History, Natural History & the Arts
With over 500 miles of shoreline, the fireboats of the FDNY have protected the city of New York for the last century and a half.
Utilizing historic images, David Rocco showcases their fascinating evolution from wooden-hull tugboats to modern-day specialized watercraft in Fireboats of the FDNY (Arcadia Press, 2026). [Read more…] about A NYC Fire Department Fireboats History
Air quality is “unhealthy” in much of New York as massive plumes of smoke from wildfires in Canada drift across the region causing a visible haze, reduced visibility, and a smell of smoke.
All New Yorkers should limit time spent outside and keep windows and doors closed to prevent smoke from entering your home. [Read more…] about New York Air Unhealthy Amid Extreme Heat, Canadian Wildfires
In 2010, The New York Times Magazine called Bushwick, Brooklyn “the coolest place on the planet,” four years later Vogue Magazine named it the “7th coolest neighborhood in the world.”
Whether or not you agree, there is no denying the transformations the neighborhood has gone through since the 1600s, when the Dutch named it Boswijck, or “heavy woods.” [Read more…] about Burning Bushwick & The 1977 New York City Blackout
“Ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning!” That legendary and apocryphal phrase, allegedly uttered by announcers during the 1977 World Series as flames rose above Yankee Stadium, seemed to encapsulate an entire era in this nation’s urban history.
Across that decade, a wave of arson coursed through American cities, destroying entire neighborhoods home to poor communities of color. [Read more…] about Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and Remaking the Bronx
The following text is from an article printed in the New York Daily Herald of August 19, 1848.
The Albany papers are filled with accounts of the disastrous conflagration which took place in that city on the 17th inst. We are indebted to Capt. Gorham of the steamboat Hendrik Hudson, for Albany papers, delivered at an early hour on Friday afternoon. [Read more…] about 1848 Great Albany Fire Kills 10, Burns Fleet of Schooners & Canal Boats
The United States Patent Commission was created on April 10, 1790, to establish a formal method for submitting and indexing patents. Its first three members were Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of War Henry Knox, and Attorney General Edmund Randolph.
As only three people made up the early patent office, the first applications were not closely examined. An inventor simply submitted a written description, a working model, and a $30 fee (equivalent to about $1,000 today). [Read more…] about Early Saratoga County Inventors & The Patent Office Fire
On December 10, 1813, two New Yorkers raged at each other in the entryway of Joseph McCarthy’s store on Queen Street in the Upper Canada village of Newark, known today as Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.
Soldiers held back a crowd as the ranking officer in charge of the American troops occupying nearby Fort George, Brigadier-General George McClure (1771-1851) cursed a Buffalo physician and militia captain, the forty-four-year-old Dr. Cyrenius Chapin (1769-1838). Both were part of the New York State militia assigned by the United States regular army to occupy Canada’s Fort George. [Read more…] about The Burning of Buffalo during the War of 1812
Any enthusiast of Sherlock Holmes knows the fictional British detective frequently employed a magnifying glass to examine evidence when battling crime. Today, the optical device is a standard item found in most American households.
Moreover, in 1957, an unidentified member of the archaeology team digging at the 200-year-old Fort William Henry accidentally started a fire with a misplaced magnifying glass. [Read more…] about 1957: Old Fort William Henry Timber Catches Fire from Magnifying Glass
The historic former Victory Mills factory building in the village of Victory near Schuylerville in Saratoga County was destroyed in a massive fire on Saturday. Multiple fire departments responded to the scene which was fully engulfed in flames around 2:30 pm.
It took more than three hours to get the blaze under control. The 230,000 square foot, five-story former mill at 42 Gates Avenue was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. [Read more…] about Historic Victory Mills Destroyed by Fire: Some History
It was a very calm night. No wind was blowing and the ground was free of ice and snow and the moon was shining brightly. It was a beautiful winter’s night, with no hint of tragedy. Communicants of the First Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church were meeting for special entertainments.
At Music Hall on Park Avenue, a dance was in progress. In the basement of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, a few yards north of School One, members of the Mechanicville Retail Grocers’ Association were just sitting down to their banquet. The calendar said February 17, 1919 and the clock in the basement said 7:45 pm. Forty-five minutes before, the School One clock had sounded seven. [Read more…] about Mechanicville’s 1919 School Fire
What follows is a letter to the New York Sun by John H. Hubbel from November 12, 1917.
