Back in the Day: Our First Mayor

The Morning Star newspaper offered Charles Cool a tongue-in-cheek greeting on April Fool’s Day 1908, the morning after Cool was elected the city’s first mayor, carrying four of the five voting wards.

“Good morning Mayor Cool,” the paper quipped. “The band didn’t play last night. Look out for the Jolly Joker today.”

More than a century later, the bands do play, and the sports teams too, in the downtown Glens Falls building that bears his name.

When Cool Insuring bought naming rights to the arena formerly known as Glens Falls Civic Center in 2017, it wasn’t just about brand awareness.

The company wanted to honor its founder, Charles Cool, a central figure in Glens Falls business, government and civic life.

“All of Mr. Cool’s seventy-four years were passed in Glens Falls, and his loyalty to the city was perhaps the primary form which animated his life,” The Post-Star reported on Sept. 26, 1932, two days after Cool died at his home at 50 Warren Street. “He could not keep it out of his conversation; he translated it into fruitful endeavor in public office and private business.”

Cool was born in Glens Falls on Aug. 19, 1858, the grandson of Keyes P. Cool, the first to manufacture and ship lime from Glens Falls.

Charles Cool co-founded the fire and casualty insurance agency that bears his name in 1879, and he was sole owner from 1887 on.

The agency originally was located in Glens Falls.

Around 1900 Cool established Union Telephone Co. to compete with New York Telephone Co. in Glens Falls, Hudson Falls, Fort Edward Lake George and Lake Luzerne.

Union Telephone later merged with Commercial Telephone of Troy to become Commercial Union Telephone Co., of which Cool was a director.

Cool served as Glens Falls village president in 1895, and was elected mayor twice, in 1908 and in 1922.

Cool was a member of the Committee of Ten that spearheaded Glens Falls becoming a city.

Gov. Charles Evans Hughes, a Glens Falls native, signed the city charter on March 13, 1908, and on March 31, Cool, a Republican, was elected the city’s first mayor, receiving about 53 percent of the vote.

Cool and others celebrated in June with an excursion to Lake George.

"Five automobiles, appropriately bedecked with flags and banners, left Glens Falls yesterday for Ripley's Point carrying twenty-five representative citizens of the new city," The Lake George Mirror reported on June 12, 1908. "The passengers were guests of Mayor C.W. Cool and spent a pleasurable afternoon at the Cool cottage where a picnic supper was served."

There did not seem to be an urgency to designate an office at City Hall for the new mayor, perhaps because Cool’s insurance office was on the same block of Ridge Street as City Hall, and he could get back and forth easily.

“A small room adjoining the city clerk’s office in the City Hall is being fitted up as an office for the mayor,” The Morning Star reported on July 18, 1908. “It is one of the smallest and stuffed rooms in the building, and with the mercury hovering around the 90 mark, Mayor Cool’s lot won’t be an enviable one.”

Traffic safety was among the issues Cool dealt with as mayor.

A headline in the Aug. 14, 1908, edition of The Daily Times of Glens Falls proclaimed, "Automobiles Planning Boycott of Glens Falls and Lake George."

The newspaper reported members of the Albany Automobile Club were upset about getting caught in speed traps in Glens Falls and elsewhere in Warren County during a recent weekend excursion.

"Returning through Glens Falls, I called attention to the existence of a speed trap of 15 miles per hour," J.C. Fitzgerald, chairman of the club's Committee on Speed Regulations, wrote in a letter that accompanied the article. "Notwithstanding the rate of speed of the car was reduced to 13 miles, we were stopped and charged with exceeding the legal limit."

Fitzgerald wrote that because of speed traps in Glens Falls and Lake George, "the pleasure of our trip was entirely destroyed."

The topic would continue to be an issue.

On April 14, 1909, the Board of Public Safety authorized Cool and a councilman to handle purchasing a motorcycle for the city Police Department to use to enforce the city’s 10 mph speed limit.

“The speeding of cars has become a menace to the public,” The Morning Star reported. “In the crowded sections of the city pedestrians are almost afraid to cross the streets for fear of being run down by passing autos, which in many cases are running far in excess of the speed limit.”

A year into Cool’s term, the mayor was praised because the new city government cost less to operate than the former village government cost in the previous year.

“Every citizen of Glens Falls should take his hat off to Mayor Cool today,” The Morning Star editorialized on March 17, 1909.

More information about Charles Cool and Glens Falls government during his lifetime can be found in the four-volume Charles Cool Scrapbooks, which can be viewed at The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library.

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P.S. Check out more from our Back in the Day series here.

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 September 2020. See the trailer here.

Back in the Day: Skid logs while the snow falls

The historic logging industry seasons of winter harvest and spring river drives exemplifies the philosophic wisdom of an early Warren County newspaper.

“Let the naturalist turn his eyes to whatever region or climate he pleases, and each will give evidence of an overruling and unerring providence,” The Warren County Messenger editorialized on Oct. 15, 1829.

Loaded log sled in the Adirondacks, circa 1880. Photo courtesy of The Chapman Historical Museum.

What would be a rough winter now would have been considered a blessing to the 19th and early 20th century logging industry.

“The snow which fell Saturday provided better sleighing in the sections where lumbering is being done and the lumbermen are much pleased over the prospects of having sufficient sleighing to permit them to get their logs out of the woods before winter breaks up,” The Post-Star reported on Jan. 19, 1920.

In timber harvesting, the mantra was something like, “Skid logs while the snow falls,” instead of the traditional agriculture adage, “Make hay while the sun shines.”

It was important to skid logs out of the woods before mud season.

Decades of experience had taught lumber barons that a bountiful harvest would mean prosperity come spring, when the river drives, which later gave way to highway truck transport, would start.

“Glen’s Falls is destined to increase importance and beauty just so long as the John Brown tract and the North River have logs to cut and the water power to saw,” The Glen’s Falls Republican prophesied on July 11, 1865.

A young man with a strong back and an entrepreneurial bent could go from poverty to lumber baron over time by steadily re-investing his logging revenue into diversified interests in manufacturing, banking, and real estate.

Such was the scenario of Augustus Sherman, at one time the richest man in Warren County, who was worth more than $2 million — the equivalent of about $33 million today – when he died in 1884.

“Early in life he learned the lessons of exhaustive, rough manual labor working with his father in the mingled pursuits of farming and lumbering,” Joseph E. Barnes wrote in his 1990 book “Profiles in Banking,” about the history of First National Bank of Glens Falls.

Sherman was the local bank’s president from 1858 to 1884.

By age 15, Sherman was hauling horse loads of lumber to Albany by himself, and by age 19 he was operating his own lumber and grist mills.

Sherman lived and worked in Luzerne, and around 1840 sold his family holdings and moved to Glens Falls, City Historian Wayne Wright wrote in a biographical essay.

Sherman’s Italianate villa-style mansion, built in 1844, is now the Glens Falls Senior Center at 380 Glen St.

Sheman’s mansion, circa 1910. Courtesy of The Chapman Historical Museum.

Sherman operated local saw mills and lime kilns and purchased vast tracts of forest land in the Adirondacks.

It is believed he was the first person to own and operate canal boats on the Feeder Canal.

Sherman was president of Glens Falls Paper Co. (now Essity Tissue in South Glens Falls), Bald Mountain Lime Co., and was a director of Glens Falls Insurance Co.

Similar narratives could be related about Henry Crandall, William McEchron and Alonzo Morgan of Glens Falls.

For those with a strong back but no entrepreneurial bent, logging was a dependable source of employment.

In time, alternative employment opportunities became available as lumber barons diversified.

The logging industry in the Adirondacks faced a labor shortage in 1920 despite a drastic increase in typical lumber jack wages to around $120 to $140 a month — the equivalent of $1,600 to $1,865 in 2020 dollars — plus board.

