The New York State Board for Historic Preservation has recommended 23 properties and districts to the State and National Registers of Historic Places. The nominations include an octagonal circus house in Cortland County, an intact Catskills mountain lodge in Ulster County, a railroad focused historic district in Clinton County, the legendary Holcombe Rucker Park Basketball Court in New York City, and many more. [Read more…] about 23 Nominations to State and National Registers
Arts
Mabel’s 1908 Diary: Back To School at Syracuse University
Alice Mabel Allen (1886-1976) grew up in the village of Adams in Jefferson County. In 1908, while attending Syracuse University, Mabel, as she was known, kept a diary which New York Almanack is publishing each week. This week she returns to Syracuse to begin her senior year.
Monday, September 14
Packed most of the morning except when I drove with mother to Mrs. Barrett’s after my gray skirt and downstreet to get some gloves. Uncle George came up to dinner and I made tomato soup. Said good-bye to the people which was very hard. [Read more…] about Mabel’s 1908 Diary: Back To School at Syracuse University
Poetry: For the End of Summer
For the End of Summer
Temptation to hold malice
at the taking of summer.
Found such fruit
found so temporary
found true love
found out. [Read more…] about Poetry: For the End of Summer
The New York Museums Report Released
The New York Study of Public and Private Museums has been released. The study was a statewide census of all chartered museums in New York, conducted by Empire State Development, New York State Council on the Arts, New York State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, New York State Department of State, and the New York State Education Department. [Read more…] about The New York Museums Report Released
A New York City Area Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program
The only known program of its kind in the United States, New York Foundation of the Arts‘ Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program provides foreign-born emerging artists with one-on-one career support, community, and exposure for their work. [Read more…] about A New York City Area Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program
Include the Almanack in Your Newsletter – Get A Free Advert
Help build our community! Include the New York Almanack in your organization’s newsletter and get a few advertisement here on the site. The Almanack will be read by at least 1.5 million people over the next year – mostly New Yorkers interested in history and natural history. [Read more…] about Include the Almanack in Your Newsletter – Get A Free Advert
The Creative Milieu of Tin Pan Alley
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a few blocks of Manhattan’s 28th Street housed sheet music publishers, composers, songwriters, and agencies. Nicknamed Tin Pan Alley, it was home to the nation’s music industry.
The playhouse being the main venue of entertainment, Broadway musicals and Union Square vaudeville acts demanded an unceasing supply of songs. A dense concentration of creative talent laid the foundation for the “Great American Songbook,” a canon of songs and jazz compositions that have stood the test of time. [Read more…] about The Creative Milieu of Tin Pan Alley
The Swamp: Tanneries, Bucktails, Loco Focos & Democracy
“The Swamp” was a lowland area in Lower Manhattan centered around Beekman’s Swamp, bounded roughly by modern-day Gold, Frankfort, Pearl, Water, and Ferry streets just south of the Brooklyn Bridge in the Financial District.
In the 17th century the marshy wetland was known by the Dutch as Bestevaer’s Kripplebush. It was later acquired by the Beekman and Roosevelt families and filled and drained over the 18th and early 19th centuries. [Read more…] about The Swamp: Tanneries, Bucktails, Loco Focos & Democracy
State Museum Marking September 11th Attacks 25th Anniversary
The New York State Museum has announced a new photography exhibition, a new display of rarely seen artifacts, and a series of public programs to mark the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
Opening September 5, 2026, “Witness to 9/11” is a new photography exhibition that explores the immediate response and aftermath of the attacks, told primarily through the work of two New York Daily News photographers, Todd Maisel and David Handschuh. [Read more…] about State Museum Marking September 11th Attacks 25th Anniversary
Parade & Festival Celebrating Theodore Roosevelt’s ‘Night Ride”
On Saturday, September 12, the main street of North Creek in Northern Warren County will be transformed by a celebratory parade commemorating the 125th anniversary of Vice President Theodore Roosevelt’s dramatic ascent to the presidency. [Read more…] about Parade & Festival Celebrating Theodore Roosevelt’s ‘Night Ride”
Little Falls Cheese Festival Planned for October 3rd
The Little Falls Cheese Festival has announced Saturday, October 3 as the date for this year’s Cheese Festival. The festival takes place along Main Street from 10 am to 5 pm, featuring New York State cheese-makers, gourmet foods, craft beverages, live music, and plenty of delicious reasons to bring friends and family along. [Read more…] about Little Falls Cheese Festival Planned for October 3rd
The Animal Artists of Woodstock
The Historical Society of Woodstock’s new exhibition, “Rosella Hartman and the Animal Sculptors of Woodstock,” celebrates the life and career of Rosella Hartman (1894-1993), who for almost seventy years made her home in Woodstock, New York.
