History, Natural History & the Arts
Before East Line Road marked the boundary between the town line between Ballston and Malta, it marked a community. Today, only a roadside sign hints at what once stood at the crossroads of Route 67 and East Line Road:
“East Line. An early community ca. 1780. ME Church built in 1809. Nearby was a hotel, a tavern, and by 1837 an RR stop.” [Read more…] about East Line Hamlet: A Forgotten Crossroads
Throughout Saratoga County’s long history, many religious and spiritual communities have called our home their home, with the land even being sacred to some. This article will highlight the founding of several of Saratoga County’s religious communities through the 19th century, with a focus on Saratoga Springs.
Today, diverse people of faith have joined those long-established denominations to call Saratoga home, including Jewish communities, several Indigenous Cultural Revival Movements, and a Mosque, Masjid Al-Arqam in Halfmoon. All of them play important roles in the Saratoga Community. [Read more…] about Early Saratoga County Religious Communities: Some History
The Church of the Mediator is a conspicuous and distinguished building that rises to the top in any list of un-landmarked buildings of New York City.
When it was consecrated in 1927, Episcopal Bishop William Thomas Manning called it “the cathedral of the Bronx.” The church is now at imminent risk of demolition. [Read more…] about Church of the Mediator in The Bronx Threatened with Demolition
Situated behind Albany’s neo-gothic Cathedral of All Saints (the central church of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany and the seat of the Episcopal Bishop of Albany) is the similarly styled Guild House.
Built in 1902 as an immigrant settlement house and school, it has fallen into disrepair over the years and now is in dire need of rehabilitation to bring it back to its former glory – and return it to providing space for much-needed social services. [Read more…] about Preservationists Hope To Revive Albany Settlement House ‘Guild Hall’
The latest episode of the Lake George Battlefield Moments podcast features the first of a two-part interview with French & Indian War historian George A. Bray III as he discusses Lord George Augustus Viscount Howe’s service in the Lake George-Lake Champlain region before his untimely death in the Battle of Carillon (1758).
Lord Howe was the eldest of the three brothers who played important leadership roles for the British during the transformative 18th Century conflicts in North America. [Read more…] about Lord Howe: ‘The Soul of General Abercromby’s Army’
Moses Smith was a lifelong Democrat who lived in Hyde Park, in Dutchess County, New York, which at the time was a Republican bastion.
Smith was a tenant of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, living on a farm owned by FDR called Woodlawns. According to Smith’s son Clifford, the home got its name because of all the trees on its spacious lawns. [Read more…] about Moses Smith and FDR: A Friendship
Researching and sharing the stories of remarkable people is rewarding with the recognition that it often takes a book to be truthful and fair to the many interesting journeys their lives took. Such a remarkable person is Jehudi Ashman, a Clinton County, NY man instrumental in the development of the African nation of Liberia. [Read more…] about The Extraordinary Life of Jehudi Ashmun (1794–1828)
What follows are excerpts from Carter G. Woodson’s The History of The Negro Church (1921) which illuminate the early development of the organized Black churches in what is now New York State before about 1800. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) was a prominent black leader and intellectual of the first half of the twentieth century. Born in Virginia in 1875 to formerly enslaved parents, he was educated at Berea College in Kentucky, the University of Chicago, and finally, Harvard, where he earned his Ph.D. in History. Woodson championed awareness of black historical experience by teaching and initiating the first Black History Week, which became the basis for the later Black History Month. He was a tireless writer also who published many volumes during his life, including his classic The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933). [Read more…] about The Black Church in New York: Excerpts from Carter G. Woodson
Lieutenant-Colonel George Monro (1700–1757), sometimes spelled Munro, was a Scots-Irish officer in the British Army best remembered for his unsuccessful defense of Fort William Henry at thee south end of Lake George on August 9, 1757, during the French and Indian War. [Read more…] about Lt. Col. George Munro: The Last Commander of Fort William Henry
The following article was written by Emma Louise Trapper and published in the Brooklyn Standard-Union on August 21, 1891. It was transcribed by Hudson River Maritime Museum volunteer researcher George A. Thompson and additionally edited and annotated by John Warren.