“It is stated that many men who formerly did this work have now secured positions in paper mills and other manufacturing plants where they can earn almost as much and a great deal easier,” the Ticonderoga Sentinel reported on Jan. 8, 1920.

“A few years ago, $30 to $40 a month was considered good wages in the woods.”

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.

Back in the Day: a Cannon in Crandall Park

Members of the E.M. Wing Post 147 of the Grand Army of the Republic on Dec. 8, 1904 were eagerly awaiting the arrival in Glens Falls of a Civil War era cannon to be placed in Crandall Park.

G. F. Bryant, who was spearheading the project, had received word via mail that the 5-ton cannon, reportedly captured from the Confederate Army about four decades earlier, had been shipped from Washington Dec. 5 via the Pennsylvania and Westshore Rail Road.

Photo courtesy of Chapman Historical Museum in Glens Falls.

The cannon would remain in Crandall Park until 1942, when it was melted down to make armaments for World War II.

Civil War veterans from Glens Falls had long sought an artillery piece to put on display, and the U.S. Navy had finally complied with their request, providing the cannon to the GAR post as an indefinite loan.

Glens Falls philanthropist Henry Crandall, owner of Crandall Park, had agreed the veterans could place the cannon in the park.

“Henry Crandall … not only granted what they asked but offered to pay the expense of obtaining the gun and to furnish the powder to shoot it whenever the veterans felt like celebrating,” The Morning Post reported.

Firing it could be risky from a liability perspective, as the federal government had stipulated it was being “loaned for ornamental purposes only, and the bureau disclaims all responsibility if … used for any other purpose.”

Nevertheless, the canon was fired four times at a dedication ceremony at 9 a.m. on July 4, 1905.

“Joseph Duell, Thomas Lajoy and Wesley Wood fired the piece and the boom could be heard as far as 30 or 40 miles away,” The Morning Star reported. “The occasion was the sixty fifth anniversary of Mr. Lajoy’s birth, and he thought the cannonade was quite a celebration, especially since it was captured from the rebels.”

The E.M. Wing post was named in memory of Edgar M. Wing of Glens Falls, a lieutenant in Company E of the 118th Regiment.

Wing, age 23, was mortally wounded at the Battle of Drury’s Bluff on May 16, 1864, and died three days later while a prisoner of war.

Bryant, who spearheaded the cannon acquisition, was born May 9, 1849 in Stony Creek, and lived as an adult at various times at Glens Falls and Lake George.

He reportedly walked from Glens Falls to Lake Luzerne, a distance of about nine miles today, to enlist at age 14 in Company D of the 118th Regiment in December 1863.

He later was transferred to Company A of N.Y. Volunteers, and was mustered out of the military on Feb. 6, 1866.

Bryant was Warren County Sheriff from 1886 to 1888, town justice of Caldwell, now Lake George, and city assessor of Glens Falls.

Bryant was commander of the local GAR post for 20 consecutive years, and had just started his 21st year when he was killed in an automotive acceded at Whitehall on Nov. 16, 1924.

The cannon was scrapped, along with numerous other items from Glens Falls, in fall 1942 for the war effort, said Queensbury Town Historian Joan Aldous.

An ornate iron fountain, moved from downtown Glens Falls to Crandall Park in 1898, a historic bell from the former Methodist Church on Warren Street, and a safe from Glens Falls National Bank also were scrapped, along with more than 17 tons of assorted metal collected from area residents.

“A bunch of cool things went into the war effort,” said Glens Falls City Historian Wayne Wright. “I wish we still had it (the cannon.)  That would be fun.”

Indeed, it would be a blast, pun intended, to hear that cannon fired during playing of Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” at the annual Glens Falls Symphony Orchestra Independence Day concert at Crandall Park.

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Sources: The Morning Star Nov. 7, 21, Dec. 9, 22, 1904, July 5, 1905; The Post-Star, Nov. 17, 1924, Oct. 14, Oct. 21, 1942; “Glens Falls the Empire City,” Dec. 10, 1908, Glens Falls Publishing Co.; “Bridging The Years,” 1978, Glens Falls Historical Association.

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.

Back in the Day: The Auto-Sleigh

Oh, what fun it must have been to ride on the motorized sled seen in this historic photo from the Chapman Historical Museum in Glens Falls.

We’re curious if the photograph is of the “auto-sleigh” that Lewis Newton of Hudson Falls designed in 1920.

Glens Falls area residents enjoy a ride on this motorized sled that might have been the “auto-sleigh” that Lewis Newton of Hudson Falls designed in 1920.

Photo courtesy of Chapman Historical Museum in Glens Falls.

“The sleigh is attracting much attention, being viewed by a number of mechanically inclined persons, who have expressed as believing that few improvements could be made to the production by Mr. Newton,” The Post-Star reported on Jan. 19, 1920.

Some of the features of the motorized sled in the photograph fit The Post-Star’s description of Newton’s device.

The auto-sleigh had runners, a motorcycle wheel and a skid chain attached to a sturdy frame which held two Thompson motors to power the device.

In test runs, Newton operated the device at speeds of up to 45 miles per hour.

Newton apparently designed multiple versions of the auto-sleigh, so it’s possible the device pictured in the photograph is another prototype, or it may not have been one of his devices at all.

“Mr. Newton has a number of orders for sleighs of similar types and will doubtless be engaged in filling the wants of the local public the remainder of the winter.”

Newton, who operated a bicycle and motorcycle shop at 19 Cushing Ave. in Hudson Falls, got his start in small engine transportation as a U.S. Army motorcycle courier in France during World War I.

He came home to Hudson Falls in March 1919, and in June advertised in The Post-Star: “I want to purchase 500 second-hand bicycles at once,” presumably to start his business.

At least once Newton traveled from Hudson Falls to New York City via motorcycle to pick up supplies for his bicycle shop, making the round trip in 15 hours.

In September 1920, Newton and Burt Wells traveled on a 4,000-mile motorcycle touring and camping excursion that included visits to Syracuse, Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York City.

Sources: The Post-Star March 9, April 23, June 4, 1919; Jan. 19, Sept. 22, 1920.

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.

Back in the Day: Warren County's National Christmas Tree

No doubt there was a sense of seasonal anticipation in Washington, D.C. as President Lyndon B. Johnson prepared to light the National Christmas Tree at 6:40 p.m. Dec. 18, 1964.

For Boy Scout Troop 100 of Warrensburg and a handful of local government officials present for the ceremony on the White House Ellipse, and for thousands of Warren County residents paying attention from afar, it was a distinct historic moment.

Photo courtesy of The Historical Society of the Town of Chester

For Warren County was “Home of the National Christmas Tree,” the native soil where the estimated 80-year-old, 72-foot, 12-ton white spruce grew up.

It measured 36 feet in circumference and had a 33-inch thick stump.

Other National Christmas Trees through the years could boast of largeness, but none other could boast of such a birthplace.

Photo courtesy of The Historical Society of the Town of Chester

“There has never been a tree-lighting ceremony like tonight’s will be,” The Post-Star editorialized. “This tree came from Warren County, from Chestertown, from Landon Hill!”

It was a gift from the Adirondacks to the nation that was decorated with 5,000 red and white light bulbs for all to see.

“A fine representative of the Adirondack forests stands on the White House lawn this Christmastide,” The Post-Star touted.

Photo courtesy of The Historical Society of the Town of Chester

Transportation wise it was about a two-day journey via Fort Edward Express tractor trailer from Chestertown to Washington, with about an hour stop early on at downtown Glens Falls, where officer Stanley Wood and his Glens Falls Police Department colleagues closely guarded as curiosity seekers gathered around to get a glimpse of the celebrity spruce, temporarily on display at Monument Square.

Planning wise it was a much longer journey that started three years earlier when Robert Hall, a newspaper publisher from Warrensburg, urged the Adirondack Lumberman’s Association to start a campaign to provide a National Christmas Tree from the Adirondacks.

