In the 1858 Albany City Directory, McClures of one form or another are all over the Albany drug trade. And by drugs, we also mean paints, oils, varnishes, alcohol, camphene, “burning fluid,” etc. Whether these likely adjacent businesses on State Street were friendly extensions of a family business or warring offshoots of a family…

1858. No doubt, there was no need to explain to the audience of the day exactly what made steam scouring in the New York style. (Or perhaps it was the fancy dying that was done in the manner of Gotham.) It was certainly a different time if New York prices were considered an advantage.…

There’s much more of a story to tell about the Ten Eyck than I can fit in this week. Unlike many fire-proof hotels in these parts, it appears to never have burned. It was one of Albany’s grand hotels, designed by architect H. Neill Wilson, who also built the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge…

The People’s Line ran steamboats up and down the Hudson from Albany to New York and back every day (except Sundays, at least as late as 1862, when this ad ran in the Schenectady directory). The Isaac Newton, built in 1846,  was noted as the first ship on the Hudson to use gas for…

I’ve previously lamented the loss of the word “apothecary.” Here’s another one, S.T. & A.M. Smith Apothecaries, which sold both drugs and medicines. They had all the finest patent medicines of the day, not least of which were Dr. F.G. Johnson’s French Female Pills (I’m guess non-French females used them as well). Aromatic coated…

I would love to have seen some of the creations of Theodore Yauman, artist in hair jewelry. In 1858 he was at 580 Broadway, opposite the Delavan House, one of the leading hotels of the day.

In 1858, John Rodgers continued to manufacture with increased facility, at his old establishment, steam and fire engines, pumps, boilers, heaters, and machinery in general. And tobacco cutting engines, presses, and stem rollers. And he did iron turning and planing. Lumber Street is now Livingston Avenue, replaced by the railroad line that crosses the…