For almost 30 years, Karen Chaplin has been getting to know John H. Starin and the home and property he loved high above the Mohawk River a few hundred yards east of the village of Fultonville.
“He was an incredible man who built this incredible estate for himself and his family,” said Chaplin, who bought Starin Place in 1983 and has been slowly restoring the Victorian mansion along with the other buildings on the grounds.
“I fell in love with it, and I knew it had to be saved. But over the years, it’s been misused. It needs kind of a gentle approach.”
A record turnout was expected for Thursday’s CDPHP Workforce Team Challenge, a 3.5-mile road race featuring teams of runners representing corporations, businesses, government agencies, educational institutions, non-for-profit corporations and financial institutions.
Avant-garde entertainers Cirque du Soleil will make the moves for Jackson and shake their bones on Tuesday at the Times Union Center in Albany. In “Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour,” 60 dancers, acrobats and musicians will perform Jackson’s best-known songs in an eclectic, electric animation that is part concert, part circus, part dance party. “Thriller,” “Beat It” and “Billie Jean” are all on the set list.
Attendance topped 450,000 over Jazz Fest’s seven days, biggest since (pre-Katrina) 2003. The San Francisco Chronicle dubbed it “the best damn time on the face of the earth.”
Promenade and performance — during the spring, teenagers dress up for both.
Junior and senior proms put young men and women in tuxedos and gowns. Plays put the same kids on stage for dramatic and comedic exercises — which sound like some prom experiences.
In 1966 and 1970, local high school students were excited for both events. Proms held in high school gymnasiums put musicians like the Kingsmen and Dave Jarvis on the job. Themes were suitably romantic, like “Carousel” at Linton High School and “Somewhere My Love” at Bishop Gibbons High School.
Derek Jeter spoke to 2012 graduates by video at the Times Union Center and his sister appeared in person to accept an honorary doctorate for the Yankees star.
Double play combinations are common in the Galway Central School District. There are 25 sets of twins in the 991-student school complex, grades kindergarten through 12. Fourth-graders Carter and Carson Scribner are the only identical twins. The other 48 kids are fraternal.
1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place and honorable mention winners in the 2012 Student Gazette Photo Competition. Also included are several other photos the judges thought deserved recognition.
President Barack Obama arrived today on his third trip to the Capital Region as president. Gov. Andrew Cuomo was there to greet the president, who spoke later at the University at Albany College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering.
In 1962, Wilma Porter Soss president of the Federation of Women Shareholders in American Business and had made a name for herself by annoying male corporate executives. During the GE Shareholders meeting at the Washington Avenue Armory that spring, which G.E. used to push its “Accent on Value” sales campaign, Soss and federation colleague Beatrice Kelekian dominated the microphone.
“The stockholders are running the meeting and we are permitting you to chair it,” she told Ralph J. Cordiner, G.E.’s chairman of the board. “Now you listen to me. I’m going to say what I have to say.”
One thing Soss wanted was a woman on the board of directors. Cordiner said such an appointment had been long considered by the board.
Schenectady Gazette reporter Peg Churchill noted the chairman had a less contentious conversation with Mrs. M. Dewar Winne. Winne was against secret ballots for voting issues. Other shareholders were more interested in the numbers. G.E. President Gerald L. Phillippe said the 1961 sales of $4,457,000,000 represented the best sales year in company history. Net earnings were $242 million.
“General Electric is determined to grow, strengthening its long established businesses generating new markets and meeting the challenges of lively competition at home and abroad.”
Col. Shawn Clouthier becomes the new commander of the National Guard's 109th Airlift Wing in a ceremony at Stratton Air National Guard Base in Glenville on Saturday.
The Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs had its May Day celebration on Friday at Congress Park in Saratoga Springs. Editor's note: The school has a policy of not identifying its students by last name.
Lawrence the Indian was taken off his pedestal in the Stockade neighborhood of Schenectady on Wednesday for restoration work on his 125-year-old, cast-iron base.
Workers from Buddy's Tree Service from the Town of Day lifted Lawrence off his pedestal.
The faces are dark and disturbing, cold and chiseled. Mouths and eyes are tightly stitched shut, as if to keep the world out.</p>
<p>Nancy Grossman’s notorious “head” sculptures, made of wood covered in black leather, were jaw-dropping when they first appeared in the late 1960s. They were bold and extremely original in an era when figurative art was all but ignored.</p>
<p>Almost a half-century later, Grossman’s potent heads can give you goose bumps.</p>
<p>“She called them ‘her friends.’ They were her company in the studio,” said Tang Teaching Museum curator Ian Berry during a recent tour of “Tough Life Diary,” a 50-year Grossman retrospective that he came up with. “She calls them all ‘her self-portrait.’ ”
Good friends from St. Anthony’s Church assembled in Albany on Tuesday, May 1, 1962.
Right Rev. Monsignor Michael A. Bianco, pastor of the Schenectady parish, led the gathering. Men and women marched in Albany’s annual May Day parade.
People didn’t need a procession to get together during the early 1960s. Members of Schenectady’s IUE-CWA Local 301, International Union of Electronic Workers-Communications Workers of America, met to discuss progress and security in 1960. During the autumn of that year, young people from St. Adalbert’s School in Schenectady showed off new uniforms. In 1962, the gang from Sinkora’s market discussed their beefs on the job — plenty of parties and other gatherings started with a trip to the store.
Actor Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band perform at the Washington Avenue Armory in Albany on Saturday. The concert was held to help raise money for a new home for Tech Sgt. Joe Wilkinson of Nassau, who was injured in Iraq. The Gary Sinise Foundation and The Stephen Siller Tunnel To Towers Foundation have partnered to build Wilkinson a home that he will be able to navigate with ease.
A look inside 1511 New Scotland Road in Slingerlands, which has been restored since it was used in the filming of William Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Ironweed,” starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep.
The state canal system opened a few days early Saturday so vintage planes could make their way from New York City to the Empire State Aerosciences Museum in Glenville.
Mostly A Capella, a Shenendehowa High School choral group, performed for the public at the Friday Morning Free-For-All at the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library.
A ceremony of Remembrance of Homicide Victims was held in the Thomas E. Isabella Pavillion at Central Park on Wednesday afternoon. Family and friends of local homicide victims were on hand.
Rotterdam police and Schenectady County officials announce details of the arrests of three people in connection with a string of incidents in which homemade explosive devices were thrown onto a property on East Claremont Avenue.
The 55th Symphony of Fashion was presented by The League of the Schenectady Symphony Orchestra on Monday at the Glen Sanders Mansion in Scotia. The Fashion show and luncheon is the biggest yearly fundraiser for the Schenectady Symphony. Proceeds from the event will help meet the orchestra's general operating expenses.
Faith and fellowship have been part of Schenectady’s Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church for 140 years now.
The church on Nott Terrace put down roots on March 17, 1872. That was the day members of the Schenectady German Methodist Church met on Jay Street to hear a service by Pastor J.C. Severinghaus, a Lutheran minster from Oswego. The story goes that the group, wishing to re-establish its Lutheran identity, thought the time had come to form their own church — separate from the German Methodist.
Gospel Jubilee in Proctors GE Theatre on Sunday included a special tribute to the late activist, innovator and pastor Dr. Georgetta Dix of Refreshing Springs Church of God In Christ in Schenectady, including a video tribute and musical dedication by the Russ Sisters.
St. George's Episcopal Church in Schenectady held its Patronal Festival on Sunday that included a Mass, kirkin' of the tartans and procession through the Stockade neighborhood.
For nearly 80 years, Bradford Smith’s life has been about photography. In the early 1930s, when he was a young boy, he worked in his grandfather’s darkroom in Ballston Spa. When he was 12, one of his photos was published in Better Homes & Gardens magazine. And that was just the beginning of a long, illustrious career.
Four people were able to escape and three firefighters were hurt battling a blaze that started on the second floor of a house at 1666 Bradley St. in Schenectady on Saturday.
Spring proms and summer weddings are lining up, so guys are lining up to see Sam Vavala for tuxedos at Samuel’s Formal Wear in the Rotterdam Square mall.
The Empire State Aerosciences Museum in Glenville will be receiving aircraft that was on display at The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City.
The Space Shuttle Discovery, mounted on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, flies over the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, Tuesday en route from Kennedy Space Center to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Udvar/Hazy Center at Dulles International Airport. The oldest surviving shuttle, Discovery holds the all-time record with 39 missions, 148 million miles, 5,830 orbits of Earth, and 365 days spent in space. All that was achieved in under 27 years. Photos bv the Associated Press and NASA.
In 1957, state troopers were watching cars and trucks on the state Thruway. For guys like Robert Amszynski and Hyman Pollack, highway patrol was serious business.
Images from Saturday's 2012 Tour of the Battenkill Pro-Am cycling event. The weekend event continues at noon today with the Tour of the Battenkill Pro event.
Ellis Medicine celebrated a project milestone at Bellevue Woman's Center, where plans to modernize and expand the facility are under way. Steel for a two-story addition started going up this week. Community leaders, elected officials and members of the community joined employees, physicians and donors to mark the occasion. The $16.8 million dollar project includes a 32,000 square foot addition built adjacent to the hospital and will be completed by the end of 2012.
Mighty Warriors, Spartans, Blue Streaks and Patriots and other teams around the region are back in the field and at the plate. In 1990 and 1991, young men and women acquitted themselves with honor. Softball pitchers Shane Kozak of Schenectady and Chris Nally of Columbia were throwing missiles. Steve Pelosi was stealing bases for Johnstown. Todd Lucca was knocking out hits for Mohonasen. It’s time to “Play ball!” once again. Local players are back on the same fields used by their baseball and softball ancestors 20 years ago. They’re swinging, slinging, striding and sliding just as hard as the “kids” — now in their mid- to late 30s — did during glory days of the past.
As the days started getting longer, the Life & Arts department got together to talk about what spring means to us, from a reason to shake off winter’s lethargy and start moving again, to the agony of a stuffed-up nose. Here are our signs of spring. Maybe some of them are yours too.
The Union College men’s hockey season didn’t quite end the way everyone on campus had hoped, but fans reminded the team Friday afternoon that they still have plenty to be proud of in becoming the first Union team to reach the Frozen Four.
Union College hockey fans looked on at home and in Tampa, Fla., Thursday as the Dutchmen bowed out of the NCAA Frozen Four Division I Hockey Championships with a 3-1 loss to Ferris State (Mich.). The Dutchmen led early, 1-0, but could not muster any more offense. Meanwhile, Boston College also advanced with a 6-1 win over Minnesota.
As a way to thank customers for their support and to celebrate 34 years of operation, Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops gave away free single scoops of their many flavors on Free Cone Day.
A small ceremony was held this morning on the Union College campus before the men's hockey team boarded the bus to Albany International Airport for a flight to Tampa, Fla., and the NCAA Frozen Four Division I Hockey Championships.
Shades of light green equal spring for some people.
Not for Caroline, Rosie and Michael Versaci. The three Schenectady kids prefer deep purples, bright yellows and hot pinks during April. The colors come out when hard-boiled eggs are on the table and Easter is on the calendar.
April was alive with activity in 1966.
The Capital District Women’s Press Association, high-stepping student nurses, dancing teenagers, the “Man of the Year” and even “Miss 400 Astrojet” were seen on the scene.
Editors and writers for the Schenectady Gazette visited Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller and his wife, Margaretta “Happy” Rockefeller, at the executive mansion. Women from other local newspapers, radio stations and television stations were also part of the party, part of the formation of the Capital District Women’s Press Association.
Women from Ellis Hospital’s School of N
Scenes from Sunday's Mechanicville/Halfmoon Tenandeho Canoe Association White Water Derby. Thirty-four canoeists and kayakers signed up to brave the rocks and the rapids
Brown School hosted a special gala event, "Our Story," Saturday night at River Stone Manor in Glenville to celebrate and recognize the interwoven histories of the school and the city and county of Schenectady.
The 31st annual Dairy Fashions Sale on Saturday at SUNY Cobleskill is the Dairy Cattle Club’s largest annual fundraiser. Proceeds benefit the Dairy Fashion Scholarship for SUNY Cobleskill freshmen, the club’s activities and expenses and donations to the community.
The Health and Safety Committee of IAFF Local 28 and the Schenectady Permanent Firemen’s Association sponsored the Run 4 Your Life 5K run in Central Park in Schenectady on Saturday.
The home of the championship-seeking Union College men's hockey team was taken over by a four-day benefit tournament featuring adult women's hockey. The sixth annual Stick it to Brain Tumors fundraiser started Thursday and features 12 teams of various skill levels from New York, Connecticut and Vermont.
Spring, and waters of the Tenandeho Creek are on the move. If waters are churning in spots around Mechanicville, it means Donald Patneaude is also on the move. Patneaude will be among the paddlers in today’s 39th annual Tenandeho Whitewater Derby, which begins at noon at Coons Crossing off Route 67.
There were no action photos in the 1860s, but the stunning images that men like Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner and others captured during the Civil War more than enlightened the home front about the horrors of those four tragic years. “Between the States: Photographs From the American Civil War,” a traveling exhibit on loan from the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, opened Saturday and runs through May 13 at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown.
Matthew Slocum was sentenced to 88 years to life in prison Friday for murdering three family members, including his mother, and burning their house down in July 2010.
Students at Schoharie High School got to take their pick Friday from over 300 prom dresses that were donated to the flood-stricken community as part of Project Cinderella. For more on Project Cinderella, go to www.dailygazette.com/news/2012/mar/29/0329_prom.
A sure sign of spring could be seen this week at Foster Sheep Farm in Schuylerville, where curious newborn lambs, many just 5 days old, joined their mothers in checking out Gazette photographer Patrick Dodson.
The R.J. McNulty Academy for International Studies and Literacy hosted its first Soup-er Story Night at the school in Amsterdam last Thursday. Participants spent an hour taking part in several spelling soup-themed activities and ended the night by enjoying bowls of assorted soups.
There’s no doubt about it, Americans like their yogurt. It’s a simple food, made mainly from milk, which can be enjoyed by itself or used in a variety of dishes, including dips, sauces and baked goods. The variety of yogurts available has multiplied immensely in past decades. Greek yogurt is one of the latest trends. Sales of this type of yogurt have increased from $60 million to $1.5 billion over the past five years, largely because of its creamier texture and higher protein content.
For more than 30 years now, various politicians, civil engineers, businessmen and all kinds of entrepreneurial spirits have debated how best to use the Corning Preserve.
Since that area, a small strip of land between downtown Albany and the Hudson River, was first dedicated as the Corning Preserve in 1978, work has been done to enhance its parklike presence and to improve its accessibility from downtown. And, while many grandiose plans to enhance the area have been scrapped or put on the shelf, the Corning Preserve has nonetheless evolved into a nice escape from the urban landscape of downtown Albany.
Aluminum and Arongen. Science, “Stardust,” scholars and spokes. All these, plus an appearance by Dilly the Clown, were part of the Schenectady Gazette during the spring of 1989. The aluminum initiative was Tim Sweeney’s project at the State University of New York at Cobleskill. The freshman student and some of his friends wanted to help cut the federal deficit, and decided to collect cans and bottles to raise some dough. The plan was a response to President George H.W. Bush’s call for more volunteerism in America.
Storm Aid, a group formed to help victims of last summer's flooding in Greene, Schenectady, Montgomery and Schoharie counties, hosted 'A Spring Fling' to benefit flood victims at the Holiday Inn on Nott Terrace in Schenectady Saturday.
About half of the 52 artworks at this year's Photo Regional at the Opalka Gallery are fairly straightforward, but the other half are a mix of digital collage, video, mixed-media, images made with surveillance cameras, and lenticular Plexiglas. It’s a bit mechanical and emotionless for those of us who don’t understand these technical processes.
The Upper Hudson Maple Producers Association hosted a Maple Open House Weekend March 17-18, allowing the public to take a free tour of area sugarhouses and see maple syrup being made.
The "A Night of Hope" tour by the Joel Osteen Ministries made a stop Friday night before a large crowd at the Times Union Center in Albany. Billed as
"an inspirational night of hope, worship and encouragement," the tour is making stops in 11 cities across the nation.
Mechanicville's post-season run came to an end as the Red Raiders dropped an 80-73 decision to Tuckahoe in the state Class C semifinals at the Glens Falls Civic Center Friday.
Mekeel Christian Academy in Scotia held a dress rehersal Monday for "The Sound of Music," the first production in the school's new auditorium. The play opens Thursday and continues through Saturday.
Actor Gary Sinise was in Albany Monday to announce a concert featuring his band to raise funds to build a home for wounded war veteran Sgt. Joe Wilkinson.
St. Patrick’s Day always means celebrations — parades, corned beef sandwiches, songs, dance and pints of ale. In 1966, young members of Schenectady’s Ancient Order of Hibernians posed for photos. In 1977, city Mayor Frank J. Duci helped raise the Irish flag in Veterans’ Park. Duci had company — flag-maker Molly Corrigan, A.O.H. secretary Toni Doherty and Hibernians president Richard Doherty were all part of the ceremony.
One of the most celebrated and colorful local Irish traditions is the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Albany. Over the years, Irish cheerleaders, sign carriers, costume wearers and musicians have entertained thousands of spectators.
The Union College Dutchmen entertain RPI in Game 2 of their best-of-three ECAC Hockey series Saturday night with an eye on clinching a berth in the ECAC Final Four in Atlantic City.
The Saratoga Area Girl Scouts, which includes about 700 girls and adult volunteers in Saratoga Springs, Greenfield and Wilton, held its annual jamboree Saturday, celebrating the 100th birthday of the Girl Scouts.
Jared Falvo's great-grandfather, Nicholas Falvo, opened Schenectady Auto Service on Van Vranken Avenue in the late 1930s, on the site of the current Yates Village housing development. The garage moved to its current location, Van Vranken and Maxon Road Extension, in 1947. Jared’s grandfather Jack Falvo Sr. later ran the business; it is now owned by his uncle, Nick Falvo Sr.
March brought neither lions nor lambs to Helen George and her friends. They got costumes and scripts — as members of the Schenectady Junior League, they rehearsed songs and routines for the “Junior League Follies” in the last month of winter in 1982. Other groups also were not concerned with the winds and snows of March in 1982. Seamstresses in the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Women’s Club competed in a sewing contest. The “Four in Harmony” unit of the Metro-Belles of Harmony participated in the “Barbershop Extravaganza” at Niskayuna High School. Students at Mont Pleasant High School were part of the College Preparatory Technical Program and studying subjects such as computer programming and architecture.
Sherene Fedor, 17, reacts as she sees her bedroom for the first time after a team of volunteers from Union College did a two-day makeover of the room. Fedor has acute lymphocytic leukemia.
Averill Park was too much for Scotia-Glenville in the Class A Girls Section II final at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy on Saturday. The Warriors won, 41-33.
With a defensive stand at one end of the court and a last-second drive at the other, Scotia-Glenville earned a bit of payback, as well as a Section II championship opportunity, Friday night.
The Scotia-Glenville Pipe Band hosted the Fifth Annual Celtic Jam, featuring the Braemar Highland Dancers, on Friday night at Scotia-Glenville High School.
The season's first major snow waited until Leap Year Day and March 1 before making its arrival. For some, it meant bother, and for others it meant fun.
Big Time Rush performs a sold-out concert Monday night at The Palace Theater in Albany. The popular boy band includes James Maslow, Kendall Schmidt, Logan Henderson and Carlos Pena Jr.
A prayer service for victims of a school shooting was held at Chardon Assembly of God in Chardon, Ohio Monday. A gunman opened fire inside the high school's cafeteria at the start of the school day Monday, killing two students and wounding three others.
Legendary actor Kirk Douglas, 95, who grew up in Amsterdam and Schenectady, made an appearance on Sunday night at the Vanity Fair party before the 84th Academy Awards in Hollywood.
Former American Locomotive employees are being invited by the ALCO Heritage Museum to share their memories of the plant that for more than 100 years dominated the city landscape along Maxon Road. Saturday from 10 a.m. until noon at Niskayuna High School, oral histories will be collected and later deposited with the ALCO Heritage Museum on Maxon Road Extension.
It wasn’t even noon yet on a Saturday in early February at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market, but Tom Choiniere had already had a long day. But he wasn’t tired. Launching into another folk-rock original, he grinned as he looked over the microphone at the customers browsing the vendor booths. This is what he loves about playing here the most — the people.
There’s something special about St. Peter’s. The Rev. Paul Hartt felt it the very first time he walked into the building. “There’s this sense that the very walls are saturated with prayer,” said Hart, who took over as rector at St. Peter’s Protestant Episcopal Church at 107 State St. in Albany seven years ago. “There’s a real holiness as you walk into the place that is palpable. It makes you quiet. You get that transcendent feeling that a good church should create.”
Game action and celebration photos from Saratoga's third consecutive Section II hockey championship, a 5-1 win over Shenendehowa at Union College's Messa Rink Thursday night.
When Kim Lisinicchia was 11 years old, her grandmother in Savannah, Ga., taught her how to make fried chicken, collard greens and sweet potato pie Her grandma didn’t use a cookbook, and her precious recipes were never written down. “You can’t really cook soul food from a recipe, it’s from your heart,” says Lisinicchia, a mother of two who lives in Saratoga Springs. “It’s all about watching.”
Clyde C. Johnson and J.E. Kelly had vision — they wanted to turn Schenectady into a Northeast version of the Gulf Coast.
The partners opened 12 Gulf gasoline stations in the city during the 1930s and ’40s. They also bought a 13th station and registered the business under their wives’ names — kind of an insurance policy, in case problems hit the core assets.
The gas guys also knew about advertising and promotion. They dressed employees in World War I gear and declared “war” on unsafe tires during the 1930s. They billed their new gas house at Union and Dean streets as a “super service station,” with six Gulf “bubble-topped” pumps and two repair bays.
Another station at State and Chestnut streets was built to look like a medieval castle.
At the First Reformed Church of Schenectady, the beat drives an informal evening service. The church’s Jazz Vespers program has been attracting fans of faith and fellowship for the past two years.
“It’s a different offering, a different kind of worship that’s mostly listening to reflective music,” said the Rev. Bill Levering, First Reformed’s senior pastor and a jazz aficionado.
“The particular genre is jazz because it seems to be cross-cultural, cross-class, and it appeals to lots of different kinds of people. So in the church it functions for us pretty well. It’s relaxing.”
Saratoga Springs hosted the 25th annual Flurry Festival this weekend. The dance festival features more than 400 performers, 300 staff and volunteers and attendance nearing 5,000 during the three-day event at venues including the Saratoga Music Hall, Hilton and City Center.
Paul Adkins does a little bit of everything at Sportsmans, which he owns with partners Mike Guidarelli and Bob Tedesco Jr. He can fix problems with assorted bowling machines; update Sportsmans’ website; tend bar; and cook cheeseburgers, corn dogs and “Uncle Paul’s Pizza” at the snack bar.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand hosting a Capital Region Women's Economic Empowerment Roundtable at the Midtown Tap and Tea Room in Albany on Friday, February 17, 2012.
Fifty years ago this month, many Americans were space happy. On Tuesday, Feb. 20, 1962, astronaut John Glenn became the fifth person in space, the third American in space and the first American to orbit Earth aboard the Friendship 7 space capsule. In Schenectady, people also became stamp happy. The city’s post office had become one of 300 offices in the nation to receive boxes of the blue, 4-cent “Project Mercury” stamps, which showed a space capsule in orbit above Earth. Space and stamp mission were joined by science, snow, sweetheart and showgirl missions. Two thousand people attended the fifth annual Science Fair at Oneida Junior High School.
February 1962 was also a great month for sled launches. The Capital Region received 341⁄2 inches of snow that month, a total that remains the record for February.
The sidewalks were slushy, but that did not slow down the Empire State Capital Volkssporters one bit. The bundled-up group of 30 walked briskly down Broadway toward Tricentennial Park as they started their 10K Albany Capital and Revolutionary War Historical “volkswalk” on a sunny late January Sunday.
When Ginger Ertz plays with pipe cleaners, colorful sea creatures emerge from her hands. Organic and abstract, they look like sea shells, coral and jellyfish. Clinging together, they form mesmerizing tidepools of texture and color. For the past nine years, the Schenectady artist has twisted, braided and knotted thousands and thousands of fuzzy pipe cleaners into imaginative sculptures. Last year, Ertz had her first Capital Region solo show at Schenectady High School’s Butzel Gallery, and in 2010 her sculptures appeared in the prestigious Mohawk-Hudson Regional exhibit at The Hyde Collection.
It was a proclamation for Rev. Carl B. Taylor, a demonstration for Sonja Kaye, and experimentation and exultation for Harold Goodwin and John Curtin.
The Rotterdam Elks offered an explanation, while members of the Helderberg Square Dance Club participated in a celebration.
The new Boy Scouts at the Carver Community Center in Schenectady thought about preparation. Mary Caroline Powers of the Schenectady Community Ambassador Project helped plan exploration for a world traveler.
The Schenectady Environmental Clearinghouse thought about conservation. The Niskayuna Consumers Cooperative considered inflation.
They were all inspirations during February 1972.
As the New York Giants took on the New England Patriots, local fans took sides and watched the game on the big screen at Vapor Night Club in Saratoga Springs.
People associate stereo with listening.
Melody Davis wants them to link stereo with vision.
Davis, an assistant art professor at Sage College of Albany, on Friday helped open the exhibit “Victorian Narrative Stereography: 1855-1910” in the college’s Little Gallery in Rathbone Hall. Visitors will see visual marvels of the 1800s — a time when stereographs and stereoscope viewing devices were prime attractions for the home box office.
Each stereo picture card has two images side by side. The images are almost exactly alike, two perspectives of the same object. A minor deviation in the photos is necessary to achieve a 3-D effect when viewed with special lenses.
If you go to the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival, wear a warm jacket and sturdy boots. Whether you’re ogling the majestic Ice Palace, smacking a baseball with snowshoes on your feet or watching curlers slide their stones across a frozen lake, it’s all about having fun in the bracing Adirondack air. “Even events that could be held indoors are held outdoors,” said carnival chairman Jeff Dickson.
Order, order — the first January business at many clubs and fraternal organizations in the Capital Region is the introduction and installation of new officers.
Members of volunteer fire departments and their auxiliaries, Free and Accepted Masons, the Odd Fellows, the Toastmasters, the Abruzzese Society and the Laziale Society held gavels and wore smiles for the ceremonies in 1970.
Manny Lucero, a Mexican featherweight who fights out of Albany, took on undefeated Irish featherweight champion Patrick Hyland in Atlantic City on Jan. 28. Lucero lost by decision. Gazette columnist Carl Strock was there to observe and take these photos.
Schenectady fire and police personnel respond to a stabbing in a parking lot behind the Bank of America at 500 State St. in Schenectady at about 8 a.m. today. One woman was transported to Ellis Hospital. Police have another woman in custody, according to reports from the scene.
Fifty years ago, an Atlas rocket launched John Glenn into space, where he became the first American to orbit Earth and the third to travel into space. His flight was the sixth of the Mercury series, the first space program of the United States.
In July of 1877, Col. Robert Furman looked north from his home at the corner of Smith and Lafayette streets in Schenectady and watched as the German Catholic community began building its elegant new edifice just a few yards away. A prominent member of the Stockade neighborhood’s First Reformed Church and a man described as “most liberal and charitable,” Furman undoubtedly welcomed his new neighbors. But if you told him that 50 years later St. Joseph’s Catholic Church would be in possession of his beautiful, two-story brick house and using it as the rectory, Furman — also referred to as the “Father of Greater Schenectady” — probably wouldn’t have believed it.
Anthony Lawton decided to heavy it up right away. At 1 p.m., big bass and guitar notes from heavy metal band Mastodon filled the room, and Lawton prepared to drop color into the left side of Len Bohley’s chest. The 34-year-old Lawton, who lives in Rotterdam and has been leaving his mark on men and women since 1998, had already stenciled the pattern into friend Bohley’s pectoral — a large skull with swirls behind it. He dabbed his tattoo machine with black ink and began etching deep black lines around the “teeth” of the boney face.