Photo courtesy of The Historical Society of the Town of Chester

Forester Douglas Luke of Glens Falls, woods manager for West Virginia Pulp and Paper Co., identified the tree at Landon Hill forest, between Chestertown and Pottersville in northern Warren County.

In mid-November 1964, Rudolph R. Bartel, assistant regional manager for the National Park Service, inspected the tree and certified it was fit for the limelight.

“This tree is a magnificent specimen, and I’m especially pleased with its health and the care it has received,” he said.

Warren County Board of Supervisors proclaimed the day after Thanksgiving as “National Christmas Tree Day” in Warren County, coinciding with a tree-cutting ceremony at Landon Hill at which state Assemblyman Richard Bartlett, R-Glens Falls, presided.

It was described as a “once-in-a-lifetime thrill.”

Little did anyone at the time imagine that Warren County would send a second National Christmas Tree to Washington in 1969, this time a spruce from Crandall Park in Glens Falls.

Photo courtesy of The Historical Society of the Town of Chester

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Sources: The Post-Star, Nov. 25, 27, 28, Dec. 18,23, 24, 1964; The Glens Falls Times, Nov. 28, Dec. 18, 1964; Lake George Mirror, Aug. 18, 1964; Essex County Republican, Nov. 20, 1964, The Tower, January 1965.

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Thanks to The Historical Society of the Town of Chester for providing the photographs for this story. If you’d like to see more, they have an excellent display at The Town of Chester Museum of Local History (including a section of the stump!). Their Winter hours are Wednesdays from 10am-2pm.

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.

Back in the Day: Clark Brothers Glove Factory

About a century ago, J.H. Clark, an upstate New York “pioneer silk glove manufacturer” in retirement, offered sage advice to his sons, Robert and Alfred, when they decided to branch out on their own.

“Well boys,” he said, “if you are going into business, go into it right – on a big scale and with everything the best you can get.”

The “boys” must have got it right, because the company they started in 1920 would operate in Glens Falls for nearly 50 years.

Clark Brothers Glove Factory, circa 1920. Photo courtesy of The Chapman Museum.

When they started out in 1920, the brothers explored potential locations around the region and determined that Glens Falls was the best place to build their factory that would have state-of-the-art equipment and modern conveniences such as drinking fountains throughout and a recreation room with a piano for employees to play in their off hours.

Elmer J. West and members of Glens Falls Chamber of Commerce made their best pitch to Robert at a luncheon Jan. 13, 1920 at the Glens Falls Country Club.

There was great celebration about a week later when Robert announced that construction would start Feb. 1 on the three-story building at the corner of Hudson Avenue and Elm Street, the building that is now The Mill apartment complex.

“About 500 persons will be employed when the plant is first put in operation, and it is expected the number will be later increased to 700,” The Post-Star reported.

The factory would manufacture silk gloves in seven or eight grades and silk cloth for wholesale to underwear manufacturers.

Raw silk was imported from Japan.

During World War II the company would manufacture cotton tricot mosquito netting for the U.S. Army.

A preliminary $500,000 cost estimate in 1920 was easily exceeded, with equipment alone costing $450,000 – the equivalent of $6 million in 2019 dollars, and the building costing more than $300,000.

The announcement set off a housing development boom in Glens Falls as management estimated as many as 125 additional homes or apartments would be needed for skilled workers that would move from outside the area to take jobs.

“No expense is being spared in making the entire structure a most desirable place to work,” The Post-Star reported on July 17, when the Clark brothers announced they were accepting employment applications from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily at the School Street entrance. “The structure will be absolutely fireproof, sanitary in every way, cool in the summer, warm in winter and there will be an abundance of light.”

Clark Glove Factory, circa 1930. Photo courtesy of The Chapman Museum.

Keeping with their father’s admonition about doing business “on a big scale,” the brothers celebrated the opening with a grand dance and euchre card party for employees and community guests on Nov. 20.

Bishop’s Orchestra of Fort Edward provided music for dancing.

The management passed out souvenir favors – miniature glove boxes filled with chocolates to women and miniature glove boxes filled with cigarettes and a pack of matches to men.

Elizabeth Scannell was hired as forewoman of the sewing machine room and Eleanor Wells of the boxing department. Simon Miner was hired as chief of the mechanical department.

Scannell would supervise the sewing department for many years. In February 1941, 35 employees threw a dinner party for her birthday at Fitzgerald’s restaurant, presenting her with gifts of cosmetics set and a corsage. In February 1942, 40 employees threw a dinner party for her birthday at Fitzgerald’s.

Alfred Clark sold the company to Vanity Gloves of New York City in 1957, shortly after the death of Robert in 1956.

Vanity Gloves sold the company in 1959 to Premiere Gloves of Fultonville, in Montgomery County, which moved the operation to Curran Street in Glens Falls for a decade before going out of business in 1969.

In the 1960s and ‘70s, Embassy Shirt Makers, a different garment company, operated on the second floor of the Elm Street and Hudson Avenue building before closing its operation in 1977. 

Gateway Department Store operated on the ground floor.

Adirondack Scenic, now known as Adirondack Studios, a theater and theme park set company, operated at the building in the 1990s.

Developer Bruce Levinsky led an investment group that bought the building in 2007, renovated it and added three stories and a roof-top penthouse for apartments.

Mark Paquin and Mark Rosen bought the complex in 2017 and have been renovating vacant commercial space into additional apartments.

The Mill Apartments at the former Clark Brothers Glove Factory.

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Sources: The Post-Star Jan. 14, 20, March 5, May 15, July 17, Nov. 20, 22, 1920; March 18, 1926; Aug. 2, 1940; Feb. 27, 1941; Feb. 25, 1942; May 6, 1970; Dec. 8, 1977; The Glens Falls Times, May 16, 1969.

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.

Back in the Day: A Warrensburg Housewarming (with Marilyn Monroe!)

The “economical house for the average American family” that Virginia MacAllister of Warrensburg won in 1949 had an above average guest list at the house-warming party, including actress Marilyn Monroe.

The 23-year-old Monroe, whose real name was Norma Jeane Mortenson, was just three years into her career as an actress, model and singer at the time.

L-R: Marilyn Monroe, actor Donald Buka, Photoplay Editor Adele Fletcher and Virginia MacAllister pose in front of the “Dream House” in Warrensburg that MacAllister won in a national jingle writing contest. Photo Courtesy of The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library.

“Ladies of the Chorus,” Monroe’s fifth film, had just been released in February, and “Love Happy” was in production.  

MacAllister, a widow with a five-year-old son, Rusty, was winner of the Photoplay magazine “Dream House” national contest to write the best jingle to promote the economy of a prefabricated house, or an “industrial engineered bungalow” as the National Retail Lumber Dealers Association, the contest sponsor, called it.

An industrial engineered home could be constructed 1,540 labor hours versus 2,079 labor hours for a convention home, saving about 10 percent on the total price.

The lyrics and tune of the jingle seem to have been lost over time.

MacAllister, the winner out of 265,000 entries, received a free house and furnishings built at a location of her choice – a one-acre plot on James Street in Warrensburg, two blocks from the Warrensburg school and two blocks from the business district.

“I’m in a state of coma. I’ve got to catch my breath,” MacAllister said, when informed that she won. “Is it true, really true?”

Actresses Claudette Colbert, Joan Crawford, Shirley Temple and director Mitch Leisen, along with “engineers from all over the country,” consulted on the design of the L-shaped, two-story house which, at 5-year-old Rusty’s request, included a basement.

Griffin Lumber of Hudson Falls constructed the house, and Union-Fern, a retail furniture chain with a store in Glens Falls, furnished the house.

Monroe and three male actors traveled with the magazine’s staff and publicists via special rail car from New York City to Albany, and then on to Warrensburg via automobile, to present the house keys to MacAllister in a ceremony on June 21, 1949, which about 500 people attended.

