History, Natural History & the Arts
The City of New Rochelle, the last home of Thomas Paine, is beginning to undergo something of an economic renaissance. A number of the City’s tremendous historical resources however, remain neglected.
The Thomas Paine Museum on North Avenue — once the centerpiece of an international effort to recognize and promote the importance of Thomas Paine – has been vacant for years and is headed for sale and destruction. [Read more…] about Crisis: Forgetting Thomas Paine in New Rochelle
Shortly before the City of New Rochelle recently became nationally famous (or infamous ) as an epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, a controversy was developing over the threatened destruction of the Thomas Paine Museum Memorial Building on North Avenue. [Read more…] about A Last Chance To Save The Thomas Paine Museum
The Huguenot & New Rochelle Historical Association, the Thomas Paine National Historical Association, and the Thomas Paine Memorial Association have announced the 2022 Thomas Paine Festival, honoring the legacy of one of America’s most iconic founding fathers, has been set for June 16th through 18th in New Rochelle, Westchester County, NY. [Read more…] about Thomas Paine Festival Set For New Rochelle June 16-18
The teaching of anatomy at European medical schools had become standard practice by the middle of the sixteenth century. Instruction included the dissection of a human corpse. Initially, bodies at hand were those of (male) criminals or heretics.
The occasional dissection of a woman, it being a public event, attracted large numbers of spectators by the prospect of the exposure of female organs. A dissection at the time was both education and spectacle. It was attended by professionals, painters, and the curious alike. The cutting up of a body was a celebration of scientific progress. [Read more…] about Body Snatching at New Rochelle: Cobbett & Paine
More than two hundred Civil War veterans and a large crowd of citizens gathered in Little Valley, the county seat, on September 7, 1914, for the dedication of the Cattaraugus County Memorial and Historical Building. A plaque above the entrance stated the structure’s purpose: “To the memory of its soldiers and sailors in the War of the Rebellion, this building is erected by Cattaraugus County.” [Read more…] about An Imperiled Civil War Memorial
In a posting here on November 22, 2015 (“An Imperiled Civil War Memorial”), I related the history to that date of the Cattaraugus County Memorial and Historical Building in Little Valley. More than two hundred Civil War veterans attended the dedication of the Memorial and Historical Building in September 1914. The inscription on a plaque above the entrance defined the Memorial as the county’s most significant Civil War monument: “To the memory of its soldiers and sailors in the War of the Rebellion, this building is erected by Cattaraugus County.” [Read more…] about Historic Preservation Progress At Imperiled Civil War Memorial
The Committee to Save the Thomas Paine Memorial Building has announced a celebration of the building’s designation as a New Rochelle Historical Landmark, set for Sunday, September 6th, at 1:30 pm.
The brief outdoor ceremony will feature community leaders and supporters, Committee members, and Board members of the Huguenot and New Rochelle Historical Association and the Thomas Paine National Historical Association. [Read more…] about New Rochelle’s Thomas Paine Memorial Building Event
Troy has many iconic buildings, each unique for either an architectural, functional or historic reason. The city’s building stock is one of the reasons Troy has become a favorite Capital District destination.
Walking the city’s streets is a visual treat. Within the space of blocks one can see more than 200 years of architecture and history. [Read more…] about The Rice Building: A Celebrated Troy Landmark
Dedicated on July 5, 1912, and located at a prominent site that is steeped in history, the Champlain Memorial Lighthouse serves as a monument to the 1609 voyage on Lake Champlain by French explorer Samuel Champlain.
This Champlain Memorial rises from a small point of land just southeast of the Lake Champlain Bridge. In July 1609, Samuel Champlain was the first European to record seeing this majestic lake which he named for himself.
Late that month, Algonquin, Huron, and Montagnais people in canoes guided Champlain and two fellow Frenchmen southward from the St. Lawrence River region onto Lake Champlain, so that the three Europeans might join the Algonquins in a military engagement against the Algonquin’s Iroquois enemies.
A battle took place (perhaps near the present-day site of the lighthouse), the arquebus firearms used by the three Frenchmen were said to prove decisive, and the Algonquins and French returned northward. [Read more…] about The Champlain Memorial Lighthouse: Some History
Today, the owner of 51 and 53 West 19th Street in the Ladies’ Mile Historic District in New York City will request the Landmarks Preservation Commission for permission to demolish two buildings and to construct a 14-story building in their place. Unfortunately, this is not an April’s Fool joke.
51 and 53 West 19th Street are five-story, residential buildings built in 1854 which were converted to commercial and/or manufacturing use in the 1920s. Such a history is very much in keeping with the Ladies’ Mile Historic District. In fact, the designation report lists “converted dwellings” as a building type in the district along with “residential construction”, “office buildings”, “store and loft buildings”, and “retail stores/department stores.” The report points out that after World War I, the shopping district had moved north and the area’s focus shifted to manufacturing. The 1916 zoning resolution had prohibited the construction of tall buildings on mid-block sites, and so instead the surviving residential buildings were converted. Converted dwellings are obviously a part of the fabric of the district, and these two nicely-designed buildings are good examples of this typology. [Read more…] about Ladies’ Mile Historic District: Plan Will Demolish Buildings