As had happened during the French and Indian War and later the Revolutionary War, from the first days of the Civil War Albany was converted into a military camp. Lincoln’s original request for troops designated Albany, New York City and Elmira as military marshaling points. Troops from the entire northeast, including upstate New York as far west as Buffalo, east to Vermont, New Hampshire and western Massachusetts reported to Albany. Continue reading
The Wolfert’s Roost Country Club in Albany maintains a small dam, pond, and pump house to provide water for their golf course. In the 1980s workers excavating the pond, which is fed by the Maezlandtkill, discovered several sections of ancient wooden and very early cast iron pipe along with iron bands. The pipe and other artifacts were placed in the woods near the club’s tennis courts and forgotten.
Benjamin Prescott, engineer of Albany’s first municipal water system and the man responsible for those pipes, is all but equally forgotten, despite an illustrious career in engineering. Prescott served as an Engineer in the American Revolution, Superintendent of the Springfield Armory, and was the designer of several notable projects, including one of this nation’s first inclined planes (on the Connecticut River). He also conducted a 1790s survey of Niagara Falls, consulted on the Erie Canal, designed the Troy Sloop Lock (the Federal Dam) and more. Continue reading
On Tuesday, April 21 at 7 pm, at the New York State Military Museum in Saratoga Springs, Matt Kirk from Hartgen Archeological Associates will present findings on the investigation of Colonial Era Battlefields in the Fish Creek area of the Hudson River in the town of Saratoga. Continue reading
In the years between 1807 and 1971, the Hudson River was alive with boat traffic. The great Hudson River Day Liners were perhaps the best known of all the vessels – famous for their elegance and speed. New Yorkers and visitors alike experienced the river and magnificent landscapes from their decks and plush salons.
Now, a New York City nonprofit is planning to restore the S.S. Columbia, believed to be America’s oldest surviving excursion steamship, for service on the Hudson River between New York City and Albany, with stops at Bear Mountain State Park, Poughkeepsie, Kingston, and Hudson. Continue reading
Citing financial hardships, the Board of Directors of the New Netherlands Museum is moving the Half Moon replica ship to the City of Hoorn, The Netherlands. On Saturday night the Half Moon arrived in New London, Connecticut in preparation for it’s departure.
A petition to Dr. Andrew Hendricks, Founder and Chairman of the New Netherland Museum has been established, but has drawn little support, garnering less than 600 signatures. The ship leaves New York with nary a word from the state’s history community or its leaders. Continue reading
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) has purchased a half-acre parcel adjacent to the Poughkeepsie entrance of the Walkway Over the Hudson State Park from the Open Space Institute (OSI), which will provide growing room to improve visitor services at the 1.28-mile linear park.
State Parks purchased the parcel for $550,000 with funds from the Environmental Protection Fund. Continue reading
In the fourth installment of the Adirondack Museum’s Cabin Fever Sundays series, New York Council for the Humanities speaker Robert Arnold III will explore the legacy of Robert Fulton, the creator of the first commercially successful steamboat.
Arnold will address the ways Fulton’s steamboat helped to catalyze the expansion of steam power into the energy source that propelled America’s Industrial Revolution. Fulton was a talented artist and inventor who also devised canal locks used in Britain, and the first workable submarine (for Napoleon Bonaparte). Continue reading
AT&T has given a $20,000 contribution to support the conservation and digitization of documents burned in the 1911 New York Capitol Fire.
The documents are expected to be conserved and digitized are badly fire damaged and contain information about life in the Hudson Valley in the 1700s, primarily in Dutchess, Ulster, and Orange counties. They have been unavailable to the public since 1911; no timetable for online public access has been announced. Continue reading
The Historical Society of Newburgh Bay and the Highlands has announced that a $1,000 scholarship will be awarded to college bound high school seniors or college students from the Hudson Highlands region who have shown an interest in the history of the area and have demonstrated this interest through participation in related activities. Continue reading
Sailing on ice has been a winter tradition in the Hudson Valley since at least the 1800s. Until the invention of the automobile, ice yachts were the fastest vehicles on earth and attracted many rich and famous sailors – including the Roosevelts.
The Hudson River Ice Yacht Club, which celebrates its 130th anniversary this year, has teamed with the Franklin D. Roosevelt Home, Library & Museum to organize a historic exhibit of Hudson River Ice Yachts, on display from December 21, 2014 through January 3, 2015. Continue reading