WWSC radio of Glens Falls audio-taped the ceremony for broadcast on 500 Mutual Radio Network stations nationwide.

“Lon McAllister, the young actor who will soon be in ‘The Story of Seabiscuit,’ was very impressed with the Dream House,” The Post-Star reported. “He remarked that he particularly liked the large windows with their beautiful view of the Adirondack Mountains.”

The other actors were Don DeFore and Donald Buka.

The story of how MacAllister came to be a home owner could easily be a Hollywood movie plot itself.

“This is a story of big hearts,” said Jackie Neben, a writer for Photoplay.

The Rev. Douglas MacAllister of Trenton, N.J., Virginia’s husband, died in 1945 from polio.

Virginia moved with her young son to Warrensburg, her hometown, to live with her parents and work as a camp nurse in summers and ski instructor at Gore Mountain in  winters.

About five years after winning the house, she remarried, sold the house and moved with her new husband to New York City.

She wrote 30 published novels and wrote soap opera scripts for “The Guiding Light” and “The Young and the Restless” – writing under the names Virginia McDonnell and Virginia Barclay.

Son Rusty grew up to graduate the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis.

As of 1979 he was living in California.

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Sources: The Post-Star, March 9, 31, May 9, June 20, 22, Oct. 11, 1949; Dec. 26, 1979; Dec. 15, 2006; Warrensburg Historical Society; IMBd.

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.

Back in the Day: Talkies at The Strand

Nearly 3,000 people lined up for three showings of the first talking motion picture in Hudson Falls at “The New Strand Theatre” on Nov. 8, 1929.

“They stood in the drizzle of rain to see the first night’s run and add their acclaim to the success of the opening,” The Post-Star reported.

That would mean standing room only at each of the three showings, scheduled for 6:00, 8:00 and 10:00, but running behind because of the crowds, at the 900-seat theater.

The rabbit’s foot that theater owner J.A. Fitzgerald wore on a silk chain for the opening appeared to be doing its job at bringing good fortune.

The rabbit’s foot was a gift from a delegation of residents of Pittsfield, Mass., Fitzgerald’s native city, who attended the opening.

The main attraction of the double feature was “Sweetie,” an “all-talking, all-singing, all-dancing” picture featuring Nancy Carroll, “Paramount’s red-haired star” in the title role.

A high point in the “dialogue extravaganza” was a 24-person dance number with the trend-setting new dance move “Prep Step.”

“The Diplomats,” a “gripping human drama” featuring Bobby Clark, Paul McCullough and Marguerite Churchill, was the other film.

The New Strand was the same building as the old Strand.

The difference was the newly completed renovations and improvements inside, including a new state-of-the-art sound system for showing talking pictures.

“In the words of G.E. Locke, supervisor of the Western Electric acoustic department, who was personally in Hudson Falls to see the first run, the equipment of the New Stand is the latest and best that is offered today in the talkie world.”

Hudson Falls Chamber of Commerce was proud to sponsor the opening run, in exchange for public parking rights.

Hudson Falls merchants held a two-day gala opening sale and purchased four pages of congratulatory advertising in The Post-Star.

Advertisements included the common line, “We Greet The New Strand Theater With Its New Sound Pictures.”

Dozens of telegrams came in, and 20 Hudson Falls businesses and organizations sent congratulatory floral bouquets to the theater.

Photo courtesy of The Strand Theatre

It was a high point in the career of J.A. Fitzgerald, who seldom used his first name John, a manager at various times of five area theaters and who also introduced talking pictures at the Park Theater in Glens Falls.

Fitzgerald’s early jobs included ranch hand in Colorado, assistant lockmaster at the barge canal locks in Fort Edward and as a partner in a cigar store.

He was a member of the American Federation of Musicians union and the Glens Falls Band, and was drum major and musical director for the Hudson Falls American Legion Drum and Bugle Corps.

He was a military musician, serving during the Mexican border conflict as assistant band leader of the Third United States Artillery Band and during World War I as sergeant of musicians serving with the 105th Infantry Band.

Fitzgerald was active with the Hudson Falls/Kingsbury American Legion post, serving in various years as commander, chairman of the annual poppy drive, and Washington County service officer.

He was active in Hudson Falls Knights of Columbus, serving as Grand Knight.

Fitzgerald was elected Hudson Falls mayor by a nearly 2-to-1 margin in 1933, running on the Progressive ticket.

He served six years as mayor, and was then appointed the first superintendent of Hudson Falls sewage treatment plant.

Prior to entering the theater business in 1919, Fitzgerald had been an executive with the Hudson River Water Power Company and the Glens Falls Gas and Electric Light Company.

Fitzgerald was hired in October 1919 to manage the Empire Theatre on South Street in Glens Falls, taking over from interim manager Dewitt Mott, manager since the death of previous manager Joe Miller.

About two years later, Fitzgerald moved to Mechanicville to manage a theater there, and in January 1923 to Hudson Falls to manage the newly constructed Strand, which cost about $100,000 to build and equip – the equivalent of about $1.5 million in 2019 dollars.

Photo courtesy of The Strand Theatre

While the theater was under renovation in 1929, Fitzgerald purchased it from the investment group he worked for.

The Post-Star called it “one of the most important real estate transactions recorded in Hudson Falls in some time.”

In 1932, Fitzgerald was vice president and general manager of Rialto Operating Co., an investment group that purchased, renovated and re-opened the Rialto and Park Theaters in Glens Falls, both of which had been closed.

Renovation of the Park included wiring it and installing equipment to show talking pictures.

For the grand reopening of the Rialto on Sept. 10, 1932, Fitzgerald brought over the Hudson Falls Drum and Bugle Corps, which performed in front of the theater on Warren Street before the ceremony, and performed one selection on stage inside the theater to open the ceremony.

In August 1935, Fitzgerald sold the Strand to Schine’s Theaters, which operated about 70 theaters in New York and Ohio.

Fitzgerald was 83 when he died on Jan. 25, 1963 in Sarasota, Fla., where he was spending the winter.

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Sources: The Post-Star, Aug. 22, 1916; Oct. 22, 1919; Jan. 17, 1923; May 16, 29, Oct. 4, 9, Nov. 8, 9, 1929; Aug. 16, Sept. 10, 1932; May 22, 1933; Aug. 29, Sept. 12, 1935; Jan. 9, 1940; Jan. 26, 1963.

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.

Dinner for the Win

Late 19th-century baseball booster George Pardo could be a sore loser. Pardo, owner of the American House Hotel at the northwest corner of South and Glen Streets in downtown Glens Falls, sponsored the local amateur baseball team, The Pardos, from 1875 to 1883.

The American House c. 1875. Photo courtesy of The Chapman Museum.

When the team was playing on the road, Pardo would sit on the hotel porch, overlooking South Street, and wait for the players to return to Glens Falls.

“Late at night, when we would return from Corinth, Lake George or some adjacent place, the old man (Pardo) would be up on the front porch to know what success we had met with,” Addison B. Colvin, the team’s manager, recalled decades later. “If the team lost, Pardo would swear and sic his dog on the players,” Colvin said. “If we won, as we frequently did, a fine dinner was served to us.”

More than a century after Pardo’s death in 1898, the historic red brick building where Pardo operated the American House is getting a face lift.

Developer Chris Patten is renovating the building for a mixed-use, new urbanist complex with Craft on 9 restaurant and other commercial tenants on the ground floor. Craft on 9 is relocating from Moreau. The upper floors will be renovated for about 20 apartments.

The existing red brick building replaced a previous hotel structure that burned in 1879. Pardo, who operated the hotel for 38 years, was among a string of operators over the decades of the hotel known at different times as the American House, Hotel Ruliff and Plaza Hotel.

