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Bill Orzell

Bill Orzell is a retired Geographic Field Analyst and sportsman who resides in De Ruyter, New York. He has had a lifelong appreciation of the economic, political, social and sports history of the Empire State.

Genesee Valley Park & The Barge Canal: Roman Arches Over Indian Rivers

August 2, 2023 by Bill Orzell Leave a Comment

a Real Picture Post Card view of pedestrian bridge spanning the NYS Barge Canal in Genesee Valley Park Rochester, New YorkThe partnership of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux pioneered American landscape architecture. Their work in Manhattan’s Central Park, Brooklyn’s Prospect Park and Boston’s Franklin Park set new standards for outdoor spaces which some Upstate New York cities such as Buffalo sought to emulate, albeit on a reduced scale. [Read more…] about Genesee Valley Park & The Barge Canal: Roman Arches Over Indian Rivers

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Mohawk Valley, Recreation, Western NY Tagged With: Architecture, Barge Canal, boating, Bridges, Calvert Vaux, Engineering History, Frederick Law Olmsted, Genesee River, Genesee Valley Conservancy, Genesee Valley Greenway, Genesee Valley Park, Landscape Architecture, Mohawk River, Monroe County, paddling, Rochester, Transportation History

A Remarkable Saratoga Race Track Souvenir

July 13, 2023 by Bill Orzell 3 Comments

Photogravure reproduction of the William Dowling painting produced by the FA Ringler Company for the Saratoga Association in 1928 (Author’s collection)The New York Racing Association (NYRA) has four “giveaway” days planned for the 2023 Saratoga Racing season, which kicked-off today. This tradition, while the supply lasts, has been a standard at the Spa for decades. This year’s red and white swag includes a cooler jug, a T-shirt, a bucket hat and a tote bag.

Souvenirs date back to the earliest visitors at Saratoga Springs, wanting to return home with a tangible memento of their visit to the Spa, in the foothills of the Adirondacks. The Saratoga Association for the Improvement of the Breed of Horses early on recognized this desire of visitors, and devised of a plan for a valuable keepsake early in the twentieth century. [Read more…] about A Remarkable Saratoga Race Track Souvenir

Filed Under: Arts, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Gambling, Horses, illustrators, Material Culture, NYRA, painting, Saratoga County, Saratoga Race Course, Saratoga Springs, Social History, Sports History, Vice

Edwin Forbes: Civil War Artist & Starting Gate Inventor

June 13, 2023 by Bill Orzell Leave a Comment

Edwin Forbes Civil War sketch considered the earliest-known illustrations of the use of cigar-box fiddle (colorized for Smithsonian Magazine)American artists and illustrators have documented events through the nation’s history, producing a vital visual record of collective experiences. One illustrator, who can still be called upon to look back through time, is Edwin Forbes, who lived in the Long Island village of Flatbush, before it was annexed into Brooklyn, and eventually New York City. He was a noted illustrator of the Civil War and also an inventor of the horse racing starting gate. [Read more…] about Edwin Forbes: Civil War Artist & Starting Gate Inventor

Filed Under: Arts, History, Nature, New York City Tagged With: Brooklyn, Civil War, Coney Island, Flatbush, Horses, illustrators, Journalism, Library of Congress, Long Island, New York City, Newspapers, Spirit of the Times, Sports History

Saratoga’s Grand Union Hotel, the Leland Brothers & A.T. Stewart

February 8, 2023 by Bill Orzell 2 Comments

Congress Street at Broadway intersection with the 77 th Regiment Monument in the foreground and the Grand Union Hotel beyond, from Saratoga: Winter And Summer by Prentiss Ingraham 1885. It may be Paris in April, and Miami or the Riviera in January, but it has always been Saratoga in August. This fostered a necessity to house guests, whether they were seeking the curing waters, or the fickle whims of fortune at the track or faro tables.

Accommodating guests in Saratoga Springs was the fruitful brain-child of the municipal founder Gideon Putnam, who somehow fantastically envisioned a resort community only a scant few years after the the United States shed the bonds of Colonial rule. Putnam’s Tavern and Boarding House, later called Union Hall, and then the Grand Union Hotel, was the well-spring of Saratoga. [Read more…] about Saratoga’s Grand Union Hotel, the Leland Brothers & A.T. Stewart

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, New York City Tagged With: Alexander T. Stewart, Gideon Putnam, Grand Union Hotel, Leland Brothers, Manhattan, New York City, Saratoga County, Saratoga Springs

The Capitol Region’s Race Course: Island Park

November 24, 2022 by Bill Orzell Leave a Comment

Island Park racing notice published in the Troy Daily TimesThe Hudson River in New York’s Capital Region has always been a vital transportation link, and it also provides a conduit to undertakings of the past. The area presently occupied by Interstate-787 and its connectors to NY-378 were constructed on what had been a cluster of islands in the Hudson River, near Menands, between Albany and Watervliet.