When it comes to creating a special wedding cake , you need more than flour, eggs and sugar. You even need more than imagination. You need some artistic skill. There are many wonderful cakes to be had in the Capital Region, thanks to the talents of local bakers at places such as Crisan in Albany and Villa Italia in Schenectady.
Your bridal bouquet will be one of your most memorable accessories, so let your taste and style shine through. Keeping fashion trends in mind and joining them with your own personality are vital when it comes to selecting your bouquet and all of your wedding flowers.
Some wedding dresses leave a legacy beyond the next-day knockoff from Kate Middleton's Alexander McQueen stunner to Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's simple tank — and especially Queen Victoria 's white ball gown —changed the way brides dressed for years to come.
Here are some examples.
Ralph Slater must have remembered the old World War II line, “Smoke ’em if you’ve got ’em.”
The master hypnotist was out of cigarettes. But he had a couple of young guys at Schenectady’s Van Curler Hotel on Feb. 28, 1961, and decided to light them up.
Slater was president of the International Academy of Hypnotism, and had been booked for five shows at Proctor’s Theatre. Other people were more concerned with cool fingers during the winters of the early 1960s. They were on sleds and skates, and made the most of winter. Some decided they’d stay indoors, and found diversions at the Schenectady YMCA and Boys’ Club.
Cub and boy scouts from throughout the region gathered at Camp Boyhaven in Middle Grove this weekend for the annual Klondike Derby and Deep Freeze. The winter skills event, now in its 49th year, featured a sledge race and other competitions in first aid, cooking, map and compass, ice rescue, fire building and emergency shelter. Meanwhile, scouts also camped out Saturday night, cooking supper and breakfast and sleeping in tents.
Members of the 501st Ordinance Battalion of the New York Army National Guard were welcomed home Saturday from a deployment to Iraq during a Freedom Salute Ceremony at the Stratton Air National Guard Base in Glenville.
Jill Fishon-Kovachick fell in love with clay at summer camp when she was 11. “Once I put my hands in it, I couldn’t get enough of it,” she said. Last year, after working as an adjunct professor in ceramics at Skidmore College for 17 years, she launched a new career in the field, founding Saratoga Clay Arts Center in Schuylerville, a place where others could discover the art form or deepen their own love affair with the earthy medium.
Two members of the 109th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard detailed Friday the evacuation earlier this month of seven badly burned fishermen from a South Korean fishing vessel off the coast of Antarctica to New Zealand.
Students perform on the set at the Nott Memorial at Union College for a remake of Martin Luther King Jr.'s iconic 17-minute “I Have a Dream” speech, which was delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 1963. The project was titled "His Dream Lives On."
January is prime time for high-school basketball. In 1988 and 1989, young men and women from Linton and Mont Pleasant high schools in Schenectady, Shenendehowa in Clifton Park, Saratoga Springs, Niskayuna and Mohonasen in Rotterdam were among basketeers who laced up and checked in to big games.
A coalition of Schenectady County service organizations is pitching in to help residents of flood-ravaged Rotterdam Junction to rehabilitate their homes.
Hundreds of people turned out Thursday to check out job opportunities at GlobalFoundaries at a career fair hosted by the company at the Saratoga County Administration Building in Ballston Spa.
During the 1960s, many trusted their cars to the man who wore the star — the big, red Texaco star.
Others decided to visit the “arrow,” the animated red arrow that was part of the big yellow sign at Sunoco.
Some drove to the big orange “Gulf” ball, the rotating sign at bunches of Gulf service stations. A few might have preferred the familiar yellow sea “Shell,” where attendants always claimed that “Service is our business.”
Those were days when men at the station routinely checked engine oil, washed windshields and handled gas nozzles themselves. Gasolines had exotic names such as “Fire Chief” and “Sky Chief” at Texaco; “Super Marine” “No-Nox” and “Gulftane” at Gulf; Sunoco “Blue”; and “Super Shell.”
The economic climate of the past three years has certainly affected the musical instrument business, but not always in the expected ways. There were rough patches last year. But it wasn’t all doom and gloom. In early 2011, Parkway Music, a fixture in Clifton Park for the past 18 years, moved to a new building at 1777 Route 9, two miles down the road from its old location. Drome Sound in Schenectady also found a new home last year, moving into the building that used to house Latham Paint, 1875 State St.
During the noon lunch hour, Gina Ruggiero and other countermen and women at Ruggiero’s Pizza, Deli & Catering slice, stack, sauté, bake and wrap plenty of dietary diversions. At noon on Wednesday, customers began filling the delicatessen in Socha Plaza off Saratoga Road in Glenville.
Schenectady firefighters battle a blaze on Avenue B in the city's Northside section. The houses are situated behind Yates Magnet School off Van Vranken Avenue.
"Policewoman” was a new title in Schenectady during the spring of 1948.
Patricia McCann was the new employee with the badge. On March 29, the 22-year-old was appointed the first female officer in the police department.
The job was part of a new plan to deal with juvenile delinquency. McCann would work with boys, girls and women and, with partner Joseph Monaco, create the department’s Youth Aid Bureau.
This time of year, resolutions about maintaining one’s fitness usually require a daily visit to the gym. Some people, however, prefer another option. “Hiking is great exercise, and since I started going to the Plotter Kill, I canceled my gym membership,” said Guilderland resident Ed Atkeson.
January is known for white snowflakes. And red garnets. Each month gets a signature gem — a birthstone — for people who want constant reminders of the time they were born.
As part of its programming for a school holiday week, the Schenectady Museum & Suits-Bueche Planetarium offered Hands-on Science Activities on Thursday.
Burnt Hills/Ballston Spa turned back Guilderland/Mohonasen 4-2 Wednesday in the championship game of the Mohawk 2011 Holiday Tournament at Schenectady County Recreational Facility.
Adults, teens and kids helped raise money for Habitat for Humanity of Schoharie County by building with Legos at a Lego Build-a-Thon on Tuesday at the Canajoharie Library and Arkell Museum.
Images from Monday's Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert at the Times Union Center in Albany. The progressive rock group has sold more than 8 million albums and tours regularly with its multi-dimensional art form of the rock opera.
Since Nov. 11, Santa and Jonathan Ment have been guests at the Rotterdam Square shopping mall off Campbell Road. Mr. Claus has been greeting his young admirers; photographer Ment has snapped pictures of the Claus encounters.
There are certain houses around the region that are famous to visitors who have never met the owners and don’t even know their names. What they do know is they can count on seeing a magnificent Christmas light display.
The 4th Annual Ugly Sweater Bar Crawl, a fundraiser for Franklin Community Center, took place at City Tavern on Caroline Street in Saratoga Springs on Friday.
When Maria Cimino of Rotterdam first started collecting nutcrackers 10 years ago, she didn’t anticipate her collection would grow to more than 100 unique examples.
Occupy Albany tents were removed from Academy Park on Thursday, which led to a march around Albany with the last tent, and a scuffle between protesters and police that resulted in numerous people getting pepper-sprayed.
The Mechanicville City School District kicked off the Positive Behavior Intervention and Support universal initiative for students in grades 6-12 through a series of events this week. Students learn why it's important to "Keep it R.E.A.L" in and outside the classroom, as teachers unveiled the guiding core principles of PBIS and what it will mean to them. Students will focus on respect, effort, acceptance and leadership, as well as responsibility, attitude and learning. One of the events held on Thursday afternoon was an assembly including a performance by local band Ten Year Vamp.
There may not be any snow on the ground just yet, but there was a snowy owl observed in a tree in Rotterdam on Saturday morning. Resident Cerissa Contakos captured these photos.
Eddie Stanley,a former Schenectady High School basketball who was shot and killed in June, was remembered in a ceremony prior to the Albany at Schenectady game Friday night.
Fire and ice were part of holiday celebrations in 1970 and 1971. The ice came first. On Thursday, Dec. 17, 1970, 16 inches of snow fell in the Capital Region. Some people — like Sandy Hotaling of Schenectady — took the weather with good cheer. Even though she had broken her snow brush as she worked to clear her car, Sandy had a smile for the situation. Fire came as local synagogues prepared for Hanukkah. In 1970, the festival of lights began at sunset on Dec. 22. In 1971, Hanukkah began at sunset on Dec. 12. Candles were lit by all observing the holy days. Drummers and singers were on the move during the holiday season. The junior choir of Schenectady’s Second Reformed Church prepared for Christmas appearances.
For more than 100 years, Presbyterians had a foothold in the Goose Hill section of Schenectady, but today that’s no longer the case. Still, the building and the beautiful sanctuary that was once home to the Westminster United Presbyterian Church on the corner of Avenue A and Mason Street remains a house of worship, The Everlasting Life Church of God in Christ.
For five Capital Region residents, Christmas is children, gifts for loved ones and cookies fresh from the oven. They wrote stories about their favorite December memories for The Daily Gazette’s “Happy Holidays” writing contest.
Uncle Sam’s Homemade Chocolates have earned good reputations, and that’s one reason customers call and visit Deb Butler. As floor supervisor of the sweets shop on Albany Street in Schenectady, the girl from Uncle also manages personnel.
A ceremony Wednesday marks the opening of Angelo's Prime Bar & Grill, located on the first floor of the Hilton Garden Inn at the Clifton Park Center Mall.
Who knows what Carly Reynolds was thinking on Wednesday, Dec. 20, 1989? One guy knew — Santa Claus. Mr. Claus was preparing for his big night out on Dec. 24, but still had time to visit Carly and her friends at the nursery school of Woodlawn Reformed Church.
The Siena and University at Albany men's basketball teams met Monday night at the Times Union Center in Albany in the annual renewal of their Albany Cup rivalry.
The snowman on Whitney Drive in Niskayuna looked cool and comfortable.
An early December snowstorm in 1981 had brought the coal-eyed fellow in the top hat to life. The weather also energized others in the Capital Region.
Laurie Wolkodoff skied in Saratoga Springs. Adrienne Korkosz tried the sliding in Schenectady.
Dave Haverly and his friends from the Mohawk Valley Van Club collected toys for the Schenectady County Christmas Bureau at Jumpin’ Jack’s drive-in restaurant. Eddie Campbell and company did the same thing for young pals at the Carver Community Center.
All Scott Stewart wants for Christmas is snow. He built a 7-foot toboggan last month during a woodworking seminar at the Adirondack Folk School in Luke Luzerne. “It’s really satisfying to make something with my own hands, to go back to these basic skills that we’ve been doing as humans for thousands of years,” he said
More than 1,500 people were expected to attend Albany Medical Center’s 28th annual Dancing in the Woods black tie gala Friday inside the former Macy’s store at Crossgates Mall. The event benefitted the Melodies Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders at Albany Medical Center.
A woman driving a Honda CRV died this morning in a three-vehicle crash on I-88. Her car was crushed in an accident involving a tractor-trailer, which appeared to be in front of the CRV, and a Saturn sedan that appeared to be behind the CRV. The driver of the Saturn was extricated and suffered minor injuries while the truck driver was uninjured.
Businesses like Four Corners Tire in Perth are seeing busy days recently with customers getting snow tires and all-weather tires put on their automobiles before the snow starts falling.
Everyone’s busy around the holiday season.
December parties mean folks put on festive ties and gowns … and put in a few extra calories.
In 1970, some prepared for a happy yuletide. Others received early gifts. And still others just went to work.
Longtime Capital Region publicist Ed Lewi wore a big smile as he was presented an award from the Schenectady YMCA. Lewi had recently headed the organization’s membership drive. Cornell University student John Bradley received a plaque from Mayfair-Burnt Hills Kiwanis Club President Joseph Magish, and a smile from Saratoga County’s Mary Flascher. Bradley had spent a year in Africa; Flascher had spent time as the county’s alternate dairy princess.
Scotia firefighters decorated their station on Mohawk Avenue. And local Marines and postal workers mobilized for the Toys for Tots program,
Fans of dance, music and fantasy know what to expect when the curtain rises on “The Nutcracker.”
Ballerinas dance as toy dolls, flexible flowers and elegant snowflakes. Magical uncles bring handsome wooden soldiers to life to defend home and hearth against evil mice. Glamorous sugar plum fairies, noble cavaliers and tall Christmas trees are also on stage.
November and December bring several local productions of the famous holiday show. Each “Nutcracker” offers something different — surprises for people who might not be expecting twists and unusual characters in the yuletide story based on “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” written in 1816 by Germany’s E.T.A. Hoffmann.
With winter just around the corner, residents of Schoharie are still struggling to overcome the flooding that devastated the village nearly three months ago.
The halls of Amsterdam's City Hall are decked out with many holiday wreathes as part of a fundraiser to help Old Fort Johnson recover from flood damage last summer.
Shoppers throughout the Capital Region queued up as early as Thanksgiving night to begin the quest for bargains as the tradition known as Black Friday kicked off the holiday season.
The Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake football team took its drive for a state championship to the Carrier Dome in Syracuse on Friday, where it faced Maine-Endwell in the finals.
When nobody’s looking, the miniature dolls on Deb Crosby’s evergreen might walk across branches and take naps — bunches of small but comfortably furnished birch wood nests are hanging on the boughs.
“These are the kinds of things I used to make for my kids when they were younger,” said Crosby, who lives in Rotterdam. “My daughter just got married. I think grandchildren are on my mind.”
The holiday season will come to mind for people visiting the fifth annual “Festival of Trees,” co-sponsored by the Schenectady County Historical Society and its Washington Avenue neighbor, the YWCA. The show opens Friday and runs through Sunday, Dec. 11.
Decorated trees will soon sparkle and shine throughout the Capital Region and beyond.
No Thanksgiving dinner is complete without pie for dessert. that holiday tradition makes for busy days for the staff at Smith Bros. Farm & Orchard Bake Shop in Charlton.
Seattle Mariners outfielder Casper Wells, a 2002 graduate of Schenectady High School, met with the students at Van Corlaer Elementary School in Schenectady on Tuesday.
While there are lots of ways the Capital Region fancies itself up for the holidays, our outdoor light displays are often spectacular. Vote for your favorites here, and send us photos of your own display for others to enjoy.
There are no prizes, but we will write about some of the top vote-getters.
To submit your photo, click <a href="http://www.dailygazette.com/let-lights-shine/"popup="800,600"> here </a>.
SUNY students from across the state gathered to protest student loan debt and tuition increases by pushing a paper-mache boulder up State Street and delivering a failing report card to Governor Cuomo's office on Monday, November 21, 2011.
For guys who grew up in Schenectady’s Third Ward, the night before Thanksgiving has always been boys’ night out.
They meet at the Schenectady Veterans of World War II Hall on Union Street, have a few beers and settle the world.
Conversation was on tap Nov. 25, 1987. And while guys like “Rockhead,” “The Roamer” and “Joe Plastic” were toasting friendship on the fourth Wednesday of the month, other people were doing other things in a month of “Novembrances.”
The Schenectady Choral Society performed a free concert at the Schenectady County Library. Local fashion models decided to show off dresses and gowns they had made themselves. Arts and crafts fans prepared bazaars and rummage sales.
Occupy Albany protesters marked the one-week anniversary of arrests at Lafayette Park on Saturday, November 19th, by organizing one of the biggest crowds since the start of the protest on month ago.
Crowds lined Main Street for blocks and waved at honking fire trucks and colorful floats as the ninth annual Classic Image Johnstown Holiday Parade drew more than 1,000 people Friday night.
Paul Pownall and his friends — student chefs at Schenectady County Community College’s highly regarded culinary arts school — have different appetites for the fourth Thursday in November.
Pownall must have sausage lasagna on his holiday table. Kara Lindsay Shoen prefers her mother’s oyster stuffing. Shannon Dowen-Ronda makes cinnamon crème brûlée for Thanksgiving dessert. Michelle Anaya-Malone begins festivities with lumpia — Filipino spring rolls.
Protesters continue to stay in Lafayette Park in Albany past the 11 P.M. curfew and subject themselves to arrest by the State Police. On Tuesday night only three protesters were arrested as a small crowd and local television crews watched from the sidewalk.
The third annual Girls’ Day Out, presented by the Schenectady County Working Group on Girls brought together 150 middle school girls from the Schenectady City School District to teach them how to make positive choices, build and maintain healthy relationships and live healthy lifestyles and also gave them a chance to tap into their creativity.
Regal Entertainment Group opened its new Regal Stadium cinemas Monday at Clifton Park Center. Discounted movies and concessions were also part of the attraction.
There was always something cooking in the kitchen at Felix and Caroline’s place. Spaghetti, ravioli, veal and peppers, and eggplant parmigiana were generally on the stove and in the oven. Petta’s Kitchen at 134 Duane Ave. opened in 1951, and fans of Italian food have been visiting ever since. The Petta’s staff has entertained celebrities over the years. Actor Anthony Quinn was in once, and so was basketball star Elvin Hayes. Hayes was in town for a game against the Schaefer Brewers, the local hoop all-star team of the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1961, television stars Howard Duff and Annie Fargue visited for a late-night dinner.
24 "Occupy Albany" protesters were arrested by State Police after they refused to leave Lafayette Park at the 11 P.M. curfew on Saturday night. Lafayette Park is the state-owned park next to the city-owned half where protesters have been camped out since last month.
The city of Amsterdam celebrated Veterans Day with a ceremony and parade at the World War I Memorial and Veteran's Park on Guy Park Ave. on Friday morning.
Schalmont defeated Lowville 2-0 in overtime in Class B and Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake blanked Jamestown-DeWitt 3-0 in Class A in girls soccer regionals on Tuesday.
On a Monday night exactly 100 years ago this week, two men knocked on the front door of 17 Jay St. in Schenectady. They wanted to see George Lunn.
A former minister at the First Reformed Church, Lunn was running for political office, and the next day he would be elected the city’s first and only Socialist mayor. First, however, he had to play ball with the bosses of his newly adopted political party, and that meant signing an agreement the night before the election assuring Socialists everywhere, but particularly those in New York state, that he would follow the dictates of the party leaders or give up the mayor’s office.
Scenes from the Schenectady Business and Professional Women's Club's 35th Annual Fashion Show and Woman of the Year Celebration at Glen Sanders Mansion in Scotia on Sunday.
Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake rallied in the closing seconds of Saturday night’s Section II Class A Super Bowl for a 26-23 victory over Amsterdam at Shenendehowa's Steuerwald Stadium. For the Spartans, it was their fourth straight championship.
Unbeaten Schalmont posted its third straight Section II Class B football championship, edging Albany Academy, 36-35, in overtime Saturday afternoon at Steuerwald Stadium.
Mark, a husky guy in sunglasses, black leather jacket and a full blond-and-gray beard, approached my father at the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. He was quick with a handshake. And kind words. “Thank you for your service,” he told my dad, Harold “Jeff” Wilkin Jr. of Rochester, who spent the first half of the 1940s with the U.S. Army Air Force during WWII.
My 90-year-old father knows few motorcycle guys like Mark, a road captain with the Winston-Salem chapter of the national Harley Owners Group cycle club. But he met bunches of riders — and fellow veterans — during an Honor Flight out of Rochester on Sept. 17.
The Honor project has been around for a few years now — veterans from around the country are flown to Washington to see the inspiring war memorials and accept thanks from a grateful public. Folks who run the plane rides and sightseeing tours think the fliers, sailors, soldiers, nurses and support staffers never received grand welcomes home when the war ended in 1945. Days and nights in Washington are meant to be long-overdue celebrations.
Shaker's Cat Crummey battles Guilderland's Gaby Peda in the Section II girls high school tennis championship singles match Tuesday at Sporttime in Schenectady. Crummey won her third straight title.
Talk about weird science — giant chickens, living fly traps, leering vampires and sneering witches used to be common sights inside the Schenectady Museum.
But only during October. During the 1970s, Friends of the Schenectady Museum were on the grounds for frightening fundraisers. There was usually something for everyone; adults could chuckle at a poor soul simmering in a soup pot, while small children could visit a pumpkin patch that featured friendlier characters.
First-time visitors to the Margaret Reaney Memorial Library and Museum in St. Johnsville often have trouble focusing on their reading. In this yellow-and- gray brick building constructed in 1909, the written word often takes a back seat to the visual wonderland on display.
Clifton Park hosted a Halloween parade Friday at Clifton Common. The event included free refreshments and a bounce house, and a fire truck from the Jonesville Fire Department was on site, as well.
For some people, Halloween’s chief attractions are outside.
Pumpkin faces flicker on front porches. Kids in costumes walk the streets. There’s always a dark cat around, someplace.
Everything is black and gold — especially indoors. And design experts say fans decorating for the cheerfully grim holiday can use other options for creative and spooky living and dining rooms.
In 1971, book and movie aficionados, student and civic politicians, party planners, fundraisers and good knights showed up in the October photo portfolio of the Schenectady Gazette. Suzanne Melanson and her friends at Elmer Avenue School were on the book beat. Kids promoted the school’s book fair, one of several activities held during National Education Week. Bob Hadley went to the movies at Schenectady’s State Theater. As executive producer of the American Theater League, which presented Broadway road shows in the Schenectady area, Hadley helped restore a cinema presence at the movie house at State Street and Erie Boulevard.
The new school year put new teens in charge of student government at Linton High School. Rob Faulisi, Mark DiCocco, Sue Spencer and Linda Litz were in office. Frank J. Duci was among the candidates hoping to win office in Schenectady County.
Hundreds gathered Friday in Lafayette Park, camping out later in nearby Academy Park, to "Occupy Albany," a protest growing out of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement.
Hard work is welcomed by the men and women who staff the emergency medical helicopters in the Capital Region, because they know that their service might mean the difference between life and death for the patients who end up onboard.
Moammar Gadhafi, who ruled Libya with a dictatorial grip for 42 years until he was ousted by his own people in an uprising that turned into a bloody civil war, was killed today by revolutionary forces in his hometown of Sirte.
A new wind technology laboratory containing a giant General Electric wind turbine was dedicated Tuesday at Hudson Valley Community College’s TEC-SMART classroom and training center.
Photos show the brilliant rainbow that appeared over the Capital Region on Friday evening. The vantage points in these photos are Ballston Spa, Glenville and two locations in Clifton Park.
In the spring of 1950, the Nash company decided to revive the Rambler name. “We are proud to revive a famous name in the history of our industry,” said H.O. Doss, who was in charge of sales for Nash. “The first of this series of new cars will be shown publicly in mid-April.”
The Rambler joined the Statesman and the Ambassador in the Nash lineup. And in late March of 1950, George W. Wedekind and William C. Lester, president and sales manager, respectively, of Wedekind Motors in Schenectady, traveled to New York City for a special dealer preview of the Rambler.
Firefighters came from many parts of upstate Sunday to participate in a cleanup effort at the Schoharie Fire Department, which suffered extensive flood damage from Tropical Storm Irene.
Members of the New York Air National Guard's 109th Airlift Wing leave Glenville on their annual mission to Antarctica in support of the National Science Foundation.
Host Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake edged Saratoga Springs, 1-0, for their sixth straight victory in a Suburban Council soccer game played under the lights at Union College.
Learning experiences for young people were abundant in Schenectady during 1948.
Cub Scouts studied the American flag, a troop of kids in Scotia collected newspapers for recycling. Youngsters in the Schenectady Boys’ Club signed up for craft classes and actors at the Brown School figured out how to escape a wicked witch.
Shenendehowa steamrolled CBA, 42-0, Saturday night in a battle of unbeatens in Clifton Park before a packed crowd. It was the final home game in Shen coach Brent Steuerwald's illustrious career. A pre-game ceremony honored Steuerwald, the only head coach in the history of the Shenendehowa football program.
Nick Wiggins, a Shenendehowa graduate and now a member of the University of Rochester Yellow Jackets, came home Thursday night for a concert in a packed Shenendehowa High School auditorium. The Yellow Jackets recently acquired national fame after performing on NBC's "Sing Off."
In the past four or five years, a number of wineries have been cropping up in the region. Uncork New York, a clearinghouse for wineries in the state, currently lists 14 wineries for the Greater Adirondacks area.
Cleanup continues to be slow going for residents of the Priddle Road area of Esperance, more than a month after flood waters from the Schoharie Creek washed away many homes and changed lives in the rural area forever.
Residents and small business owners crowded into the Rotterdam Junction firehouse Wednesday night for a town hall meeting led by Congressman Paul Tonko, who brought representatives of numerous agencies to the session to help answer flood-related questions.
The Boston Red Sox lost to the Baltimore Orioles and the Tampa Bay Rays rallied past the New York Yankees on the final day of the regular season as the Rays secured the final American League playoff berth.
img/photos/2011/09/27/nightout4.jpg Standing on platform, Lydia Kulbida of television station WTEN was the evening emcee at the Women'sNight Out program held at the Marriott in Colonie and hosted by Ellis Hospital.
Former President Bill Clinton speaks during a New York Open for Business Statewide Conference at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center in Albany today.
Over the past few weeks, volunteers have fanned out, bringing manpower, food, tools and supplies to communities throughout the region that were devastated by flooding
Aspiring young actresses attend the casting call for the lead role in “How I Live Now” on Sunday at Ellis School of Medicine on Erie Boulevard in Schenectady.
There’s a lot about the building at 112 Spring St. in Saratoga Springs that will take visitors back to when it was School No. 4. These days, School No. 4 is known as 112 Spring Street, and is home to a variety of businesses, many of them art-related or environmentally friendly. “I wanted to do something a little different with this building, so we saved all the footprints from the old classrooms and kept as much of that old school feel that we could,” said Glaser, who purchased the property in 2004 and in 2007 won an Excellence in Historic Preservation Award from the Preservation League of New York State. “We put in the carpeting, but we kept some of the old desks and blackboards. We wanted to make it a special place.” The building was built between April and November of 1911, and to help celebrate its 100th birthday a reunion will be held Sunday, Oct. 2, from 2 to 4 p.m. All former students, faculty members and other employees are invited to attend.
An enthusiastic crowd turned out Thursday night at Proctors for the flood relief benefit concert for the local chapter of the American Red Cross. Several local bands performed.
The Alco Heritage Museum received delivery of its first artifact, an M-47 Patton Tank. The tank was delivered to the Museum on a flatbed truck Thursday morning.
After a one-week delay to clean up after floodwaters damaged the school, students finally started classes Monday at Middleburgh Middle and High School.
Cruising, the Beatles, pizza, football games, Carrols hamburgers and the senior prom. Memories from 1966 are never far away for Cindi Baranowski Morrison and her friends. Morrison and pals — Carol Comenzo Collura, Lois Caracciolo Ferro and her husband, Richard Ferro, among them — will recall their high school days Oct. 22, when Linton High School’s Class of 1966 meets to celebrate its 45th class reunion.
The Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School girls volleyball team and coach Gary Bynon celebrated their 300th consecutive Suburban Council victory Tuesday as the Spartans defeated Niskayuna.
Gazette news columnist Carl Strock captured these images from an exhibit on the World Trade Center attacks at the State Museum in Albany and a 9/11 commemorative ceremony in Saratoga Springs.
Employees at Schenectady’s General Electric Co. were proud to light the world. Members of the General Electric Athletic Association are pleased to travel the world.
“We’ve been to Germany, France, England, Australia, Italy and many of the states here in the U.S.,” said Grace Sgambelluri, secretary of the group of G.E. travelers. Sgambelluri joined the GEAA’s board of directors in 1978 and is still on the job for the board, currently as secretary. The General Electric group shot is one of three gatherings featured in today’s Capital Region Scrapbook. School kids from Yates School on Salina Street in Schenectady and musicians from the Western Gateway Moose Band are other stars of the show.
A 70-foot transmission tower fell into the Mohawk River near Lock 10 and knocked out power for 20,000 customers in the Amsterdam area early Saturday morning. Sept. 10, 2011.
State officials were just starting to get a tally on the devastation from Irene when the next round of flooding from Lee struck Thursday, causing even more damage.