The re-built American House c. 1880. Photo courtesy of The Chapman Museum.

In 1895, rooms with steam heat rented for $2 a night – the equivalent of about $61 in current dollars.

Daniel Robertson, a former pitcher for the Pardos, told a similar version of Colvin’s story about Pardo and baseball in a speech to the Glens Falls Rotary Club on Sept. 27, 1923. “Occasionally we would have a game and Uncle George would ask us how it came out, and if we told him, ‘We licked them today,’ he would say, ‘That is right. Come in and get supper,’” Robertson said. “But sometimes when we got the worst of it he would say, ‘Get out of here. I won’t have any damned dirty ball players hanging around my hotel.’”

Other players on the team were Dudley Ferguson, James McGrievey, Ed Reed, later a Glens Falls mayor, George Aiken, Will Wing, Will Capron, later a Glens Falls assistant fire chief, and H.A. Hurtubis.

Pardo also enjoyed fishing. In 1897, Pardo and his nephew brought back to the hotel about twenty “good-sized” pickerel from a fishing trip at Katskill Bay on Lake George. “The entire catch was exhibited in the hotel office during the evening and attracted the curiosity of visitors,” The Morning Star reported.

In 1896, Pardo sent back to the hotel 12 black bass, the largest of which weighed five-and-one-half pounds, that he caught on the east side of Lake George. In 1889, Pardo offered sage culinary advice to a Morning Star reporter. “Broil a black bass, and I would rather have it than a salmon prepared in the same manner, but the bass is not so good boiled.”

Pardo died of a heart condition on March 17, 1898 in his room at the hotel. The Morning Star said of him: “Mr. Pardo had long been an honored and prominent citizen of Glens Falls. He was a man of rugged and sterling integrity, positive of his likes and dislikes, but beneath a stern exterior he carried a warm and charitable heart.”

Pardo, the oldest of eight brothers, was born in Burlington, VT on Feb. 9, 1819. As a boy, he moved to Whitehall to learn the bakery trade from his uncle. He then worked as a baker in Troy for several years before returning to Whitehall, where he worked as a general agent for the packet lines until he entered the hotel business.

Sources: Letter from Addison B. Colvin to Roy Akins, Aug. 5, 1937; The Morning Star, Oct. 30, 1896; Jan. 18, 1897; May 28, 1889; March 18, 1898; The Post-Star, April 12, 1922; Sept. 29, 1923; Nov. 19, 1926; Oct. 1, 1964; The Lake George Mirror, June 5, 1895.

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. Join Maury on April 10th 2019, 7pm, at the Crandall Public Library Folklife Center Community Room for a preview of Snarky Aardvark’s film, Charles Evans Hughes and the Adirondacks, focusing on the Glens Falls/Sandy Hill segments. Maury, producer/co-director, will be providing an update on research and the status of the entire documentary, expected to be released in 2020. See the trailer here.

Back in the Day: Ballooning in Glens Falls

Passengers on the Saratoga and Whitehall Railroad gazed at what, at first, appeared to be “an immense serpent” in the sky.

Today, hot air balloon sightings are common around Warren and Washington counties, particularly during the annual Adirondack Balloon Festival, which opens Sept. 19 and runs through Sept 22.

But it was a novelty when Professor Charles Cevor launched his balloon “Monpelier” from the center of Glen’s Falls, a village spelled with an apostrophe at the time, at 4:35 p.m. Oct. 5, 1859.

“As the time approached for the ascension, crowds began to pour into the village and fill the tops of buildings,” the Glen’s Falls Republican later reported. “The balloon, with its intrepid master, rose majestically amid the shouts of the crowd and the music of the band – all wishing it good speed in its aerial thrust.”

A previous attempt to launch had been unsuccessful because there was an insufficient supply of gas, prompting ridicule from out-of-town newspapers.

This time, Cevor and his associates began filling the balloon with gas on Tuesday, and continued the inflation the day of the launch.

Cevor had taken his first balloon flight June 11, 1859, about four months earlier, at Pittsfield, Mass, with Edward Lamountain, and shortly thereafter purchased “Pride of America,” his first balloon, from Lamountain.

Today there would be a more rigorous training process before a new pilot could take flight.

Cevor, 160 years ago, had a splendid flight from Glens Falls through Washington County, eventually landing in a pasture of the L. Falkenburg farm, six miles east of Whitehall.

“Prof. Cevor describes his aerial voyage as delightful – the only unpleasant sensation experienced being that of numbness and drowsiness when at the greatest height,” the Republican reported. “The view was of the finest description -- hill and dale, mountain and valley, villages, lakes and rivers, being spread in nature’s panorama as far as the eye could reach in every direction.”

Unlike modern balloonists, Cevor did not have a chase crew to follow him and assist when he landed.

A startled farmer was the only witness to his descent.

“When near the earth and just prior to landing, a farmer with milk pail in hand suddenly discovered the aerial monster, and, dropping his pail, he gave vent to his overwrought feelings by a scream.”

Cevor hitched a ride with a teamster for himself and his balloon into Whitehall, where Cevor stayed the night.

The next morning he took the train to Fort Edward, and was back in Glens Falls in time for breakfast on Thursday.

That evening, Col. Alonzo Morgan presided over a community meeting at the Mansion House hotel, at which Cevor was honored for his “noble exhibition of skill, courage and science.”

Tilletson’s Brass Band performed, and there were “many witty speeches.”

Cevor was given a collection of $60, the equivalent of $1,854 in 2019 dollars.

Cevor continued to travel the northeast and southern states flying the “Montpelier,” until the balloon was destroyed in a rough landing at Savannah, Georgia on March 9, 1860, when Cevor traveled 40 miles in 13 minutes during a wind storm, according to balloonhistory.net.

The balloon was valued at $800 – the equivalent of about $27,400 in 2019 dollars.

During the Civil War, Cevor was a captain in the Confederate Army.

He designed the “Gazelle,” a southern military hot air balloon that was destroyed during the siege of Charleston in 1863.

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Sources: Glen’s Falls Republican, Oct. 11, 1859; history.net; Waco Tribune Herald, Jan. 21, 2012; balloonhistory.net.

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The Adirondack Balloon Festival begins Sept. 19 with the opening launch at 5:15 p.m. at Crandall Park in Glens Falls, and a street party in downtown Glens Falls after the launch until 9:30 p.m.

Friday evening, Saturday morning, Saturday evening and Sunday morning launches are at Floyd Bennett Memorial Airport in Queensbury.

There is a “moon glow” tethered demonstration at 8 p.m. Saturday at the airport.

Closing launch is Sunday evening at Crandall Park.

Grab all the details here.

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.

Back to School, Back in the Day

Emotional health, workforce training and college affordability are not unique challenges for contemporary educators.

School officials grappled with the same issues 75 years ago when Glens Falls was the model community for Look magazine’s “Hometown U.S.A.” series.

“Today, youth in Glens Falls – and throughout our nation – has strong hopes for the future,” Look wrote in a profile on local education in its Nov. 28, 1944 issue. “If these hopes are denied, the future itself will be in jeopardy.”

The headline on the article was, “Youth Demands Its Own New Deal.”

From the Look magazine Hometown U.S.A. Collection, courtesy The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library

Look photographers and writers spent about six months in Glens Falls in 1943 and 1944, shooting more than 5,000 photographs and exploring the city’s social and economic fabric for the series of six cover stories and numerous other articles in the 1944 “Hometown U.S.A.” series that gave Glens Falls its nickname still commonly used today.

The photographs and magazine issues are preserved in the archives of The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library.

Look selected Glens Falls as “a typical U.S. Hometown” representative of the nation in World War II times.

“Far from the bombs, fire and fury of battle, America’s villages, towns and cities seem safe from the ravages of war,” Look explained in the opening issue of the series. “Yet the Hometowns of U.S. fighting men and women are undergoing deep change – in some places difficult and almost violent, in others subtle and imperceptible – but in all cases, permeating our entire social life.”