Even in the 1820s, the road here became noted for unofficial, and illegal, horse racing. [Read more…] about The Capitol Region’s Race Course: Island Park

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Erastus Corning, Gambling, Historic Racetracks Series, Horses, Hudson River, Menands, Sports History, Vice, Watervliet

Saratoga Race Course’s Grandstand: Some History

August 26, 2022 by Bill Orzell Leave a Comment

Warren-designed clubhouse with 2-story veranda and conical turrets in the foreground,The Saratoga Race Course is instantly recognizable by its iconic roofline and unique treatment. The Gilded Age survives to our time through the turret-spiked, finial capped, slate roof of the grandstand.

The very distinguishable noble crown of racing’s dowager queen places one instantly at the Spa in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains, and announces “Saratoga Springs.” [Read more…] about Saratoga Race Course’s Grandstand: Some History

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Architecture, August Belmont, Gambling, Historic Racetracks Series, Horses, Saratoga County, Saratoga Race Track, Saratoga Springs

Empire City Race Track in Yonkers: Some History

April 17, 2022 by Bill Orzell 1 Comment

Fleetwood Park Morrisania, NY July 9, 1878 courtesy Library of CongressEarly April saw New York State lawmakers adopt the 2022 budget and approve a plan to accelerate the siting of three new full casinos in the metropolitan New York area. This plan will see the casino licenses awarded to those able to cover the $500 million fee and be approved in a selection process.

The obvious first choice for one of the three sites is Aqueduct Race Track in Queens, and another possible location would be Empire City Casino in Yonkers.

Both locations for many years have successfully demonstrated their feasibility by conducting horse sports, and each of the casino facilities are managed by experienced operators, Resorts World at the Big A, and MGM at Empire City. With Aqueduct in the Big Apple so well known, perhaps this is a good opportunity to delve into the origins of Empire City. [Read more…] about Empire City Race Track in Yonkers: Some History

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Aqueduct Racetrack, Gouverneur Morris, Historic Racetracks Series, Horses, New York City, sports, Sports History, The Bronx, Westchester County, Yonkers

Old Man Patterson’s Spring in Saratoga

March 6, 2022 by Bill Orzell Leave a Comment

Postcard view of the Alexander Patterson designed High School which opened in 1884 and wasSaratoga Springs has been gifted with many unique attributes by both nature and the hand of man. The artesian fountains have been an attraction since the dawn of habitation and have endowed the area with an important role in the development of our nation.

It’s admirable that residents and interested visitors combine with a fervent dedication to the history of the community. We have recently witnessed this in the efforts by the Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation to secure a historic residence, designed and built in the nineteenth century by Alexander A. Patterson, at 65 Phila Street in the Spa City. [Read more…] about Old Man Patterson’s Spring in Saratoga

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Architecture, Environmental History, Saratoga County, Saratoga Springs

Saratoga Race Track’s Wilson Chute is Returning; Here’s Some History

January 25, 2022 by Bill Orzell Leave a Comment

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map 1 (May 1954) showing the Saratoga Racing Association grounds (the Wilson Chute is marked with an arrow)The New York Racing Association has recently announced a revised configuration for the historic Saratoga Race Course for the 2022 race meet. A chute, or straight-away will return, allowing for a start directly into the clubhouse turn for races of one mile in distance. Known as the Wilson Chute, it had been a regular feature of the track until 1972, when the area was converted to additional parking.

The Wilson Chute is named in honor of Richard T. Wilson, Jr. who had been the President of the Saratoga Racing Association beginning in 1909. As an executive and an investor, he was integral in saving racing at the Spa and then developing the sport and the racing plant that so many are familiar with today. [Read more…] about Saratoga Race Track’s Wilson Chute is Returning; Here’s Some History

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Gambling, Historic Racetracks Series, history, Horses, NYRA, Saratoga Race Course, Saratoga Springs, Sports History, Vice

The Spirit of the Times: A 19th Century Chronicle of American Sports

January 14, 2022 by Bill Orzell Leave a Comment

Title page of the September 1, 1894 issue of The Spirit of the Times, featuring an illustration by Henry Stull.In the early 1800s it was unusual for Americans to be interested in sporting matters on their own shores. News from Europe was the only sporting news of merit, and publishing an American sporting journal was considered a risky use of capital.

The first attempt along these lines may have been in 1829 Baltimore, where John S. Skinner published a monthly magazine which focused on race horse pedigrees called The American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine. Another early attempt was published in New York by the recognized writer and horseman Cadwallader R. Colden, whose organ was called The New-York Sporting Magazine and Annals of the American and English Turf, first published in 1833.

Among the most notable of the sporting press arrived in 1831, when William T. Porter and James Haw published the first issue of The Spirit of the Times, focusing on horse literature and sporting subjects. They had chosen the name for their broadsheet from a quotation in Shakespeare’s King John, “The spirit of the times shall teach me speed.” [Read more…] about The Spirit of the Times: A 19th Century Chronicle of American Sports

Filed Under: Arts, Capital-Saratoga, History, New York City, Recreation Tagged With: Baseball, Belmont Park, bicycling, Civil War, Cultural History, football, Gambling, Golf History, Horses, Journalism, Manhattan, New York City, Newspapers, Publishing, Saratoga Race Course, Spirit of the Times, sports, Sports History

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