In a game of equally talented offenses, Ballston Spa took advantage of a late injury to Schenectady’s top running back and pulled out a 41-34 overtime victory in a Class AA thriller Friday night at Larry Mulvaney Field.</
The Rugged Rams turned three of Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake’s seven turnovers into 17 points and pulled off a Class A Northwest Division stunner Friday night on their turf field.
Many areas hard hit just 11 days earlier by historic flooding caused by Tropical Storm Irene found cleanup efforts literally washed away by new flooding caused by the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee.
Crews from the state Department of Transportation clean up Main Street in Fonda after overnight flooding along the Cayadutta Creek. The Fonda Fairgrounds are also shown partially underwater. Meanwhile, waters crept over the banks of the Stockade neighborhood in Schenectady, flooding the lowest lying streets.
Torrential rain from Tropical Storm Lee forced both the Mohawk River and Cayadutta Creek over their banks Wednesday night and Thursday morning in the village of Fonda.
While much of the focus after Tropical Storm Irene was on flood damage in the western part of the Capital Region, the village of Waterford also sustained devastating flooding from the Mohawk River.
Eastern Montgomery County and western Schenectady County felt the fury of Mother Nature again last Sunday afternoon as a tornado touched down in the town of Florida, crossed the New York State Thruway, then cut a path of destruction through parts of the towns of Amsterdam and Glenville.
Paul Swere is keeping a date with his classmates from St. Columba's-St. Joseph's High School on Saturday, Oct. 22. A fall homecoming will be held at Mohawk Country Club on Union Street, and stories from 50 years ago will be on the menu. Swere, Eleanor-Ann Loughney Olbrich and Mary Kelly Connelly are among those who will be serving them. The 1961 graduating class was the first after students from the closed St. Joseph's Academy were absorbed by St. Columba's.
Acceleration is a celebration for Eric Voelker. “High five!” said Voelker, 23, of Lake George, as he secured a teenaged girl inside The Comet. Seconds later, the famous roller coaster at The Great Escape theme park in Queensbury began its slow click and clack, steep climbs, sharp drops and assorted twists and turns.
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand led a contingent of state and federal officials who toured Schoharie County on Thursday to get a firsthand look at the damage caused by Hurricane Irene.
With the wind and rain of Hurricane Irene long gone and flood waters finally beginning to recede, businesses and residents have begun the task of cleaning up and trying to get life back to normal as much as possible.
Readers submitted their images of the damage caused as Hurricane Irene roared through the area on Sunday. Email your photos to mrobarge@dailygazette.net.
Millie Semprevivo’s childhood Easter memories aren’t of colorful eggs, but of colorful gloves. “In those days, we always had Easter outfits,” recalled the 73-year-old Gloversville native. “Everyone got a pair of beautiful leather gloves. Whatever color your dress was, you would get them [in that color].” The gloves were custom made at Principe Glove Co., the shop that once sat behind her Gloversville home. Millie moved into the house and refurbished in 1983. At the same time, daughter Crisan Anadio made over the longtime glove shop, turning it into a comfortable home.
Joe Frazier was in Saratoga the other day, signing autographs at the track and singing, sort of, at Siro’s afterwards, and Gazette columnist Carl Strock tagged along.
Along with the more than two miles of hiking trails, the sanctuary includes the Bozenkill and a 30-foot waterfall that’s only about 15 minutes from the parking area on the Schoharie Turnpike. “A 30-foot waterfall is sizable, so that’s a pretty unique thing,” said Mark King, director of protection programs for the Eastern New York Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, which overseas about 50 similar preserves ranging from Westchester County up to the southern Lake Champlain area, and as far west as Otsego County.
Actor Ray Liotta was on the scene today as "The Place Beyond the Pines" filming continued at Schenectady High School. Some 500 extras, composed mostly of high school-age students, were used for several hours in the filming.
Fabulous Favorites: Grandma Cosentino always had plans when she picked a peck of peppers. “She cooked all the time and she was a fabulous cook,” said her daughter-in-law Margaret Cosentino of Amsterdam. A spicy, stuffed bell pepper was just one of Josephine’s kitchen accomplishments.
Top riders from Saratoga Race Course showed off another talent Monday night, crooning tunes at Jockey Karaoke to benefit the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund at Vapor Night Club in Saratoga Springs.
The former Linton High School is now Schenectady High. On Friday, Sept. 16, students from more than 50 years ago will tour their old classrooms and hallways. Teens from another era, now in their mid-60s, will remember tales from younger days. Fiftieth reunion activities are set three days that weekend.
People waited in line for free backpacks and school supplies Saturday at the Hamilton Hill Family Resource Center in Schenectady during its Family Fun Day.
Can't get enough Ryan Gosling or Bradley Cooper? Here's a comprehensive gallery of the photos our team has shot this summer of "The Place Beyond the Pines."
Brent Steuerwald, the winningest coach in Section II football history and the third most successfull all-time in New York state, will retire as coach after this season.
It was 125 years ago Saturday that Thomas Edison first visited Schenectady, having found a place where he could manufacture more of his products. He never realized it would someday mean the beginning of one of the world's largest corporations, General Electric.
Tyler McGill of "The Early Show" on CBS jumped off a ramp in the Mohawk River behind a power boat going 20 mph on Tuesday. It was part of a taped segment with the U.S. Water Ski Show Team that will be aired at 8:30 a.m. Friday.
Traditional ice cream splits start with single scoops of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice cream. The banana slices are placed on the sides of the scoops; the ice cream and banana are covered with strawberries, pineapple and hot fudge (or chocolate syrup) and those toppings are covered with whipped cream and peanuts. Candy sprinkles are also used. Nostalgia and presentation are key ingredients in their popularity.
Farmers and kids in 4-H programs in Schenectady, Albany and Greene counties brought horses, cows, sheep, hens, roosters, ducks, rabbits and other critters to the 1967 Altamont Fair. A “world of yesteryear” was also featured. Grandma’s kitchen from the past, Thomas Edison phonographs and early radios were on display. “Christmas in August” was the theme of the flower show.
“On the ‘don’t miss it’ list this year at the fair is No. 3028, one of the last steam locomotives built in Schenectady’s old Alco plant,” wrote Jane Rowe.
Hundreds of people turned out to Schenectady's Central Park to experience the sights, sounds and tastes of the islands during the Carama 2011 Caribbean Cultural Festival.
It was 1 p.m. on Tuesday. DeThorne, head lifeguard at Schenectady’s football field-sized pool, had nine people on her watch. Gray skies and mild temperatures — the city’s summer oven was only 76 degrees — had persuaded some aquanauts to stay home.
DeThorne, 20, who graduated from Schenectady High School in 2009 and will be a junior this fall at the University at Albany, has been watching people swim at Central Park for the past five summers. Nine people in the water is a small crowd. On some days, when it’s 90 degrees in the Capital Region, there might be a hundred people or more in the 900,000 gallons of cool blue.
Filming of the independent production of "The Place Beyond the Pines" moved to Schenectady's City Hall on Friday, with stars Bradley Cooper and Rose Byrne on set.
Filming continued in and around the Trustco Bank at State Street and Brandywine Avenue as filming for the indie film "The Place Beyond the Pines" continued Monday.
Several dozen marching groups participated in Sunday's Turning Point Parade in Schuylerville. The parade commemorates the Battle of Saratoga in 1777 during the Revolutionary War.
A film crew followed a motorcycle behind the Trustco Bank at State Street and Brandywine Avenue as filming for the indie film "The Place Beyond the Pines" continued today.
Like school kids everywhere, students at the Washington Irving Open School learned how to read, write, add and subtract. But Open School projects were different from assignments received by students in other schools.
In 1974, for instance, kids found a cow skeleton in a field and decided to assemble it in class. The school had opened three years earlier. A 40th anniversary reunion picnic is set for Aug. 20.
New York's senior U.S. senator, Democrat Charles Schumer, visited the Capital Region on Thursday, making a stop at Johnstown’s Epimed facility for a roundtable discussion with economic development leaders before visiting SUNY Cobleskill’s Center for Environmental Science and Technology, where scientists are developing new-age gear expected to turn a variety of materials into electricity.
Filming for the independent production of "The Place Beyond the Pines" moved Thursday to Dairy Circus in Scotia for scenes involving stars Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes.
The Cobleskill Sunshine Fair opened its nine-day run on Friday at the fairgrounds on South Grand Street in Cobleskill. The fair runs through Saturday, Aug. 6.
Filming has been going on all week in and around Schenectady for the independent film, "The Place Beyond the Pines," starring Bradley Cooper and Ryan Gosling. Crews filmed a chase scene involving Gosling on Thursday on Gower Road in Glenville and a bank robbery scene Friday in Scotia.
The 15th Annual Silks & Satins 5K Run took place on Saturday, with more than 1,100 runners participating in the 5K event on the streets of Saratoga Springs. All proceeds benefited Special Olympics.
Competitors from throughout the Northeast gathered on the shores of Lake George on Saturday for the Adirondack Aerial Assault, an open pole vault competition.
More than 25,000 fans braved temperatures approaching triple-digits to celebrate the opening of the annual thoroughbred meet at Saratoga Race Course on Friday.
Thousands turned out at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center on Tuesday for a concert by the band Furthur, featuring Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, founding members of the Grateful Dead.
Casey Anthony is escorted to an SUV after she was released from the Orange County Jail in Orlando early Sunday. Anthony was acquitted last week of murder in the death of her daughter, Caylee.
On Monday, Aug. 2, 1971 — opening day — 19,413 people were in the clubhouse, box seats, grandstand and at the rail as Saratoga Race Course began its 103rd meet. Weather was cloudy and there was some humidity, but nobody seemed to be complaining. Barbara and Dick Verrutto of Rotterdam and Tony and Agnes Triplo of Glenville were among the stars in the stands. The Bendalls, McNeils, Doyles, Sykeses and Hennesseys — all of Schenectady — dressed for success.
Gas prices are high and wallets are slim. But it’s summer and it’s always nice to get away, even if it’s just for a day.
The Gazette Features crew shared their favorite nearby day trips, places you can get to in a few hours, explore for a day, and come home feeling like you’ve had a vacation.
So get in the car, take a friend or the family, and head out for a summer jaunt. And don’t forget to send a postcard home.
“We’ll have every kind of barbecue you can possibly imagine — ribs, brisket, pulled pork, barbecued turkey legs, even corn on the cob,” said Elizabeth Young, executive director of the Downtown Troy Business Improvement District, which is sponsoring the event. “And all the different fixings that go with them. You can expect the smell of barbecue throughout the city of Troy.”
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Schenectady is holding its annual Festa this weekend. The celebration continues from 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday and 3 to 9 p.m. Sunday.
More than 65 llamas -- out of 100 initially rescued from a sanctuary in Montana -- make their home at Red Maple Farm in Middleburgh, where they are taken care of by Wes Laraway.
Consistently one of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center's most popular nights, SPAC and Emma Willard hosted American Girl Doll Night, a celebration for girls and their families prior to the New York City Ballet performances. Girls were encouraged to bring their dolls and experience an evening of music, American Girl crafts, pink lemonade, sugar cookies, classic photo booths and doll giveaways.
The Saratoga Performing Arts Center’s Action Council celebrated its ballet gala event, "A Gatsby Evening," on Saturday with a lawn party followed by a performance by the NYC Ballet.
Thousands turned out at the Altamont Fairgrounds on Saturday for the annual WGNA Countryfest. The daylong event included performances by country music stars including Miranda Lambert, Randy Houser, John Michael Montgomery, Sunny Sweeney, Brett Eldredge, Joanna Smith and the Back40 Band.
Terry Gallo stepped quickly over the maroon and gray bricks at the Waters Edge Lighthouse. “Hope you have your roller skates on,” she said to a visitor, as she prepared to talk to people sitting on the spacious, semicircular outdoor deck of the Glenville restaurant. Like other waitresses, Gallo steps lively, talks cordially and serves quickly.
The Saratoga Polo Association kicked off its annual summer season Friday. the season runs through Sept. 4, with matches at 5:30 p.m. Fridays and Sundays.
Royal Mountain in Caroga Lake is usually known as a winter skiing destination. But on Wednesday evenings in the summer, engines roar and competitors zip along a dirt course in supercross motorbike racing.
Fledgling performers from throughout the area are gathering at Proctors in Schenectady this week for Broadway Camp: Mamma Mia!, where they are working with professionals including actor and director Kevin McGuire, vocal coach Kelly Bird and master dance instructor Sara Weck-Keller.
Images Monday from a Tri-City ValleyCats basegame at "The Joe" in Troy; the carnival at Clifton Common in Clifton Park; and the Firecracker road race in Saratoga Springs.
“I think people come to Saranac Lake for the things it doesn’t have,” said Lakeview Deli owner John Van Anden. “It doesn’t have the huge shopping area, it doesn’t have the big-city feel. It has the lakes, the water, the mountains.”
Collins Park in Scotia was packed to capacity Friday night for the annual Fourth of July weekend fireworks display over the Mohawk River at Jumpin' Jack's Drive-In.
Funeral services were held Monday for James E. Cushing, a former Schenectady County Republican chairman, businessman and donor to many causes, at St. Mary of the Angels Chapel at Siena College.
Atomic cannons. Giant anti-aircraft guns. The powerful “Honest John” rocket. The high-tech weapons were all in production at the Watervliet Arsenal in 1958. Capital Region residents received the chance to examine the dangerous cannons and missiles in 1958. The arsenal designed to arm America opened its doors for Armed Forces Day on May 17, 1958.
As genuine a mountain man as Louis Seymour was, the townsfolk never mistook his loud piercing cries from atop Page Hill for those of a wild animal. Everyone, especially the children, knew it was Seymour, aka French Louie, the Adirondack guide and recluse who came out of the woods a couple of times each year to visit his friends at Lake Pleasant. “I grew up here, so I remember the stories,” said Julie Atty, owner and head chef at the Melody Lodge in Speculator, high above Lake Pleasant and at the top of Page Hill, just off Route 30 in Hamilton County.
This summer, the Hyde Collection is celebrating New York City and remembering the tragedy of 9/11 with “Summer & The City,” a series of lectures, exhibits, performances and community events all with a New York theme.
Schenectady police are investigating the death of 20-month-old Asiah Maxam early Monday in Schenectady. Following an autopsy, the death has been ruled a homicide. A makeshift memorial was put together outside the boy's Hattie Street home Monday evening.
Some kids grow up playing with police cars, firetrucks and train engines that come to them on birthdays and Christmas mornings.
As adults, the passion occasionally continues. Men and women love driving big cars and trucks with lights, horns, sirens and powerful motors.
During the 1940s and through the 1960s, the arrival of a new emergency vehicle was celebrated at local police stations and firehouses. The Schenectady Gazette usually sent a photographer to take a picture of the new rig — sometimes in the company photo car. A few guys in uniform were always in those shots, proudly showing off the new additions.
A look at ceremonies from the 27th annual commencement exercises of Schenectady Christian School at the First Presbyterian Church in Schenectady on June 18.
Because “I Remember Grandma,” our special Mother's Day page of stories and photos, was so warmly received by Gazette readers, writers and editors in the Features Department decided to write about their grandfathers for Father's Day.
Lois Troup, 90, of Schenectady, has been hosting a luncheon for ladies who adore hats for the last 10 years. On Friday, 33 women attended the luncheon at the Stockade Inn.
St. Anthony’s Church in Schenectady is hosting its annual Festa this weekend. The three-day celebration of Italian food and festivities kicked off Friday night and continues from 3 to 11 p.m. Saturday and until 10 p.m. Sunday.
Friends and family of Eddie Stanley, a member of the Schenectady High School basketball team who was shot to death last weekend, gathered Thursday for a memorial basketball game at Central Park in Schenectady.
The Hemmings Motor News Great Race, America’s premier old car rally, visited the Saratoga Automobile Museum on Thursday, bringing as many as 100 antique automobiles through the city. Racers left Chattanooga, Tenn., on Saturday and complete their journey Friday in Bennington, Vt.
It was a Friday night. The big stage at Proctors was dark, and the seats were empty. But other parts of the Proctors arts complex were buzzing. And on the Jay Street pedestrian mall and on Upper Union Street, where there are about 20 other Art Night venues.
One stop on the Soroptimist International of Schenectady Garden Tour is the home of John and Paulette George of Glenville. John George’s childhood home in western New York included a half-acre of gardens. He developed a love of flower gardens from his mother, grandmother and aunts, all of whom loved to garden themselves. He used to weed their gardens as well as a neighbor’s garden. That love of gardening carried over to his adult life. Over the past 37 years, George and his wife, Paulette, have created a getaway right in their own yard.
Strawberry growers in the region say this spring's weather conditions have produced a healthy crop. These photos were taken Monday morning at the Horstman Farm on Route 50 in Glenville.
Every June, St. Anthony’s Church becomes a center for Italian foods.
Meatballs soak in tomato sauce, zeppoles roll in sugar, sausages fry with onions and peppers. It means Festa time has arrived at Schenectady’s landmark parish on Seward Place.
The annual St. Anthony’s Festa begins Friday at 6 p.m. and runs until 11. The show will also go on Saturday from 3 until 11 p.m. and Sunday from 3 until 10 p.m.
Braided bread called ciambelle and hearty beans and greens are other culinary stars of the weekend. So are Josephine Frisoni, Mary Lou Guerriero, Maria Rotondi and Maria Ruzza — they’re among the women whose kitchen expertise makes the gathering a success.
Three Capital District Soap Box Derby competitors advanced to the finals in Akron, Ohio, by winning their divisions on Sunday in Albany. In these photos, Shaquore Caldwell, 11, of Albany is shown preparing and competing. He finished third in the Super Stock Divsion.
Schenectady police investigate the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old boy early Sunday on Bridge Street in the city. Eddie Stanley, a sophomore on the Schenectady High School boys’ varsity basketball team, was shot to death early Sunday following a house party.
Boys’ night out means carousing.
In 1960, boys’ day in meant cannonballs.
The guys were at Schenectady’s Woodlawn Park swimming pool on Kings Road. High heat was in town for summer, and the free swimming pool attracted dozens of water fans.
The crowds were too large. Because so many boys and girls suited up for the cold stuff, Woodlawn supervisors adopted a rule. Boys were allowed cannonball splashes on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Girls were in the swim on another three days in the week.
The sprawling ALCO facility is being demolished to make way for the redevelopment of the 59-acre site along the Mohawk River, which is owned by The Galesi Group.
Mechanicville’s 8-4 win Wednesday over Canton at the Adirondack Sports Complex was enough to send the Red Raiders to their fourth straight state Class B softball semifinal.
Schenectady native John Sayles returned home Tuesday evening to read passages from and sign copies of his new novel, "A Moment in the Sun," at the Schenectady Light Opera on Franklin Street. Sayles has been one of the leading independent filmmakers in the United States for the past 30 years. Since 1979 he has directed 17 features, including "Return of the Secaucus Seven," "Lone Star," "Matewan," "Eight Men Out," "The Secret of Roan Inish," "Passion Fish" and "Sunshine State."
Nadine Crowe, Margaret Crowe and Virginia Hosier appreciated the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Scarlet Letter.
They knew about Sherlock Holmes’ famous “Study in Scarlet” and were familiar with Will Scarlet of Sherwood Forest.
The women wanted to share adventures in reading with friends and neighbors in Quaker Street. They belonged to the 21-woman team of volunteers that maintained the Quaker Street Public Library during the 1940s.
Big Time Rush, the band that gained popularity from the Nickelodeon TV series, headlined the Summer Jam Saturday afternoon at Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Also performing were Jason Derulo, LMFAO, Runner Runner, The Ready Set, Second Hand Serenade, Shaggy and Vanilla Ice.
Action from Friday's Section II girls softball Class AA championship game pitting Shenendehowa against Bethlehem and the Class B title game between Mechanicville and Hoosick Falls. Both games were played at Clifton Common.
Peter Church and Craig Baker, left, look like tough guys. They’re both husky at 6-foot-3, ride big Suzuki motorcycles and wear black leather jackets with a back patch for the Low Expectations Motorcycle Club that shows a sleek orange, white and black two-wheeler. But when Church and Baker are on town and city streets with their friends, they’re not looking for Budweisers, brawls or babes. They’re on the run for cups of coffee or vanilla and chocolate ice cream cones.
Ellsworth Jones, former mayor of Saratoga Springs and a wounded veteran of World War II, was remembered recently at a Saratoga County Honor Our Deceased Veterans ceremony.
Kindergartners at Glencliff Elementary School are working on a bird project and putting together a bird garden outside their classroom, learning about birds through project-based inquiry learning.
Gazette reporter Steven Cook and his wife, Laurie, were in Florida on May 16 to see the launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour from Kennedy Space Center. The Cooks viewed the launch from nearby Titusville.
Wooden tools used by baseball players and steel tools used by farmers have always been found in one place — Cooperstown.
The village in Otsego County, a short drive from the Capital Region, is home to both the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and The Farmers’ Museum. Once people see enough baseball bats, gloves, rakes and plows, they can also examine American folk and American Indian art inside the Fenimore Art Museum.
Students picked up their diplomas Friday at Fulton Montgomery Community College. The ceremony was held in the school's Physical Education Building. Guest speaker was state Assemblyman George Amedore from the 105th Assembly District.
Action from the Section II girls lacrosse Class A championship game Wednesday night at the University at Albany. Niskayuna prevailed over Guilderland, 15-14.
Chris Frost of Niskayuna defeated Stefan Kuhar of Albany Academy in straight sets to win the boys Section II tennis singles championship Monday at Central Park in Schenectady.
During the 1950s, talking beer mugs Schultz and Dooley helped sell Utica Club beer. Carling’s hired Mabel, the pretty barmaid who heard “Mabel, Black Label!” from folks at the bar.
Budweiser’s advertising ambassadors didn’t speak. They marched.
The beer brand’s famous Clydesdale Horses strutted into Schenectady during the summer of 1952. Eight horses with the traditional feathered legs arrived on Saturday, July 12, with nine handlers, a Dalmatian dog named Buttons and a Sicilian donkey.
The Go Red for Women Luncheon was held Wednesday at the Hilton Garden Inn in Troy. Go Red For Women is part of the American Heart Association’s solution to help save women’s lives.
In 1920, Henry Schaffer met a young librarian named Sally Bieber and fell in love. He also, as later events seem to indicate, had a real warm spot in his heart for libraries.
In 1959, Union College was looking for a little funding to help build a much-needed new library and it was Schaffer, whose Empire Markets were the first grocery chain in New York state, who provided a gift of $500,000 to make sure the job got done. Ground was broken on Jan. 7, 1960, the cornerstone was laid on May 14, and during the summer of 1961, 50 years ago, the Schaffer Library opened its doors.</p>
Shenendehowa broke away from a third-quarter tie to defeat visiting Niskayuna, 9-4, and grab the Suburban Council North Division title Tuesday in boys lacrosse action.
In the spring of 1907, her heart broken by a painful divorce, Jessie Lincoln, the 31-year-old granddaughter of Abraham Lincoln, got down on her knees, put her hands in the dirt and planted a garden of luscious pink peonies.
“When Jessie Lincoln put in her garden, she knew exactly what she wanted. Jessie loved peonies,” says Paula Maynard, press director at Hildene, the Lincoln family’s home in Manchester, Vt.
Jessie’s design for the formal garden behind her parents’ Georgian Revival mansion — low hedges framing squares of billowy blossoms — was inspired by her tours of Europe
Three Milton Terrace South Elementary School students watch proudly as the Endeavour Space Shuttle lifts off today while carrying the girls' science project: tilapia eggs.
Katherine Wilkie and Edward Putnam had miles and miles and miles of “heart” in 1955.
The teenagers also had proper measurements in the “head,” “hands” and “health” departments. They were fully stocked for work as local 4-H Club members.
Wilkie and Putnam, both 17, were designated Schenectady County’s outstanding 4-H members in 1955. In March, the teens and other outstanding 4-H members from nearby counties met Gov. W. Averell Harriman as part of National 4-H Club Week.
Shirts, statues, hats, clocks, dresses, music boxes and photographs — mementos from four entertainers — were part of Bill McKay’s estate sale in Glenville on Friday. McKay was the long-tenured lawman of Ghost Town at Storytown, later The Great Escape. Ruth “Tommy” Atkins assisted McKay as a marshal and ventriloquist.
At 87, Milt Zoellner is still a track official, working a job he's done since 1949, the year he graduated from Springfield College with majors in biology and physical education.
NYS Canal Corp. crew members lower steel uprights into the concrete "shoes" mounted to the river bottom during the "watering up" process at Lock E-10 in Cranesville on Wednesday.
More than 20 "storm" dogs arrived at the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society in Menands this week after being displaced from shelters in the storm-ravaged South. After deadly storms and tornadoes struck several states, shelter was needed for dogs that were separated from their owners so they could later be reunited. Dogs already in those shelters were moved to other locations, including Menands.
St. Helen’s has been a landmark for worship — and education — on Union Street in Schenectady since 1955.
On Sunday, May 1, 1955, St. Helen’s Church was consecrated. The Most Rev. William A. Scully, bishop of the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese, officiated during the morning ceremony. About 1,000 people were in the red oak pews for the first service inside the new church.
Rev. William P. Casey, who had become pastor of St. Helen’s in July 1945, celebrated the first high Mass.
Thousands turned out Saturday to enjoy the music, food, tulips and the crowning of the queen at the annual Albany Tulip Festival. The festival continues today at Washington Park.
What do you remember about your Grandma? What was special about her? How did she inspire or nurture you when you were a child? To celebrate Mother’s Day, we posed these questions to seven writers and editors in the Gazette Features Department, and asked them to write a little story about their grandmothers.
Men and women in white have always been part of the work force at Ellis Hospital.
By 1948, doctors and nurses were helping 15,000 patients a year in the 400-bed facility on Nott Street. They delivered about 2,000 babies and performed 6,000 operations. They checked blood pressures and temperatures; they offered words of comfort and kindness to their guests.
Ellis was the fifth-largest hospital in the state of New York — outside the metropolitan area — in 1948.
Several horses in the 20-horse Kentucky Derby field took to the track today for workouts at Churchill Downs. This gallery shows several of the horses that will go to post Saturday.
About 50 students are involved on a rotating basis in doing on-air reporting and anchoring, running the teleprompter, operating the camera and doing the weather, according to school officials.
Mighty Thor, the god of thunder in Norse mythology, has waited centuries to be on the silver screen. Once the most popular god in ancient Scandinavia and Germany, Thor has mostly been worshipped by comic book readers since 1962. On Friday, the character’s big-budget movie begins a run in theaters and kicks off the summer film season.
In early April there was a graffiti spree in Schenectady’s Stockade, an area you wouldn’t expect to find those ugly spray-painted scrawls, obscenities and gang tags that are graffiti-ists’ claim to fame, territory, or whatever it is they’re after. The fact that one of the city’s best neighborhoods has this problem shows just how serious and pernicious it has become in Schenectady.
Kate Middleton is spotted leaving a rehearsal for Friday's royal wedding, and other photos leading up to the big event that is capturing worldwide attention.
Firefighters and demolition crews work on the remains of the Mayfield Presbyterian Church on Main Street this morning. Lightning struck the steeple, igniting a fire.
There’s no telling just what fomer hotel owners Mr. York or Nelson Enos would have thought of a pizza place in their little community, but as current restaurant owener Sandy Foster says, people seem to warm up to the Village Pizzeria & Ristorante pretty quickly.
Time was when just about everyone in the Schoharie Valley knew Ed Colyer, the Borden Creamery, Walter S. Teller and the Hotel Baker.
They knew the Schoharie Valley and Middleburgh and Schoharie railroads, too.
It was the early 1900s. Colyer was the stationmaster at the Schoharie train depot and a familiar face to people who traveled by train. Borden was an important place for dairy farmers, who brought milk to the plant for processing.
Teller was the man to see for heating fuel. He began making deliveries around Schoharie in 1910 with a horse and wagon and by the mid-1930s was driving a large truck with a roomy cab. The Hotel Baker was one of the popular gathering places in Middleburg, an inn with 50 rooms, two dining rooms and a ballroom.
