History, Natural History & the Arts
Human presence in the Adirondacks, including Warren County, dates back thousands of years. The rugged peaks, valleys, and lakes of the Adirondacks were the hunting grounds for several Native American people, notably the Mohicans, Mohawk, and the Abenaki.
The Haudenosaunee arrived in the region around 1,200 to 4,000 years ago. Both the Mohawk and Oneidas claimed the Adirondacks as part of their territory. [Read more…] about Some Early History of Glens Falls
Wesley Bintz was a Civil Engineer who received his training at the University of Michigan, earning a BCE in 1916 and MS in 1918. He moved on to municipal work in Flint, Michigan with two pools made of reinforced concrete, and funded by municipal bonds, which he designed as their City Engineer and completed in 1920.
Bintz subsequently accepted an Engineering position with the City of Lansing, Michigan whose citizens also desired an ovoid swimming pool, and saw their aspiration fulfilled with another a Bintz designed 80 x 120 foot pool constructed during 1922-23. Other communities saw the need for such facilities, which caused Bintz to patent his design, and specialize in his own swimming pool enterprise. Many Blintz pools were built in New York State. [Read more…] about New York Historic Pools Designed by Wesley Bintz
A ruling by the New York State Supreme Court has cleared the way to demolish Albany‘s Central Warehouse, a historic refrigerated warehouse in the city’s North Albany railroad district, according to a report from WAMC.
The 11-story building was built in 1927 by the New York Central Railroad and includes a two track spur entering the second floor; the walls are three-foot-thick concrete. The refrigeration systems used potentially toxic ammonia. [Read more…] about Albany’s Central Warehouse Demolition OK’d: Once A Modern Cold Storage Facility
The construction and development of the Delaware and Hudson Canal led to the creation of one of the Hudson Valley’s greatest manufacturing industries in the 19th century — that of the famous Rosendale cement. For a time considered the best cement manufactured in this country it and at the turn of the 20th century was the source of half of America’s production of natural cement.
Ulster County cement was used in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge; the Croton Aqueduct, which supplied New York City with water; the dry-dock of the Brooklyn Navy Yard; hundreds of New York City’s largest buildings; and the principal construction projects of the Hudson River Railroad among many other places. [Read more…] about The Natural Cement Industry of Ulster County
One of the notable things about the history Victory Mills factory building destroyed by fire on Saturday was it’s early use of reinforced concrete construction.
Although the precedents for concrete construction go back to the Roman era, it did not find true favor as a building material until the nineteenth century. Experimentation in both America and Europe allowed builders to acquire sufficient practical experience with concrete to assure its general acceptance. [Read more…] about Victory Mills: Destroyed Factory Building Noted For Early Concrete Construction
Icy stoops and sidewalks are part of the winter experience in New York’s urban communities. Historic masonry stoops are predominantly built of brownstone or limestone with mortar joints.
Over time, many of these stoops have been resurfaced with tinted cement mixtures. All of these masonry materials are porous and tend to be damaged by repeated use of deicing products. Keeping your stoop less slippery while not causing undue damage to your historic masonry means using deicing products and salts thoughtfully. [Read more…] about Protecting Your Historic Masonry From Winter
After World War II, the taste for rustic architecture that defined the interwar period of New York’s state park design began to wane. This also happened across the National Park Service system, which fully embraced modern architecture in the mid-1950s. [Read more…] about New York’s Postwar State Park Architecture
From 1890 to 1910, public works departments and private contractors collectively paved thousands of miles of new cement sidewalks in US cities. The new sidewalks, mostly cement-bound concrete, dramatically changed walking for city pedestrians across the country.
Previously, walking around towns involved far more puddles, dust, mud, and lumpy surfaces. Impermeable cement regulated water and dirt while creating smooth surfaces. [Read more…] about Cement Sidewalks & Urban Cultures, 1890-1930
State Police are seeking the public’s assistance in locating a 2016 Mack Concrete Pumper Truck, allegedly stolen from a job site located at 1547 State Route 9, Schroon Lake, NY, in the town of Schroon, Essex County. [Read more…] about Search Underway For Concrete Pumper Truck Reported Stolen in the Adirondacks
Altona Flat Rock is a large area of discontinuous bare sandstone pine barrens that stretches along the Champlain Valley into Quebec. Gazing at the rock formations, visitors to the area can easily imagine the long-forgotten retreat of glacial ice from the Champlain Valley. The area is home to the rare ecosystem of jack pine barrens.
