When you turn on your kitchen faucet you probably don’t give it much thought, yet it’s a marvel of modern history.
For centuries, to get water into the house it was necessary to fill your buckets from a fast moving stream and lug them home. Later, you might have filled them from a well or cistern, but still had the chore of lugging them back to the house. Every drop of water you wanted for drinking, cooking or washing had to be transported this way and it was a seemingly endless task. In winter, you might have to carry an axe with you so you could break through the ice that had formed overnight. Here in the Adirondacks, wells were sometimes dug right under the house so getting water wouldn’t be quite so arduous, especially in winter. Common indoor plumbing with water to a faucet didn’t arrive in most homes in the Adirondacks until the 20th century. But there were exceptions, one of which was the LeRay Mansion near the town of Leraysville in Jefferson County. Continue reading
Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH), the region’s historic preservation organization, will be presenting its Annual Preservation Awards on Monday, October 3 to eight projects that exemplify the preservation work being done in communities throughout the Adirondacks. These awards are meant to honor the best examples of sensitive restoration, rehabilitation, and demonstrated long-term stewardship by individuals, organizations, local governments and businesses. 
David Byars’ new book, Our Time at Foxhollow Farm a Hudson Valley Family Remembered (SUNY Press, 2016) is a pictorial history of a wealthy Hudson Valley family in the early decades of the twentieth century. Illustrated with the family’s extensive collection of personal albums compiled during the nascent years of photography, it provides a fascinating insight into the regional, social, and architectural history of the era. 
The New York State Museum has opened “Hudson Valley Ruins,” a photography and architecture exhibition.
Before they built their own ample cottages, summer visitors to the Hamptons could choose from a variety of hotels and clubs ready to welcome them. On Thursday, August 18th at 5:30 pm in Southampton, Long Island, Anne Surchin will discuss this early period of Hamptons history and the leisure activities that drew the first vacationists to what would later become one of America’s great resort destinations. 
David McAlpin, a principal at 
One of the Founding Fathers of the United States, Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), was a brilliant politician-lawyer who served as an indispensable aide to George Washington during and after the American Revolution.
Lowell Thing’s book The Street that Built a City: McEntee’s Chestnut Street, Kingston, and the Rise of New York (Black Dome, 2015) takes a look at the city of New York and the street that built it — or much of it. The street is on a quiet hilltop overlooking the Hudson River a hundred miles north of New York’s harbor.
he new book Fading Structures in the Finger Lakes: Images and Verse (Fast Pencil, 2015) by Michael W. Duttweiler explores 24 structures in the Central Finger Lake Region. These structures once stood strong, but have since been run down and abandoned.
Art Deco Mailboxes: An Illustrated Design History (W.W Norton & Co., 2015) by Karen Greene and Lynne Lavelle features a full-color photographic survey of early mailboxes, located in New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and beyond. Many of these mailboxes have since been removed, forgotten, disused, or painted over, others are still in use, are polished daily, and hold a place of pride in lobbies throughout the country.