Len Kilian has assembled photographs of people and places from Schoharie County during the 1900s in an 80-page hardcover book. He describes “Smoke Under Vroman’s Nose” as a memoir of railroading and daily life in the Schoharie Valley.
Spring had arrived in 1982, and local residents were planning projects and upgrades for their properties. Sandy Kovarovic was one of the folks ready to help. Kovarovic worked at Trail Sports in Burnt Hills and was an informant on the John Deere line of lawn and garden tractors.
Sandy and personnel from other small companies were part of the Schenectady Gazette’s spring building guide. People read the guide for ideas on remodeling, landscaping, repair tips, television and video buys, log cabins and other pointers for hearth and home.
Union College hockey coach Nate Leaman stepped down today to take the head coaching job at Providence College. He had been Union head coach since 2003.
Fifty freshmen students of French from Schenectady High School worked in groups and set up a "trade show" of French cheeses Thursday. They learned about one of France’s most important exports and polished their French skills at the same time.
When art professor Charles Matteson retired from the State University of New York at Cobleskill, he left behind a weighty reminder of his 29 years on campus. More than a decade ago, Matteson designed the eight-ton marker made of natural Adirondack granite that’s the signpost at the entrance to the college.
There was no resisting the fun for the 1,432 people who showed up for the State Police open house at Troop G in Loudonville in April of 1977. Visitors watched the state police scuba team paddle and dive in a 24-foot swimming pool. Kids met equine and canine members of the law enforcement organization. A state police helicopter, blue-and-gold police cars and a Breathalyzer machine that analyzed blood alcohol content were among other curiosities assembled for public inspection.
Danny Kelly’s first golf threesome during the spring of 1957 included Schenectady Gazette reporter Kathy Muller and photographer Charles B. Sellers Jr. Danny was the star as the newspaper illustrated rights and wrongs on fields of green.
The Jewish Food Festival at Congregation Gates of Heaven in Niskayuna was held Sunday with an array of culinary delights and instruction from Gail Sokol.
Good vibrations are part of school life at Paul Mitchell -- The School, where loud music, dance breaks and plenty of positive attitude are among the student diversions. The future beauty specialists learn how to wash, tint, curl and brush, and are also trained to look for jobs and operate their own businesses.
The 3rd annual Boys and Girls Club "Be Great Walk" was held Sunday at the Rotterdam Square Mall. Pledges were sought for the walk and all donations will go to local Boys & Girls Club chapters. Kids also enjoyed games, contests and snacks.
Homer W. Brown represented law in Niskayuna around the 1950s. Joseph S. Dominelli, John LaMalfa and Michael Masterpolo helped keep order in Rotterdam during the late 1940s. All four are part of today’s “Law & Order” episode of Capital Region Scrapbook.
Some people were concerned that a big building might block the view, but Marcus T. Reynolds knew better. The edifice he was designing would be the view. SUNY Plaza, formerly home to the Delaware & Hudson Railroad and the Albany Evening Journal, takes up so much space near the bottom of State Street at Broadway, it blocks the view of the Hudson River. However, early in the 20th century, when Albany’s Chamber of Commerce was trying to come up with ways to beautify the city, blocking that view wasn’t a bad idea.
The Union College hockey team dropped a hard-fought, 2-0 decision to Minnesota Duluth in an NCAA East Region semifinal game Friday afternoon in Bridgeport, Conn. The Dutchmen's season comes to an end. Union won 26 games, capturing the ECAC regular season title and earning its first berth in the NCAA Division I tournament.
Glens Falls native Jimmer Fredette and his Brigham Young University Cougars will take on the University of Florida at 7:15 p.m. Thursday in a Southeast Regional semifinal game in the NCAA Basketball Championships. Shown are photos from BYU's 89-67 win over Gonzaga in the second round. Fredette has scored 66 points in two tournament games.
Forty sisters marked milestones in their religious lives at the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Province Jubilee Celebration in the chapel at St. Joseph's Provincial House in Latham Saturday.
People generally wear smiles when spring shows up. The season that means green grass, tulips, rain and baseball arrived at 11:21 p.m. Sunday night. In past years, the end of winter has been celebrated with adventures and excursions out of doors. Irene Isabella was just 1 year old when she and her Aunt Pat decided to take a spring walk in the city’s Bellevue neighborhood on April 26, 1962. It was in the 80s. Two springs earlier, members of the Bishop Gibbons track dean donned shorts but had to trek through snow.
Christian Brothers Academy fell to Jamestown, 61-56, in overtime Saturday in the state Class AA semifinal basketball game at the Glens Falls Civic Center.
Albany city and University at Albany officials speak Monday during a press conference regarding arrests made during Saturday's "Kegs and Eggs" party involving University at Albany students.
Teenagers have always considered their schools wrecks. They never have anything nice to say about them. In 1954, adults found few things to admire about Nott Terrace High School in Schenectady. With 1,500 students, the place was just too small. Gyms for both boys and girls were cramped. Nott’s library could accommodate only 80 people and the cafeteria held only 250. Some kids ate their chips and sandwiches inside basement rooms and a second-floor study hall. There were also problems with the fire escapes, plumbing and stairwells. The city’s original Schenectady High School, which opened five decades earlier, had not aged well.
Colgate tied Union with less than 3 minutes remaining Sunday night and then scored in overtime to post a 4-3 victory in the ECAC Hockey playoff quarterfinals at Messa Rink. Colgate wins the series, 2 games to 1, and advances to Atlantic City for the ECAC Championships next weekend.
An explosion shattered a building housing a nuclear reactor Saturday, amid fears of a meltdown, while across wide swaths of northeastern Japan officials searched for thousands of people missing more than a day after a devastating earthquake and tsunami.
Union College skated to a 4-1 victory over visiting Colgate in the opening game of an ECAC Hockey best-of-three quarterfinal series Friday night at Messa Rink.
A magnitude 8.9 earthquake slammed Japan's northeastern coast today, unleashing a 13-foot tsunami that swept boats, cars, buildings and tons of debris miles inland.
Some 1,200 people were at the Washington Avenue Armory in Albany on Wednesday to chant and cheer for more spending on schools. Gazette columnist Carl Strock captured these images.
An electronic buzz interrupted Tom Morrissey’s evening solitude. At the same time, a bulb began flashing on the big board in Morrissey’s office. Lines on the board simulated tracks operated by New York Central Railroad. Morrissey flipped switches and activated track lights for the rapidly approaching Limited. Morrissey and others who worked when most people had settled in for the night served a key role in public safety or public service. Those others included Walter Liddle worked at the Ferry Street sewage plant and Lt. Theodore Pfaffenbach at the city’s Bureau of Fire Alarms.
Thirty volunteers from the Church of St. Adalbert gathered recently to create their traditional butter lambs. The lambs are featured as the table centerpiece of many Polish-American Easter feasts, and the St. Adalbert congregation has been crafting them for more than 80 years.
Electronic checkout counters, sunlamps on fruits and vegetables and a self-service meat department were “Original” ideas for food shopping in 1952.
That’s why managers at Original Super Market were anxious for shoppers to try their new Schenectady store. Original’s third market in the city, at 1478 State St. opposite Fehr Avenue, opened to great fanfare on Thursday, Feb. 28, 1952,
Short-order chefs in the Capital Region say the same thing. All of them spend hours on their feet — slicing, frying, grilling, tossing, flipping, cracking and walking. Especially walking. Chefs who know the diner routine — Patty Sherman, Spiro Kagas, Dave Bartlett and Shane Wood among them — say they are always on the move for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Speed and ability to multitask are musts.
The Ballston Lake building that now houses Carney’s Tavern dates to at least 1845 and was used as a saloon, a barber shop and a grocery store before turning into a 10-room hotel in the late 1800s called Shendahora or Shenandahora. The place has always had a strong community connection.
Union skated to a 5-0 victory over Princeton Saturday night at Messa Rink to clinch the regular-season championship in the Eastern College Athletic Association.
Global Foundries on Monday announced plans to build a new administrative building. Administrative Building2 is designed to provide up to an estimated 1,500 work spaces, although initially it will be fitted out for 450 workers.
From old barn wood to vintage hardware to reclaimed light fixtures, a growing number of people are passing up brand new building materials and substituting salvaged goods, for all sorts of excellent reasons. Previously used building supplies are often better quality, they can be less expensive, they’re easy on the environment, and they can lend unique charm to a home.
Young women from around the region turned out Sunday at a casting call for America's Next Top Model at the Vapor Night Club at Saratoga Gaming and Raceway.
‘Cry ‘Havoc!’ And let slip the dogs of war” was one of Shakespeare’s best lines.
Jacqueline Delaforgue might have preferred one of her own: “Cry ‘Heel!’ And let skip the dogs of Schenectady.”
Delaforgue may not have been an expert on Shakespeare and his famous play “Julius Caesar,” but she was an expert on teaching dogs. As a member of the Schenectady Dog Training Club during the 1950s, Delaforgue worked with collies, sheep dogs and other canines.
“The dogs learn such things as how to retrieve on the level and then over the high jump; to broad jump on command; to ‘stay’ without standing up or turning around while the master goes out of sight,” wrote Schenectady Gazette reporter Ralph M. Turner in 1955.
Are you a dog person? Do you regularly watch the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show? (These Associated Press photos show dogs that competed at the show.) Take a look at these 12 dogs and guess their breeds. The answers are on the 12th and final photo.
Mountain air appealed to James C. Orr.
“Nothing in the world can beat Mount McGregor,” said the 72-year-old Orr, who lived at 115 Barrett St. in Schenectady.
Orr was a war veteran who had cardiac problems. A few months at McGregor, a rest camp for veterans in 1955, perked him right up.
The country life helped hundreds of other men and women. Mount McGregor had been a haven for veterans since November of 1945.
Rep. Christopher Lee of western New York abruptly resigned Wednesday night with only a vague explanation of regret after a gossip website reported that the married congressman had sent a shirtless photo of himself flexing his muscles to a woman he met on Craigslist.
Mayor Brian U. Stratton is shown in photos while serving as mayor and prior to being elected in 2004. Stratton will now head the state Canal Corporation under Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Thursday night was fight night at the Convention Center of the Empire State Plaza in Albany. Gazette news columnist Carl Strock was ringside with camera in hand.
February — with Valentine’s Day — appeals to lovers.
February of 1958 — with two blizzards in two weeks’ time — appealed to lovers of snow.
The first storm began on Friday, Feb. 7, and frosted upstate New York. Winds built towering drifts on highways and cut visibility to zero. Gusts reached 56 miles per hour.
Nobody was ready for a second monster storm. That’s what showed up on Sunday, Feb. 16, as 21 inches of snow fell in the Capital Region.
“City Paralyzed by Heavy Show; Northeast Buried” read the big and bold headline in the Gazette,
Surrounded by treasures that connect him to a less frenzied world, painter David Arsenault is in an ideal place to create art. “I feel, in that environment, I can be myself, be focused on the ideas that are percolating in my mind, without having to worry about what other people are doing in the house . . . just a space that I can close the door if I need to and just focus on executing a work of art,” he said.
The 11th annual Daily Gazette Bridal Show is set for Sunday, Jan. 30. It's the most convenient way for engaged couples to see a series of venues and a multitude of vendors in one afternoon, says C.J. DuFort, special events coordinator for The Gazette.
Friends and neighbors pitch in to help clean up a side portion of a dairy barn that collapsed under the weight of snow at the King's Ransom Farm along King Road in Northumberland on Wednesday evening.
Glens Falls native Jimmer Fredette, the nation's leading college basketball scorer, contributed 26 points to Brigham Young University's 69-62 win over host Wyoming on Wednesday night.
“Graphic design itself has been oftentimes overlooked in museum exhibitions,” said W. Douglas McCombs, the Albany Institute of History & Art’s curator of history. “ 'Graphic Design — Get the Message’ is our opportunity to bring an overlooked field of design work and artistry to the general public,” he said.
Good fortune and good health for Chinese New Year begins with good flavors. “In the Chinese New Year, people will get together and have a big meal,” said Lanny Lau, who manages the Ala Shanghai Chinese Cuisine restaurant in Latham. “They make special foods that have good meanings in Chinese culture.”
People who live in the Northeast need a hand to make it through the winter months.
Two hands, really — two hands made of leather that become constant companions when snow, ice and wind are on the move.
Gloves are a key fashion accessory when people bundle up. During the late 1950s, folks who lived in the Gloversville area were bullish on bundling. More than 70 factories were manufacturing gloves in the Fulton County city in 1957. Other plants were operating in nearby Mayfield, Northville and Broadalbin.
A visit to the Alexette Bacmo factory showed people how leather was formed for fingers.
The history is a bit hazy, and the river there just west of Scotia bears little resemblance to the “Mighty Mohawk” of the 17th century. Still, the natural beauty lingers on and remains spellbinding, making the River Stone Manor a particularly enchanting place to spend some time.
Wedding cakes: They're both beautiful and delicious. While you can't share the cake itself with the world, consider sharing a photo of your wedding cake. We're posting the cakes here as they roll in to news@dailygazette.net.
Mazzone Management Group, Ltd., and Proctors celebrated the opening of Key Hall at Proctors on Thursday. The new banquet facility is in the space formerly occupied by Key Bank.
Executives from the General Electric Co. hope they impressed Barack Obama during the president’s visit to Schenectady on Friday.
On April 19, 1949, executives from another era impressed 1,500 people who looked around the company’s new turbine plant. The open house was part of GE’s annual stockholders meeting, and people from all over the United States walked through company departments, visited the Knolls research laboratory, listened to speeches and had lunch. Not everyone could make it — General Electric had 249,886 stockholders in 1949.
Barbara Klemz remembers feeling that spark, the need to make art, when she was a young girl. Now, more than 50 years later, she has her first solo show as a painter, “Transcending the Time Line.”</p>
<p>Seventeen of her colorful, emotion-charged oil paintings are hanging in the Viewpoint Gallery at Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital in Schenectady. Joyful figures leap through a brilliant, imaginary cityscape that energizes a large canvas.
The Rollarama Skating Center in Schenectady played host Saturday night to roller derby action between the Hellions of Troy and the visiting Nickel City Knockouts of Buffalo.
The woods around Connie Parkman may have been lovely, dark and deep. But she had snowshoes on her feet — and miles to go before she’d sleep. Or maybe not. Connie, 15, played with her friends in the snow on Sunday, Jan. 27, 1963, after nearly a foot of snow fell. Cold and snowy days that month convinced some people to smile at winter’s shenanigans. They brought toboggans and sleds to Central Park and rode the snow-covered hills. They used excess snow for snowmen and snow dogs. They laced up skates and cut up the ice. They prepared for ski expeditions.
Photos taken recently show the abandoned Chalmers Knitting Mill in Amsterdam, which is slated for demolition later this year to make way for redevelopment of the city's South Side neighborhood. Historical photos show workers at the mill in its heydey.
Family and friends mourned Thursday as they gathered for the funeral of 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, the youngest victim of last Saturday's shootings in Arizona.
Scouts, sales, singers and salutes all were in the news during January 1966. Boy Scouts in Troop 21 were goin’ west — a bunch of the guys were making plans to visit the Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, N.M., during the summer.
Paint brushes, hammers and floor tiles were goin’ on sale at Grossman’s on Erie Boulevard in Schenectady. The new store opened on Jan. 19 in quarters once occupied by the Delaware & Hudson Railroad. And Salutes came to — and from — high school students.
A new statue of former New York Yankees owner George M. Steinbrenner was erected today outside Legends Field, the spring training home of the New York Yankees in Tampa, Fla.
A vigil was held Thursday at the War Memorial Pavilion in Congress Park for Nicholas Naumkin, the 12-year-old Wilton boy who was accidentally shot and killed Dec. 22 at a friend's home.
Visitors from the moon, medieval actors, ambulance drivers, ice skaters in top hats, high school musicians and bank employees all appeared in Capital Region Scrapbook segments during the past 12 months. Now they’re back for second takes: With 2011 off and running, it's time for another trip back to the '40s, '50s, '60s, '70s and '80s.
Looking back on 2010 in local sports through the lenses of Gazette photographers. This group does not include high school photos, which are included in a separate gallery.
Images from around the Northeast today and Sunday as the snowstorm wreaked havoc on roads and caused cancelations and delays at airports, train stations and bus terminals.
Emily Weber scored 23 points, and Allie Setter added 19, leading Shenendehowa past Colonie, 58-35, Friday night in a meeting of Suburban Council division leaders.
The 31st annual “Melodies of Christmas” opened Thursday at Proctors in Schenectady. The event raises money for the Melodies Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s Hospital at the Albany Medical Center.
A fight card was held at Schenectady's Carver Community Center Saturday night featuring a box-off between young fighters from the Adirondack region and the Niagara Falls region. Winners advanced to Lake Placid for the Northeast Regional Championship. Gazette news columnist Carl Strock was on hand to take these photos.
It was a weekend of waiting for New York Giants and Minnesota Vikings players and their fans. The Metrodome roof collapsed Saturday from the weight of heavy snow, forcing postponement of the teams' game Sunday. The game has been shifted to Detroit and will be played tonight.
The young woman was determined.
She brushed past reporters and photographers on a hot and sunny afternoon in Saratoga Springs and presented her daughter to the Great Man. “Go on, shake Mr. Woolley’s hand,” the mother urged her little girl.
Actor Monty Woolley expressed surprise. Woolley, whose manners of sophistication and culture were displayed on and off stage, responded in character. “My dear woman,” he said, “that child is too young to realize who I am.”
That was 1949. Sixty-one years later, many people may not realize who Monty Woolley was.
But Monty picks up new fans every December. The man who spent his boyhood days in Saratoga Springs appears in two holiday movies that have been shown during recent Christmas seasons on Turner Classic Movies (TCM).
Festivals, parades, tree lightings, music and, of course, visits from Santa Claus are featured in this roundup of photos from holiday events around the region.
Hometown product Jimmer Fredette scores 26 points and delights the standing-room-only crowd at the Glens Falls Civic Center while leading Brigham Young over Vermont, 86-58, in a college basketball game Wednesday night.
Polish babka and Lebanese baklava, Italian panettone and Puerto Rican tres leches cake.</p>
<p>For many of us, it just wouldn’t be Christmas without the treats that reminded us of our parents and grandparents.</p>
<p>While Schenectady and Albany can’t compete with big cities like New York or Chicago when it comes to ethnic eats, we’ve got our share of goodies from the Old Country.</p>
<p>The Gazette uncovered baked goods from seven different nationalities or geographic areas — Italian, Polish, Dutch, Puerto Rican, Russian, Middle Eastern and Swedish — and our story is just a slice of the ethnic cookies, breads, cakes and candy that can be found year-round at local bakeries, delis and farmers’ markets.
The University at Albany Great Danes upended the Siena Saints, 88-82, in overtime Saturday night in a renewal of their local college basketball rivalry at the Times Union Center.
December means sights and sounds for the holiday season.
In 1987, kids were singing and playing at Christmas parties and preparing for Hanukkah. Smaller children were getting used to yule stockings and Santa Claus.
Albany Medical Center's 27th annual Dancing in the Woods black tie gala was held at the former Macy's store in the Crossgates Mall Friday. More than 1,500 people were expected to attend the event which benefits the Melodies Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders at Albany Medical Center.
The Challenger Learning Center of Tech Valley is inking a deal with the Schenectady Suits-Bueche Planetarium to build a facility there to teach kids space exploration and related topics.
The holiday season has always meant a crowded house at the U.S. post office. Christmas cards, letters and packages move across the nation, and postal carriers and clerks get them to the right mail boxes. In 1953, 980 regular and extra personnel were on the job at the Schenectady office at 29 Jay St.
Schalmont High School falls to Hornell in the Class B State Championship football game Sunday despite plenty of fan support at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse.
Here's a sampling of the wreaths from around the region that caught our eye last Christmas season. Have one you'd like to share with us this year? Email us at news@dailygazette.net.
The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany was re-dedicated on Sunday, marking the end of extensive renovations. Albany Diocese Bishop Howard J. Hubbard gave the homily during the re-dedication.
Pittsford Sutherland defeated Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake, 3 games to 1, on Sunday to capture the NYSPHSAA Class A girls volleyball championship in Glens Falls.
Turkey, mashed potatoes and apple pie have always been traditions for Thanksgiving Day.
Guys in Schenectady’s Goose Hill section added pitchouts, quarterback sneaks and the old hook and ladder play. For about 40 years, friends in the neighborhood that includes Van Vranken Avenue, Avenues A and B and Mason and Seneca streets played a fierce and friendly football game on the grounds of Union College.
The Spring Run Trail, a one-mile walking and bicycle pathway, was formally opened by city officials on Thursday.
The paved trail starts in Saratoga Springs at East Avenue near the Excelsior Avenue intersection and extends east to the Northway.
“Courier” features works by 11 artists from five countries, including the U.S., who “explore the physical, communicative and iconic properties of the typewriter,” but there is so much more than that to think about here, if one slows down enough to experience it. Mostly black-and-white, this is the kind of exhibit that doesn’t come to you, so you must go to it.
In November of 1953 -- as in any year really -- Schenectady County highway crews wanted to make sure they had enough salt and sand for winter’s arrival. Trucks unloaded sand while guys mixed it with salt. A bulldozer pushed it up a small grade, where a big rig with a “claw” grabbing mechanism scooped the mix into an ever-growing pile. When bad weather was in the forecast, trucks were loaded with the gritty cargo.
Shenendehowa captured its first girls sectional volleyball title in 20 years on Thursday, defeating Bethlehem in the Section II Class AA title match at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School.</p>
Images from Thursday's Veterans Day parade in Amsterdam, a ceremony to honor veterans at Veterans Park in Schenectady, and the Albany Veterans Day parade.
Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake defeated South Glens Falls in a girls Class A volleyball semifinal matchup Tuesday to give coach Gary Bynon his 500th victory.
The Mohonasen High School Marching Band placed first at the New York State Field Band Conference Championships over the weekend. They are shown practicing at school.
Guy and girls were newspaper show-stoppers during the fall of 1987. Guy” was Investigator Guy Barbieri of the Schenectady Police Department, who retired on Oct. 30.
The girls were members of Mohonasen High School’s cheerleading team. The 12 sideline merrymakers had won the chance to compete in a national competition in Dallas during the Christmas holidays. There were other sights and sounds around that fall. Some of the sights came from Ballet Regent, where young ballet dancers were on their toes for “The Little Match Girl.” Dennis Madden had the sounds. The executive director of Proctor’s was presented with terrific new tech — a mobile telephone for his car — from the NYNEX Corp.
Images from Sunday's 35th annual Gazette Stockade-athon 15K road race from Central Park to the Stockade section of Schenectady and back to Central Park.
The funeral for Pfc. David R. Jones Jr. of St. Johnsville was held Saturday at St. John’s Reformed Church in St. Johnsville. He was then laid to rest at West St. Johnsville Cemetery. Jones' body was found Oct. 24 in his room in Baghdad, Iraq.
Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School won its third straight sectional title, defeating Lansingburgh, 42-21, Saturday at Shenendehowa to win the Class A Super Bowl game.
Mystery author Lee Child spoke before a standing-room-only crowd Wednesday night at the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library. Child is the author of the Jack Reacher mystery novels that have sold millions of copies throughout the world.
Former President Bill Clinton was up bright and early Monday morning to speak on behalf of incumbent Rep. Scott Murphy before 1,500 people at the Hall of Springs in Saratoga Spa State Park. Meanwhile, Gibson supporters turned out as well, holding up signs and chanting "One more day."
Some names are synonymous with “candidate” in the Capital Region. Samuel S. Stratton, Frank Duci, Margaret Buhrmaster and Dave Roberts all have been in the headlines during the first part of November. They’ve all been the people’s choice at one time — sometimes more than one time.
Images from Sunday's action in the 24th annual Head of the Fish Regatta on Fish Creek, which flows out of Saratoga Lake. The event is co-sponsored by the Saratoga Springs Rowing Club and Saratoga Rowing Association. For more on the event, go to saratogarowing.com
Fifteen years ago, The Gazette interviewed six breast cancer patients. The women had different surgeries and treatments, they were different ages and led different lives, but each shared their story to help other women learn about breast cancer.
Draped in pink fabric, the six brave women also posed for individual photos that appeared on Page One as “Portraits of Survival,” from Oct. 1 to Oct. 3, 1995.
On the first day, there were Doreen Gabriele of Guilderland and Cynthia Shaw Isdell of Delmar; on the second day, Debi Tebano of Niskayuna and Claudette Martin-Howard of Schenectady; and on the third day, Elsie Willendrup of Scotia and Kimberly Stoliker of Waterford.
<p>Cheltingham Avenue in the Hungry Hill section of Schenectady isn’t much of a destination these days, but on a cold January night in 1946 the Royal Roller Skating Rink on the south side of the city was definitely the place to be.
A City Mission warehouse and storage facility for the past 11 years, the building was a popular skating rink during World War II. But on that Thursday night, Jan. 10, nearly 65 years ago, it was turned into a raucous sports arena. A standing-room-only crowd of 2,500 boxing fans squeezed into the place to watch Schenectadian Marty Servo take on Stanley “Baby” Sims in a 10-round welterweight fight.</p>
Rescue workers respond to an accident at Route 7 and Interstate 88 in Rotterdam this morning. A pickup truck collided with a delivery truck. The driver of the pickup truck was transporter by helicopter to a local hospital.
Gazette columnist Carl Strock attended the consecration ceremony of the Five Buddhas Temple in Amsterdam on Tuesday and offers these photos (the last photo, featuring Strock himself, is by Gazette photographer Marc Schultz).
Local farm stores and orchards that sell cider doughnuts keep their doughnut machines operating all day long on the weekends — sometimes as many as 14 hours at a time — producing thousands of doughnuts to keep up with demand. Eagle Mills Cider Mill and Fun Park in Broadalbin has three machines going at once, as does Lakeside Farms in Ballston Lake. Riverview Orchards’ machine plunges out about a dozen doughnuts per minute, totaling roughly 8,400 on a weekend day.
Firefighters battle a blaze on Friday at the 11-story Central Warehouse, located along Interstate 787 near downtown Albany. The concrete and steel building continues to smolder today.
Chills and thrills — there could have been some great Halloween horror movies showing in the Capital Region during the 1980s. All folks needed was a little imagination. Schenectady’s Sarah Zuckerman starred in and directed “Candy Apple Zombies,” shot on location in the basement of her parents’ Wendell Avenue residence. Arianne Shean, 5, and her brother Jonathan, 7, were principals in the “When Skeletons Attack.” And there was more, including a vixen vampire bus driver.
The pace of indoor work has stepped up at the GlobalFoundries Fab 8 construction site. Hundreds of workers are now welding, fitting ducts, finishing rooms and installing the utilities in the 1.3 million-square-foot building.
Gloria Steinem, noted feminist and leader of the women's liberation movement, was guest speaker Thursday night as Planned Parenthood, Hudson-Mohawk chapter, celebrated its 75th anniversary at Mohawk River Country Club in Rexford.
Teacher Ken Smith takes his Rosendale Elementary School students outside to a longhouse and surrounding woods behind the Niskayuna school to help them learn about the culture of Iroquois Indians and other New York tribes.
James DelGuido and Margaret Miller starred in the classroom.
Elinor Flemming and Paul Munson starred at the church.
Marlo Thomas starred on television — and at Union College.
All five were active in the Capital Region during October of 1980. Scholarships, church renovations, Foosball and stage plays were all in the news.
The former Alco site off Erie Boulevard in Schenectady will soon be cleared to make way for redevelopment of the Mohawk River waterfront. More than 75,000 locomotives were produced by Alco. Photos offer a look at the plant through the years.
It was a day of remembrance and hope. More than 1,000 people participated in Sunday's second annual Mechanicville Stillwater Breast Cancer Walk. Pink was everywhere -- balloons, scarves, messages emblazoned on "team" shirts. On a delightful sunny day with clear blue skies, walkers headed down Main Street, up Park Avenue, around Tallmadge Park and back. It was a solemn occasion, recalling those who have died, but it was also a celebration of life, so walkers also had a lot of fun.
