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
Syracuse
Mabel’s 1908 Diary: Back To School at Syracuse University
Alice Mabel Allen (1886-1976) grew up in the village of Adams in Jefferson County. In 1908, while attending Syracuse University, Mabel, as she was known, kept a diary which New York Almanack is publishing each week. This week she returns to Syracuse to begin her senior year.
Monday, September 14
Packed most of the morning except when I drove with mother to Mrs. Barrett’s after my gray skirt and downstreet to get some gloves. Uncle George came up to dinner and I made tomato soup. Said good-bye to the people which was very hard. [Read more…] about Mabel’s 1908 Diary: Back To School at Syracuse University
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
Reluctant Warriors of 1936: William Bleakley & Herbert Lehman
On a warm, clear afternoon in June 1926, 600 Westchester County Republican delegates gathered in the art deco casino at Playland Amusement Park on Long Island Sound to endorse their neighbor, state Supreme Court Justice William F. Bleakley (1883–1969), for New York Governor. [Read more…] about Reluctant Warriors of 1936: William Bleakley & Herbert Lehman
Early Season Paddling Tragedies Are A Cold Reminder
Water currents can be strong at any time of year, but early season boaters, paddlers, anglers and swimmers are at a greater risk in spring when waters are still cold – cold enough to cause cold water shock, hypothermia and death in minutes.
Three recent stories highlight the dangers of recreating on and around cold and fast waters in Spring: [Read more…] about Early Season Paddling Tragedies Are A Cold Reminder
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
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
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
Canal Boat Replica Lois McClure Moved to Port Byron
The Canal Society of New York State completed a multi‑year effort to move the full‑scale replica 1860s‑era canal boat Lois McClure to a land berth at Erie Canal Heritage Park in Port Byron in Cayuga County, NY, on December 23, 2025.
Launched in 2004 by the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, the Lois McClure spent nearly twenty years traveling the NYS Canal System as an educational “time machine” helping people better understand the state’s maritime history and culture. [Read more…] about Canal Boat Replica Lois McClure Moved to Port Byron
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
Strike! 13 Strikes Every New Yorker Should Know About
Today the state of Minnesota is engaged in the first General Strike in nearly 80 years. There have been thousands of strikes in American history, but only about a dozen General Strikes. One of the first strikes took place in the city of New York in 1677. Afterward a dozen cart-men (one-horse cart operators) were criminally prosecuted “for not obeying the Command and Doing their Dutyes as becomes them in their Places” and fined.
About 80 strikes in the U.S. have involved over 100,000 workers. Here are 13 strikes every New Yorker should know about: [Read more…] about Strike! 13 Strikes Every New Yorker Should Know About
How The American Revolution Divided & Weakened The Six Nations
As tensions leading to the American Revolution developed, Native nations were divided in their loyalties to England, the American rebels, and their own alliances. Initially, Haudenosaunee Nations viewed the conflict as a civil war between colonists and chose to remain neutral.
Over time, it became clear to Haudenosaunee leaders that the winners of the revolution would ultimately be the parties they negotiated their futures with. Loyalties and allyship among the Nations diverged, weakening the overall power of the Iroquois Confederacy. [Read more…] about How The American Revolution Divided & Weakened The Six Nations
Mabel Allen’s Diary: 1908 at Syracuse University
Alice Mabel Allen (1886-1976) grew up in the village of Adams in Jefferson County, NY. Her father, William Jarvis Allen, published the weekly Jefferson County Journal. He saw to it that all three of his daughters went to college. Mabel, as she was known, first attended Stanford University and later Syracuse University. In 1908, while at Syracuse, she kept a diary in which she described the joys and travails of college life. Each week throughout the year New York Almanack will publish entries from Mabel’s diary. [Read more…] about Mabel Allen’s Diary: 1908 at Syracuse University
19 Nominations to State and National Registers of Historic Places
Nineteen properties and districts have been recommended for inclusion in the State and National Registers of Historic Places. The nominations include an office building with a pioneering design in energy efficiency in Buffalo, an Arts and Crafts church on Staten Island, a new historic district in Essex County, and the Cortland home of a leader in New York’s Women’s Club Movement.
The nominations were reviewed on December 3, 2025, at a meeting of the New York State Board for Historic Preservation. [Read more…] about 19 Nominations to State and National Registers of Historic Places
The Erie Canal’s Impacts on Indigenous People
New York’s canal building boom and the urban explosion that it triggered dramatically accelerated the dispossession and disruption of traditional life ways of the region’s Native American inhabitants that had been initiated by the introduction of European trade, diseases, colonial wars, the American Revolution, and encroaching settlement by non-natives. [Read more…] about The Erie Canal’s Impacts on Indigenous People
Upstate New York Gentleman’s Clubs: Some History
In New York private social clubs for men were modeled after the clubs in London, which date back to the late 1600s and early 1700s. Men could dine, read the papers, take part in entertainments such as card games or bowling, and build social networks.
There were strict membership rules and most private clubs were only open to elite white Christian men. Some allowed limited dining access to member-accompanied white Christian wives or widows. [Read more…] about Upstate New York Gentleman’s Clubs: Some History
Dwight James Baum: The World’s Most Famous Architect from Little Falls
My grandfather Dwight James Baum (DJB) is Little Falls, Herkimer County, NY’s most-famous architect and one of its most-famous sons. While I may be partial to that view, it’s shared by many experts.
In the 2008 reissue of The Work of Dwight James Baum, edited by William Morrison in 1927, Ron McCarty, Curator and Keeper of Ca’ d’Zan (a Mediterranean revival residence on Sarasota Bay in Florida designed by DJB) noted that “in 1923, the Architectural League of New York awarded the Gold Medal to Dwight James Baum. Aged 37 and practicing independently for a mere eight years, Baum was the youngest architect ever to receive the coveted honor. [Read more…] about Dwight James Baum: The World’s Most Famous Architect from Little Falls
Anti-Racist Educators to be Honored Monday in NYC
On Monday, September 29th, Peace Action Fund of New York State (PAFNYS) will present its annual William Sloane Coffin, Jr. Peacemaker Awards to lifelong educator and former NY-16 Congressman, Jamaal Bowman, and anti-racist educator and activist, Jesse Hagopian.
The awards ceremony and reception will begin at 6 pm at Scandinavia House in New York City, and will also be livestreamed for those who cannot attend in person. [Read more…] about Anti-Racist Educators to be Honored Monday in NYC
Erie Canal Bicentennial Flotillas Launching Wednesday
The Empire State will end its 2025 boating season with a series of Bicentennial Flotillas across the Erie Canal beginning Wednesday, September 24, in Buffalo.
Recently announced by the New York State Canal Corporation, the four waterborne parades are capstones to a summer-long series of special events that celebrated the 200th season of operation for the historic 524-mile waterway. [Read more…] about Erie Canal Bicentennial Flotillas Launching Wednesday
Grandma Brown’s Baked Beans: Some History
Baked beans are an ancient dish native to the Americas, so popular that original ceramic “bean pots” are still found in antique shops around the Northeast.
Every Upstate New Yorker of a certain age knows about Grandma Brown’s Baked Beans, but most probably don’t realize it’s a regional brand, established in Oswego County during the Great Depression. Others may not realize the company no longer exists. [Read more…] about Grandma Brown’s Baked Beans: Some History