The Chalmers building on Amsterdam’s South Side

By Bob Cudmore

   David W. Chalmers and his partners were the last industrialists to start a major knitting mill in Amsterdam.  Chalmers. John Blood, John Barnes and Howard Hanson created Chalmers Knitting Company in 1901 in a factory building on Washington Street north of the Mohawk River.  

   Long underwear was a staple in those days.  An Amsterdam knitting expert named Martin J, Shaughnessey had discovered a way to knit fabric and leave tiny holes to allow air to reach the body of the wearer.  Shaughnessy went to work for Chalmers and they called the breathable fabric Porosknit.  

   Chalmers advertised in a spectacular way for a decade with a large lighted sign above New York’s Times Square, touting the superiority of Porosknit and its other products. 

   In 1912 Chalmers and his partners moved their knitting operations to a four story brick factory building they constructed on the shore of the south side of the Mohawk River in Amsterdam. 

   Turner Construction of Amsterdam built a seven-story concrete addition to the Chalmers factory in 1916.  Turner also built a mansion on Guy Park Avenue for David Chalmers and his wife Emsie.  A friend of Thomas Edison, Chalmers had electric lamps at his home and a third floor ballroom.

   Many of the knitting mill’s employees were Italian-Americans who walked to work from their South Side homes.

   “How many times we used to come home from work (in the Depression) and cry because it was a bad day,” said Elizabeth Sardonia in an interview with Gazette reporter Ed Munger.  “But you went to work the next day just the same, and punched that clock.”

    Chalmers sold the knitting mill in 1945 to Lester Martin of New York City who continued to manufacture underwear under the Chalmers name.  In 1946, Martin company controller Joel Kaplan began making trips to Amsterdam from his native New York City to inventory the Chalmers operation. 

   David Chalmers died in 1950 at his Guy Park Avenue home.  In 1955, Kaplan moved to Amsterdam to oversee the Chalmers plant, which at one time during Martin’s ownership employed 650 people.  Martin died in 1959 and the Chalmers knitting company closed that year.

   Textile operations continued at the former Chalmers building, purchased by Edward Stern in 1962.  Stern had a knitting operation on the fourth floor. 

   Kaplan headed a new company named Montco that occupied the third floor, manufacturing women’s sportswear.  Montco had four factory outlets in the region and a second factory in Johnstown.

   Stern closed his Amsterdam operation in 1978 and Montco closed in 1980 as textile manufacturing moved overseas. 

   Kaplan told the Gazette that Montco production supervisor Beatrice Fredericks and 30 0ther women started their own company in the Chalmers building in 1980.  They produced clothing there until about 1985. 

   Kaplan continued living in Amsterdam where he was active in numerous charities.  He died in 2015.

   In the early years of the new century, Long Island developer Uri Kaufman proposed creation of a luxury apartment complex using the Chalmers building.  Kaufman has created apartment complexes from former mill buildings in Cohoes.  

   The Chalmers building was placed on the National Historic Register in 2010.  But there was considerable opposition to Kaufman’s plan on the city’s Common Council. 

   The Gazette reported, “That plan fell apart amid the housing market collapse, trouble with the title to the property and a general desire by many to have the eyesore gone and the site available for redevelopment.”

   The Chalmers building was torn down over several months, starting in 2011 and finishing in 2012.  The site is adjacent to the entrance to Amsterdam’s pedestrian bridge, the Mohawk Valley Gateway Overlook. 

Off the Digital press tomorrow

Episode 439

Highlights Episode Four with excerpts from a history of the Mohawk River with Mary Zawacki of Schenectady County Historical Society; Kelly Yacobucci Farquhar, Montgomery County New York historian, on a national family history TV show visit to Fonda; Susanne Dunlap discusses The Portraitist, a novel based on the life of an 18th century French artist; Stephen Williams, author of Off the Northway on the history of the GlobalFoundries semiconductor facility in Malta; Bob Cudmore on Ukrainians in Amsterdam and Rick Herrera, author of Feeding Washington’s Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778.

Saturday, September 10, 2022-From the Archives of The Historians Podcast-From the Archives, July 5, 2017-Episode 155, March 17, 2017-Christina Baker Kline discusses her historical novel “A Piece of the World.”  The book deals with artist Andrew Wyeth and Christina Olson, pictured in his provocative 1948 painting, “Christina’s World.” 

Sunday, September 11, 2022

Focus on History from Daily Gazette and Amsterdam Recorder-Summer stories from the Mohawk Valley

The man told me he had gone to the 1965 Dave Clark Five movie at the Mohawk Theatre sponsored by WAFS radio in Amsterdam.  Only a handful of people joined him. 

Saratoga National Historical Park special events in September!

https://www.nps.gov/sara/learn/news/special-events-to-be-held-in-september.htm

Saturday, September 10, 2022 Family Day and Raptors10:00 am to 12:00 pm and 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm: Family-friendly crafts, historic toys and games, and tin smith demonstrations 1:00 pm: Silent Wings raptor program presented by the Wildlife Institute of Eastern New York. 

Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, September 8, 2022

https://dailygazette.com/

https://www.recordernews.com/

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