No bubble gum. That was one of the rules at St. Joseph’s Academy during the late 1950s.
Dubble Bubble was out. So were Atomic Fireballs. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet wanted students at the Schenectady high school to know more about Joe McCarthy than they did Bazooka Joe.
“It was a very orderly school,” said Anthony Rudmann of Colonie, a member of the class of 1960 — the last St. Joseph’s graduating class. “The nuns were strict disciplinarians.”
Twenty-four men and women who graduated from the 36-member class will gather Saturday at the Backstage Pub and Grill at 501 Smith St. to observe the 50th anniversary of their departure from St. Joe’s.
The Mohawk Hudson Regional has a new home in the North Country, at The Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, and as that stiff-necked TV legend Ed Sullivan liked to say: “We’ve got a really big show.”
The Rexford Bridge over the Mohawk River has been wrapped in a cocoon-like covering for the past several days as a work crew continues to sandblast and paint the busy connection between Niskayuna and Rexford. Contractors have encased the bridge with the protective covering to prevent debris from falling into the river.
An insurance claim for 20-year-old damage has workers back on the Proctors ceiling, where they are taking the opportunity to refurbish an area that had not been touched up before. Next door, workers are putting the final touches on the $300,000 project to turn a bank into a banquet hall and music venue. It will open in late October as Key Hall.
Friends and family gathered in the Carl Taylor Auditorium at Schenectady County Community College Tuesday to honor the memory of Elaine Reid, who was among the victims of a church van accident on the Thruway on Sept. 18. The van was en route to Glenville. She was the mother of Pastor Robert Reid of First Light Christian Assemblies Church.
Images from this weekend's Applestock Music Festival in Altamont, Glenville Oktoberfest, Kulak Nursery's Fall Festival in Rexford and The Hoople event at Saratoga Spa State Park.
The Hay Shakers were feeling all right during October 1975. The Hay Shakers were from the Harmony Corners Fire Department, and they knew their drills. Guys from the Charlton group had just been named 1975 champions of the Central New York State Firematic Drill Team Association. They had the trophies to prove it.
Others in the Capital Region were feeling good that month. Actors from Schenectady Light Opera were in merry, medieval moods. Choir singers lifted voices and spirits high at Schenectady’s Refreshing Spring Church of God in Christ.
Comic book fans in Rotterdam Junction studied amazing, mighty and invincible subjects. Aficionados of stuffed animals and dolls prepared for a bazaar in Clifton Park.
On display at the museum as a companion exhibit to “Not Just Another Pretty Place:The Landscape of New York” is a series of images sent in by the public called “Wish You Were Here/New York State Photographed by You.”
State Museum Executive Director Cliff Siegfried said the response has been overwhelming.
“We were looking for an idea that would include the whole community, and maybe get them excited to come in and look for their image and while they’re here they check out everything else we have,” he said. “It was a great way to engage the public, and it’s very rewarding to have such a great response.”
New York state’s Republicans might have been singing “Put on a Happy Face” when they arrived in Saratoga Springs in September 1950.
But not all Republicans were happy with the nation’s political direction.
There were other songs in the air when the Grand Old Party’s convention opened in the city on Wednesday, Sept. 6. Musicians dressed in red uniforms performed “Baby Face” and “Oh, Johnny” as incumbent Gov. Thomas E. Dewey prepared for re-election.
Republicans were stoking the fires for November.
Gusting winds kept the hot-air balloons tethered to the ground Saturday morning at the 38th annual Adirondack Hot Air Balloon Festival in Queensbury. The event continues Sunday.
History buffs who also appreciate art and architecture will have plenty to feast their eyes on at the 51st annual Stockade Walkabout Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Schenectady.
Eight historic homes from the 18th and 19th century, the Stockade District’s three celebrated churches, and a 1960 mural and painting by Edwin Becker will all be on display among the 15 stops on this year’s walking tour.
Esperance’s Ona Curran, an art historian who is passionate about paintings, is eager to look at Becker’s work on display at First Niagara Bank on State Street, while Rob Petito, an architectural historian and Stockade resident, is making his first stop of the day at 22 North Church St. to see the home of Franca DiCrescenzo.
Saturday is soccer day in the fall at Clifton Common as youngsters from the Clifton Park Soccer Club race around the many fields. The club has more than 1,700 players. Pictured is play from this past Saturday.
Images from this weekend's Latino Fest at the Empire State Plaza in Albany and the Irish 2000 Music and Arts Festival at the Saratoga County Fairgrounds in Ballston Spa.
Nearly 1,200 runners turned out Sunday for the 5th annual Saratoga Palio: Melanie Merola O’Donnell Memorial Race in Saratoga Springs. The race is held in memory of a city resident who died in a car accident in 2006.
Judge. General. Sheriff. Con man. Professor. Priest.
Schenectady native Harold Gould, who died Sept. 11 in California, played all those parts during a distinguished acting career. For example, casting directors must have seen a military presence in Gould. He was Col. Reed in “12 O’clock High,” Maj. Richardson in “Daniel Boone,” Capt. Crawford in “The Big Valley,” Gen. Weatherby in “I Dream of Jeannie” and Col. Enzio in “Garrison’s Gorillas.”
Fatherhood was a favorite role — for real. Gould and his wife, Lea, raised three children.
A crowd of about 1,600 turned out Saturday night at the Washington Avenue Armory in Albany for a boxing card put on by ARES Promotions. Several local fighters were in action, and Gazette columnist Carl Strock was ringside with camera in hand to take these photos.
Donna Woodin Howells’ colors meant symbolism and social commentary during the late 1960s. “I want my work to be thought-provoking,” the artist said. “It’s dishonest to paint a lot of pretty pictures. Life has many serious moments, so my work is on the serious side.” Art lovers in the Capital Region saw Howells’ serious side on Saturday, Sept. 6, 1969. The Glenville painter was among 221 artists who displayed their work at the 18th annual Villagers’ Outdoor Art Show in Schenectady’s Stockade section. Paintings were displayed on streets and sidewalks. David and Bernadette Counts of Niskayuna brought dozens of pottery pieces to the art market. Louise Balwit of Scotia and Lori Skoog and Valdis Garoza of Schenectady were other artists in residence for the day.
Gabrielle Estep is a calm and confident 15-year-old who loves the Beatles, fashion, Fly92 and hanging out with friends. She is also a ballet student who dances six days a week and lives with the constant pressure of auditions and competition. The Malta teen is in her second year at the prestigious School of American Ballet in Manhattan.
The Daily Gazette previews the 2010 Schenectady City School District Athletic Hall of Fame Induction. Here are some photos for the featured athletes and teams.
Cars and homes were destroyed after a massive fire roared through a mostly residential neighborhood in San Bruno, Calif., Thursday. Firefighters from San Bruno and surrounding cities battled the blaze that started on a hillside and consumed homes in a residential neighborhood.
If apples are in season, schools are in session. They both mean September, and the arrival of autumn. In 1948, kids in grammar school, junior high and high school returned to lockers and desks. The swim parties, baseball games and movie matinees of July and August had faded away.
Men and women from New York state’s American Legion posts were thinking about old friends and sites in Saratoga Springs during the late summer of 1948.
They were also thinking about pensions and Communists. Hundreds of Legion members were in town for the 30th New York State American Legion Convention. Several resolutions were adopted, points of view forwarded to the federal government. Pensions were a chief concern. Legionnaires wanted monthly pensions for veterans of all wars, beginning at age 55. The Legion also wanted the government to watch for what it considered subversive elements in American society. N
Schenectady firefighters pour water on a vacant house at 102 Van Vorst St. in the Hamilton Hill neighborhood as flames begin to engulf the structure early Saturday.
Almost September, and some teens are not looking forward to school days. They’ve been out of class for two months and have not missed homework, fire drills and cafeteria sandwiches. Jane Thomas Osterhout and Carolyn Repka Kozubal have been out of class for 50 years. Both are looking forward to September, their school reunions and the chance to reminisce about homework, fire drills and cafeteria sandwiches. Frank LeGere and Charles Loeber also will return to a high school state of mind. As members of Draper High School’s Class of 1945, they will round up friends and talk about all things Draper.
While everyone knows that Ronald McDonald House provides free lodging and meals to families with a sick child who must travel to hospitals far from their homes, many do not realize that more than a quarter of the families who use the Albany house are from the Capital Region.
Paul and Dianna Busse own a modest home at 1928 Dean St. in Niskayuna . It's a two-floor home with white siding, a paved walkway up to the front door, a screened-in patio and white siding. Their home doesn't look much different than any of the other two dozen or so houses on the street, but one thing sets the Busse home apart: their extensive and expansive gardens.
Schenectady Community College and the Schenectady city school district are working together on a program that gives high school students the chance to earn college credit. The program began August 9.
It’s almost sundown for the Sundowners. The 63-year-old Dick announced earlier this year that Bobby Dick and the Sundowners, a rock band with a regional following that’s been around since the early 1960s, will retire from regular appearances in early 2011.
The theme was "Breakfast at Tiffany's" as Saratoga Springs socialite Marylou Whitney put on another of her famous parties at the Canfield Casino Friday night, much to the delight of her many admirers.
A UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter of the New York Army National Guard's 3rd Battalion 142nd Aviation in Latham conducts a training run with the Firehawk fire fighting system over the Mohawk River in Colonie on Wednesday.
How green was my salad? Ask Aaren Hatalsky.
“These are 17 varieties of leaf lettuce here,” she said, showing off a large basket full of edible leaves with red and green ends at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market. “I’m definitely a salad person. In the general scheme of things, most of my greens will be eaten raw in a salad.”
Lettuce is on the rise at Hatalsky’s Wing Road Farm in Greenfield, and at other local agriculture businesses. People who grow lettuces like hearty Romaine, bronze-colored Oak Leaf and crisp Boston lettuce say that while their crops are often the big stars in salad bowls, they are also important supporting players in other dishes.
The YMCA’s former summer camp on Princetown Road in Rotterdam brought boys from around Schenectady together for archery, horseshoes, sports and outdoor projects. In 1948, kids dressed in blue jeans cuffed at the bottoms and wore casual, short-sleeved shirts. Summer caps — worn sailor style — were more popular than baseball-style hats. Teens supervised the guys during the day, and July and August diversions also included construction projects in the woods and times for books.
For some people, tonight’s supper in the Adirondack Mountains might be cheeseburgers and sausage on the grill. Laura Rice said dinner was different during the 1800s. “They would be probably thinking more along the lines of venison and trout, things that could be caught or hunted and brought back to the campfire,” said Rice, chief curator of the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake. For the past 18 months, Rice and other staffers at the well-regarded museum have researched food and gustatory traditions in the Adirondacks. They’ve assembled 300 objects, most of them from the Blue Mountain collection, and put them on display in “Let’s Eat! Adirondack Food Traditions.”
Marylou Whitney was honored Saturday by the Saratoga Performing Arts Center with a star in a newly created Walk of Fame. It was followed by a performance by the New York City Ballet.
Schenectady native and resident Anthony Wayne, 95, journeyed to Antarctica in 1939-40 on the expedition led by Admiral Richard E. Byrd aboard the USS Bear. He is the only living crew member from the expedition.
In comics, characters return from the dead all the time.
Stan Burdick knows the end is near for the cartoon museum he has operated in northern New York for the past 12 years. Unlike fictional characters in capes and masks, he says there will be no new lease or no new life in the Adirondacks for his collection of color and black and white drawings.
“I’m just so sorry that we’re going to close up at the end of August,” he said, sitting near the front door of his Ticonderoga Cartoon Museum on a recent Friday afternoon.
Funeral services were held this morning at Griswold Funeral Home in Schenectady for 2-year-old Sylvia Noxon and her grandmother, Sharlene Parker, who both died after a fire on McClellan Street last week.
As the 62-year-old New York City Ballet celebrates its 45th summer season in Saratoga Springs, the company has three sets of siblings who share not only their passion and talent for the ballet, but have all risen to the highest rank in the company.
In 2009, Tyler Angle and Robert Fairchild were promoted to principal dancers, joining their siblings Jared Angle and Megan Fairchild. The Stafford siblings, Abi and Jonathan, have both been principals since 2007.
The Hall of Springs was the site of the annual Ballet Gala to usher in the New York City Ballet season at Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Outside the hall, many ballet fans tried their best to make it a special evening.
The temperature was up at Schenectady’s Central Park. So were the crowds. “What a mob,” said William Eddy, then superintendent of city parks. “What are we going to do with them all?” Eddy didn’t have to worry much. Everyone who visited the park on Sunday, Aug. 30, 1953, found a place in the park’s deep, cold, wet lake. It was 95 degrees outside. The Capital Region — and much of the Atlantic Coast — had been sweltering for days.
Schenectady’s heat wave began with a 90-degree day on Wednesday, Aug. 26. On that steamy Sunday, kids didn’t seem too bothered by high jinks caused by high heat. Janet Fritzen, 7, and her brother Clifford, 5, spent time inside the Steinmetz Park pond. They split a double Popsicle and became two of the coolest kids in the water. Other kids splashed or poured water to keep their exterior temperatures at chilly levels.
Hal Schumacher pitched baseballs. Dick Martuscello pitched newspapers.
Sixty years ago today, the two met at the American Locomotive Club in Schenectady.
Schumacher, who once worked for the New York Giants, brought a baseball bat. Amsterdam native Martuscello, who worked for the Schenectady Gazette, brought about 150 colleagues from the newsboy legion.
It was all part of the Gazette’s field day for paperboys — Wednesday, June 28, 1950. After carriers had delivered their morning papers, they boarded special buses that delivered them to club grounds at the end of Van Vranken Avenue.
The paperboys’ bosses were on the field — newspaper circulation managers — but the guys paid more attention to Schumacher.
U.S. Army Spc. Benjamin D. Osborn, a Lake George High School graduate, is laid to rest at Saratoga National Cemetery today. Osborn, 27, was killed in combat on June 15 while serving with the 101st Airborne Division in Konar Province, Afghanistan.
Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School sent its Class of 2010 out into the world at its 91st Commencement Exercises, held at Saratoga Performing Arts Center on Wednesday.
Victims of a shooting and a stabbing are loaded into ambulances on Albany Street this afternoon in Schenectady. Nearby, police comb Jerry Burrell Park for clues to a second shooting.
Some 295 students from the F. Donald Myers Education Center graduated from their Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex BOCES programs on Thursday at the Saratoga Springs City Center. More than 1,800 friends and family attended the ceremony.
The Clock King, Doll Man and the Puppet Master all sound like characters from comic books.
Actually — they are characters from the pulp fiction soap operas. But in 1949, they were all real people working their hobbies in the Capital Region.
John F. Cunningham was the master of timepieces. He built old-fashioned clocks in the basement of his Schenectady home at 3 Alden Place.
The doll man was Bert Turner, who along with his wife Edith and mother Ruth, repaired blonde and brunette friends of little girls at Ruth’s Doll House and Hospital on Troy Road (Route 7) in Niskayuna.
The puppet master was Joseph Owens, who along with his wife, made dozens of puppets in the cellar of their house at 15 Engleman Ave., Schenectady.
Spectators lined Curry Road in Rotterdam Monday evening for the annual Flag Day parade held by Rotterdam Lodge No. 2157, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
Schenectady residents flew their stars and stripes on Flag Day in 1961. They also raised their red, white and blue linens on the Fourth of July.
Flags made a third appearance on July 27 — the day Schenectady began observance of its 300th anniversary.
Year 1 began when Arendt Van Curler purchased land that would become the city by the Mohawk on July 27, 1661. The tercentenary was celebrated with a parade and speeches during the summer. And a mammoth dinner party and more speeches during the fall.
An interment ceremony was held Friday at the Saratoga Natonal Cemetery for four World War II veterans who were honored by the Missing In America Project/ Veterans Recovery Program under the direction of the Patriot Guard Riders of New York.
Section III champion Cicero-North Syracuse edged the Colonie Garnet Raiders, 1-0, in their state Class AA quarterfinal at the Adirondack Sports Complex on Tuesday.
Photos from inside the courtroom before the sentencing and outside Schenectady County Courthouse after the sentencing of former school district employee Steven Raucci. Raucci received a sentence of 23 years to life in prison for first-degree arson, attempted coercion and criminal mischief.
For Mary J. Kelly, calling long distance became the calling card of a long career. The Schenectady woman worked 34 years as an operator, information supervisor and chief operator for the New York Telephone Co. Kelly and other electronic operators kept the community connected during the first half of the 1900s. Mary and her friends had retired by the summer of 1948, when they were invited to tour the Schenectady branch of New York Tel. As life members of the Telephone Pioneers of America, the former operators and technicians were anxious to see the growth and changes inside the city’s communications stronghold.
The Woman’s Club of Albany, started by Ella Blair in 1910, and the structure that houses it, built by Joseph Steefel in 1895, were both in a state of deterioration that happily has been reversed. As for the spiritual health of the place, current president Fran Altshuler is convinced that the dark days are over. Membership recently reached the 100 mark and the future looks bright.
Niskayuna repeated as Section II Class B boys lacrosse champions with a convincing, 14-4 win over Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Tuesday at the University at Albany.
Yellow, orange and pink begin appearing in backyard gardens during late May. In cemeteries, red, white and blue are colors generally seen during spring. Small American flags at gravestones of the nation’s veterans are a longtime Memorial Day tradition. So are salutes and ceremonies, marchers and musicians. The last days of May have always been times for Capital Region residents to honor men and women who served their country and are now at rest.
Music teacher Kathleen Bragle is profiled in the latest installment featuring notable teachers in the region. She teaches at Jefferson Elementary School in Rotterdam.
Here are some images from the region's Memorial Day commemorations. If you have a photo you'd like to share, please send it to us at news@dailygazette.net.
Legendary radio and TV personality Art Linkletter died today in Los Angeles at age 97. He was host of "Art Linkletter's House Party," "Kids Say The Darndest Things" and other shows.
On quiet sunny days in the GE Realty Plot, you can almost feel the history of the house at 1132 Adams Road talking to you. Close your eyes and you can imagine 6-year-old Verner Alexanderson getting into a dark Cadillac with two strangers, or a much happier occasion when the family, with Verner back in the fold, huddled together to watch the first home reception of a television broadcast ever in the U.S. From 1911 until his death in 1975, Ernst Alexanderson, a GE scientist and pioneer in both radio and TV, lived in the white, two-story structure at 1132 Adams Road. For the past 35 years, however, it’s been home sweet home to Doug and June Griset.
A Pentecost Sunday Service is held at the First Reformed Church in the Stockade Historic District of Schenectady Sunday. The church celebrated 330 years as Schenectady's oldest congregation.
In Schenectady, May days in 1969 meant women from the moon; an awesome award; parents, teachers and students in performance; and high school memories in one big book. The moon women might have been the most intriguing group. Americans were space happy during the late 1960s, with every manned Apollo space mission making big news in newspapers and on television.
Casper Wells, who was promoted to the Detroit Tigers parent club from Toledo on Friday, is pictured during his playing days with Schenectady High School and Towson University.
The Duanesburg Eagles topped the host Canajoharie Cougars, 11-1, in WAC softball action Monday. The Eagles finish the regular season with a 10-0 league record.
Smart newspaper people have said, “When a dog bites a man, that is not news, . . . but when a man bites a dog, that is news.”
Bites from both parties never made headlines during the 1940s and 1950s. Instead, the Schenectady Gazette published stories about dogs who behaved in splendid fashion.
Letter carrier William C. “Bill” Sherman walked his mail route with a friendly honey-colored dog named Blondie during the spring of 1949. In the fall of ’49, the newspaper told the story of Braman’s Corners wonder dog Shep, who had been trained to take the morning Gazette from a delivery man and rush the news 200 yards to his farmhouse masters.
Peter J. Derrico was in print — and paw prints — in 1955. As a meter reader for the Niagara Mohawk Power Corp., Derrico negotiated truces with dogs named Debbie and Harvey before visiting their basements.
“The Caffe is seen as a piece of living history, and indeed that’s the case; it’s one of the attractive things about it,” said Sarah Craig, current manager of Caffe Lena. “But it’s important to recognize that the role it plays in the world of singer-songwriters and roots artists today is essential. It’s not just living history; it’s the future of the music world.”
Students from a number of schools around the Capital Region received their awards recently in The Student Gazette competition. Students were asked to write stories, take photos or design advertisements. Shown are photos of a few of the winners.
Back in the 1970s, when Fred Tomaselli was a kid in California, he and his friends made their own skateboards. Tomaselli’s job was pouring the resin, that top coat of lacquer that sealed the designs and color on the board’s surface.
Slide forward more than 30 years and he is still the resin guy, and that lacquer is the vehicle for complex, ornate paintings reminiscent of Eastern and Western art traditions such as Renaissance frescoes, Islamic mosaics and American quilts.
A mock DWI drill was held Monday at Amsterdam High School by members of the Hagaman Volunteer Fire Department, GAVAC Ambulance and members of the Montgomery County Sheriffs Department. Hagaman firefighters used a hydraulic rescue tool to remove the roof of a car and students played roles in the drill. It was held for the benefit of the junior and senior classes as they prepare for prom season.
Forget Cocoa Puffs. Taylor Jarvis is cuckoo for chocolate milk.
“I drink it every day at lunch,” said Jarvis, 15, of Guilderland, a freshman at Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons High School in Schenectady. “Pretty much every day at dinner. If I’m thirsty, I have a chocolate milk.”
Those are cool and creamy words for dairy and chocolate producers. They appreciate customers like Jarvis and others who include one of dairy’s two most famous chocolate products in their daily diets. Teens and athletes may not scoop chocolate ice cream for dessert every day, but they are willing to chug liquid chocolate.
Photos show the interior of the new Paul Mitchell The School on State Street in downtown Schenectady, which will open for student cosmetology instruction on May 18. The retail part of the facility opened Monday.
Good groups mean good times. And good photographs. Small and large gatherings frequently have been composition subjects for newspaper camera men and women. During the spring of 1967, groups of young people, teenagers and middle-aged citizens appeared in the Schenectady Gazette
Rain and cool temperatures couldn't keep crowds from having fun at the 2010 Albany Tulip Festival. Shown are photos from the first day of the weekend event in Washington Park.
“I think there’s a lot of misconception with what martial arts are,” said Nina Beauchaine, a saleswoman for Gexpro, an electrical-parts distributor and black belt in tae kwon do. “Most people, their only exposure to it is Bruce Lee movies, what they see on TV. Most people don’t understand the discipline and the constant training that it takes.”
At noon Thursday, The National Day of Prayer was observed by participants on the Schenectady City Hall steps. Pastor James Bookout led the lunch-hour prayer service. The National Day of Prayer is an annual observance held on the first Thursday of May, inviting people of all faiths to pray for the nation. It was created in 1952 by a joint resolution of the United States Congress.
Former state Senate Joseph L. Bruno, a Republican from Rensselaer County, reacts to his two-year sentence in U.S. District Court Thursday following his conviction on corruption charges.
Number 7 was retired during a ceremony Sunday at Rotterdam Little League in honor of Tyler DeMarco, the 12-year-old boy who died of brain cancer in February.
This Mother’s Day, Tina Miser will take her daughter to the circus in downtown Albany. Six-year-old Skyler will watch the magicians, clowns, zebras and jugglers. The little girl will look forward to the Human Cannonballs — and watch with wide eyes as mother Tina booms and zooms through the air at the Times Union Center.
Friends of George Gifford could have taken him out to lunch to celebrate his 50th year at Mohawk National in Schenectady. In the end, tellers, clerks and bank directors decided Ford had a better idea.
Shenendehowa High School students finally returned home from Paris Monday night, 10 days after they were scheduled to return. The students were delayed because of an ash cloud that covered Europe following a volcanic explosion in Iceland. They left for Paris on April 2 and were scheduled to return on April 16
Conrad Birdie, Prince Charming and the King of Siam all have made occasional appearances in Capital Region high schools.
The rock ’n’ roll singer, fairy tale nobleman and proud ruler have offered tastes of fame to bunches of scholastic actors.
Springtime generally means productions featuring casts of dozens in school auditoriums. Bill Britten played rocker Conrad in Draper High School’s 1975 production of “Bye, Bye Birdie.” Gregg Berrian courted Snow White in Mohonasen High School’s 1975 “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” And Carter Yepsen ruled the stage as King Mongkut of Siam in Niskayuna High School’s 1975 “The King and I.”
Friends, colleagues and family gathered Sunday at the Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga Springs to remember the popular, award-winning Gazette film critic and columnist and WRGB CBS 6 reporter.
“People like to believe there is a home for every book, and it’s just not true,” said Wayne Somers, who has operated his shop, W. Somers, Bookseller on Union Street in Schenectady, since 1971.
Tomie dePaola would have loved adding something colorful to the story, but unfortunately he had to debunk it. He never stayed in the windmill. In 1958, dePaola was 23 and just out of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn when he was hired to paint a large mural in the new chapel of the Dominican Retreat and Conference Center in Niskayuna. The story goes that while dePaola worked on the painting he stayed in the windmill. But it never happened.
Ten years earlier, in 1948, the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine de’Ricci, looking for a new home, bought Witbeck’s Gray Boulders and about 10 acres of property. Despite its proximity to a busy highway, the Dominican Retreat and Conference Center has for more than 60 years provided people with a quiet place for spiritual reflection, and the windmill and dePaola’s art are two big parts of the overall experience.
A demolition crew works this morning to tear down the once-popular Old Homestead Restaurant at the corner of Route 50 and Lake Hill Road in Burnt Hills.
Women playing, working, resting, studying, grooming, and sitting for formal portraits — you’ll find them all in the Arkell Museum’s latest exhibition, “Picturing Women: American Artists’ Images of Women 1780s-1940,” which is on display through June 8.
The vibrant colors of spring are now appearing throughout the region as dogwoods, magnolias, forsynthias, flowering crabapples as well as tulips, daffodils and more dot the landscape. Shown in this gallery are some especially striking images around the region. The Gazette is asking readers to send us their own colorful photos to be included in an online gallery. Send them to photo@dailygazette.net and include your name and the location of where the photo was taken.
Spring is here, and for many that means the beginning of outdoor cookouts with that old American standby, the hamburger. Rainouts? Not to worry. There are plenty of restaurants, diners and taverns out there to fill the void on those less-than-nice spring days, with their own takes on this classic sandwich. Whether you like it plain, with cheese, bacon, mushrooms, or just about anything else, there’s an abundance of choices out there to satisfy any burger lover’s palate.
The men and women of Rotterdam’s Schonowe Volunteer Fire Department stood proud during the spring of 1949.
They looked proud, too. The department’s new firehouse on Gordon Road had been completed and was ready for a dedication ceremony. Schonowe’s big day came on Saturday, May 14. Despite dark skies and occasional showers, 200 people showed up to check out the $65,000 station on Gordon Road.
Amelia Gelnett, an education and conservation intern at the Wilton Wildlife Preserve & Park, revealed the magic of composting, how anyone can transform organic household waste — veggie and fruit scraps from the kitchen, leaves and lawn trimmings — into nutrient-rich soil that nurtures flower and veggie gardens, lawns and indoor plants. “Want to see the worms?” she asks.
“Worms are really neat creatures,” she said. Red wiggler worms, or Eisenia foetida by their scientific name, feel vibrations and sense light. When they move through soil, the mucus on their bodies acts like a glue, reinforcing their tunnels.
“They have a little tongue that comes out. It’s pretty cool,” said Gelnett, a devoted worm watcher and keeper of Wilton Wildlife’s indoor worm box.
Six teams competed Thursday in the MVP Health Care Wii Bowling League Championship Tournament at Proctors' iWerks theater. The event was the culmination of a six-week MVP Wii bowling league at senior centers around the region. Hoosick Falls emerged as the champion Thursday with Ballston Spa finishing second. Other teams competing were Rotterdam, West Rotterdam, Gloversville and Colonie.