She was a small-featured woman, with very light blue eyes and her fair skin bronzed by the water. We were sitting on the roof of the cabin of her husband’s canal boat, at the foot of Coenties Slip [an artificial inlet in the East River that was filled-in during 1835]. [Read more…] about The Hard Lot of Canal Boat Women
At the northwest corner of Route 67 and Eastline Road sits a sprawling development of high-rise buildings full of apartments, a complex created within the last six years. But what was there previously was an important part of the Eastline community in the towns of Ballston and Malta in Saratoga County, NY. [Read more…] about A Saratoga County Development Built Over Children’s Graves
During the War of 1812, the Plattsburgh Cantonment was established in Clinton County, NY. A garrison for American armies it was briefly abandoned by the U.S. Army after World War Two, before being acquired and expanded by the U.S. Air Force in 1953 which operated the facility, now known as the “Old Base” until 1995. The Plattsburgh Memorial Chapel is described by many as the most beautiful building on the Old Base. [Read more…] about The Plattsburgh Old Base’s Memorial Chapel: Some History
William O. Stillman was born on September 9th, 1856 in Normansville, now known as Elsmere in the town of the Bethlehem, Albany County, NY. His parents were Rev. Stephen Lewis Stillman and Lucretia (Miller) Stillman.
Rev. Stephen Lewis Stillman was a Methodist minister at the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Adamsville (now Delmar) and a descendant of a family that had emigrated from London, England. Lucretia (Miller) Stillman was of Dutch descent. Rev. Stephen suddenly died in 1869, when William was 12 years old. After his father’s death, William and his mother moved to Albany. [Read more…] about William O. Stillman: Leader of Humane Societies, Friend of Animals & Children
Christ Church Episcopal in Duanesburg, Schenectady County, NY, was founded in 1793 and considered the oldest active and unaltered Episcopal Church in New York State, if not also in the United States.
[Read more…] about Christ Church Duanesburg Restoration Project Update
The New York State Board for Historic Preservation has recommended adding 11 properties to the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
The nominations include a twentieth-century piano player factory in Syracuse, a rare nineteenth-century stone general store in Millville, a historic cemetery in the Town of East Hampton and a historic district in Lansingburgh. [Read more…] about 11 Nominations for State and National Registers of Historic Places
The 1609 voyage by Henry Hudson up the river that bears his name caused the Dutch to claim the adjacent land. In 1621 these lands, the home of the Mohawk and Mohican people, were granted to the Dutch West India Company. The company established the Patroon System to attract settlers. A Patroon was given a large tract of land to sponsor settlers to colonize their land.
In 1629 the new Patroon, Killaen Van Rensselaer, was granted land to create the Manor of Rensselaerswyck in exchange for helping settle the land with Europeans. It incorporated most of the area in Albany, Rensselaer, Greene, and Columbia counties. Fort Orange (later the city of Albany), became the center of the Dutch fur trade. [Read more…] about Berne’s West Mountain Methodist Episcopal Church: Some History
Christmas is a time for great celebration, but 1849 was a year of a very special celebration for the new members of the congregation of Calvary Episcopal Church in Burnt Hills, Saratoga County, NY.
December 25, 1849 was the first time they were all able to meet together in their own church building, a carpenter gothic style edifice which had just been constructed at a cost of $2,500 The building was located right in the heart of Burnt Hills and situated on Lakehill Road, a street that in later years was renowned for its overarching trees that formed a canopy above the street. [Read more…] about 1849 Christmas In Burnt Hills’ New Gothic Church
On the Morning of St. Patrick’s Day, 1837, Troy’s Irish immigrants woke to an annual indignation – mocking effigies hung around the city. Boys spent the morning parading one along River Street. A lone brave Irishman attempted to pull it down but was turned away by its defenders. He left the scene, returned with members of the Hibernian Society, and together they moved a second time toward the offending stuffed figure.
“Stones were thrown and the wildest disorder prevailed” at the intersection of Ferry and River streets in the heart of the city. The Irish were outnumbered, and during this short melee several men were injured, John Foster seriously. As word of the fight spread, rumors an Irishman had made an unprovoked attack on an American brought hundreds to the corner. “The crowd began to assume a fearful aspect,” one observer reported, “stones were flying in every direction.” [Read more…] about Troy’s Anti-Irish St Patrick’s Day Riot of 1837
Theologically, I identify as an ecumenical pot luck supper observer.
So, this historic pun caught my fancy.
“The all-absorbing question agitating the public mind at Sandy Hill is: ‘If a Roman Catholic roasts an Episcopalian’s turkey in a Methodist oven, what denomination will the turkey be?’” The Morning Star of Glens Falls asked on January 12th, 1884. “All the sages have given it up.” [Read more…] about Pot-Luck Suppers Of Yesteryear
Bethesda Episcopal Church in Saratoga Springs, established in 1830, has published A History of Bethesda Episcopal Church: Worship and Healing in Saratoga Springs, New York. [Read more…] about A New History of Bethesda Episcopal in Saratoga
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