To the Editor of the Sun — Sir: I have been reading the letters of the Mary Powell [built in 1861 and operated 55 years] and other boats on the Hudson River. I was born in Hudson, [Columbia County], NY in 1836, the son of Henry Hubbel of Hubbel, Clark & Co., owners of the steamer Fairfield. Later they bought a boat by the name of Columbia. She ran for a number of years and they bought the Oregon, which was sunk by the steamboat City of Boston [in 1863]. [Read more…] about 19th Century Steamboat Memories From An Old Boatman
It was Saturday night, August 12, 1911, and 300 people attending the weekly dance at the Sagamore Hotel in the Town of Bolton on Lake George were startled to see a huge fire to the west. The C. E. Ingraham building on Stewart Avenue was ablaze.
As the town’s volunteer fire department confronted the inferno, some hotel guests went by automobile and on foot to lend a hand. Leading them from the Sagamore was retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Winfield Scott Schley, a co-founder of the National Geographic Society. [Read more…] about The Night A Rear Admiral & Nat Geo Co-Founder Battled A Lake George Fire
Local historian W. Bronson Taylor once observed that the three essentials of the early pioneers of western Saratoga County were “a grist mill, a sawmill, and whiskey still.” While there is little mention of stills, Taylor’s point about the mills is borne out in historical records time and time again.
In the town of Charlton, one of these early mills was built by William Dawson on the Crabb Kill, not far above where it enters the Alplaus Kill. Brought into operation as early as 1785, mills would run on this property for the next 120 years. [Read more…] about Dawson’s: The Alplaus Kill’s Last Mill
A new book, The Firehouses of Albany, by Albany City Historian and Director of Albany Firefighters Museum Tony Opalka, showcases images, maps, rich history, and anecdotes surrounding the historic firehouse of Albany, NY. [Read more…] about The Firehouses of Albany Highlights A Rich Firefighting History
It was a typical mid-September day at Lake George, New York. Much like a Georgia O’Keeffe painting, the surrounding hillsides were aglow in goldenrod, apricot, and crimson colors.
A few hours later on September 17, 1967, the evening skies over Fort William Henry were again awash in pastel hues. Bright flashes of yellow and orange lit up the head of the lake as the replica wooden fortification burned. It was the second time in 210 years that Fort William Henry had been deliberately put to the torch. [Read more…] about The Night Fort William Henry Burned A Second Time
After President Franklin Delano Roosevelt lost the use of his legs, his son Eliott wrote that his father had a fear of fire. He regularly practiced escaping from their family home, Springwood, in Hyde Park, Dutchess County, NY, in the event that there would be a fire.
During these drills, Roosevelt would crawl on the floor, pulling himself, pretending there was a fire to escape. [Read more…] about The Day FDR’s Hyde Park Mansion Caught Fire
Brush fires have been much in the news of late, and those familiar with Sullivan County history have been moved to recall massively destructive wildfires from years gone by, including the May, 1884 blaze that wiped out thousands of acres, including most of the hamlet of Gilman’s in the town of Forestburgh. [Read more…] about One Of Sullivan County’s Most Destructive Fires
As unusually warm and dry fall weather pushes the Fire Danger to HIGH across the entire state, new real-time weather data tool to help inform New Yorkers when there is an increased risk of wildfires has been announced. The new system’s most recent map shows much of the State’s Fire Danger Rating is now VERY HIGH and EXTREME.
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and New York State Mesonet at the University at Albany researchers are utilizing data from the University at Albany’s statewide weather network to generate daily Fire Danger Ratings to offer more reliable wildfire information and improve public safety.
[Read more…] about Fire Danger Reaches Extreme as State Rolls Out New Fire Danger System
When we think about the American Revolution, textbooks, documentaries, and historic sites have trained most of us to think about American triumphs in battles or events when American revolutionaries overcame moments of despair, when all seemed lost, to triumph in the cause of American independence. [Read more…] about Instruments of War: The Great New York Fire of 1776
Augsburg is spectacular city in Bavaria with a rich history in finance and culture. It was home to the Fugger family of bankers who rose to become a global powerhouse of capitalism in the space of just three generations. Wealth was translated into cultural splendor. [Read more…] about Fake News: Augsburg, New York City & The American Revolution
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