Fires

William Fox Helped Create Modern NYS Forest Rangers

March 26, 2020 by John Warren Leave a Comment

William F. Fox was born in 1840 in Ballston Spa, Saratoga County, and graduated from Union College in Schenectady in 1860. He served in the Civil War as Captain, Major and then Lieutenant Colonel in the 107th New York Volunteers and later wrote a number of books on both the Civil War and forestry.

Fox’s 1902 History of the Lumber Industry in the State of New York, written under the auspicious of Gifford Pinchot, is considered among the first authoritative works on the logging industry in New York. [Read more…] about William Fox Helped Create Modern NYS Forest Rangers

Fire Damages Palisades Park Commission Building, Archives

January 2, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

A substantial fire has closed the 1920s Palisades Interstate Park New Jersey Park Headquarters building in Alpine, N.J., across the Hudson River from Yonkers. No one was hurt in the blaze, but one Park Commissioner has said some of the Commission’s on-site records have been destroyed. The building was significantly damaged.

“All the historic things in the building are lost forever – the chief’s records and the records are gone,” Palisades Park Commissioner Sophie Haymann said, standing outside the smoldering 100-year old building. The Commission’s archival holdings are a largely untapped Hudson Valley treasure, but most are stored off-site. [Read more…] about Fire Damages Palisades Park Commission Building, Archives

Sagamore Hill Fire Findings Released By Park Service

November 12, 2019 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The National Park Service (NPS) has released findings and a follow-up corrective action plan for the December 2018 visitor center fire at Sagamore Hill National Historic Site in Oyster Bay, NY. The loss of the visitor center impacted the staff and operations at the park, as the building housed many aspects of park operations including staff, historic house tour ticket sales and a bookstore.

The NPS investigation into the cause of the fire was inconclusive, however they concluded that there did not appear to be any indications that it was intentionally caused. Several accidental causes of the fire were considered, including furnace malfunction, original equipment installation issues and storage practices. The report says the building had a monitored fire detection and alarm system and portable fire extinguishers and Park leadership and staff followed applicable NPS structural fire policies. [Read more…] about Sagamore Hill Fire Findings Released By Park Service

A Short History of Club Camp on Big Moose Lake

October 24, 2019 by Roy Crego 4 Comments

The Club Camp is often mentioned as the first permanent structure built on Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks. The word permanent is rather ironic because this hunting and fishing establishment had a relatively short history of just 28 years. Today the camp’s origins, visitors, and sad end seem largely forgotten.

According to Joseph F. Grady’s The Adirondacks: Fulton Chain-Big Moose Region (1933), the Club Camp was constructed in 1878 at the request of several sportsmen from New York City who had been spending summers on the lake in previous years.

At the time, Big Moose, near Old Forge, NY, was difficult to reach — the railroad would not arrive in the area until 1892. Before 1878, only lean-tos or shanties were available on Big Moose, notably that of businessman William “Billy” Dutton, which was built in 1876, and that of guide Jack Sheppard which was set up around the same time. [Read more…] about A Short History of Club Camp on Big Moose Lake

Terror on the Hudson: The Burning of Kingston

June 17, 2018 by Jack Kelly 5 Comments

Terrorism has been a grim feature of our time, but the tactic is far from new. The Revolutionary War, like every war, was marked by wanton violence. One of the cruelest incidents came in October 1777 when the British attacked the city of Kingston, then the capital of New York State.

A massive enemy invasion in 1776 had driven patriot forces from the city of New York. The delegates who were in the process of writing a state constitution moved away from the fighting, first to White Plains, then to Fishkill. [Read more…] about Terror on the Hudson: The Burning of Kingston

New England’s Darkest Day

August 28, 2017 by A. J. Schenkman Leave a Comment

When Abraham Hasbrouck (1707-1791) awoke on the morning of May 19, 1780, he looked at the sun, and probably saw a reddish glow around it.

He recorded in his diary that by eight in the morning, “the sun was darkened.” It became so dark that one thought it was night time. Hasbrouck continued in his diary entry that it was not a solar eclipse. Citizens like, Richard Miller Devens, to the Northeast in New England, not only saw the reddish glow around the sun, but remarked, ”a black scum floated on rivers.” General George Washington camped to the south in New Jersey also commented about the unusual nature of the morning. Abraham Hasbrouck, living in Kingston, New York in Ulster County, had no idea that he was witnessing what would become known as, “The Dark Day.” [Read more…] about New England’s Darkest Day

A Short History of Watervliet Water Works

July 24, 2017 by Kevin Franklin Leave a Comment

Fire! Fire! The words still strike fear into people, but in the 19th Century, the alarm of a fire in a community sometimes brought disaster. Unfortunately, large fires were very commonplace.

Fires in the early 19th Century sometimes leveled blocks of homes in Albany, and in the mid-19th Century, a spark from a steam engine set the old wooden Green Island Bridge over the Hudson River on fire and westerly winds blew hot embers into Troy causing the great conflagration that destroyed much of the center portion of the city. Building codes changed due to fires like these. [Read more…] about A Short History of Watervliet Water Works

Two Horrific Events in New York City

February 10, 2017 by Bob Cudmore Leave a Comment

This week on The Historians Podcast, history teacher Doug Kaufman discusses the 1911 Triangle shirtwaist factory fire in New York City. Steve Jankowski of Broadalbin, NY, tells how he escaped from the scene of the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. They spoke at an event sponsored by Amsterdam Reads on the historical novel “A Fall of Marigolds” by Susan Meissner. Listen to the podcast here. [Read more…] about Two Horrific Events in New York City

Remembering The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

March 28, 2016 by Kim Dramer Leave a Comment

In his short novel, Washington Square, Henry James wrote about New York women of the Gilded Age; elegant ladies who strolled the sidewalks of the city’s shopping district, Ladies’ Mile.

These New York women admired window displays of shirtwaists, an elegant button-down blouse with rows of tiny and elaborate tucks. The shirtwaist was favored by New York women as a symbol of chic modernity. But the silhouette of fashionable ladies came at a price paid by their downtrodden sisters, immigrant women living in the city’s tenements. These newest New York women worked long hours for low wages in the city’s notorious sweatshops. [Read more…] about Remembering The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Firefight: The Battle to Integrate the NYFD

February 28, 2016 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Ginger Adams Otis’ new book Firefight: The Century-Long Battle to Integrate New York’s Bravest (2015 Palgrave MacMillan) offers a fresh look at New York City’s firefighters’ critical Civil Rights history.

Firefight is a narrative from veteran reporter Ginger Adams Otis that delves deep into the struggle of black firefighters to truly integrate the FDNY – the largest fire department in the U.S.

It sheds light on the long, painful effort to achieve the still-elusive post-racial America and shares the untold history of the black men and women who battled to join the Bravest. [Read more…] about Firefight: The Battle to Integrate the NYFD