News and Views from the Empire State
In popular culture, “Victorian” is considered an architectural style, but historians are quick to point out that there were actually several very distinctive and different styles that make up Victorian.
Architecture can be divided and subdivided and so on, creating dozens of names for various styles. Even more confusing is that some styles get multiple names. [Read more…] about Italianate Architecture: From Italy to America
The term “red light district” is believed to have first appeared in print in Ohio in 1894.
One folk etymology relates that red light districts referred to areas frequented by off-duty railroaders, but this is probably apocryphal. The story goes that railroaders would hang their lanterns outside so the crew-callers could find them, but red lights already had an association with prostitution, and therefore areas of vice, long before that. [Read more…] about Mame Fay: Stories From Troy’s Red Light District
This is part three of this series A Twitchell Lake Love Story – part two can be found here.
After their marriage, newlyweds Norman and Lucretia Sherry moved into their first home. They brought four children into the world – Elizabeth (1910), Francis (1911), Norman, Jr. (1913), and Esther (1918). Lucretia (Lu, as she was called) had her piano shipped from Buffalo to Troy, filling their home with music and hymns, and teaching her children the keyboard. [Read more…] about A Twitchell Lake Love Story: Passing on a Family Legacy
I am a fourth generation Sherry owning a camp on Twitchell Lake in Big Moose, NY, in the Adirondacks. with my wife Ingelise. We share ownership of “Little Beaver” with my three brothers and their wives. Four diaries from our second generation have helped to solve the mystery of how the family first came to Twitchell Lake. It turns out it all started with a love story! [Read more…] about A Twitchell Lake Love Story: The First Encounter
With the dawn of the 20th century came the race to build the tallest skyscrapers. Such wonders were made possible in part by the new technologies afforded by steel girders.
This was part of a trend which had its roots half a century earlier, in such behemoths as the record-breaking hotels of Saratoga Springs. The United States Hotel, seen in these photos, was the world’s largest structure when completed in 1871. This was surpassed only a few years later when the Grand Union was constructed next door. [Read more…] about Dumb Waiters to Skyscrapers: Evolution of the Elevators
Noted local historical archeologist David R. Starbuck has said that the interconnected routes from the Richelieu River at the north end of Lake Champlain to Albany has the highest density of military sites in North America in the 1700s.
The large military encampments that attended the big campaigns of that era were among the largest cities in America, albeit for short intervals. [Read more…] about Settler Fears of Indian Conflict Near Albany Before 1664
The Hart Cluett Museum’s exhibit ‘The Way We Work(ed)’ is set to open to the public on February 28th.
The exhibit was organized by The Hart Cluett Museum in collaboration with the Smithsonian as part of a pilot project to develop a unique humanities-based exhibition about local work history. [Read more…] about Local Work History Exhibit Opening In Troy
This week on The Historians podcast, Diana Waite discusses her book The Architecture of Downtown Troy: An Illustrated History. Waite, who lives in Troy, served a decade as executive director of the Preservation League of New York State. [Read more…] about Downtown Troy’s Historic Architecture (Historians Podcast)
Uncle Sam, an American icon and a national symbol for the United States of America, is believed to have originated during the War of 1812.
Samuel Wilson was a meat packer and inspector of beef and pork at the E&S Wilson Company, owned by Samuel and his brother Ebenezer. After the United States declared war against Great Britain on June 18, 1812, the E&S Wilson Company was chosen to supply meat for the northern army of the United States. [Read more…] about Uncle Sam Grave Maker Being Dedicated in Troy
Diana S. Waite’s new book The Architecture of Downtown Troy: An Illustrated History (Excelsior Editions, 2019) tells the forgotten but surprising stories of the many significant buildings in downtown Troy, New York.
Located about 150 miles north of Manhattan, on the east bank of the Hudson River, the city of Troy, New York, was once an industrial giant.
It led the nation in iron production throughout much of the nineteenth century, and its factories turned out bells and cast-iron stoves that were sold the world over. Its population was both enterprising and civic-minded.
[Read more…] about The Architecture of Downtown Troy: An Illustrated History