Relatives of hit-and-run victim Ryan Rossley of Ballston react today at Saratoga County Courthouse after a guilty plea by driver Travis Carroll. Rossley was struck and killed in March in Saratoga Springs.
Supporters of the Caroga Lake Campground gathered Sunday across from the entrance to the park. It is one of seven campgrounds planned for closure by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
Bill Opal knew his work. In 1950, he spent a lot of time riding in an ambulance.
“The thing about this business,” he said, “is you’re always doing somebody a good deed.”
Sixty years ago, Opal and 11 other guys wore button-up shirts, ties, pants with stripes on the sides and peaked caps. They were the crew from Schenectady Ambulance Service at 900 State St.
Images from Saturday's Tour of the Battenkill pro-am cycling event in Washington County. The two-weekend event continues on Saturday, April 17, with the noncompetitive Ride 2 Recovery event, followed by the Pro Invitational on Sunday, April 18.
On Wednesday, about 700 trout were released by children and their families into Geyser Creek, located in the Geyser Picnic Area of Saratoga Spa State Park. Technician Larry Kroon from the Van Hornesville Fish Hatchery, operated by the Department of Environmental Conservation, stocks the area streams each year with the help of volunteers.
Guilderland, the defending Section II Class A boys lacrosse champions, turned back visiting Ballston Spa, 10-5, Tuesday in the Suburban Council opener for both teams.
Tiger Woods made his return to The Masters golf tournament today by playing a practice round. Afterward, he faced questions from the media about revelations of cheating on his wife following an auto accident outside his Florida home.
The ingredients were simple — 1 pound liver, half a pound of ham and 2 tablespoons of lard. The home chef of 1950 mixed the meats with onion, egg and seasonings to create the exotic dinner called “liver-ham loaf” for the family. The recipe was one reason thousands of amateur cooks, most of them women, packed Proctor’s Theatre in Schenectady for four days during the spring of 1950. The Food Pageant Cooking School began Tuesday, May 23
Crucifixes large and small are a central focus in Catholic churches during the Lenten season. For Christians, Easter Sunday is a day to celebrate and reflect upon Christ’s resurrection and triumph over the cross. The crucifixes can be lifelike, artistic or abstract, and stir different feelings and emotions in believers.
Photos from this morning's verdict at the Schenectady County Courthouse in the arson and terrorism trial of Steven Raucci, former facilities director for the Schenectady City School District.
Was the correct answer “strike” or “strive?”
Would the judges accept “saving” or “saying?”
Could the right word be “hired” or “fired?”
The riddles were not puzzlements to Lucy Payne of Rotterdam, Loria Armstrong of Schenectady and Helen Motler of Albany — they were “Pruzzlements.”
The three women were among the thousands of puzzle fans who played the latest “Pruzzle” crossword in the Schenectady Gazette during the spring of 1955. The Gazette had published the latest challenge on Saturday, April 23; on Thursday, April 28, the women learned they had cracked the newsprint case, and they earned $166.67 apiece.
Photos entered into evidence on March 24, 2010, show an explosive device found in Steven Raucci's office at Mont Pleasant Middle School, photos of vandalism at the home of Hal and Deborah Gray and night vision goggles found at Raucci's Niskayuna home.
Spring always brings new beginnings. In the past, spring also has brought new music, new nurses, new fraternal Elks and new golfers to Schenectady. In 1966, for example, the mod sounds of “The Pastels” filled the Draper High School auditorium. The student-powered rock ’n’ roll outfit teamed up with Draper majorettes for the annual Draper Follies. At another Rotterdam school, Schalmont, folksingers Chris Musella, Nancy VanValkenburg and Alan Dietz wowed crowds at “April in Paris,” a school PTA-sponsored show at the Schonowe Fire Hall.
The Union College Dutchmen turned back St. Lawrence, 3-1, Friday night to advance to the championship game of the ECAC Hockey Tournament at the Times Union Center in Albany.
Bernard G. Rudolph wanted men, women and children at his new Schenectady store on Wednesday, May 21, 1947, when he opened his new Rudolph’s Jewelers store at 416-418 State St. Rudolph and his brother Max moved a lot of diamonds and wristwatches in 29 stores in New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts. The Rudolphs wanted people to see their new store inside the new Rudolph Building, and also wanted to mark 22 years of business in Schenectady. That’s why they offered free slices of cake to people who attended the open house, and promised 22 diamond rings were hidden inside the cake. Two years later, another merchant who didn’t mind a little gimmick-related publicity was Vincent Rainone, proprietor of Ritz restaurant at 1725 Van Vranken Ave. With many people worried about tuberculosis in 1949, Rainone and his staff took advantage of a free X-ray clinic at City Hall. Dr. James Blake of the Glenridge Tuberculosis Sanitarium congratulated Vincent and his chefs and waitresses on their clean bills of health.
<p>When people see Simon of Cyrene — a study in compassion and determination as he helps Jesus Christ carry his cross — they will also see Patricia Marie Trudeau.
“I had to become Simon, I had to become Mary, I had to become Jesus,” said artist Trudeau, whose 15-painting series “The Way of the Cross” is on display inside the Visions Gallery at the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany’s Pastoral Center.
The oil works, in somber reds and dark browns, show the traditional Stations of the Cross found in Catholic churches. Each scene shows Christ during his journey from condemnation to crucifixion to resurrection.
Union College senior right wing Mario Valery-Trabucco's big season has placed him among contenders for ECAC Player of the Year. A look at the Montreal native in action throughout his career.
The long-awaited show by Elton John and Billy Joel finally made it to the Times Union Center in Albany on Thursday night, much to the delight of their fans.
Christian Brothers Academy turned back Shenendehowa, 59-47, Tuesday night at the Times Union Center to win the Section II Class AA basketball championship.
Bill McDonald wants people to reach an Irish level of comfort inside Pinhead Susan's. So do other men and women who own pubs in the Capital Region that cater to Irish tastes and sensibilities. All say taverns with links to Ireland have a special ambience found only in Irish taverns. When an Irish bar passes muster as a comfortable meeting place, word spreads quickly.
Players and fans celebrate Siena's third consecutive title in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference men's college basketball tournament in Albany. The Saints defeated Fairfield in overtime to advance to the NCAA Tournament.
Gazette columnist Carl Strock captured these images on a recent trip to Morocco. "I was wandering the labyrinthine lanes first of Marrakech, then of Fez, and finally of Chefchaouen, getting more entranced all the time," he wrote last week in a column describing the sights.
Jenny Daversa and Mamie Ruback both had been with Sears, Roebuck & Co. since 1944.
Tom Scanlan had been on the job inside the Erie Boulevard store since 1941. John Santill had been a company man since 1931.
The antique Sears car that showed up in Schenectady in the middle of February in 1947 had them all beat for longevity. The old motor with wooden wheels and without a roof had rolled out of a Sears auto plant in 1901.
Two people were killed and eight homes were destroyed in March of 1990 in North Blenheim, Schoharie County, following an explosion of propane gas that had leaked out of an underground pipeline. The photos show the aftermath of the explosion 20 years ago, and images from the town this past week.
Top-seeded Averill Park trounced Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake, 46-23, in a Section II Class A basketball semifinal game Tuesday night at Colonie High School.
About 30 people today protested talk show host Al Roney’s ouster from WGY (810-AM) last week. They carried signs outside WGY headquarters on Route 7 in Latham.
Images pertaining to the case of Steven Raucci of Niskayuna, the former Schenectady City School District facilities manager who faces 26 counts, including terrorism and arson, in an alleged quest for power within the district.
Several class acts were seen around the Schenectady area in February 1970. Among them were stars of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Kids from Draper High School, on a mission against drugs, were also first class.
So were members of Niskayuna High School’s crew from 1960, who were planning their 10th anniversary class reunion. The NAACP honored Malinda Myers, James A. Stamper and Theodore Vinick. Chapter President Ralph F. Boyd Sr. presented the trio with life membership certificates and plaques. Myers had served as president of the organization and was on the executive board in 1970. Stamper was also a past president, and was the current treasurer. Niskayuna 20-somethings of 1970 were looking ahead to summer. The 10th reunion for the Class of 1960 had been scheduled for June 27. Western class was shown by the Helderberg Twirlers, who had something in common with the Niskayuna crew — they were also marking a 10-year anniversary. The Twirlers, a square dance club, celebrated with a dance in Guilderland attended by 300. A mother’s aide class was also in the news. A bunch of sixth-grade students at Schenectady’s Brandywine School had completed the Red Cross-sanctioned course. Now they knew how to take care of young children.
For much of its life, the large white building at 248 Main St. in the hamlet of Fort Hunter was a warm and welcoming place.
August Becker entertained guests there as proprietor of the Fort Hunter Hotel way back in the 19th century, and his son-in-law Orville Blanche ran the place — also his residence — as a boarding house and a barber shop well into the 20th century. Even now, current owners Jason and Katherine Downing put up a sign that reads “The Downings International House,” and since 2002 have been renting out rooms to foreign students at Fulton-Montgomery Community College.</p>
Saratoga Springs defeated Shaker-Colonie, 3-1, Thursday night at Messa Rink on the Union College campus to win the Section II Division I hockey championship.
A snowstorm deposited heavy snow on the Capital Region Tuesday night and today, closing schools, canceling many flights and making for a tricky morning commute. Shown are images this morning in Schenectady County.
Host Mohonasen narrowly defeated Bishop Gibbons, 55-53, Tuesday night in an opening round game of the Section II boys high school basketball tournament.
When men put on top hats and pick up walking sticks, they’re generally stepping out. Polly Sidford and her friends wore top hats and carried canes on March 12 and 13, 1954. But they were sliding out. Polly, Barbara Futterer and Mary and June Maraicano knew every man was crazy about a sharply dressed woman, especially a sharply dressed woman wearing sharp pieces of steel on the bottoms of her shoes. The formally attired ladies were part of the 100-member performance team at the Figure Skating Carnival, a big show held in the chilly field house of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy.
As a child, Peter Sefton spent summers on Great Sacandaga Lake, on an old family farm in Northville. “As an adult, I started to notice that some of the things that impressed me as a child were starting to crumble and disappear,” he said. “I thought someone should do a memorial.”
Colonie Police have released the following photos in connection with an assault/slashing at Shenanigans Nightclub. Two images are of witnesses sought by police, and two images are of the suspect sought by police.
During the 1960s, guys on high school basketball teams wore tight shorts and sleeveless, tank top shirts. Girls on high school volleyball teams during the same era wore loose-fitting jumpers over roomy blouses and shorts. Things change.
Say the words “atomic age,” and people think back to the bombing of Hiroshima or the Cuban Missile crisis, when schoolchildren scurried under their desks, rehearsing for a much-feared nuclear attack. Not photographer Martin Benjamin. “My feeling is that we’re still in the Atomic Age. I grew up at the beginning of the Atomic Age, and I don’t think it’s ended yet.”
Somewhere in Schenectady, under a garage shelf or above a basement workbench, Handy Andy may still be on the job.
If he is, Russ McPadden, Ann Wood, Stuart Oudt, Carole Prostak and their friends are the reasons. In 1954, as teenage entrepreneurs, they created the handy household helpers as part of a project for Junior Achievement.
The young businessmen and businesswomen created the Handy Andy Co. to learn about free enterprise. With sponsorship from the General Electric Elfun Society and help from the General Electric Co., the Junior Achievement team designed and manufactured Andy and put him on the market.
Louis Agassiz Fuertes was born in 1874 and lived much of his life in and around Ithaca. A graduate of Cornell University, he wasn’t just a wonderful artist who happened to paint birds. His knowledge of the subject and the accuracy of his paintings drew praise from the likes of Roger Tory Peterson, who said his own series of field guides that came out a half century later were inspired by Fuertes’ work.
About a dozen Whitehall students, from middle grades into high school, drive two hours from home to Hoevenberg every Sunday afternoon from midwinter into early spring. They're learning how to pilot bobsleds and control skeleton sleds; they're hoping dedication and training leads to spots in the Junior Olympics. Someday, maybe the Winter Olympics.
“We’re the only public school in the country that has a bobsled team,” said Alan Bascue, a former bobsledder who serves as chief recruiter and head coach.
Just a few hours to the west, Capital Region residents have a great treasure in the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film.
But how many of us have actually made the trek to Rochester to check it out? Now, thanks to a program of the National Endowment for the Arts, the George Eastman House brings some of its collection to the New York State Museum, part of the Bank of America Great Art Series.
“Seeing Ourselves: Masterpieces of American Photography from the George Eastman House Collection” will be on display from next Friday through May 9.
Aviators and theater organists have a strange symbiosis.
“It’s something about those buttons,” said Carl Hackert, who plays Proctors’ Wurlitzer theater organ, known as Goldie. He also is the coordinator for the monthly noon organ concerts. “To play a theater organ, you need to be an orchestrator, to think in more dimensions. It’s like flying planes. It’s the same part of the brain. It’s a machine and you need to make that machine do what you want it to do.
The physical appearance of the instrument may explain why so many pilots play it, or why a theater organist could make a good pilot, Hackert said. One need only look at the 250 stops or buttons placed on a console that gently curves in a horseshoe shape around the player, along with the three keyboards and the 32 foot pedals.
Music, royalty and education were in with the in crowd during February 1971. But smoking was out — at least at Schenectady’s former Linton High School. Linton High School environmentalists helped reduce air pollution 39 years ago this month. Glenn Star and Pam Snook were among the student members of “Survival,” a group that pushed green ideas. One of those ideas was the shutdown of the school’s waste incinerator, and Linton officials agreed. A ceremonial closing — complete with chains around the big metal furnace — took place Wednesday, Feb. 3.
In the coming weeks, the Downtown YMCA will abandon its home at 13 State St. "The building really does have a nice personalityl,” says Lou Magliocca, the Y's executive director. It has many nooks and crannies and is well-known for the running track that hovers above the basketball court. Handball was always a popular activity at the building, which was built in 1927 and opened the following January.
Schenectady played defense during the first months of 1953. Civil defense.
The Cold War was on, and the threat of nuclear burial by international adversaries was a constant worry. Some preferred preparation over panic, and that’s why civil defense drills in Schenectady County occasionally made the headlines.
On Saturday, April 11, 1953, an exercise showed Schenectady residents what could happen if an atomic bomb exploded on Brandywine Avenue. Fifteen thousand people would have been vaporized, thousands more injured.
Dance skaters Jason Morrow of Saratoga Springs and Katie Wyble of Murraysville, Pa., are shown during a practice session at the Knick Arena in Lansingburgh last week. The skaters are competing in the 2010 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Spokane, Wash., hoping for a berth on the U.S. Winter Olympic team.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Wednesday for the new Union Graduate College building at the corner of Nott Terrace and Liberty Street. Major donors were introducted at the ceremony. Classes have started in the 24,000-square-foot facility.
For young people of the 1950s, halls of academia offered words and numbers in assorted books. Kids turned pages, took notes and watched the blackboards.
The “Halls of Adventure” supplied kids with more thrills — and chances to travel through time and visit space, American Indians and the 1800s. If adventure had a name in 1957, that name was the Schenectady Museum.
Curators opened a section they called the junior museum in April 1957. Volunteers from the Schenectady Junior League sponsored the project, spending six months converting dusty storage rooms on the second floor into a cerebral amusement park for kids. Adolescents were supposed to learn; they were also supposed to have fun.
Many brides think of their beloved as a knight in shining armor, but Armando “Mondy” Barrera took it to a new level when he dressed the part for their wedding last June.
Wearing glistening armor that weighed 115 pounds, Barrera married his long-time girlfriend, D’Ette Loucks, in a Renaissance-themed celebration (with a touch of “Pirates of the Caribbean” thrown in) that reflected their interests and personalities. Creating theme weddings is a trend among brides and grooms looking to make their special day unique.
The Amsterdam couple, both in their 40s, are longtime Renaissance fair attendees, and their wedding had all the merriment of a 16th century betrothal. There were jesters, minstrels, damsels, belly dancers and hand-painted banners bearing the two family crests in the pavilion of the Concordia Club in Gloversville, where the reception was held.
Images from Haiti following a powerful earthquake Tuesday that crushed thousands of structures, from schools and shacks to the National Palace and the U.N. peacekeeping headquarters.
Auto dealers in Schenectady during the mid-1950s prepared to promote their products during the 1955 Schenectady Auto Show. Seventy-five shiny machines were parked on the floor of the state Armory on Washington Avenue during early February, ready for public inspection. Every company had something good to say about modern conveyances of 55 years ago.
Albany’s B3nson Recording Co. follows a new model for independent record labels in the 21st century.
That is, if it’s even right to call B3nson a traditional “record label.” Since forming in 2005, taking its name from its founders’ then-current residence on Benson Street in Albany, B3nson Recording has always operated as more of a loose collective of musicians and bands than an actual label.</p>
few seconds.
That’s how long it took for a speeding pickup truck to hit two trees off Angel Road in the Saratoga County town of Corinth and end the life of blue-eyed, red-haired Joelle DuMoulin, at 16.
Hours, weeks, months and years have passed since that time on June 9, 2002, but those seconds are always with Joelle’s mother, Lisa Savard.
“Sometimes more, sometimes stronger and more in the forefront than others,” said Savard, who lives in Greenfied Center. “I was just watching the kids coming through the display, and one of the girls has beautiful red hair. It comes up again.”
The “display” is “One Second Everything Changes,” billed as a forensic exhibit of alcohol-related and impaired-driving crashes in the Capital Region. The presentation opened Thursday at Union College’s Dyson Hall, on the first floor of the Nott Memorial, and runs through Jan. 31.
A new year always means new babies.
Newspapers have traditionally been interested in newborns on Jan. 1. It’s all about symbolism: The old, worn-out year is always depicted as a bearded old man in a long, tattered gown, limping into oblivion on New Year’s Eve. His replacement is the Baby New Year, bright of eyes and pink of cheeks, wearing a top hat and a sash emblazoned with the new date. The Daily Gazette has published photos of New Year’s kids for decades. In 1969, Nancy and Howard Schworm made the front page of the newspaper’s local section when they welcomed son Glenn into the world. “I wasn’t even thinking about that,” said Nancy, of the New Year’s baby derby. “There were eight or nine of us in the delivery room that night. The next morning, the Gazette and a television station came in, walked over to my bed and they said ‘Congratulations.’ I said ‘Thank you; but they’ve all had them, too.’ They said, ‘Well, you had the New Year’s baby’ and I said, ‘I did?’ That was a big surprise.” Glenn, the youngest of four Schworm sons, was born at 12:01 a.m. at Bellevue Maternity Hospital in Niskayuna.
Cheryl Gutmaker bakes colors. She’ll put platters full of lush reds, cobalt blues and deep yellows into her oven — a small basement kiln — and admire glass trays, bowls and plates when the heat is off.
Gutmaker, 63, who lives in Glenville, has parlayed her lifelong appreciation for glass into a small business. Her The Lady’s Got Glass produces artlike pieces for small stores in the Capital Region.
Gazette columnist Carl Strock shares two dozen photos from his recent trip to Mexico. Featured are people celebrating the Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe and action from a bullfight. Warning: The bullfighting scenes are not for the squeamish. Strock blogs about the photos in "Strock Freestyle" under News blogs.
It’s more Northern dairy farm than Southern cotton plantation, but Painted Spring Farm is Barbara Hagelin’s Tara.
The 6,000-square-foot, white Colonial farmhouse she owns with her husband, Reed, was built in the late 1700s — about a century before the Civil War, and the fictional tribulations of Scarlett O’Hara — but the home exudes a similar elegant charm.
Cars now rush by on the road out front, where horse-pulled wagons once ambled, and the cattle are long gone. But the past and present dance together across the wide plank floorboards in the home’s spacious halls.
Capital Region residents may have been dreaming about a white Christmas on Thursday, Dec. 25, 1969. A white Christmas night may not have been in their thoughts.
That’s what happened. A severe snowstorm swirled into the area during the evening, the second big winter frost of the week, and put 14 1⁄2 inches of new flakes on the ground. When the storm had ended by midafternoon on Friday, Schenectady had 27 inches of cold, white cover.
As 1969 rolled to its conclusion, the Capital Region also had a new record snowfall total for December. Weather observers said more than 40 inches had fallen by Christmas. The month ended at 57.5 inches — and it’s still the snowiest December on record.
There were few architects as prominent as Philip Hooker in 19th century New York, and while parishioners and history buffs at the Niskayuna Reformed Church do think of him fondly, there’s another individual they hold in even higher esteem. Just who that person is, however, remains a mystery.
The man responsible for the design of the Niskayuna Reformed Church — on the list of the National Register of Historic Places since 1978 — has been lost to history, but his work endures.
Brothers Derrick, Shadell and Devonte Millinghaus combined for 56 points Tuesday night as Schenectady High School defeated visiting CCHS, 76-62, in Big 10 basketball.
Gazette photographer Marc Schultz and Associated Press photographer Mike Groll captured these images this morning around Schenectady and Albany during the first snowstorm of the season.
One mile from Route 7, two from the Albany Airport, minutes from the Northway, and just over a rickety, red, single-lane bridge, awaits the Niska Isle Estate. You’ll know you’ve arrived when the tranquility surrounds you. The loudest sounds: birdsong and the wind rustling the reeds at river’s edge.
Former Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno leaves U.S. District Court in Albany Monday after hearing the verdict that he is guilty on two counts of corruption.
Despite a few mediocre reviews early, "Wicked" has generally been applauded by most critics and unabashedly embraced by its audience, making it, by some accounts, Broadway’s biggest box-office event ever. On Wednesday night at Proctors, the national touring production company begins its nearly month-long stay in Schenectady with an 8 p.m. performance.
People who know Charles Dickens know Ebenezer Scrooge.
The miserly, miserable Scrooge is the central character of Dickens’ celebrated holiday story, “A Christmas Carol.”
Readers may not be as familiar with Toby “Trotty” Veck, John Peerybingle and Professor Redlaw — principals in Dickens’ other Christmas stories. After Charles published “Carol” in 1843, success and public popularity inspired him to write four other short novels for the holiday season.
While the “Carol” has survived and prospered — the latest film adaptation featuring Jim Carrey is now in theaters — the other tales have mostly remained out of the yule limelight.
Carolyn LaHart is one of the few women in the country who runs a ski area, and that includes doing lift maintenance, grooming the slopes and making snow at Maple Ski Ridge in Rotterdam.
This year, festival organizers decided to celebrate the ESYO’s participation by asking several of its alumni either to play in the orchestra or to be the event’s special guests. About 14 musicians, some of who last played in the orchestra in the 1980s and are still involved in the music industry, will join the 87-piece orchestra under conductor Helen Cha-Pyo.
The special guests are all famous in their own right. They are clarinetist Amy Platt (1983-85) and percussionist Randy Crafton (1982-84), fiddler Sara Milonovich (1997-98), and vibraphonist Stefon Harris (1991).
Tiger Woods said today he let his family down with transgressions he regrets “with all of my heart,” and that he will deal with his personal life behind closed doors, after a magazine reported he had a 31-month affair with a Los Angeles cocktail waitress.
Montgomery Hall is no longer a hotel, but its cream and brown facade and tall clock tower still dominate the village landscape and conjure up images of days gone by when Fort Plain used to host some pretty interesting visitors.
The man from the North Pole made a seasonal arrival in Schenectady on Friday, Nov. 25, 1966, and used a high-tech, modern sleigh. A helicopter from Industrial Flight Service brought Santa Claus to a clearing behind the Hotel Van Curler (now Schenectady County Community College).
Bunches of kids and parents were watching, and hundreds more lined State Street as Santa waved and laughed on the day after Thanksgiving. The crowd was estimated at 6,000.
Sweet Home High School scored 19 points in the second quarter on the way to posting a 34-7 victory over Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School Saturday for its second consecutive state Class A football championship. The loss was BH-BL's first of the season.
The Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake football team meets Sweet Home High School near Buffalo today at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse for the state Class A championship. Photos here show the team in practice this week and in action during the season.
Decorated trees will sparkle and shine throughout the Capital Region and beyond beginning this week. The Schenectady County Historical Society and its Washington Avenue Neighbor, the WYCA, open their third annual “Festival of Trees” on Friday. Kathryn Weller, curator at the historical society, promises color and variety inside the museum. “We have Robert Haley’s tree, which is all antique Christmas ornaments dating back to the late 19th century and early 20th century. We also have a tree on historic postcards and various historic scenes. We have one tree from a local legal firm that’s pink for breast cancer and another one which is beating the drums for nutcrackers. So there’s a whole spectrum.”
Mechanicville (Class B) wins in the semifinals but bows in the finals and Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake (Class A) falls in the semifinals of the state girls soccer tournament over the weekend in central New York.
Ron Alheim and friends always entertain Thanksgiving Day. This Thursday’s company will come to the First Presbyterian Church in Albany. The 40th annual holiday dinner provided by social agency Equinox Inc., will be held at the church at 362 State St. from 1 until 4 p.m. Alheim, a retired chef who lives in Schenectady, has been around the kitchen and dining room since the first dinner in 1969. Alheim, now 73, was running the kitchen in 1986. That year, Equinox attracted about 600 volunteers and served and delivered meals to 3,000 residents.
Women are not the only subject Dona Ann McAdams has focused her camera lens on during her 35-year career. But she has always looked for, and found, women and girls to photograph.
“I’ve always shot women because I am one, and I’m interested in how we are perceived in the world,” she said.
A survey of McAdams’ work will be on display through Dec. 11 at the Opalka Gallery at The Sage Colleges. The theme of women unifies the exhibition, “Dona Ann McAdams: ‘Some Women,’” which draws from 10 of her portfolios from 1974 to the present.
Squirrels running, digging and raiding bird feeders today in Schenectady’s Elmer Avenue neighborhood owe Richard Kaczmarek and his friends a debt of gratitude.
That’s because the boys saved the squirrels’ ancestors during the late summer of 1948.
Seven boys adopted seven orphaned squirrels in early September. Richard and his pals — Bruce Keith, John Pauley, Donald Moss, Peter Putnam, Donald Gachowski and James Czaban — answered the call from nature and cared for the month-old babies.
One of the delights of the season is having the house fill with the aromas of homemade treats. When the treats are made from long-treasured family recipes, they stir memories of those who cooked before us.
I asked readers to send along recipes that have been passed down in their family for three generations or more, from cook to cook, and that they look forward to making — and eating — every year.
A jet carried the casket of Staff Sgt. Amy Seyboth Tirador, 29, who was killed Nov. 4 in Iraq in a non-combat incident, home to Colonie today to a hero’s welcome. Greeting it were an Army honor guard, an Army color guard, Colonie Police, members of the Patriot Guard Riders, friends, family and airport personnel.
It all started with messing around on a light box.
From there, Walter Wick went on to create the collage-like, illusionary photographs in the popular “I Spy” books that children have grown to love.
Visitors to the Arkell Museum in Canajoharie on Nov. 15 will be able to spy Wicks himself, on hand to open the museum’s exhibition “Walter Wick: Games, Gizmos and Toys in the Attic.”
Shenendehowa tripped Saratoga, 2-0, in the finals of the Section II Class AA boys' soccer tournament Tuesday at Colonie, giving the school its 16th Section II boys’ soccer championship.
The Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake girls soccer team defeated Jamesville-DeWitt, 4-3, on penalty kicks after playing to a 1-1 draw in the Class A regional semifinal Tuesday at Stillwater High School.
A man with a shotgun held a building principal hostage today for two hours before surrendering without firing a shot at Stissing Mountain Middle School and High School in Pine Plains.
Antoinette Severino could never quite pronounce the name of her third-oldest child, Orlando. “Everybody called him Lundy,” said Orlando’s daughter, Cathy Severino of Schenectady. “His mother spoke Italian. Instead of saying ‘Orlando,’ she said ‘Orlundy, Orlundy.’ That's how he got the ‘Lundy.’ That's how everybody knew him.” Family and friends also knew Lundy and four of his brothers as veterans of World War II. Joseph, Frank, William and Armand “Ed” Severino joined Orlando in uniform during the 1940s. A sixth Severino son, Tony, spent time on war work projects at the General Electric Co. With Veterans Day approaching, the extended Severino family remembers.
