• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar

New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

  • Email
  • RSS
  • Adirondacks & NNY
  • Capital-Saratoga
  • Mohawk Valley
  • Hudson Valley & Catskills
  • NYC & Long Island
  • Western NY
  • History
  • Nature & Environment
  • Arts & Culture
  • Outdoor Recreation
  • Food & Farms
  • Subscribe
  • Support
  • Submit
  • About
  • New Books
  • Events
  • Podcasts

Albany-Hudson Electric Trail Exhibit & Lecture in Hudson

April 18, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Albany-Hudson Railway trolleys dropping passengers off at "Electric Park" amusement park on Kinderhook Lake at Niverville courtesy Nassau Free LibraryThe Hudson Area Library, in partnership with Columbia Friends of the Electric Trail, have announced an exhibit on the interpretative panels along the Electric Trail in Columbia and Rensselaer counties, set to open on Saturday, May 7th. The exhibition runs through June 30th.

An opening reception will be held from 3 to 5 pm in the Community Room of the library, and will feature an introduction by Matt Kierstead, who provided the documentation and interpretive services for the Electric Trail panels, to the history and conversion of this train line.

As part of the Library’s local history series, Kierstead will return on Thursday, May 26th, from 6 to 7:30 pm to discuss this project in more detail in his talk “Trolleys, Trails and Tales: Interpreting the Empire State Trail’s Albany-Hudson Electric Trail.” This program will be held in person at the Community Room of the library.

The May 26th illustrated talk will look at the corporate, social, and technological history of the “Albany-Hudson Fast Line” electrified high-speed interurban railway in Columbia and Rensselaer counties. It also tells the story of Hudson River Valley Greenway’s conversion of the surviving trolley line right-of-way into the Empire State Trail’s “Albany-Hudson Electric Trail” segment. Finally, Kierstead will discuss the process of developing the trailside interpretive signage that explains the history of the railway, the communities it passed through, and historical features visible from the trail to the trail’s users.

In addition to the interpretative panels, this exhibition also features images from Larry Gobrecht’s collection on the Electric Park in Kinderhook. The Electric Park was an attraction on Kinderhook Lake that was along the trolley line that ran from Albany to Hudson from 1901 to 1920. Gobrecht retired as historian in the Recreation and Historic preservation office of the New York State Office of Parks and currently serves on the board of the Friends of Taconic State Park. The Gobrecht family has generously donated the rights to the digital images of this unique collection for use by the library.

Matt Kierstead is owner/proprietor of Milestone Heritage Consulting, a Hudson Valley business providing documentation and interpretation services for historic engineering, industrial, and transportation resources for clients including government agencies, private developers, and the heritage tourism industry. His focus areas include the history and technology of bridges, mining and quarrying, metallurgy, mineral processing, power generation, canal and rail transportation, and public utilities.

Kierstead has completed over three hundred projects throughout the northeastern United States including historical resource surveys, National Register of Historic Places determinations of eligibility and nominations, Historic American Buildings Survey/Engineering Record (HABS/HAER) and state-level documentations, Superfund site cleanup consultation, and public history interpretation projects.

The Hudson Area Library is located at 51 North Fifth Street in Hudson. For more information visit their website or call (518) 828-1792.

Photo of Albany-Hudson Railway trolleys dropping passengers off at “Electric Park” amusement park on Kinderhook Lake at Niverville courtesy Nassau Free Library.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Filed Under: Events, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Columbia Friends of the Electric Trail, Electric Trail, Hudson Area Library

Please Support The New York Almanack

About Editorial Staff

Stories written under the Editorial Staff byline are drawn from press releases and other notices. Submit your news to New York Almanack here.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Help Support The Almanack

Subscribe to New York Almanack

Subscribe! Follow the New York Almanack each day via E-mail, RSS, Twitter or Facebook updates.

Recent Comments

  • Sue on Baron von Steuben’s Oneida County Estate
  • Editorial Staff on ‘I Hope You Are of Our Party’: Fidelity and Benedict Arnold’s Betrayal
  • Christina Kelly on ‘I Hope You Are of Our Party’: Fidelity and Benedict Arnold’s Betrayal
  • Eleanor wall on Debar Pond Lodge: History & Controversy
  • Eleanor wall on Debar Pond Lodge: History & Controversy
  • bob buchanan on Bath Fish Hatchery: Home to Wild Finger Lakes Strain Rainbow Trout
  • Bob Meyer on Debar Pond Lodge: History & Controversy
  • Brian O'Connor on The Canal Era in the Finger Lakes
  • Elye Grossman on Catskills Resort History: The Beginning of the End
  • Elye Grossman on Catskills Resort History: The Beginning of the End

Recent New York Books

Marty Glickman The Life of an American Jewish Sports Legend
Vermont for Vermonters
Flee North Thomas Smallwood Early Underground Railroad
Making Long Island
The Witch of New York
styles brook book lorraine duvall
James Wilson: The Anxious Founder
Flatiron Legacy National Football League History NFL
Henry David Thoreau Thinking Disobediently

Secondary Sidebar