From the Look magazine Hometown U.S.A. collection, courtesy The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library

As part of its research, Look conducted an education forum with local students, the content of which was summarized in the Nov. 28 article.

“If Glens Falls is a fair sample, our American young people are ambitious,” Look concluded.

“I know one thing; the man I marry will need to make about $100 a week,” the equivalent of about $1,400 in 2019 dollars, one girl said.

Today, that female student would be more focused on her own income potential.

Technology has drastically changed the way we communicate and work.

But the basic aspirations of teens 75 years ago seem not to have changed.

“Most of them dream, as youth always does, of professions or white-collar jobs. And most of them intend to live well. They want to own their own homes and cars. They look forward to travel and recreation.”

Teens that attended the forum debated whether college should be free, and many suggested that teachers were not paid enough.

“They believe that their teachers should be younger and better trained. They realize that this means teachers must be better paid – and this they favor.”

From the Look magazine Hometown U.S.A. collection, courtesy The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library

Glens Falls students had a strong work ethic, many having worked at evening and weekend jobs that were plentiful during the war-time labor shortage.

Nationally, five million boys and girls had been employed part-time or full-time while attending school.

“Money jingles in their pockets now, and they have more freedom than they ever had before.”

But the availability of those low-skill jobs was set to evaporate in the post-war economy.

“They agree that veterans should have their jobs back. And then they ask: ‘What about us – the five million boys and girls who held down jobs during the war?’”

In Glens Falls, 3,000 of its 19,000 residents were serving in the military, leaving jobs for teens to fill.

“War jobs have taught these youngsters much. They know how important vocational guidelines can be, and they want this service expanded to schools.”

Emotional health also was a concern.

“Most boys and girls agree they do not know enough about their own emotions,” Look suggested. “They admit they are insufficiently instructed about sex and the meaning of marriage.”

Teens differed about whether sex education was the responsibility of parents, the school or churches.

Look, in its opening issue of the series, said Glens Falls had an exceptional education system.

“The public school system is rated among the top half dozen in New York State. Its St. Mary’s Academy is one of the largest and best equipped parochial schools in the United States. … Glens Falls’ youth, like most of America’s youth, has more to be proud of than to be ashamed of, more to hope for than to despair of.”

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.

Back in the Day: Cooper's Cave

It is doubtful that anyone in 1757 actually hid in the cave at Glens Falls which later became an oft photographed scene for 19th century postcards.

Edward Stanley, who later became prime minister of England, visited the cave in 1824 with James Fenimore Cooper and others, and suggested it would be a great setting for a romance.

That inspired Cooper to write “Last of the Mohicans,” the classic novel set in the French and Indian War.

Historians say much of the novel was a figment of Cooper’s imagination, including main characters Miss Alice and Miss Cora, but the story has taken on a life of its own, including in multiple movie versions over the years.

The Cooper’s Cave viewing area, underneath the bridge between Glens Falls and South Glens Falls, is a great place to connect with local literary history and enjoy a scenic vista.

It is a popular stop for motor coach tours and Cooper enthusiasts.

Taisuke Suziki, a professor at Asahi University who had studied and taught about Cooper for 25 years, came all the way from western Japan to see the site in 2005.

The viewing area is open to the public free of charge during daylight hours from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Turn right onto the access road just after crossing the bridge into South Glens Falls, or left just before the bridge, if you are coming from South Glens Falls.

There is an ample parking area.

After visiting the viewing area, stop by The Queensbury Hotel in downtown Glens Falls to view a 13.5-foot by 10-foot mural of a scene of the cave, as portrayed in the novel.

The mural is above the fireplace in the lobby.

Internationally-known artist Griffith Bailey Cole painted the mural, based on a historic Glens Falls Insurance Co. calendar illustration, for the hotel’s opening in 1926.

A century ago, Glens Falls newspaper editors called for increased publicity of Cooper’s Cave.

“This opening in the rocky little island is known the world over as ‘Cooper’s Cave,’” The Post-Star editorialized on Aug. 7, 1919. “Tourists passing through Glens Falls have no means of knowing where this historic spot is located, except by diligent inquiry.”

The editorial suggested erecting a sign on the bridge.

“This sign would cost little and accomplish much,” the editorial said. “Perhaps the Chamber of Commerce, which is fast proving itself a real, live organization of great value to the city, will accept this suggestion.”

The editors of 1919 would be glad to know about the viewing area that is available today.

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.

Glens Falls Basketball: Lightning Strikes Twice in a Century

No doubt local sports fans will be talking for decades about JG3 and the Glens Falls Indians winning the Federation Tournament of Champions at Cool Insuring Arena in March 2019.

Nearly a century ago, championship basketball lightning previously struck in Glens Falls for a hometown team.

Glens Falls High School Basketball Team - 1925. Photo courtesy of The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library.

“Shortly before 11 o’clock Saturday night, the basketball squad representing the Glens Falls High School was crowned champions of New York and New England, having emerged from the finals in the championship tourney held in the armory a victor,” The Post-Star reported on April 12, 1920.

Hometown fans were ecstatic when Glens Falls, known then as the Red and Black, captured The Post-Star trophy as winner of the debut interscholastic basketball tournament of New York State and New England.

“The presentation was made, and the local players, with the trophy in their possession, were carried on the shoulders of an admiring throng to their dressing room,” The Post-Star reported. “And in this manner, the tournament of 1920 was brought to an end.”

The annual tournament, which became known as the Eastern States Basketball Tournament, was held in Glens Falls, at the armory on Warren Street and at the high school, through 1955, except for a couple of years during World War II.

But a Glens Falls team would never win that championship again.

Glens Falls High School Basketball Team - 1927. Photo courtesy of The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library.

Much like modern high school basketball tournaments held at Cool Insuring Arena, a goal was to generate tourism and exposure for Glens Falls.

“So far as is known, no city in this state or New England has ever before attempted anything of this nature on so big a scale,” The Post-Star reported on April 2, 1920. “In all parts of this state and in New England eyes of followers of scholastic sports will be turned towards Glens Falls.”

By all estimations, it met that goal.

“Even though these visiting teams went home defeated, they had nothing but good words for the hospitable treatment accorded them here and the all-together excellent officiating.”

Visiting athletes received free lodging, a free movie showing at Rialto Theater, and a tour of Lake George.

Local businessmen donated use of their personal vehicles to transport athletes on the tour.

Students went door to door in Glens Falls in advance and sold 1,000 tickets, priced at $1 – the equivalent of $12.62 in 2019 dollars – good for all games in the three-day tournament.

“And those of you who go nowhere except to business and church on Easter Sunday, purchase these tickets,” The Post-Star urged on April 8, 1920. “Take the time to go to the armory each of the three nights, see forty or fifty clear-eyed, firm-fleshed, clean-souled young fellows competing hotly yet fairly for the honor of their respective schools and their respective teams. See all this and get a new outlook on life.”

Eastern States Basketball Tournament Program Cover - 1926. Courtesy of The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library.

Profit from the tournament was contributed to athletic programs at Glens Falls High School and Glens Falls Academy.

When the tournament disbanded after 1955, leftover assets were contributed to Glens Falls YMCA, Saint Mary’s Academy and Glens Falls High School.

Glens Falls High School won the 1920 championship game 21-19 against Ithaca.

“Both teams were playing as they have seldom played before, and it was only because the laws of the game decree that both teams in a contest cannot be victors that Ithaca lost,” The Post-Star reported.

Ithaca led 14-13 at the half.

Roy Akins, who later was Glens Falls fire chief, scored the basket that put Glens Falls one point ahead, and then scored another basket about three minutes before the end of the game.

Edward Lance, with eight points, was high scorer for Glens Falls.

