On the subject of horses, in The Gazette today..
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Saratoga Springs could rake in major revenue from potential 2025 Belmont Stakes weekend
SARATOGA SPRINGS – Excitement has been buzzing throughout Saratoga Springs since the New York Racing Association announced that Saratoga Race…
Walking the horses to Saratoga
In the early twentieth century, thoroughbred horses owned by Amsterdam carpet mill owner Stephen Sanford were walked each summer to Saratoga from Sanford’s Hurricana Farm.
The Historians Podcast fund drive has raised $2610 toward our $7000 goal for 2023. We still have a long way to go. Please help us provide more history programing on Fort Ticonderoga, Old Fort Johnson and the Wild West. Please donate online or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. Thank you
Wednesday, June 21, 2023-From the Archives-November 29, 2019-Episode 294- There are insights into the life of a reclusive 19th century poet in Marta McDowell’s book, “Emily Dickinson's Gardening Life.” McDowell was gardener-in-residence at the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts in 2018.
In Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life, award-winning author Marta McDowell explores Dickinson’s deep passion for plants and how it inspired and informed her writing. Tracing a year in the garden, the book reveals details few know about Dickinson and adds to our collective understanding of who she was as a person. By weaving together Dickinson’s poems, excerpts from letters, contemporary and historical photography, and botanical art, McDowell offers an enchanting new perspective on one of America’s most celebrated but enigmatic literary figures.
Evenings at Old Fort Johnson
"Building the Windsor Chair" this Wednesday, June 21, 6:30 pm
https://www.oldfortjohnson.org/
Master furniture maker John Los will be the featured speaker for the first Wednesday lecture of the Old Fort Johnson summer series. He will demonstrate how the classic American Windsor chair was made, using four variations of the style that he built and donated to Old Fort Johnson.
Fort Johnson, New York, new bridge, Colonial Privy, Kings Colours, back of fort showing gun ports, herb garden, roof of colonal bake oven.
Homeless man sketched the homes of others
Friday, June 23, 2023-Episode 480 --A highlights edition with excerpts from podcasts on the Holocaust, Amsterdam history, Harlem, the Battle of Bennington, desegregation, Fort Ticonderoga and Fort Johnson.
When there was a gathering at Amsterdam’s Clock Tower building at 37 Prospect Street early this month, Paul Russo was happy to attend.
Friends of North Chuctanunda Creek celebrated National Trails Day at their first public meeting. There was a discussion of the potential for a pedestrian trail along the North Chuctanunda, the creek which provided water power to many of Amsterdam’s 19th century mills.
“I always loved that building,” said Paul of the Clock Tower. He lived his first 22 years in Amsterdam then, after college in Albany, he and his wife Elizabeth Dye Russo settled in Johnstown, raising two boys and teaching in the Johnstown schools.
Paul’s father, Carl Russo, worked for Bigelow-Sanford for many years. He was top accounting official for the carpet mill in Amsterdam with a huge office and a secretary on the top floor of the Clock Tower.
Terry Barker, who is restoring and developing the building, took Paul and other guests up on the newly restored roof. Paul, who only visited his father at work once when he lived in Amsterdam, said you can see three-quarters of the city from the roof.
Barker has been working on the Clock Tower for over a decade. He has found what works best is to create and rent small spaces for businesses, professionals and artists. Former Mayor Ann Thane has her art studio there.
Carl Russo was born in Amsterdam, skipped sixth grade and graduated from high school in 1926. He married Bernice Kedzior of Amsterdam.
The family lived first on Route 30 but later bought a house from Bigelow-Sanford in a development nicknamed Hollywood on Park Hill, not too far from the Clock Tower.
Carl and Bernice Russo’s first child was a boy they named Paul, who died as a baby. In 1943 came twins Carol and Karen, followed by Paul in 1945 and Janet in 1947.
Carl worked long hours for Bigelow-Sanford and had a side business, a bowling alley on East Main Street. He enjoyed singing at Butch Robertshaw’s Drum and was a bowler and golfer.
Paul remembers Sunday drives in the family car, a 1947 weathered green Chevrolet.
Carl worked for a time at Bigelow-Sanford in Thompsonville, Connecticut.
In 1955 Bigelow-Sanford closed its Amsterdam operation and relocated to Thompsonville. Carl was offered a job at one of their plants in North Carolina. Instead he wound up staying in Amsterdam, working for the city’s other major carpet maker, Mohasco.
Carl developed colon cancer, but Paul said he and his sisters were told it was an obstruction of the bowels. Paul was in eighth grade in 1959 when he saw a robin in early spring, hoping it was a good sign. Carl Russo died that day.
Paul’s mother got a job with the state tax department in Albany. Someone told Paul that he was now the “man of the house.”
Barker said the Clock Tower was constructed in 1922 and occupied by Bigelow-Sanford in 1923. He has assembled most of the parts needed to fix the clock and hopes the four-sided timepiece can be restored next spring.
After the carpet mill left town, toymaker and Cabbage Patch doll creator Coleco eventually used the Clock Tower Building. Coleco made an unsuccessful attempt to enter the home computer market with its Adam computer and went into bankruptcy in 1988.
Paul gave one of his father’s accounting books to Barker. The developer has collected other memorabilia from people who worked in the building.
As Barker refurbishes the manufacturing floors in the structure he tries to preserve the scratches. He said, “Every scratch is a man’s day’s work.”
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Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Sunday, June 18, 2023
58 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 5:55AM
A slight chance of showers between noon and 2pm, then a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high near 78. Calm wind becoming east around 5 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Tonight
Partly cloudy, with a low around 55. East wind around 6 mph becoming calm after midnight.
Tuesday
A slight chance of showers, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 79. East wind around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Mohawk Valley News Headlines, Monday, June 19, 2023
Daily Gazette
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When Credibility Matters
Saratoga Springs could rake in major revenue from potential 2025 Belmont Stakes weekend
SARATOGA SPRINGS – Excitement has been buzzing throughout Saratoga Springs since the New York Racing Association announced that Saratoga Race…
NEW TALES OF OLD DORP: Turning my attention to Schenectady’s Polish immigrants
Schenectady historians tend to focus on the Dutch and English aspects of our collective history. After all, these are the…
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RecorderNews
Hubbard leads Amsterdam Mohawks past Utica in PGCBL
Bryce Hubbard had two hits and three RBIs Sunday to help the Amsterdam Mohawks to a 10-6 Perfect...
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