Ice skating on the Erie Canal

By Bob Cudmore

  Our ancestors used to skate on the Erie Canal in winter.

   In 1887 John Burns was granted permission to have a skating rink at the Port Jackson basin on the canal. The next year the city of Amsterdam annexed the Erie Canal village. 

   The basin gave boats the ability to maneuver and dock in warm weather months and provided a good expanse for skating in winter.

   In 1893 the Amsterdam newspapers reported that “the annual fight for possession of the canal basin is already on.”  P. Donovan and W.L. Hammond were contending for the skating contract.

   In 1897 the firm of Noonan & Currie flooded the basin for skating and would do so the next twenty years.

   Noonan & Currie was a livery stable, a combination rent-a-car and taxi service of the horse drawn era.  

  William J. Currie was born in Little Falls. He came to Amsterdam with his family as a child and lived on High Street.  He was active in Republican politics.

   In 1902 Fred Hoffman, the “boy wonder” of Cohoes, and Rensselaer County champion Peter Connors took part in a two mile race in Amsterdam before a big crowd. The “boy wonder” prevailed.

   Carbonelli’s Band entertained and a carnival was held after the race.

   The newspapers printed rules that year for Currie’s canal basin skating rink. Long skates and shinny sticks, used as hockey sticks, were not allowed.

   During skating sessions, no racing or speeding was permitted.  Also “positively” banned were “boisterous actions and profane language.”  Currie held a skating carnival Christmas afternoon and evening.

  Currie used an old house boat as a warming hut.  It was towed to the skating rink each year from its summer resting place near Fort Hunter.

   “Currie, the skating rink man, has had a hard time of it this winter,” wrote the Recorder in 1907.  Changeable weather kept him from opening the rink until the end of January.

   By 1909 he had installed a phone at the rink and was open Christmas day with music by the Colonial Band.

   A 1944 Recorder article recalled the Erie Canal basin skating rink when prizes were awarded to the “most graceful skaters.”

   The rink was still in use in 1916.  But its days were numbered.

   The old Erie Canal and canal basin in Amsterdam were closed by 1918 as the new Barge Canal was put into the banks of the Mohawk River, not a good recipe for skating.  Currie died in 1923.

    The site of the old skating rink was filled in and is now the Fifth Ward Memorial Park.

  This story was researched by Amsterdam historian and post card collector Jerry Snyder.

DOWNTOWN CONNECTIONS

   Film historian and critic Audrey Kupferberg of Amsterdam remembers business man George Phillips who lived in Cranesville on Route 5.

   A 1960 reconstruction, called the Cranesville Arterial, brought Route 5 next to the Phillips home and the adjacent Temple of Israel Cemetery. 

   Fearing for the safety of motorists, Phillips illuminated his home with 45 lights in the windows and porches. 

   Phillips worked for a knit goods business and was president of a railroad short line.

   Kupferberg said Phillips sported a flower in his lapel every day, “He was a dapper gentleman. He used to walk around downtown. My mother (Rae Kupferberg) enjoyed seeing him at People’s (fabric) Store.  I also remember the lights in the Cranesville house windows… a nice touch so near to the Jewish cemeteries.”

    Audrey said Phillips “simply would stop in or walk by, wave, and say hello.”

   Downtown in the old days was not only a place to shop but also a place to socialize.