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
Erie County
30-Foot Yacht Sinks in Buffalo’s Black Rock Canal
On August 22, NYS Environmental Conservation Officer (ECO) Damrath responded to reports of a 30-foot yacht nearly submerged in front of a gas dock in the Black Rock Canal in Buffalo, NY. Officer Damrath responded to the location, observed the nearly sunken vessel leaking gasoline, and immediately contacted the U.S. Coast Guard. [Read more…] about 30-Foot Yacht Sinks in Buffalo’s Black Rock Canal
With ‘Operation Rotten Apple’ Upstate Police Round-Ups Surge
Federal authorities arrested 2,197 people across New York last month during what they have derisively named “Operation Rotten Apple,” the highest monthly immigration arrest total since the Trump administration’s round-ups began in New York State. [Read more…] about With ‘Operation Rotten Apple’ Upstate Police Round-Ups Surge
Rapping with the Dead: New York’s Spiritualist Fox Sisters
The first indication that the Fox Sisters had spiritualist talents occurred on the evening of March 31, 1848 when 11-year-old Kate and 14-year-old Maggie Fox claimed they heard knocking sounds coming from the east bedroom of their parents’ rented farmhouse in Hydesville, Wayne County, NY, about 30 miles east of Rochester.
The next night, the young ladies revealed this strange knocking spirit to their mother and older sister, Leah. The family’s excitement about communicating beyond the grave took no note that the inaugural demonstration had been staged on April first. [Read more…] about Rapping with the Dead: New York’s Spiritualist Fox Sisters
Buffalo’s Hispanic Roberto Clemente League
Buffalo‘s Puerto Rican Roberto Clemente League was founded in the 1970s to create a Hispanic baseball league and included the Leones (Lions), the Boricuas (Puerto Ricans), and the Caribes (Piranhas).
The league grew throughout the 1980s, eventually including many other teams and creating a women’s softball team. [Read more…] about Buffalo’s Hispanic Roberto Clemente League
Niagara’s Manhattan Project Legacy Haunting Homeowners
Elevated radiation levels have been detected in the yards of over 120 homes in Niagara County, NY. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has been conducting the first radiological survey of the area since 1984 and at least four families have fled their homes.
Governor Kathy Hochul has called on the EPA to step up testing and accelerate distribution of resources to those affected [Read more…] about Niagara’s Manhattan Project Legacy Haunting Homeowners
A New York State 19-Century Baseball All-Star Team
Major League Baseball’s annual all-star game (taking place Tuesday in Philly) invariably fosters debates. Who’s the more worthy first-baseman, Vladimer Guerrero Jr. or Ben Rice? Should Aaron Judge be on the roster if he hasn’t played in over a month? Why is Cody Bellinger starting in the outfield over Randy Arozarena?
Baseball fans love arguing these sort of questions every year as the midsummer classic approaches. They lead naturally to questions about who was the greatest of all time. Babe Ruth? Ted Williams? Barry Bonds?
I don’t have the answers, but I would like to recognize a class of players who are often overlooked in these debates: the nineteenth-century greats. [Read more…] about A New York State 19-Century Baseball All-Star Team
16 Socialists Poised for State Legislature, Most in New York State History
At least seven Democratic Socialist candidates have won primary elections for the New York Legislature in districts considered safe in November. The primary sweep included multiple victories over incumbent Democrats and in competitive open seats.
Not only will it more than double the socialist contingent in the state house to 16 across both chambers, it will mark the largest socialist contingent in the state legislature in New York history. [Read more…] about 16 Socialists Poised for State Legislature, Most in New York State History
Chauncey Olcott: Saratoga & A Song In His Heart
Chauncey Olcott (1858-1932) celebrated his 71st birthday with a legion of friends at his home in Saratoga Springs, Inniscarra, on July 21st, 1931. Greetings arrived by mail, telephone and telegram. Less than a year later Chauncey passed away leaving his wife Rita with a house full of memories and mementos that told the story of his life.
Rita’s book Song in his Heart: The Story of Chauncey Olcott’s Life was published in 1939. In 1947 the biography was adopted as the film My Wild Irish Rose. [Read more…] about Chauncey Olcott: Saratoga & A Song In His Heart
19 NY Places Recommended for State and National Registers
The Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) has announced recommendations by the New York State Board for Historic Preservation to add 19 properties and districts to the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
The nominations include a nineteenth-century church in Jefferson County that developed and promoted Universalism in Upstate New York, a pre-Revolutionary War house owned by seven generations of the Hulse family on Long Island’s North Shore, and additional documentation for New York City’s Hotel Chelsea recognizing its significance as a center of LGBTQ cultural and creative life. [Read more…] about 19 NY Places Recommended for State and National Registers
Recently Upgraded Public Water Access Sites
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has expanded and enhanced several fishing and paddling access sites across the state, including those with universally accessible features.