Well over a thousand runners completed Sunday's 34th annual Gazette Stockade-athon 15-kilometer (9.3 miles) road race through the streets of Schenectady under bright blue skies Sunday. Gazette photographers Barry Sloan and Marc Schultz captured these images before, during and after the race.
More than 15,000 birders across the U.S. and Canada will begin taking their hobby a little more seriously than usual this month as Project FeederWatch, a collaboration between the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology and Bird Studies Canada, begins its 23rd year.
Niskayuna's Lindsay Mayo scored a pair of goals in the Silver Warriors’ 2-1 triumph over Bethlehem Wednesday in the Section II Class A field hockey semifinals.
Some politicians seal Election Day victories with handshakes.
Others mark wins with smiles and hugs, maybe a brandy toast at party headquarters.
James P. Houlihan celebrated success in style on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 1961. He sealed it with a kiss.
It actually looked like Mrs. Houlihan’s idea. She grabbed her grinning husband by the neck on Election Night and gave the new Schenectady Police Justice an affectionate peck. The smooch made the front page of the next day’s Schenectady Gazette.
Five young women in powder blue gowns stood next to five young men in powder blue suits.
All had perfect smiles, perfect hair and perfect harmony. They also had accordion player Myron Floren, who provided musical support for the small choir’s breezy television version of “Hot Diggity,” Perry Como’s hit song from 1956.
Most importantly, the group had Connie Remscheid watching the performance at her home in Scotia.
Action from a boxing card Friday night at the McDonough sports complex on the campus of Hudson Valley Community College in Troy. All are through the lens of Carl Strock.
A majestic witch, dressed in dark cloak and pointed hat, flashed a wicked smile. The night — Monday, Oct. 31, 1966 — was a treasure hunt. The lady in black shared her good fortune with other children of the night. Kids celebrated Halloween as Popeye the sailor, the Frankenstein monster, the Beatles, skeletons, bums and other oddities as they made traditional nocturnal visits to the Capital Region.
The Pruyn House on Old Niskayuna Road in Colonie never faced a bulldozer, but it was unquestionably heading for a confrontation of that sort.
“Fred Field called this house a leap of faith when he convinced the board to buy it for $120,000 in 1983,” said Pruyn House curator Diane Morgan, referring to Colonie’s longtime town supervisor, the driving force behind the purchase. “Now, 26 years later, we have this wonderful house on this wonderful piece of property. I think it turned out to be a great idea.”
The house, once home to Casparus F. Pruyn and his large family, was built around 1830. The white, two-story home is characterized by a late Federal/early Greek Revival style, and is five bays wide and rectangular in plan. It has a flat roof, and the only real significant structural change to the home is a two-story, one-bay-wide addition over the back entrance.</p>
Turning the musicians who participated in the video project Playing For Change into a working band seems like an impossible task. After all, the more than 100 street musicians featured in the popular YouTube videos (Playing For Change’s “Stand By Me” video has more than 14 million views alone) and on the album “Songs Around the World” literally come from around the world — from New Orleans to Africa to the Himalayas. About two years ago, Mark Johnson and Whitney Kroenke Burditt, the project’s founders, formed the Playing For Change Foundation, a separate nonprofit entity that works to build music schools around the world, and launched it with a benefit in the Denver area featuring the first incarnation of the Playing For Change Band.“We always thought that it would be pretty incredible to have these people together on one stage,” Burditt said. The show plays The Egg in Albany on Saturday.
A ski-equipped LC-130 aircraft from Stratton Air National Guard Base in Scotia departs for Antarctica in support of Operation Deep Freeze, the United States military's support to the U.S. Antarctic Program.
Researchers at GE Global Research in Niskayuna and drug maker Eli Lilly have developed tissue-based biomarker technology that for the first time can simultaneously map more than 25 proteins in tumors at the sub-cellular level.
The announcement came today at GE's Healthmagination Showcase in New York.
Action from Monday's Section II Class A-B-C-D New York State Qualifier at Orchard Creek Golf Course in Altamont. Albany Academy's Tim DiStefano posted the low score.
The brave and the bold were remembered in downtown Schenectady on Friday, Sept. 24, 1948. A couple hundred people gathered in Crescent Park (now Veterans Memorial Park) for the dedication of the new flagpole to honor the city’s war dead. A Marine Corps color guard provided a military presence. A small contingent from the Gold Star Mothers — mothers who had lost sons or daughters in the service of their country — attended in their traditional white outfits. Robert B. McColl provided representation from the American Locomotive Co., which presented the 110-foot-tall monument to the city on behalf of its employees. Mayor Owen M. Begley accepted the gift for Schenectady, and addressed the crowd. Most stood in a cluster near the tall stone base, near the foot of the State Street hill. Some people stood across State Street, near First United Methodist Church, and listened to the words and music.
Photos show a homemade balloon aircraft that is believed to have carried a 6-year-old boy in Colorado. The balloon eventually landed, but there was no sign of the boy.
Later this week, Indians from around the Capital Region will be celebrating Diwali (pronounced di VAHL ee), loosely translated as “Festival of Lights” on Saturday.
“Every part of the country, whether they are Hindus, Jains or Sikhs, every one of them celebrates Diwali,” said Purushotham Bangalore of Rexford.
Patricia Greenwood has countless tales to tell about treasures she’s found that others might consider trash: a vintage step stool and an old cabinet rescued from the curb, a bunch of multicolored netting from the 1950s that nobody wanted.
A collector of midcentury kitchen pieces and other interesting antiques, she haunts not only trash heaps, but auctions, yard sales and secondhand shops. Some of her treasures find their way into her Schenectady home, but most wind up for sale at Patricia’s Room, her space at the Bournebrook Antique Center in Troy, where her keen eye for cool merchandise has earned her some pretty famous customers.
When people greet strangers with torches, it usually means “Get out of town.” Fire and smoke in Schenectady proved the opposite for John Foster Dulles on Oct. 18, 1949. A torchlight parade was part of the welcome for the 61-year-old politician as he campaigned in the city, part of a drive to keep his seat in the U.S. Senate. The newly formed Schenectady County Young Republicans sponsored the event. Members of the group gathered at State Street and Nott Terrace, carrying flames and signs down State as Dulles waved to people on the street and sidewalks from a convertible. All ended up at the Erie Theater on Erie Boulevard near State Street. Dulles had an opening act — Broadway and Hollywood comedians Happy Felton and “Stutterin’ ” Roy Atwell warmed up people who packed the theater. The crowd — inside and out — was estimated at 1,200.
Some beat autumn’s frost with blankets, sweaters and burning maple. Joel Kessler outs the chill in another way. He warms up with chipotle peppers, chili powder and hot paprika — parts of a gastronomic fireplace he calls South of the Border Chili. The 28-year-old student in the culinary arts program at Schenectady County Community College brought a fiery crock pot of his favorite mix to The Daily Gazette on Monday — and scored first place in the newspaper’s October Chili Party. Chili dishes submitted by Richard Herrick of Johnstown, Mary Newton of Glenville and Steve Oathout of Clifton Park also were voted award-winners.
Baseball great Jackie Robinson’s playing days with the Brooklyn Dodgers ended after the 1956 season. Ten years later, as special assistant on community affairs for Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, the campaign trail brought Robinson to Schenectady. While in town, Robinson watched some of the World Series with a city resident and greeted some high school football players among other stops.
It seems like everything Julianne Boyd touched this year turned to gold.
A season that started out with much foreboding turned into one of the most successful ever at Barrington Stage Company, and it isn’t over yet. While its much-heralded new work, “Freud’s Last Session,” winds up today at BSC’s Stage II in Pittsfield, taking the spotlight Wednesday night and running through Oct. 18 will be the musical “The Fantasticks.”
Public relations veteran Ed Lewi's "Summit" gathering of folks who covered the Lake Placid Olympics in 1980, held at the West Side Stadium Cafe in Saratoga Springs, featured a number of well-known local media personalities.
Schuylerville resident Susie Kane-Kettlewell has established breathtaking gardens around her hillside home. Plantings range from the expected to the exotic, with interesting combinations and appealing layout.
<p>A visit to the New York State Museum’s new exhibit on images of African-Americans in American art offers insight into race, identity and perception in our cultural history.
“It gives us an opportunity to look at how far we’ve come and perhaps think about how far we have to go,” said the exhibition’s curator, Gretchen Sullivan Sorin, director and professor of the Cooperstown Graduate Program.
The exhibit, “Through the Eyes of Others: African Americans and Identity in American Art, is on loan from the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown through Jan. 6.
During the 1940s, people could visit Ballston Spa for spring water, small grocery stores and a clean downtown.
A close neighbor to both Schenectady and Saratoga Springs, Ballston could also offer history.
“For years after its incorporation as a village in 1807, Ballston Spa was one of the most famous of the health resorts and spas in this nation,” the Schenectady Gazette reported in a 1946 story. “After the Civil War, the spotlight shifted gradually to Saratoga Springs, where horse racing and publicity drew the patrons.”
Shenendehowa had no trouble defeating Guilderland, 49-14, in its homecoming game Friday night in Clifton Park. Gazette photographer Barry Sloan captured these images.
Slowly over the past decade, and more earnestly for the past year, Galway resident Patricia Kay has been photographing elders in her community and asking them the insightful question: “Who are you?”
Their answers and a personal item from each elder will be on display Oct. 1 through Nov. 17 at an exhibition of Kay’s black-and-white images at the Galway Town Hall on Sacandaga Road.
Scenes from opening night of the 37th Adirondack Balloon Festival as about a dozen hot-air balloons take to the skies over Glens Falls' Crandall Park on Thursday evening, Sept. 24.
George Washington may have enjoyed some tea at 43-45 Washington Ave. in Schenectady, but you can be sure it wasn’t Robert Sanders doing the serving. The historical marker outside the building tells us that the Robert Sanders House was built in 1750, and that our first president, while he was general of the Colonial army, visited the residence in 1775. The information may or may not be accurate, but one thing is for certain: It’s a building definitely worth seeing, and those taking part in Saturday’s 50th Stockade Walkabout will get that opportunity.
A young male moose meandered through yards in Amsterdam today before being tranquilized and relocated to Lake Desolation by state DEC officials. Earlier this week, a moose was spotted in Charlton.
These items were found on murder victims in New Britain, Conn., and Tolland, Mass., in 1995. Police hope they jog someone's memory and may lead to the victims' killer.
Marilyn Sassi calls herself “an incurable collector,” and whether the piece is an original heirloom or a remarkable reproduction, it’s something lovers of antiquity will find fascinating.
Her most prized and equally fascinating “collectable” however, is her house at 121 Front St. in the Stockade section of Schenectady. “What’s important about this house is that it’s a hybrid of English Georgian design from the 18th century along with several Dutch elements,” said Sassi, whose home will be part of the 50th Stockade Walkabout on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. “What’s unusual is that it’s not like the other houses in the Stockade. It was built for the country, as if it was a little manor house.”
President Barack Obama is welcomed at Hudson Valley Community College today. Dr. Jill Biden, wife of the vice president, introduces the president to the audience.
In Armando Furlani’s day, lunch began shortly after dawn.
He was on the bus and into his Schenectady restaurant — Furlani’s — between 7 and 7:30. Then, it was right to work. Armando prepped and prepared tomato sauce, ziti, meatballs, veal parmigiana and other foods that would be hot and spicy by 11. “He was the typical family patriarch,” said Gordon Furlani of Schenectady, Armando’s grandson. “At work, he was just all work; he was in the back room all the time.” That was Furlani’s, the family spot at 129 N. Broadway. Armando ran the place with his brother Quinto, and both chefs served Italian and American favorites from the late 1930s until selling the business in 1964.
An unknown Civil War soldier from New York state whose remains were discovered last year at the site of the Battle of Antietam was buried Thursday with full military honors at Gerald B.H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery in the town of Saratoga.
Mary Travers of the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary lost her battle with leukemia on Wednesday in Connecticut. She was 72. This gallery looks at her younger years with the popular group and more recent photos.
A colorful new sign is installed on the side of the More Perreca's bakery-cafe building on North Jay Street in Schenectady. More Perreca's will serve breakfast and lunch and coal-fired pizza. The restaurant will be open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will employ three people.
It was Daniel David Schermerhorn, who added Campbell to his name to inherit all of his aunt’s money, who built the three houses we now call Campbell Row at 19, 21 and 23 Washington Ave. in the Stockade section of Schenectady. The house at 19 Washington Ave., currently owned by Greg and Barbara Sauer, will be part of the Stockade Walkabout on Sept. 26, and the Sauers suspect that visitors to their home will find the Campbell story as intriguing as they did. “There’s a big S carved into our front door, so maybe that was his way of paying homage to his birth name,” said Greg Sauer, who moved into the home 15 years ago. “He had to be thinking of the Schermerhorn name when he did that. We don’t know for sure, but we surmise that’s why it’s there.”
Life’s a ball for many high school kids. During September, October and November, they throw, kick and paddle all over crowded fields. The weather might be rainy, windy or hot — footballs, soccer balls and field hockey balls remain in play. The Capital Region’s autumn athletes showed off their skills and acquitted themselves with honor during the mid-1980s in this week's "Capital Region Scrapbook."
Frank Sinatra used to sing that way down among Brazilians, coffee beans grew by the billions. Peter Lee didn’t have a “Coffee Song.” But he had the same numbers for different beans during the summer of 1948. He was picking cranberry beans with other teenagers at Andrew Baan’s farm on River Road in Rotterdam. Their work was appreciated by Mr. Baan, who paid 35 cents for each full bushel basket. Much of the crop was headed to New York City — Italian gourmets considered the cranberry beans a delicacy.
Late summer has always meant bonnets and bagpipes in the Capital Region: The Scottish Games have long been a Labor Day weekend tradition.
The fancy steps, pipes and cabers have always drawn crowds. During the 1950s, fans of the clans gathered at the former American Locomotive Club at the end of Van Vranken Avenue. These days, Scotland is in session at the Altamont Fairgrounds each September — this year’s Games will be held Saturday and Sunday.
Few people could draw a crowd like Daniel Webster.
On a hot afternoon in July 1840, the great orator and U.S. senator attracted more than 15,000 people to the Whig Party’s Vermont state nominating convention. Even Elton John last summer couldn’t match that; his sold-out concert drew 10,500 fans to the Champlain Valley Expo in Essex Junction. Webster’s venue: an open field at 2,400 feet in the Green Mountains.
Built on a ridge overlooking the Battenkill River in 1849,the West Mountain Inn in Arlington, Vt. has undergone two major renovations that have transformed it from a small and humble farmhouse into a spacious and extravagant country retreat.
Trick rider Janie Baxter showed her skills during the summer of 1955 at Painted Pony Ranch in Lake Luzerne in this week's "Capital Region Scrapbook" feature.
For many, busking is about more than just the money or the joy of performing. Mark, a guitarist who has been busking in Saratoga since 1975, enjoys being a part of the street music tradition.
“Before they had recorded music about 1900, if you wanted some music, this was it — you played it yourself or you heard somebody play it,” Mark said, sitting a few benches down from Myrie with his acoustic guitar. “Especially, there’s some traditional music and now you don’t hear a lot of it. I could sing, for example, ‘Camptown Ladies,’ in relation to this racetrack here — you know how old that song is, it’s by Stephen Foster. And you’re never gonna hear that song anywhere, but it’s really such an important song in the history of American music.”
Any chef will tell you that the secret to a great dish is using the freshest ingredients. The bounty of fresh produce available at local markets makes this a perfect time of year to test that tip, but it means leaving the shopping list at home.
“Go with a blank slate in mind,” said Sarah Pechar, assistant director of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Schenectady County. Take a look at what the farmers are offering on a given day, and what looks fresh and good.
Late blight is a disease caused by the pathogen Phytophthora infestans. It is the same fungus-like micro-organism that was responsible for the Irish potato famine, which began in 1845 and caused potato crops to blacken and rot in the fields.
In order for the disease to become a major problem, conditions have to be just right. Unfortunately, this year our conditions were ideal. The weather was wet and cool, we were growing the host plants and the late blight pathogen was here.
Man oh man. Phish is back. Sunday night at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center they closed their summer tour and played like they were never going to play again.
Action from Thursday's first round of The Gazette Senior County Amateur golf tournament at the Schenectady Municipal Golf Course. Jim Gardy leads the two-day event with a five-under-par 67.
A parade was held on Main Street in Johnstown on Tuesday in support of teacher Daniel Jones, who was removed from his positions as high school marching band director, winter color guard director and jazz band director.
The Control Tower restaurant and ice cream shop on Route 7 in Latham provides a feast for the senses. Of course there's the food and ice cream to please the taste buds and the nose. Then there are the planes taking off and landing at Albany International airport catching the eye and demanding to be heard.
Lois Gillie was proud of her peaches and pears.
Elizabeth Elder and Agnes McKinlay showed off their clothing creation. And the Rask kids — Niels, Norman and Karen — put their favorite calves in the limelight.
Young stars of local 4-H clubs were among the principal performers at the 1946 Tri-County Fair at Altamont.
The biggest porcine name was Miss Kiwanis, a shoat of generous proportion raised by Jimmy Van Vorst of Glenville. For fun, as always, there were plenty of rides, including the "Dive Bomber."
The five-theater complex at the University at Albany will once again be filled with music, dance and drama during the 2009-10 academic year. The College of Arts and Sciences is sponsoring a schedule of performing arts events including four professional touring companies, three productions by the university’s drama department and a special appearance by alumnus Harold Gould for a total of 29 performances. In addition, the university will offer 34 concerts and three music festivals.
Edgar Degas’s absorption in soirees, operas and cabaret concerts is the basis of a new exhibition at The Hyde Collection. Curated by Kendall and Jill DeVonyar, “Degas & Music” is a rich array of 30 works — paintings, drawings and sculpture — that explores Degas’ early musical influences and how they were expressed through his art. It’s a dream exhibition for Kendall and DeVonyar who, for years, have wanted to probe deeper into his musical life.
Travers Stakes hopefuls Mine That Bird and Summer Bird shipped back to Saratoga Race Course after running in weekend stakes races in West Virginia and New Jersey, respectively.
This has been quite the season. I’ve heard from you that you are having troubles in the garden from insect pests to fungal diseases. Once you identify some of the problems, you can get to work on remedying the situation. There are a number of beetle pests on ornamental plants this year. Bottom end rot and powdery mildew are other problems cropping up this year.
"Watch out, Jim! He’s coming!” So exclaimed a young boy, as he jumped out of his seat to warn Jim Hawkins of the approach of Long John Silver, the villain, in a performance of “Treasure Island” at the New York State Theatre Institute. It’s that kind of moment that lets NYSTI’s founding producing artistic director, Patricia Di Benedetto Snyder, know that she has done her job well. This month, the institute and Snyder will receive national recognition for their accomplishments. On Aug. 11 in New York City, the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America will recognize NYSTI’s and Snyder’s contributions to the field of children’s theater. The presentation of two medallions comes 35 years after the state Legislature passed legislation that establishing the institute. Snyder is, without question, the driving force behind the institute and its success, but she won’t take all of the credit. “Yes, I had the passion, the idea, but what idea ever belongs to any one person, particularly in the theater? The success is a collaboration,” she said.
Bob Castle didn’t think Whistling Kettle could miss.
The big thoroughbred was 2-1 on the morning line for the sixth race at Saratoga Race Course. Only Casque, at 3-1, and Gallant Lad, at 5-1, seemed to have a chance against the favorite on Monday, Aug. 3, 1964. “Whistling Kettle from wire to wire,” predicted Castle, who advised racing fans in the sports pages of the Schenectady Gazette.
Castle overlooked Beaupy. So did a lot of other people in the stands and on the rail for the start of Saratoga’s 101st racing meet. The horse, 34-1 when the starting gate opened, beat Whistling Kettle and the rest of the field to pay $70.40. That generated plenty of excitement on a glorious day. “The weather was perfect, clear, cool and sunny,” Castle wrote. “The old stands and lawns were jam-packed.”
When horse racing fans go looking for a great dining experience away from downtown Saratoga Springs, more likely than not they’ll choose the Wishing Well Restaurant.
Just north of the city on Route 9 in the town of Wilton, the Wishing Well has been drawing the racing crowd for just under 75 years and continues to be a huge part of the Saratoga summer season.
Originally built as a Colonial-style farmhouse in 1823, it has been a restaurant since 1936 and has undergone two substantial additions, the first in 1940 and another in 1976.
For gardeners with a lot of shade, the Middle Grove garden of Jim and Meg Dalton is inspiring.
There are more than 2,000 hostas — 1,700 different cultivars, including a few noteworthy hostas the Daltons have hybridized themselves.
And though in the shade and dominated by hostas, this garden is strikingly beautiful and surprisingly colorful. “There are many shades of green,” Meg said. True, but here there are also blues, bright and soft yellows, pinks, whites and purples.
Through Oct. 19, the Adirondack Museum takes a look at the region via quilts — both historic and modern — in “Common Threads: 150 Years of Adirondack Quilts & Comforters.”
The exhibit is a feast for the eyes, with its color combinations, diverse artistic techniques, old and new patterns and intricate embroidery. For the soul, there are the stories behind each quilt — some sad and touching and others entertaining, even whimsical.
On the day Apollo 11 left Earth for the moon, Steven Russo opened his personal mission control.
A blazing Saturn V rocket had launched three American astronauts into outer space, and the 14-year-old Russo began to manage a 3-foot-tall model rocket in his family’s Brooklyn living room. As the Apollo rocket burned through stages and discarded parts of the booster, Russo separated components on his smaller Saturn.
“How geeky can you get?” he said with a smile. “But that’s the way I was.”
<p>“I nailed Maddy like five times,” said a happy Jack, 8, as he stepped off the fenced-in cement square reserved for crazy drivers at the Glenville Sportplex off Freemans Bridge Road.
Maddy Trombley, 9, paid her brother little attention. She had “nailed” Jack a couple of times herself during a few minutes in the bumper cars.
Talk about blasts from the past: Everyone bounces off the walls, and each other, when they rev and ram in the odd-looking rides. The four-wheeled cars, mounted atop a giant inflatable black rubber doughnut, are a new take on an old automotive amusement.</p>
When Melinda Roy was asked to teach ballet, she balked. She was an accomplished dancer — a former principal with New York City Ballet — and a Tony-nominated choreographer who was currently working on Broadway. But a dance teacher?
”At first, I didn’t really have faith in myself,” she said. “But I felt that I should give something back because I had fantastic teachers like George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins. I felt it was my duty to teach.”
Benjamin Millepied says there is no better mentor than George Balanchine. Even though he never worked with the master, just dancing and watching his ballets has given this star dancer what he calls “an incredible education.”<
Millepied is now applying those lessons to ballets of his own creation. His works have been commissioned by the Paris Opera Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Pacific Northwest Ballet and the Dutch National Ballet. This past spring, he created his first piece for New York City Ballet, “Quasi Una Fantasia,” which premiered at the company’s gala. Described by the New York Times as Millepied’s most accomplished work, this mysterious ballet will slide into the Saratoga Performing Arts Center this week.
Vice President Joe Biden spoke to an enthusiastic crowd and posed for photos Thursday at Shenendehowa High School after flying into Albany from Cincinnati.
As a ballerina selected by George Balanchine, Darci Kistler is among the chosen few. But she holds a distinction that no other Balanchine ballerina can claim — she is his last protégée. So at her retirement next year, an era that saw the fruition of some of the world’s greatest ballets will come to a definitive end.
During the mid-1800s , if Doc Landon walked into a farmhouse with medicine for shivering children, or traveled to the blacksmith’s shop for a hammer-smashed thumb, he always carried his black case. Thin vials of pills and powders were stored inside the travelling apothecary. So were tools of the doctor’s trade. Landon’s good work has ended, but more than 100 years later, part of the medical man remains alive with Jack Spring. The retired Capital Region orthopedic doctor keeps the Landon “buggy bag” on prominent display inside his study, a home medical museum.
It was only Megan Fairchild’s first year in the corps de ballet. But Peter Martins, ballet master in chief at New York City Ballet, could see her spark.
So when principal dancers Alexandra Ansanelli and Jenifer Ringer were sent home with injuries, he tapped the fledgling Fairchild for the lead role in “Coppelia.” With only a few rehearsals with ballet mistress Merrill Ashley and a stack of notes, Fairchild danced all of the performances of “Coppelia” at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center that summer — including two in one day.
The knees of his blue jeans are caked in dirt and his hands are permanently dirty, but Michael DiCrescenzo would rather wear jeans and a dirty T-shirt to work than a suit jacket and tie.
At 31, DiCrescenzo, who has a degree in business management from SUNY Plattsburgh, has rejected a life behind a desk and hopes to make a life as a vintner.
DiCrescenzo’s father, Louis Franco DiCrescenzo, bought the vineyard for his retirement. As an Italian immigrant who came to America when he was 23, DiCrescenzo, is no stranger to making wine and growing grapes. In Italy, his family had a vineyard and grew other types of fruit. The elder DiCrescenzo taught his son the art of wine making when he was a child.
Early July means picnics, parks and plans for the long, hot summer. Young people in the Schenectady area have always used the Fourth of July holiday to finally celebrate independence from homework, tests, school buses and early mornings. They have always found things to do -- as these photos from the '60s and '70s show.
Silver Bay YMCA of the Adirondacks is nestled on the western shore of Lake George a few miles above Bolton Landing and just north of Tongue Mountain. It has been attracting visitors for more than a century with its wonderful location, beautiful view, friendly staff and volunteers like Devenger and Halm, and its century-old, 1,100-seat convention center, simply called the Auditorium. The original one had been built 1906-07, but on July 1, 1908, a fire of “suspicious nature” reduced it to ruins.
Rocket bombs, Corsair airplanes, stars of aviation and speeches — they were all part of the General Electric Co’s Air Research Show on June 21 and 22, 1946.
“Timed to the lightning-like arrival of three jet-powered P-80 Shooting Stars, firing of the bombs at the signal of General Electric’s President Charles E. Wilson will officially begin dedication ceremonies of the company’s new flight test center,” read the Schenectady Gazette.
Norton Owen arrived at Jacob’s Pillow in the summer of 1976 as a student of dance. He left as a student of history.
“Jess Meeker was playing for our ballet class,” recalled Owen, the Pillow’s director of preservation. “I sat around with Jess and he told stories about playing for [Ted Shawn’s] Men Dancers. I was fascinated, especially by the thought that the stories took place right here. That is what sparked it for me. I was never really interested in dance history, but when you hear the personal stories and have direct personal contact with the storyteller. It was like a lightning bolt. I made the connection.”
The Photography Center of the Capital District’s latest exhibit, “The Unknowns: Images from a Bygone Era,” which runs through July 26, captures one of the main reasons that executive director Nicholas Argyros opened the venue two years ago.
Quite simply, he wants to preserve not only the technological history of photography, but the images of the people who went to the trouble and expense of having their portraits taken in an era when it wasn’t just a matter of whipping out a cellphone and snapping a digital image in a matter of seconds.
Taking an old run-down house and turning it into a spanking new home is what Allan Barber loves to do. Still, the structure at 12 Morris Ave. in Schenectady was quite a daunting challenge.
Barber has shared the home with Craig Taylor since they bought it together in 2005. The two men had been living in a home on Campbell Avenue they had renovated back in 2000, and very likely would have remained there if not for a phone call from another Morris Avenue resident, Bernard McEvoy. McEvoy, who spearheaded the effort to get Morris Avenue designated as a historic district back in 1992, was looking for new owners to move into the vacant home just across the street.
“We were already living in a beautiful house when Dr. McEvoy called. So I told him, ‘no thank you,’ ” said Barber. “But then I talked to Craig and we decided to take a look at it. The house had been empty for a year and was in foreclosure. It was a total mess. But, here we are.”
