Historians Update Monday, May 22 at 5:55AM (Coffee Time)

Monday, May 22, 2023-The story behind the story-Amsterdam’s 1925 Progress Exposition(Monday Podcast 6 minutes)

Tuesday, May 23, 2023-Fort Plain’s Luxuray made women’s panties. 

A textile mill on Willett Street in Fort Plain produced women’s underwear, mainly panties, and was a major employer for most of the twentieth century

Wednesday, May 24, 2023- Episode 95, January 24, 2016- Jewelry designer and historian Aja Raden with an account of how jewels have affected the course of history.  Raden is author of “Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession and How Desire Shapes the World.”

Thursday, May 25, 2023-Route 5-History on the highway.

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.

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.

The Bob Cudmore conversation with Maria

Bustling Amsterdam

Bustling Amsterdam sparkled in 1925 expo

By Bob Cudmore

        America was prospering in 1925 and local businesses staged Amsterdam’s Progress Exposition and Auto Show that year to show off that prosperity. 

“In the twenties, that was the heyday here,” said anthropologist Susan Dauria.  “The population was about 35,000, the biggest it’s ever been.”  Dauria wrote her doctoral dissertation on the rise and decline of manufacturing in Amsterdam.

The Progress Exposition was organized by the Board of Trade, predecessor of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce.  The event was held from September 11th through the 19th, 1925 at Ross’ Flats in the East End, next to the railroad tracks.  Admission was 25 cents for adults and 10 cents for children.

According to the Schenectady Gazette of that day, a windmill was erected as the entrance to a series of huge tents that contained more than a hundred booths where manufacturers and businessmen showed their wares.  One “mammoth tent” was dedicated to the display of automobiles.  Socony (Standard Oil of New York) displayed a gasoline pump.

A Main Street parade preceded opening night.  The Gazette reported: “All the industrial concerns and stores in this city have been invited to have their old employees in point of service participate in the parade, as the parade will feature those who have had part in the building up of Amsterdam.” 

Schenectady General Electric furnished floodlights.  “The whole city is in gala attire, with the merchants making displays of their flags on the poles along the curbs,” reported the Gazette.

State Senator William T. Byrne of Albany gave a speech.  There was a fashion show, baby contest and a pet show.  A billboard advertised music and entertainment daily.

The Walter Elwood Museum in Amsterdam has a book of pictures of the Progress Exposition taken by photographer Emil Zillgitt for the Board of Trade.  The Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce donated the book to the museum in 1982.  Museum director Ann Thane would like to know more about Zillgitt.  His photography studio was at 13-15 East Main Street and he is listed in city directories through the early 1950s when he died.  He and his wife Eunice lived at 118 Grand Street. 

One picture shows the booth of real estate agent Monroe Gray who is selling suburban lots at Tribes Hill Heights.  “A lot means a home and a home means a lot,” states a poster.  Gray is seated at his booth, which is next to Quist Lumber, smartly dressed in a three-piece suit with well-shined shoes, holding what may be a rolled up blueprint.  Another poster promises: “Invest now and double your money at Tribes Hill Heights.”  Gray has blueprints of the lots and pictures of homes stacked on a table underneath an American flag.  He has a promotional item: a calendar depicting an elegant woman.

The carpet mills—Mohawk and Stephen Sanford & Sons--had booths in the Exposition, as did other manufacturers. 

Main Street merchant Holzheimer & Shaul occupied several booths that look like store window displays.  A cardboard cutout of a young girl is behind a new Hoover vacuum cleaner, offered with “unusually easy terms.”  A female mannequin wearing an apron sits amid a display of Glenwood gas and wood stoves.  One of the firm’s principals, P. Dater Shaul, is pictured at a planning session for the Exposition.  To tout the city’s role in making rugs, Holzheimer’s put a Sanford carpet on the sidewalk in front of its East Main Street store during the Exposition.

In Amsterdam since 1882, Fitzgerald’s Bottling Works offered ginger ale for five cents a bottle at its booth.  “The safest drinks--kills disease germs,” states an advertising poster.

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The first Weekend in June

A Walking Tour, Friends of North Chuctanunda Incorporated

Saturday, June 3, 2023 at 9:30 am

"Clock Tower Building" Amsterdam. An elevator to top floor to enjoy the view. Down to third floor reception Room for coffee & a treat. We are celebrating National Trails Day. We have invited trail spokespeople from around the area to tell about their pathways. The Friends will display maps showing where trails are complete and others future construction.(Bob will have more information)

Mohawk Valley Weather, Monday, May 22, 2023

52 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 5:57AM

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

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