Locals recall wildfires on Altona Flat Rock with anxiety, but the jack pines require fire. The heat of fire opens the pitched covered cones allowing the barren to reproduce. Fire on Altona Flat Rock is a curse and a blessing. [Read more…] about Altona Flat Rock: Fires, Berries and Concrete
A new policy brief from the Rockefeller Institute of Government examines a policy initiative to promote low-carbon concrete in the Village of Hastings-on-Hudson and highlights the role state and local policy can play in reducing carbon dioxide emissions from concrete. [Read more…] about Low Carbon Concrete Promotes Sustainable Construction
In fiction, poetry or song, houses are treated as living organisms. They are noble, respectable, or infamous. There are houses of high rank and those of low repute – houses have human characteristics and their individual biographies.
The Isokon Building in Hampstead tells a striking tale of recent historical events. At the time of completion, it was one of the few modernist dwellings in London’s cityscape; the block of flats housed a number of notable refugees from Nazi Germany; almost simultaneously it served as a recruitment office for Soviet spies. Crucial aspects of post-war American cultural and political developments originated in a few flats in this leafy corner of North West London. [Read more…] about Concrete, Plywood and Soviet Spies
The Mohawk River has been used as a transportation corridor since the beginning of human settlement. Indigenous people used the river to move east and west, as did the first European explorers and those who followed. The river was shallow and relatively slow flowing. Along the 120-miles between Rome and the Hudson river, there are two waterfalls. The largest of the two is near the eastern end of the river, where the water flows over a 90-foot high falls at Cohoes. At Little Falls the river flows over a series of rapids that are 45-feet in height. [Read more…] about Mohawk River Bridge Dams: Engineering Landmarks
When I began my term as Orange County Historian, Ted Sly was kind enough to go over some of his most memorable moments in the post.
On one occasion around 2010, he explained, he met with members of the Paul Rudolph Foundation and toured them through the Government Center where they encountered hecklers, one of which shouted out from the office, “Tear it down! Tear it down!”
It wasn’t my first inkling of the animosity that has persisted in the community regarding the Orange County Government Center since it was dedicated in 1970 but I appreciated his warning. [Read more…] about Brutalist Architecture Still Controversial After 50 Years
Grain Dust Dreams (SUNY Press, 2015) tells the story of terminal grain elevators – concrete colossi that stand in the middle of a deep river of grain that they lift, sort, and send on.
From their invention in Buffalo through a present-day operation in Thunder Bay, Ontario, David W. Tarbet examines the difficulties and dangers of working in a grain elevator – showing how they operate and describing the effects that the grain trade has on the lives of individuals and cities. [Read more…] about Grain Dust Dreams: A Short History Of Grain Elevators
As the United States entered World War I, it was thought that the Nation’s transportation facilities were not up to the task of mobilizing and supplying large quantities of materials and men to the east coast for shipment to the war front.
What took place over the next three years was an experiment in the nationalization of the railroads, and to a much smaller extent, the waterways.
In 1917 New York State found itself with a rather big problem. After fourteen years of planning, engineering and construction, the new Barge Canal was almost ready for use. Although terminal space was still being built, plans were to have the entire canal channel and locks ready for use in the spring of 1918. However, there were few boats available for use on the canal, for a number of reasons: [Read more…] about The NYS Barge Canal During World War I
The New York Times’s Op-Docs and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) have debuted an immersive, interactive multimedia series on urban highrise living. The series, “A Short History of the Highrise,” had its world premiere at the New York Film Festival and launches today on NYTimes.com.
The series unfolds in four short, interactive films that viewers can navigate using touch commands like swipe, pinch, pull and tap. On desktop and laptop computers, users can mouse over features and click to navigate. Smartphone users can view the four films via the New York Times Mobile Web site. [Read more…] about A Short History of the Highrise: Innovative Short Films
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