Glens Falls defeated Montpelier, Vt. in the semi-final round and Ilion in the first round.

Ithaca “nosed out” Glens Falls Academy by one point in the semi-final, to advance to the championship.

Other teams were North Hampton, Mass., Burlington, Vt., Ogdensburg Free Academy, and Troy.

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.

P.S. Check out our My Glens Falls with JG3 here.

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A Century Ago, Kind Merchant was First Glens Falls Kiwanis Club President

Charles Gelman, a long-time downtown Glens Falls dry goods merchant, used to tell a story about when he was a boy growing up poor in Hungary.

He longed for a luscious apple from a display at a fruit stand, but he didn’t have a penny to buy one.

A smiling stranger noticed Gelman, and offered to buy the child an apple if he would eat it.

“We only partly believe the legend,” a Post-Star editorial quipped at the time of Gelman’s death in 1941. “Left to his own resources, he would have somehow earned the penny to buy the apple.”

Merkel & Gelman - Glen Street, Glens Falls. Photo courtesy of The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library.

Gelman had built up a reputation for service and kindness in a quarter-of-a-century on the Glens Falls business scene, holding leadership positions at various times in about a dozen service, religious and philanthropic organizations.

“There was in the essence of his spirit the quiet, persistent urge to convert life, rather than be converted by it, to mold the years into kindness, considerateness and generosity, into the love of mankind and the will behind mankind,” the editorial stated.

A century ago, Gelman was the first president of the Glens Falls Kiwanis Club.

Max Stein, a national Kiwanis Club organizer, came to Glens Falls in August 1919, staying at the Rialto Apartments on Warren Street and setting up shop at the Elks Lodge at the corner of Glen and Ridge streets.

“It is a personal acquaintance, a friendly handshake, the weekly meetings which cause us to learn the qualities of heart and mind of our fellow members.”

It would seem these ideals fit with Gelman’s business slogan: “the store of cheerful service.”

Kiwanis, started in Detroit, had 179 clubs in United States and Canada, at the time, including clubs in Albany, Schenectady, Syracuse, Utica, Rochester and Buffalo.

Stein, the organizer, suggested a Kiwanis Club would give Glens Falls prominence.

“It is the purpose of this club to develop such a high standard of business certainty, integrity, probity (strong moral principles) that the fact that one is a member will be a badge of honor.”

By Aug. 29, Stein had recruited 18 prospective members, and he was confident of soon reaching the 50 members needed for a charter.

The current Glens Falls Kiwanis Club charter dates back to 1925.

Either the club disbanded and reorganized, or it took longer than expected to reach the 50-member mark.

On Sept. 29, 1919, the club met to elect officers and plan an initial social gathering for Oct. 2.

Gelman was elected president, Walter Shaw vice president, Fred N. Pulver, business manager of The Saratoga Sun, as secretary, and Dr. A. F. Mosher, a local physician, as treasurer.

The club held its first dinner meeting at Church of Messiah Parish Hall on Oct. 9, with Edward F. Kelly, secretary of the Schenectady Kiwanis Club, and Glens Falls acting Mayor Julius Jacobson as speakers.

“Kiwanians of the local club enjoyed a fine dinner. … It was a big gathering of good fellows and progressive business men at which there was nothing lacking in the way of enthusiasm,” The Post-Star reported.

Speakers at early luncheon meetings at the Glens Falls Y.M.C.A. on Glen Street, in the building that now houses Spot Coffee, included Rev. Charles O. Judkins, pastor of Christ Church Methodist, Rev. David Solly, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, and J. Edward Singleton, a local lawyer.

Gelman, the first president, came to Glens Falls from Troy to partner with Louis Kempner and David Merkel of Plattsburgh to purchase Goodson’s, a long-standing dry goods and clothing store in downtown Glens Falls.

Merkel & Gelman - Glen Street, Glens Falls. Photo courtesy of The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library.

“They are energetic and progressive business men with years of experience in the dry goods business,” The Post-Star reported at the time. “They believe they can make many innovations in the city which are sure to prove popular with local shoppers.”

A few years later Gelman purchased Kempner’s interest in the business, and in 1921 the name was changed to Merkel & Gelman.

In 1919, when Gelman was Kiwanis Club president, the partners had five stores in Glens Falls, Plattsburgh, Lake George, Troy and Wilmington, Del., and later grew to a chain of nine stores.

The Glens Falls store closed in 1982.

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Sources: The Post-Star Feb. 10, March 5, 1917; July 23, Aug. 16, 22, Sept. 29, 30, Oct. 10, 16, 1919; April 19, 1941; Dec. 15, 2006.

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Speaking of Kiwanis, their 29th annual Duck Race and Family Fun Day is coming up on July 27 - get the details here.

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.

From Humble Beginnings to Mainstream American Culture - The Incredible Journey of the Lunch Wagon

In recent years, food trucks have been all the rage. Turn on the Food Network or The Travel Channel with any frequency and you’re bound to come across a show about them. While the idea of food trucks may seem pretty novel, the concept is one that goes back over a century. During the boom of the manufacturing age in the late 19th century, factory workers needed hearty, affordable meals at all hours of the day. To answer the demand, small wagons were converted into moveable restaurants. The “lunch wagon” was born.

Courtesy of The Chapman Museum, from the 1897-98 Glens Falls Business Directory.

The very first lunch wagon is credited to Walter Scott in 1872, Providence, Rhode Island. But did you realize that Glens Falls played a part in this early food revolution? In 1897, Albert Closson of Glens Falls, built his first lunch wagon. Closson named his wagon the “Crystal Palace” and from 1895-1900 it was located on Fountain Square (the site of the roundabout today). By 1905, he had patented his design and went into full production at his home on Second St. Numerous local lunch wagons were of his design, including two in Whitehall and two in Glens Falls, the “Kenmore” and the “Ondawa”.

Courtesy of The Chapman Museum, from the 1916 Glens Falls Business Directory.

During his years in business, Closson built approximately 50 wagons. In 1912, he sold his patent and formed a stock company called The Closson Wagon Company. The newly organized firm relocated to Westfield, NY. Though officially retired, Closson maintained stock in the company and seemed to stay involved by acting as a consultant and making sales trips. Unfortunately, the company went bankrupt in 1916.

Between 1895 and 1930, there were collectively at least 14 lunch wagons in use throughout Glens Falls. They could be found on South St., Park St., Warren, Ridge and even Glenwood Ave.

One story of an early Ward and Dickinson lunch wagon is particularly amazing. A 1927 version that was in use here in Glens Falls, was purchased by Will and Grace Tario in 1932. The couple had it moved to Port Henry via rail car to Ticonderoga and then pulled by horse team the rest of the way. It reopened on Labor Day in 1933. Remarkably, this lunch wagon is still in operation! It is known today as Foote’s Port Henry Diner, and has been recognized for its historical significance. In 2000, it won an Adirondack Architectural Heritage Award. Many of the original features are intact, including the wooden wheels, marble counter tops and wooden cabinetry.

So, the next time you want to have a meal with a side of history, check out Foote’s Port Henry Diner. It’s definitely a bucket-list worthy adventure, and a tasty one at that.

Jillian Mulder has been the curator at the Chapman Historical Museum for the past eleven years. She had previously worked for the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation at the Crown Point State Historic Site. Her background is in both the fine arts and history. Jillian enjoys photographing old advertising signage and visiting diners, movie theaters, and roadside attractions (and documenting them on her Instagram account @followthebreadcrumbs2). She is passionate about documenting America’s cultural landscape before it vanishes; and wishes she could earn a living by taste testing ice cream at every stand from Upstate New York to New England.

Putting Glens Falls on the Aviation Map

The Boston Chamber of Commerce turned to the Glens Falls Chamber of Commerce in December 1919 for advice about how to develop an aviation landing field.

