, squibs, and other fire works on the eve of…
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Danker, the Maiden Lane Florist
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Not many businesses from the 1905 Albany Directory are still around. Danker Florist has been around since 1898. Amazingly, they outlived Maiden Lane, once one of Albany’s most important commercial streets, the gateway to the docks and a hive of commerce for all kinds of goods that came by boat. Now only a short…
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