The thermometer on the piazza of the Hotel Madden on South Street registered 13 degrees at 2:30 a.m. Feb. 6, 1914, the most up-to-date reporting before printing of The Post-Star that morning.
“Persons who noticed boys playing marbles in Glens Falls yesterday and thought spring had come have another thing coming. Spring is several weeks off yet, and the thermometers this morning are the best evidence that winter still has us in its grip.”
Photo courtesy of Chapman Historical Museum in Glens Falls
Indeed, Old Man Winter, or Mother Nature, whichever gender metaphor you prefer, had been merely taking a nap to awake eight days later and dump more than two-and-a-half feet of snow on Glens Falls and the surrounding area in a Valentine’s Day blizzard that was anything but a sweetheart.
“The city and the surrounding district was at the center of the storm scene, and, according to Professor C.L. Williams, between 30 and 32 inches had fallen before the wrath of the elements had been spent,” The Post-Star reported.
Williams, a physics and chemistry teacher at Glens Falls Academy, tracked the local weather and filed detailed monthly reports with the city Water Department.
Thirty-two inches of snow was reported in Hudson Falls, 39 inches in Fort Edward, and 45 inches in Corinth, the hardest hit of communities in the region.
In Glens Falls, it was the heaviest 24-hour snow fall since 1888, coming after just 13.5 inches of snow in the entire month of January 1914.
“Those people who long wished for an old fashion winter have no cause to complain of the blizzard which descended in our midst and promises to remain for some time,” The Post-Star editorialized.
Light snow began falling in Glens Falls at 10 p.m. Feb. 13, and had grown heavy by the next morning, continuing to fall until about 4 p.m. on Saturday, Valentine’s Day.
Drifting would continue to be a problem, particularly on rural highways, for several days.
Downtown shops and many area factories closed at noon Saturday.
The Union Bag Company shut down machines, fed its workers 600 sandwiches and then sent them home, staying shut down until Wednesday.
The twenty-five cent chicken pie supper at Psychical Hall was postponed until Tuesday.
Trolley and rail service was interrupted, shifting transit demand to a limited number of horse-drawn taxies.
“A well-known liveryman stated last evening that if all the horses in the city could have been secured Saturday noon they could not possibly have accommodated the demand for them.”
Photo courtesy of Chapman Historical Museum in Glens Falls
Even horses had difficulty getting through the snow.
“One (Hudson Falls) grocery firm with possibly more determination than its competitors sent its delivery sleigh across the Whitehall bridge,” The Post-Star reported. “Upon reaching a point near Feeder and LaBarge streets, the snow was found to be so deep that the animal could not move.”
It was peril mixed with artistry.
“After the storm, the city, especially the business district, presented a sight beautiful to the eye,” The Post-Star reported.
A Norse spirit prevailed as residents planted U.S. flags and comical signs in the tops of 10-to-12-foot snow banks.
Where a tunnel was shoveled through a snow bank to the entrance of Eastern Estate Tea Company, someone planted a sign, “Subway to Eastern Estate Tea Company.”
The blizzard brought an economic boom for able-bodied workers.
“Scores of men who had been out of work for months were made happy by being given employment shoveling snow.”
Yet, the employment came at a cost.
The Hudson Valley Railway Co. took a $7,500 hit to its bottom line – the equivalent of $195,000 in 2019 dollars -- $5,000 for manpower and an estimated $2,500 in lost fares.
The company hired 75 men and used 15 teams of horses to clear snow from the tracks and haul the snow away.
Trolley service was resumed in phases, starting with service between Glens Falls, Hudson Falls and Fort Edward at 6 p.m. Saturday and the first trolley car sent from Glens Falls to Troy at noon Sunday.
The Post-Star editorialized that city officials should not be lax in clearing snow from the streets.
“It is not the time to stop to consider the expense. The health and comfort of our residents count more than money,” the editorial advised. “Get busy, ye city servants, and remove the snow.”
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Sources: The Post-Star Feb. 3, 6, 16, 18, 19, 1914.
Maury Thompson was a reporter for The Post-Star for 21 years before he retired in 2017. He now is a freelance writer and documentary film producer specializing in regional history. Thompson is collaborating with Snarky Aardvark Films to produce a documentary about Charles Evans Hughes and the Adirondacks, which is expected to release in 2020. See the trailer here.