The exhibition also touches on the work of the Woodstock sculptors Grace Mott Johnson (1882-1967), Hunt Diederich (1884-1953), Carl Walters (1881-1955), John B. Flannagan (1895-1942), and Hartman’s husband Paul Fiene (1899-1949), who joined her as part of a group of twentieth century American artists who were devoted to depicting animal subjects. [Read more…] about The Animal Artists of Woodstock
Fort Drum’s World War II Combat Con Artists
During the final year of World War II, more than 1,000 soldiers, including artists, engineers, radio operators, and sound technicians, used inflatable rubber tanks, fabricated radio transmissions, recorded sound effects, and carefully staged visual illusions to convince enemy forces that large American combat units were stationed where they were not. Many of the troops trained in Northern New York at Fort Drum in Jefferson County, then known as Pine Camp, before deploying to Europe. [Read more…] about Fort Drum’s World War II Combat Con Artists
Seagle Festival Plans 250-Seat Theatre, Year-Round Campus
A planned year-round performing arts center for the southern Adirondacks has advanced a step or two further: the Seagle Festival (formally known as Seagle Music Colony) has been awarded a $1.8 million grant from the New York State Council on the Arts’ Capital Projects Fund. [Read more…] about Seagle Festival Plans 250-Seat Theatre, Year-Round Campus
Rochester’s Clothesline Art & Fine Craft Festival This Weekend
One of the longest-running arts festivals on the East Coast returns to Rochester’s Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) on August 29 and 30, 2026. The 69th Clothesline Art & Fine Craft Festival will welcome thousands of art lovers, families, foodies, and craft enthusiasts, transforming MAG’s grounds into a two-day celebration featuring nearly 400 artists, live music, food trucks, family activities, a signature craft beer, and one-of-a-kind art from across the region. [Read more…] about Rochester’s Clothesline Art & Fine Craft Festival This Weekend
Upstaters: Poets, Pols, Prophets & Bush-League Heroes
Over the last three-plus decades, Bill Kauffman has written about and interviewed upstate New York novelists, politicians, and civic activists who have given the region much of its interest to the author.
Upstaters: Poets, Pols, Prophets and Bush-League Heroes of Upstate New York (SUNY Press, 2026) collects these into a single volume. [Read more…] about Upstaters: Poets, Pols, Prophets & Bush-League Heroes
Mabel Allen’s 1908 Diary: A Picnic at Chaumont
Alice Mabel Allen (1886-1976) grew up in the village of Adams in Jefferson County. In 1908, while attending Syracuse University, Mabel, as she was known, kept a diary which New York Almanack is publishing each week.
Monday, August 24
Ironed the napkins and a white waist which I had washed when I first came down. While Edna [her sister] went in bathing I got the dinner, making corn muffins. In the P.M. Winston Phelps came over to spend a few days with the Dunmores and was over to play croquet with us and Grace Huson. Russell, Della and I got the supper. [Read more…] about Mabel Allen’s 1908 Diary: A Picnic at Chaumont
An Online ‘Oral History’ Archive Documents America Today
In its first year, OurStoryBridge Listens: Present in the Moment has recorded more than 150 oral histories from residents of 23 states and the District of Columbia.
Organizers believe it is the nation’s only digital short-form oral history project dedicated to preserving personal perspectives during the current period of rapid social, political and economic change. [Read more…] about An Online ‘Oral History’ Archive Documents America Today
Pendragon Theatre’s $11 Million New Home
Governor Kathy Hochul recently announced that the Pendragon Theatre in Saranac Lake will receive an additional $750,000 state investment to close the final funding gap for the venue.
Earlier this year, the Governor announced the opening of Pendragon Theatre’s new downtown facility in Saranac Lake, with a value at more than $11 million. [Read more…] about Pendragon Theatre’s $11 Million New Home
An Adirondack Trout Haiku
Vermiculation
a million pathways to bliss
Adirondack trout
The brook trout was initially adopted as New York’s state fish in 1975; it was re-adopted as the official state fresh-water fish on August 16, 2006. [Read more…] about An Adirondack Trout Haiku