The local chamber was a trend setter, having earlier that year developed the Miller Hill Landing Field, near where the Queensbury school campus on Aviation Road is now.

Photo courtesy of the Glens Falls City Historian’s Office

“Glens Falls is not to be behind the times for one minute if its enterprising chamber of commerce has anything to say about it,” The Lake George Mirror editorialized on July 12, 1919. “As soon as the war was over and they realized just what steps aviation was to take in peace terms, they got busy discussing what Glens Falls ought to do toward stimulating interest in this new means of transportation.”

Pilots also praised the chamber.

“Aviators who have visited Glens Falls during the last several weeks are warm in praise of the landing field which the Glens Falls Chamber of Commerce has secured at Miller Hill,” The Post-Star editorialized on July 26, 1919. “According to these aviators, the landing field is one of the best in this part of the country. They assert it is much better than the field at Albany, about which we have heard so much.”

The chamber secured rights from Cornelius Brownell, owner of the property, to establish the landing field.

The chamber installed fuel pumps and hired Brownell to supervise the selling of gasoline and oil.

The operation was expanded over the years, and was renamed Floyd Bennett Field in 1928, in memory of the local aviator who flew with Richard Byrd over the North Pole, said Glens Falls City Historian Wayne Wright.

The Miller Hill airport closed in 1947, after the current Floyd Bennett Memorial-Warren County Airport on Queensbury Avenue opened.

A century ago, developing the Miller Hill landing field bode well for local economic development and tourism, and provided a new form of recreation for area residents.

Ralph M. Mann, president of Park Trust Co, of Worcestor, Mass., made local headlines when he and pilot C.S. Jones landed Mann’s private plane overnight en route from Curtiss Field on Long Island to Middlebury, Vt. to attend a Middlebury College alumni reunion.

Jones had difficulty finding the landing strip and landed on Bay Road, near the Seaman farm, but found the Miller Hill field OK on the return trip.

Mann stayed overnight at Hotel Cunningham in Hudson Falls because no hotel rooms were available in Glens Falls.

Miss Gladys E. Peters, daughter of merchant C.V. Peters, was the first Glens Falls resident to fly over the city.

The flight that took off from Miller Hill was on Sunday morning June 30, 1919. Peters, wearing an aviation hood and goggles, was a passenger in a Curtis airplane that Lt. O.S. Palmer flew at 2,000 feet above ground for 15 minutes.

“Upon landing the young woman expressed herself as greatly delighted with the experience and said that she at no time had fear of harm befalling her,” The Post-Star reported.

Photo courtesy of the Glens Falls City Historian’s Office

Birch Aircraft Co. of Albany established a local recreational flight service at Miller Hill in July 1919.

“Glens Falls people have always been proud of this beautiful city and justly so, but until the city has been seen from an airplane they will never know how beautiful it is,” The Post-Star reported.

Stewart McFarland, an insurance agent, was the first passenger. Other passengers the first day were Homer Dailey, manager of the Tichnor Cigar Co. store, Robert W. Bayle, a merchant, Thomas Steele, a Hudson Falls farm implement dealer, Michael Moynehan, and H.A. Weinge, who was representing The Post-Star.

In the fall, Weinge again took a flight, this time with a stunt pilot, and wrote about it for The Post-Star.

“As I had been up in an airplane before, I didn’t think there would be any sensation to just going up,” Weinge wrote.

Things got interesting when Allen S. Moody, the pilot, performed a loop the loop, four reverses and four vertical reverses at about 1,500 feet above the ground.

“The first sensation was to that experienced when riding in one of the roller coasters and then suddenly the earth seemed to rush right up at me and before I realized it we had flipped completely over and the earth was back in its proper place,” Weinge wrote.

Early on, some pilots had trouble finding the landing field.

These included Mr. Palmer, sales manager for Curtis Company, an aviation manufacturer, who stopped in Glens Falls for the night en route to Burlington.

“Not having a map to aid him in locating the Miller Hill field, Mr. Palmer first made a landing to the west of Crandall Park, and in getting back into the air again he had a narrow escape from crashing into several trees, a fence and a barn.”

Another pilot that landed near Crandall Park was not so fortunate.

A crowd that gathered helped the pilot push his plane into the park, where he thought it was safe to take off.

But the field was too short and the plane crashed into trees, resulting in an extended stay in Glens Falls while the plane was being repaired.

—

Sources: The Post-Star, June 20, 30, July 1, 4, 12, 26, Oct. 13, Dec. 18, 1919; The Lake George Mirror, July 12, 1919.

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.

End of the Line for Mile Track

There was a hint of grief in The Post-Star report on Nov. 21, 1919, that work would begin that day on demolition of the barns and grand stand at the old Mile Track on Upper Coolidge Avenue, between Dixon Road and Sherman Avenue, in Glens Falls. “The passing of the Mile Track will bring many memories … to sporting men in this section and in fact the whole country.”

The old One-Mile Track at Broadacres, west of Kensington Road in Glens Falls, where harness racing was held in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Photo courtesy of The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library.

In its heyday, it was known outside Glens Falls in the harness racing world as the “Billiard Table Track,” for its smooth surface and speed. “The horses whose feet graced the track were the very peers of their species in this form of sport.”

Sixty-seven trotting horses set records at the track, “universally considered to be the fastest one-mile track in existence,” according to the 1908 book “Glens Falls – The Empire City.”

In 1897 – 1901, the Mile Track was a stop on the Grand Circuit of racing, putting Glens Falls in an elite league of cities that included Detroit, Cleveland, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Buffalo and the Bronx.

There was excitement when George Finch, president of the Northern New York Horse Breeders Association, received a letter that Glens Falls would be accepted into the Grand Circuit, provided necessary purses could be raised.

“A grand circuit meeting would bring a great crowd of money spenders to Glens Falls, and the town would be benefited financially,” The Morning Star reported on Feb. 10, 1897. “There is every reason to believe that the breeder’s association would also realize a handsome profit from the venture.”

Anticipation turned to reality and 335 horses were entered in the debut meet Aug. 17-20, 1897.

“Promptly at two o’clock starter Frank Walker of Chicago will ring up the horses for the opening event,” The Morning Star reported on Aug. 17, 1897.

Admission was $1 for “gentlemen” and 50 cents for “ladies.”

By 1901, the meet was losing momentum, and in 1902 local organizers pulled the plug when the Glens Falls meet was moved on the schedule from August to mid-September, coinciding with another prominent meet at the Empire Track in New York City.

Local organizers feared they would not be able to draw enough entries for the local meet to be feasible.

“This news will be received with extreme regret in town, since there was no one thing which advertised this place more extremely than the annual circuit meeting. It brought visitors from the length and breadth of the country,” The Morning Star reported on May 20, 1902. The track was not used and fell into disrepair. A Post-Star editorial on June 11, 1918 urged the community to brainstorm to come up with a new use for the Mile Track.

“Glens Falls, noted for its civic pride, ought not to allow these grounds and grandstand to fall into decay,” the editorial stated. “Grand Circuit racing may never return here, but this track would make an ideal place for athletic events of school or municipal nature.”

The grandstand was still structurally sound, and with a little work could be put back in good condition.

“Too many of us are prone to forget, as we dream of the glories of some bygone days, what it is possible to do in the present. … Glens Falls should find some way to save them for the use of the younger generation.”

But a way was not found, and the barns and grand stand were demolished, and the land eventually redeveloped for housing.

All that is left are antiquated newspaper reports of trotting horse John R. Gentry setting a world record and of M.J. Cassidy of Colorado, a man with no arms or hands, driving trotting horse Raymond M.

“Other famous horses of the day that won great laurels and who will go down in history of trackdom as among greatest of the great and who competed at the old Mile Track are Star Pointer, Royal R. Sheldon, Indiana, Bingin and many other too numerous to mention,” The Post-Star reported on Nov. 21, 1919.

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.