Choose your day, Tomorrow, Saturday or Sunday(Sunday at 3PM in Amsterdam)

Requiem: What remains is love by Maria Riccio Bryce will be performed this weekend—Friday, May 26 at 7 p.m. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Hackett Blvd., Albany; Saturday, May 27 at 7 p.m. First Reformed Church, 8 N. Church St., Schenectady and Sunday, May 28 at Trinity Lutheran Church, 42 Guy Park Ave., Amsterdam.

Maria Riccio Bryce conversation with Bob about the production

History sites can be found along Route 5

By Bob Cudmore

        An approximately 30-mile stretch of Route 5 in Montgomery County is home to enough historic places to make for a day trip this summer for those who are keen on heritage tourism.  Most of the sites date back to the Colonial era.

        Starting in Amsterdam, just across the railroad tracks from Route 5 at Russo’s Tavern, an historic site in its own right, is Guy Park Manor.

Sir William Johnson, the area’s most prominent settler of the Colonial era, built the home for his nephew and son-in-law, Colonel Guy Johnson.  Guy came to America in 1756 and sought out his uncle, marrying Sir William’s daughter Polly. 

Sir William first built them a wooden home called Guy Park that was struck by lightning in 1773.  The stone building that still stands was then built on the site. Sir William died in 1774.  Guy and Polly didn’t have much time to enjoy their new home, fleeing for Canada in 1775 as anti-British sentiment grew during the buildup to the Revolutionary War.  Guy Park Manor is also the location of a riverside park and Mohawk River/Erie Canal Lock 11. 

        A mile west of Amsterdam in the village of Fort Johnson is the Old Fort itself, built by Sir William in 1749 as his residence.  Operated today by the Montgomery County Historical Society, the Old Fort boasts period furnishings and a restored 18th century outhouse, one of the oldest in America.  Old Fort Johnson is open Wednesdays through Sundays from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. 

        Traveling west to Fonda, the Montgomery County Department of History and Archives is across the railroad tracks from Route 5 in the historic Old County Courthouse on Park Street.

        The department contains numerous historical documents.  The facility also attracts amateur and professional genealogists from around the country to search birth records from the Colonial era and later for a large part of Upstate New York.

Just west of Fonda on Route 5 is the Franciscan shrine honoring Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, a 17th century Mohawk Indian who converted to Catholicism.  Kateri is being considered for sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church.  Up the hill from the shrine is the site of the Mohawk village of Caughnawaga where Kateri lived much of her life.

Reverend Thomas Grassmann, who started the shrine in 1938, put together most of the facility’s Native American collection. The shrine is open every day from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

        About seven miles west of Fonda on Route 5 is Kanatsiohareke, since 1993 home to a settlement of traditional Mohawk Indians.  Their annual summer festival will take place June 30 and July 1.

        The Route 5 villages of Palatine Bridge and Nelliston boast several historic homes.  Between the two villages is Palatine Church, a Colonial era building. 

Farther west on Route 5 is Fort Klock, two miles east of St. Johnsville.  A 1750 fur trading post, the fortified stone house typifies structures of the colonial era and the American Revolution.  Fort Klock is open Tuesday through Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.   

Another mile west on the highway is the 1747 Nellis Tavern, an ongoing restoration project of the Palatine Settlement Society.   Built by Christian Nellis in 1747 as a farmhouse, it is one of the few wooden buildings in the Mohawk Valley to survive the Revolutionary War.  A tavern by 1783, the building stayed in private hands until the 1960s. 

Friday, May 26, 2023-Episode 476-Journalist Paul Kix documents how the 1963 desegregation campaign in Birmingham Alabama changed race relations in America.  Martin Luther King, Jr., was imprisoned and wrote his Letter from a Birmingham Jail.  Kix’s book is titled You Have to Be Prepared to Die before You Can Begin to Live.

North Chuctanunda Creek Friends to Meet

Friends of North Chuctanunda Creek Incorporated will celebrate National Trails Day at their first public meeting Saturday June 3, 2023 9:30 am at the Clock Tower Building, 37 Prospect Street in Amsterdam.

    Maps will show completed trails and future construction.  There will be refreshments. An elevator to the top floor of the Clock Building will enable attendees to enjoy the view from the historic structure that once was part of Bigelow Sanford Carpet and later toymaker Coleco. Outdoors on June 3, John Naple will lead an optional mile-long walk along the North Chuctanunda Creek.  The walk will go through the former Sanford Mill Complex from Locust Avenue to Church Street, stop at the creek overlook in back of Kelloggs and Miller’s former linseed oil plant, and go down Church Street to opposite City Hall. The North Chuctanunda Creek provided water power to many of Amsterdam’s 19th century mills.

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Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, May 25, 2023

42 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 5:31AM

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