Check out the list below for your next adventure: [Read more…] about Recently Upgraded Public Water Access Sites
The Man Buffalo Forgot: Harry Altman’s Lost Entertainment Empire
History is often kindest to people who leave something permanent behind — a building, a business, a name etched onto a marquee. Their legacy remains visible. But those who built careers around live entertainment worked in a far more fleeting medium. The worlds they created existed in sound, light, energy, and memory, disappearing almost as quickly as they arrived.
Harry Altman (1890-1966) was one of those people: a once-prominent Buffalo nightclub owner and entertainment promoter whose name has largely faded from New York’s cultural memory, despite decades spent shaping the nightlife of Western New York. [Read more…] about The Man Buffalo Forgot: Harry Altman’s Lost Entertainment Empire
Four New Yorkers Being Inducted into Abolition Hall of Fame
The institution of race-based slavery in what is now New York dates to 1627 when 22 enslaved Africans were brought to New Amsterdam (now New York City) by the Dutch West Indies Company. From that day forward some Americans opposed slavery and sought its abolition.
The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum in Madison County, NY, has announced four abolitionists will be inducted this fall: Black Americans William Wells Brown and Samuel Ringgold Ward, and also William and John Jay II – descendants of American Patriot John Jay. [Read more…] about Four New Yorkers Being Inducted into Abolition Hall of Fame
George Morton Wolfe: A Wide-Ranging Buffalo Architect
George Morton Wolfe (1885-1966) was a prolific Buffalo, NY architect who specialized in commercial and industrial architecture. Born in 1886 in Middletown, Connecticut, Wolfe spent two years at Hartford Technical High School in Hartford, Connecticut, before settling in Buffalo in 1903.
In the first stage of his career, Wolfe worked as a draftsman in the contracting business of S.H. Woodruff. In 1908, he started his own architectural and engineering practice specializing in “factory, warehouse, and commercial building construction in their many forms.” [Read more…] about George Morton Wolfe: A Wide-Ranging Buffalo Architect
Seth Concklin: A Daring, Dedicated New York Abolitionist
Many New Yorkers before the Civil War contributed to the abolition of slavery, and the dangerous work of helping enslaved African-Americans flee their captors. Take Calvin Fairbank, a New York Methodist pastor born 1816, who spent 17 years in prison for his missions to help enslaved people escape.
Seth Concklin, a New Yorker whose name and sacrifice were more familiar in the 19th century, died tragically in 1851 while trying to help a mother and her three children escape from slavery. [Read more…] about Seth Concklin: A Daring, Dedicated New York Abolitionist
Recent Wildlife Rescues Around New York State
New York State Environmental Conservation Officers (ECOs) made several wildlife rescues recently including a Red-Tailed Hawk on Long Island, two rabbits in Erie County, and an Red-Necked Grebe in Columbia County. [Read more…] about Recent Wildlife Rescues Around New York State
25 Properties Recommended to State, National Registers
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) have announced recommendations by the New York State Board for Historic Preservation to add 25 properties and districts to the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
The nominations include an intact 1905 metal casting foundry complex in Hudson, an 1873 house that reflects Syracuse’s layered history of immigration, urban renewal, and grassroots historic preservation, a cohesive group of Colonial Revival apartment buildings in Kenmore built during the 1920s and 1930s suburban housing boom, and an amendment to the 1971 nomination for Revolutionary-era Senate House in Kingston to include its 1920s commemorative museum annex. [Read more…] about 25 Properties Recommended to State, National Registers
Philistine Elbert Hubbard, Roycroft, and the Arts & Crafts Movement
The principles of beauty and artistic taste and its appreciation in nature and art are very personal, yet aesthetics can often be shared. During the nineteenth century the industrial revolution, first in Europe and later North America, left a dearth of creative aesthetics among inhabitants. Many felt the impersonal civilization, where industrialization forced movement from agrarian societies to urban social life, stripped creativity and aesthetic expression.
Like the industrial revolution itself, what would become an international trend originated in England and would be spread to British colonies and former colonies of the Empire, with origins in the 1850s. This was an arts and crafts movement, spurred on by those with both a grasp of mechanical design and a gift for expressing themselves in writing and lecture, such as John Ruskin, Thomas Carlyle and William Morris. Art of pre-industrial times, produced by the skills of craftsmen, were championed and embraced by the movement. [Read more…] about Philistine Elbert Hubbard, Roycroft, and the Arts & Crafts Movement
New York Historic Pools Designed by Wesley Bintz
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
Mary Jemison: ‘The White Woman of the Genesee’
Consider the story of Mary Jemison. She was born in 1743 aboard a ship as her Scots-Irish family journeyed from Dublin, Ireland, to Pennsylvania. They settled on the frontier just north of Gettysburg. She and her five siblings enjoyed a happy childhood on the “little paradise” of the family farm.
One April morning, when Mary was fifteen, a party of six Shawnee and four French warriors attacked their isolated home. Her two older brothers escaped, but the raiders captured the rest of the family. They forced the prisoners to march westward. After two days, Mary was given a pair of moccasins to replace her shoes. [Read more…] about Mary Jemison: ‘The White Woman of the Genesee’