The two men purchased the home in April of 2005, started work on it right away, and by August it was ready to move in.
A female moose that wandered the streets of Saratoga Springs is corralled and tranquilized on Monday by officers from the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
Saratoga Springs and Lake George have always been popular with the vacation set. During the summer of 1953, the Schenectady Gazette decided to bring the two resorts to newspaper readers. Photographer Charles B. Sellers Jr. and reporter Kathy McGarry hit the road for words and pictures on the two communities, part of a seasonal series. The reports on the resorts were glowing.
Today we’ve got the Internet flashing images to us from around the globe, but less than a century ago, it was artist Rockwell Kent who opened Americans’ eyes to scenery they could only dream about.
Relishing stark wilderness vistas of mountains, ice, ocean and forest, Kent lived in Alaska, Greenland, Newfoundland and Tierra del Fuego, the frigid islands at the foot of South America. He painted in and wrote adventure memoirs about these places, and made stops in Vermont, Ireland and Maine, before settling at Asgaard, his farm in the northern Adirondacks.
And yet there is so much more to tell about the complex Kent, who was also a notorious philanderer (three wives and many lovers); and a political activist who embraced socialism as a young man.
White and blue flags that display images of FDR and his wife, Eleanor, flutter from utility poles in the small Dutchess County town on the Hudson River, reminders that the nation’s 32nd president was born in Hyde Park in 1882. Signs that welcome travelers feature Roosevelt in well-known profile, reading glasses at a slight downward angle, clenched cigarette holder jutting into the air.
For nearly two decades, tourists at the Vanderbilt Mansion have been asking park ranger Allen Dailey for directions to Hyde Park. His retort remains the same.
“I tell them, ‘You’re here,’ ” said Dailey, who earlier this month celebrated his 17th anniversary as a park ranger at the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site in the town of Hyde Park in the lower Hudson Valley. “Yeah, I know, it can get a little confusing. They want to go see FDR’s home. They think that’s Hyde Park.”
These photos show a large-scale investigation involving local and federal authorities taking place this afternoon at an auction house off Congress Street in Schenectady.
As the Dutch replica ship the Onrust, built in Rotterdam Junction, sailed back up the Hudson River, Gazette photographer Peter R. Barber was aboard Wednesday to capture these images.
In attempt to raise awareness for the rare Canadian Horse breed, Rick Blackburn of Morin Heights, Quebec, is riding his Canadians Hannah and Galopin from Quebec to Texas, along the original French trade route. His wife, Louise, is following in a camper. They stopped in Rotterdam Junction on Wednesday.
For people living in Schenectady during the 1950s, the “great escape” meant Central Park.
When spring and summer turned up the heat, adults and children found spots inside the 250-acre park off Central Parkway. Kids could always find diversions in the water of Iroquois Lake, on supervised playground swings and motorized rides. Older kids sunbathed and socialized. Adults fished and relaxed with cards and conversation at picnic tables.
“There’s hardly a thing you can’t do at the park,” William F. Eddy, Schenectady’s director of parks and recreation during the summer of 1955, said to Schenectady Gazette reporter Kathy Muller.
Artist Georgia O’Keeffe is an icon of America’s 20th century, known for paintings of voluptuous flowers and sun-bleached animal bones. A pioneer of American Modernism, she was a fiercely independent woman who blazed the trail for female artists. But most Americans don’t know much about the soft-spoken Arthur Dove, an artist who energized the enigmatic O’Keeffe during her early career. Another important figure in American Modernism, Dove was one of our country’s first abstract painters. “Dove/O’Keeffe: Circles of Influence,” this summer’s big show at the Clark Art Institute, is the first exhibit to deeply explore the lifelong bond of inspiration and admiration between the two artists.
The first time Andy Chestnut saw the big house at 1286 Wendell Ave., it was in a blinding snowstorm. Still, he immediately felt there was something special about the place. The house, originally the home of Judge Alexander M. Vedder, now belongs to Chestnut and his wife, Heather, who both grew up in Schenectady. This weekend, they and a few of the neighbors will open their homes to the public for the GE Realty Plot’s House and Garden Tour.
Air France Airbus A330 carrying 228 people was reported missing between Rio de Janeiro and Paris, officials said today. The plane hit strong turbulence and lost contact with air traffic controllers over the Atlantic Ocean.
A guy always had a place to go — and something to do — when the Schenectady Boys’ Club was open.
Paul S. Young was running the show in 1951. He was around when kids wanted to develop photos in the small darkroom, fire up the electric kiln for ceramics, play a little basketball. Or checkers and Ping-Pong.
The Boys’ Club in Schenectady and ones across the nation offered kids more than just diversions during the early 1950s.
Jazz is often heavily concerned with tradition. And it's not as if pianist Arturo O'Farrill or vocalist Rachael Price are disconnected from the tradition. But talk to either of them today, and, despite different paths within the jazz genre, both seem to be more concerned with the new, rather than the old.
The home of Beth Hartle-Fecteau and Marc Fecteau looks almost stern from the outside. Three stories high, aging brick, it sits commandingly on a busy block in downtown Saratoga. But inside, it’s a completely different story. There’s light and there’s laughter and there’s a gourmet kitchen. There are glowing wood floors and sweeping ceilings and plenty of room to pirouette. It’s the ideal home for the Fecteaus — she, the director of Nacre Dance, and he, a CPA and weekend gourmet cook.
What’s amazing is they found the place by accident.
Joseph A. Battaglia rests far from home. The Army private from Schenectady died in Belgium during World War II. He was wounded in action on Dec. 30, 1944 and passed away on Jan. 7, 1945. He was 20 years old.
Battaglia is buried in Belgium’s Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial. In all, 7,992 servicemen are buried at Henri-Chapelle.
Frank Battaglia can speak of the past. Memories of his younger brother are never far away. “He was a good guy, a smart kid, good fellow,” said Frank, 86, a World War II veteran who lives in Rotterdam.
Dennis and Gerda Hermsen of Brunssum, a town in the southeastern Netherlands, speak of the present. They have “adopted” Joseph’s grave and visit three or four times a year. They bring flowers; they thank Joe and his brother soldiers for their courage and sacrifice.
Race car driver Jessica Zemken, 23, of Sprakers is shown at home Friday in her garage, at a Fonda diner on Saturday and at Fonda Speedway in action on Saturday night. Gazette photos by Peter R. Barber.
Hundreds turned out Wednesday at the Mabee Farm Historic Site in Rotterdam Junction to see the ship Onrust, built with 17th century techniques, moved from its construction site to the Mohawk River. Gazette photographer Marc Schultz was on hand.
A large crowd turned out for the parade and other activities Saturday at the 28th annual Niska-Day celebration, which also marked the town's bicentennial. Gazette photographer Peter Barber captured these scenes along Nott Street and other locations.
General Electric unveiled plans today for a new battery manufacturing plant in the Capital Region that will produce sodium-based batteries for hybrid trains and other vehicles. GE Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt, Gov. David Paterson and other officials were on hand at GE Global Research in Niskayuna.
Before there was Niskayuna, at least the way it looks today, there was the Schoppmier farm.
Now the home of David and Bridget Denofio, the house on Regent Street is reputedly the oldest house in the town of Niskayuna. Just off Grand Boulevard where the long downhill stretch of Story Avenue comes to its terminus at Regent Street, the structure was built in 1835. While several people have lived there, including the Carpenter family before the Schoppmiers and General Electric research physicist Guy Suits afterward, it’s the Schoppmier name that endures, and that’s regardless of how you spell it.
Mr. Zilly and Mr. Shaw had three things in common.
Both had the same first name — Fred — both
were the same age and
both loved airplanes. Make that four things: Both loved to fly airplanes. Fred J. Zilly Jr., 34, was commanding officer of the Air National Guard’s 139th Fighter Squadron in 1954. Fred Shaw, 34, was a longtime commercial pilot who flew American Airlines’ planes to and from Albany.
Have gauze, will travel — Shirley Stevens Whitbeck lived by those words in 1955.
The 24-year-old woman worked for Schenectady County’s public health nursing unit. She brought her little black bag to agencies and private homes around the county, bathing babies, checking on the elderly and treating sick people.
Most things do not change at Angelo Menagias’ diner. The light clatter of coffee cups and dinner plates means that breakfast, lunch or dinner is heading for booth, table or counter. Fruit-topped cheesecakes and frosted chocolate cakes fill a glass cooler, silent advertising for another helping of calories. Omelettes and home fries remain favorites for the Sunday morning crowd.
Hustle and bustle is part of April in Paris. In 1948, the same was true for April in Schenectady. The city hosted an exiled European leader and an early television star. During the month, large crowds showed up for support of the new Jewish homeland in Palestine, and for support of a new furniture store in downtown.
Hundreds of students from 12 middle schools offered suggestions for The Daily Gazette’s 2009 Capital Region Earth Day Project. The newspaper’s Life and Arts department asked kids to come up with innovative, creative ways to reduce garbage, prevent pollution and encourage recycling — save the world in a paragraph or two. Thirty of the best suggestions appear today, in the newspaper’s print and online editions.
The creative energy spills like sunlight from the house at 7 Hills Road in Loudonville. And early-spring anticipation is budding in every room. Designers bustle here and there, paintbrushes in hand, coaxing possibility to fruition, their laughter bouncing off the freshly painted walls.
The metamorphosis unfolding at this home is all in preparation for Vanguard-Albany Symphony’s annual Designer Showhouse fundraiser, to benefit the Albany Symphony Orchestra.
Each year for the past 29 years, the volunteer organization has sought out a home to redecorate and has invited the area’s most talented designers and decorative painters to join them in the effort. Those chosen have a little less than eight weeks to completely transform the space assigned to them. Once the home is picture-perfect, the public is invited in for tours.
This year’s Showhouse began as a 2000-square-foot, 1950s ranch. The home’s original owner lived there until about two years ago.
Beginning Saturday, the Schenectady County Historical Society will present “The Most Beautiful Land: Schenectady County’s History.” Photos and artifacts from Schenectady County’s first 200 years will be on display at the society’s headquarters, 32 Washington Ave. The colorful exhibit is designed to inform. Stories, paintings and photos of the Mohawk Indians, the Erie Canal, city industry, county towns and people from the past are all part of the show. So is a restored wooden sign that once helped people find “Jacob Mabee’s Inn.”
The Schenectady High School community searches for answers following the suicides of four girls -- Kuanna, Jalissa, Mary and Cherelle -- over the past four months.
The grand hall in the Arts Center on the Hudson was silent. But the people, rimming the edges of this large sanctuary, communicated. With slow, sustained motion, they rocked back and forth on their feet and floated their arms toward the center. And in doing so, they created a vibrant, invisible stream of energy among them.
These movers, actors, singers and gymnasts have come from as far as Germany, France and Mexico to take this course in Spacial Dynamics — the practice of commanding a room and communicating without words.
These photos provided by News 10 Now in Syracuse show the envelope that contained a letter purported to be written by gunman Jiverly Wong, photos of Wong and his gun permit.
A large crowd turned out under mostly sunny skies Sunday to watch the action in the annual Tenandeho Creek White Water Derby race and "Anything that Floats" competition.
Scenes from Tuesday's special election for the open 20th Congressional District seat between Scott Murphy (D-Glens Falls) and James Tedisco (R-Glenville).
Wilson W. Wyatt knew something about Schenectady’s past. He was thinking more toward the city’s future on Monday, March 29, 1948. Wyatt, the former federal housing expediter and mayor of Louisville, Ky., served as main speaker during Schenectady’s Sesquicentennial celebration, which observed the 150th anniversary of the city charter and saluted Dutch heritage. Wyatt was famous for his organizational skills in Louisville during World War II. The 42-year-old attorney and politician knew urban planning, and offered tips for Schenectady’s next 150 years. Some were simple. He urged a “no parking” policy on key city streets and a high-quality transportation system.
During and shortly after World War II, when storekeepers received shipments of precious bubble gum -- precious because it was scarce -- for their shelves, word spread fast. In June 1946, Schenectady kids learned their favorite masticatory delight was in stock at Saul Stern’s grocery store at 132 N. College St. and at John Nelarico’s Piggly Wiggly store at 2627 Broadway. Nelarico and Stern didn’t need juvenile riots, so they planned ahead, setting up a system for orderly distribution.
Latin ballroom dancing owes a lot to the Palladium. Back in the 1950s, this New York City dance hall sharpened Latino sounds and its steps. Driven by the music of the Big Three, Tito Rodriguez, Tito Puente and Machito, the Palladium gave birth to mambo mania and the cha-cha craze — spells that were cast upon anyone paying two bucks at the door.
Those days are long gone. But the dance and music still resonate — one reason why Ballet Hispanico pays a nostalgic, loving tribute to the dance hall’s heyday in “Palladium Nights.”
Gareth Griffiths’ garden in Scotia is the sort of garden that gardeners dream about. It is a visual delight created in the past nine years by an adventurous woman who is passionate about plants, has an eye for the unusual — especially concerning conifers — and whose spirit is ready, willing and able in all things horticultural.
The “31st Annual Photography Regional” is just too tame a name for this year’s show, curated by Elizabeth Dubben, an artist and College of Saint Rose art grad who runs Albany’s well-regarded Amrose Sable Gallery.
How about “Beyond the Photo Regional” or “Adventures in Contemporary Photography?”
Even the words “image” or “photographer” don’t quite fit. Among the 54 works by 13 artists, you’ll see video, sculpture, painting and mixed media. Without checking the rules, I’d guess that some of these pieces would never make it into the juried show.
While most flamenco dance companies tout their stars, Flamenco Vivo! touts the dance. Carlota Santana, its co-founder and artistic director, always believed the art, not the performers, should take center stage. Stars may come and go, but Flamenco Vivo! lives on.
The oldest flamenco dance company in the United States, it is also a favorite in area theaters, including The Egg, where it returns Friday with a program that surveys the soul of flamenco. From upbeat Alegrias to the sorrowful Seguiriya, Flamenco Vivo! will express the art form’s emotional range. And as the dancers and musicians divulge their pride and passion, Santana encourages the audience to respond in kind
The Schenectady County chapter of the American Red Cross was full of helping hands in 1948.
During the late winter, members of the longtime goodwill and good deed organization needed a little help themselves. The Red Cross was hoping for $119,100 from the community, money raised during the group’s annual fund campaign.
The Schenectady County Bicentennial Commission held its “Bicentennial Gala Celebration” Saturday night at the Glen Sanders Mansion in Scotia, marking the start of a yearlong series of events.
hen the church that Mary Pidgeon has been attending for more than 60 years closes this spring, the only thing she’ll take away will be a host of wonderful memories. Sean Bryant, meanwhile, is looking for something he can actually put his hands on.
St. Mary’s and St. John the Baptist, two churches and two historic Schenectady landmarks, are among the 33 parishes designated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany to close this year — St. John the Baptist on June 1 and St. Mary’s on June 30. To many parishioners, their absence will be a deep, heartfelt loss, and for some, taking away something from the building, some tangible kind of relic, will help ease the pain.
Gazette columnist Carl Strock recently journeyed to the holy city of Varanasi, India. No place in the world is so beautiful, so foul and so otherworldly, he reports, and offers these photographs.
Gazette columnist Carl Strock recently journeyed to the holy city of Varanasi, India. No place in the world is so beautiful, so foul and so otherworldly, he reports, and offers these photographs.
Take a look around your workspace, be it cubicle, office, garage, etc. Imagine taking a snapshot of yourself working there. Decades later, someone unearths the snapshot. What could they learn about you and about how you worked?
Liza Kirwin, curator of manuscripts at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, made a study of photographs of some of the most prominent artists of the past two centuries for her book “Artists in Their Studios” (Collins Design, 2007), co-authored by Joan Lord. The book was the impetus for an exhibition on the same subject, “Artists in Their Studios,” which is now on view at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass.
Emily Mombourquette stood on top of a log suspended a few inches off the ground Tuesday and methodically swung downwards with a broad-bladed ax.
Wedges of wood flew into the air until half of the log was cut out. Then she turned around and repeated the process until a final blow split the 9-inch-thick log in half.
Mombourquette, 20, is one of several members of SUNY Cobleskill’s Woodsmen’s Club practicing their skills in anticipation of the college’s first intercollegiate Woodsmen’s Competition, slated for this Saturday.
For Schenectady, it was the big broadcast of 1949. Horace Heidt and his Musical Knights, stars of the radio dial, were in town for a show at the state Armory on Washington Avenue.
Life is funny sometimes. Or, in local comedian Greg Aidala’s case, life is funny all the time.
“I get inspiration out of life,” Aidala said during a recent interview at a diner in Albany. “Everything is like a comedy sense. Plus, if not, I’d be crying all the time, know what I mean?”
If Paul Stewart is right, the house at 194 Livingston Ave. in Albany experienced just as much revelry as it did unrest.
“When you say Underground Railroad, you think of a lot of secrecy and people hiding in corners,” said Stewart, who along with his wife, Mary Liz, started the Underground Railroad History Project of the Capital Region almost 10 years ago.
“But the closer you look at things, the more you learn. They entertained people at their dinner table. They probably had them sleeping in the upstairs bedroom. It’s not like they were hiding them in the basement.”
“They” were Stephen and Harriet Myers, a black couple who lived in the house on Livingston Avenue for somewhere between 30 and 40 years. In the three decades leading up to the Civil War, the home was a major stop on the Underground Railroad, an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by slaves seeking freedom in the North and Canada.
Children were given their Saturday bath in a sense, when they went to Ballston Spa's Bath St. which had been transformed, with a little help from snow dumped by trucks and payloaders, into a giant sledding hill as part of the annual Ballston Spa Winter Fun Festival.
At the bottom of the hill, visitors were treated to refreshments provided by the Eagle Matt Lee Fire Co.
Weather was nearly perfect- warm enough to enjoy, while also cold enough to keep the snow in place
After 11 years in New York City, choreographer Vanessa Paige Swanson has come to the conclusion that the more abstract your art, the better.
“There is a lot of pressure to be weird,” said Swanson. “I thought I was weird already, but it is never enough in New York.”
That’s why it was so refreshing, these past few months, for her to flee the city and return to her old dancing grounds in Albany. As the first guest choreographer of Nacre Dance Company, Swanson was able to create a pure dance — one in which technique is not something a dancer needs to hide, but something to be used and celebrated.
When journalists tell us about the world, it’s “just the facts, ma’am” — quick observations that are tightly focused. When artists look at human affairs, there are no limits. And then there’s the viewer, who introduces yet another dimension, as the art is absorbed and interpreted in a process that is unfathomable and deeply personal. So it is with “The Oatman-Lail NewsHour,” a potent and penetrating commentary by Michael Oatman and Thomas Lail at Hudson Valley Community College’s impressive 2,000-square-foot art gallery.
People concerned with saving face will not visit Eric Zenner this week.
Folks interested in hiding face might: Mardi Gras will be celebrated Tuesday, and partiers will put their eyes and noses behind both simple and sensational masks.
“Every year it grows and catches on more and more,” said Zenner, director of purchasing for The Costumer costume store, of the final day before Ash Wednesday. “It’s a holiday second to Halloween for masks.”
Given the popularity of baseball in upstate New York and the proximity to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, it seems only natural that a major manufacturer of baseball bats would relocate to the region.
Kevin Lane, co-owner of Carolina Clubs, which competes with Louisville and Rawlings in the number of bats manufactured, moved the business from Wilmington, Fla., to the Charleston Industrial Park in November.
Carolina is the fourth largest manufacturer of baseball bats in the country. It manufacturers about 12,000 maple and ash baseball bats a year for Major League Baseball players including Paul McAnulty of the Boston Red Sox and Casey Blake of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
It was “All Aboard!” for history in Schenectady on Thursday, Jan. 27, 1949.
The New York State Freedom Train had pulled into the railroad yards off Edison Avenue, and classrooms full of kids got the chance to travel into the past. Eighty-nine documents from days and decades past were packed into six blue and gold cars, and offered the public details about old New York.
It’s been said that the wedding day is the most important day in a woman’s life. But a bride can’t enjoy her day of love in the limelight if she does not feel comfortable in her gown.
That is unlikely to happen if the bride is dressed by Kim Vanyo. The couturier creates dresses to fit to any bride’s frame. And not only that, her dresses reflect the bride’s personality. And, perhaps most importantly, her gowns help the bride feel gorgeous.
In her petit atelier in Saratoga Springs and in her home studio in Schuylerville, the Fashion Institute of Technology graduate is known for her artistry and ability to design and sew distinctive frocks. For the past 23 years, she has clothed dancers, prom-goers as well as brides, mother of the brides and the bridal entourages. And on Sunday, Feb. 22, Vanyo will unveil her latest creation at the Enchanted Wedding Bridal Expo in the Saratoga Springs City Center.</p>
The man in black jacket and pants stepped cautiously up the snow at Maple Ski Ridge in Rotterdam. He was on skis, on the “bunny slope” — the gentle incline used by rookie sliders at the ski center off Mariaville Road.
Frederica “Freddie” Anderson didn’t like the man’s slow, sideways steps. A second later, he lost his balance and slipped backwards toward the bottom of the bunny. “Oh boy, he’s in trouble,” said Anderson, as the man grabbed a railing near a rope tow and crouched to his knees. His limbs remained intact; his dignity suffered a few bruises. The novice should have talked to Freddie. The Niskayuna woman has been teaching children and adults to ski since the 1940s. She and members of her Schenectady Ski School are on the job weekdays and weekends, helping people keep their balance and speed in check. With schools closed for the Presidents’ Week break, ski instructors will have their hands and feet full Monday through Friday.
Saratoga Springs might be the August place to be, but it is also the February place to get off the couch and on your feet as people participated over Valentine's Day weekend in the 22nd annual Dance Flurry Festival.
The downtown was converted to an entertainment area as restaurants, halls and storefronts hosted the event. Performers sang, participants danced, and food was consumed.
Practically any dancing style or technique was on display somewhere in the city.
The best feet were put forward, and they'll no doubt return again next year to repeat the process.
Wesley Baxter never lacked companionship during the 1950s — there were always young people around his parents’ West Charlton home.
As foster parents, Eleanor and Edson Baxter ensured that dozens of young boys and girls had shelter and supper every night.
To celebrate the hundredth anniversary of Robert Peary’s 1909 expedition to the North Pole, the Berkshire Museum presents “Race to the Top: Arctic Inspirations 1909 & Today” through May 17. Berkshire Museum founder Zenas Crane funded Peary's trip. When Peary returned from his successful expedition, he gave the museum one of the sledges he used, as well as a fur suit worn by his companion and fellow explorer, the largely overlooked Matthew Henson, an African American.
Crandall Public Library officials expected an increase in traffic once the library reopened in December after an $18 million expansion. But they were still floored by the public’s reaction.
“We knew it would increase and be popular but we are just thrilled by the interest the community has given us,” said Kathleen Naftaly, assistant library director.
Getting together 400 years of information and putting it on display is quite a project; about the biggest the Albany Institute of History & Art has ever taken on.
“Hudson River Panorama: 400 Years of History, Art and Culture” opens Saturday at the institute and will run through Jan. 4, 2010. As the title suggests, it’s an all-encompassing subject that could include just about anything and everything in the institute’s collection.
Cabin fever is not alive and well in Saratoga Springs. The city held an annual Winterfest event throughout the city, climaxing with a Chowderfest which brought crowds to area restaurants to sample and judge offerings. The event was sponsored by the Saratoga Convention and Tourism Bureau.
By all accounts, George Westinghouse Jr. had a healthy amount of love and respect for his parents, George Sr. and Emmeline. They, no doubt, loved him in return, even if they didn’t always encourage some of his best ideas.
For example, George Sr. felt his son’s experimentation with an air brake would be a complete and dismal failure. The son proved father wrong on that count, but when it came to his mother and their biggest issue — her residence — she never yielded. If he wanted to build a nice house on a hill just south of the city, he could go right ahead. She, however, wasn’t going to live there.
The Bond Funeral Home, situated at 1614 Guilderland Ave. just off of Broadway, was built in 1887 by George Westinghouse Jr. for his mother just three years following the death of George Sr.
The coming four months promise snowflakes and spring flowers. But for culture buffs, the coming weeks also offer plenty in the way of art and entertainment.
hen you hear the word “horses” and Saratoga County, you probably immediately think about the race course. Jean Hatalsky of Mechanicville, an avid and accomplished horsewoman, would like to change that. In addition to those top-rated thoroughbreds, Hatalsky would like the world to know about the quality show horses bred in New York state.
In the show horse world, they call her “the New York girl.” Her horses compete with world-class entrants from big horse states such as Oklahoma, Texas and Florida. “My goal right now is being able to show the quality that New York can have and can offer in horses,” she said.
Hundreds of people - including Daily Gazette columnist Carl Strock - gathered along the shores of Lake George on New Year's Day for the annual Polar Plunge. While most took the plunge into the frigid lake, Carl was content to just take photos.
The weather gave snow, followed by arctic temperatures, but First Night revelers came to Saratoga Springs anyway on Wednesday night to hear bands and solo performers, greet each other and help bring in a new year. The event concluded with a fireworks demonstration from Congress Park.
Brothers Brian and William Hart have an unusual way of training for the annual Polar Bear plunge at Shepard Park Beach, Lake George, on New Year’s Day. “We train year-round for this event,” said William, 57, who weighs about 300 pounds. “We consume as much alcohol as possible. We eat as much fatty food as possible, and we smoke as many cigars as possible. After all, this is our sport.”
The Northeast Ballet gave its annual performances of "The Nutcracker" Dec. 13-15 at Proctors and Gazette writer - and cast member - Jeff Wilkin shared some backstage photos.
Schenectady’s Stockade neighborhood, the city’s first settlement, is dotted with magnificent wooden doors, some carved, some accented by leaded glass, some framed with wrought-iron fencing. This time of year, the doors mark the season with wreaths, plain or decorated with pine cones, ribbons and fruit.
Magic & Melodies is an annual event sponsored by the Downtown Schenectady Improvement Corp. and tied to Proctors’ annual “Melodies of Christmas” concert.
An ice storm blitzed the Capital Region Thursday and Friday, leaving many communities without power and forcing hardships on people for several more days to come.
Each year after Thanksgiving, the Lyon St. area in Amsterdam comes alive at night with the Kristy Pollak Memorial Childrens Park. An elaborate Christmas display greets visitors as they drive through the lights. Visitors are encouraged, but not required, to leave donations, all which go to the aid of severely ill children and their families. The display is now in its ninth year.
Northeast Ballet is preparing for ts annual performance of "The Nutcracker," which features Gazette Life & Arts writer Jeff Wilkin in the role of Mother Ginger.
The Fage USA plant in Johnstown began yogurt production in April. The facility is the newest and most state-of-art owned by the subsidiaries' Greek parent company.
Several varieties of Christmas trees are available at Ellm's Family Tree Farm in Ballston Spa, which is a traditional spot for many holiday tree shoppers.
Crowds, not cars, filled Broadway Thursday night as Saratoga Springs held its 22nd annual Victorian Streetwalk event. Participants were treated to cider, cookies and entertainment which ranged from saxophone-toting Santas to complete church choirs as the downtown welcomed the Christmas season. As in previous years, automobiles were banned from the area while the event occurred.
LED Christmas lights are growing in popularity as their price comes down. The lights offer brighter glow and energy savings when compared to incandescent bulbs.
Santa was on the right float in the annual Waterford Christmas parade on Saturday night. Sponsored by the local Masons, the float took first place honors as announced at the conclusion of the parade at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Park, where a tree lighting ceremony was also held. Temperatures were cold but the air was dry as the community celebrated the Holiday season.
Despite temperatures that dropped into the teens Friday night, a robust crowd filled Main Street in Johnstown to watch the sixth annual Classic Image Johnstown Holiday Parade.
Jeff Wilkin and two Daily Gazette colleagues picked up all the flour, eggs, fruits and vegetables that will be used by Schenectady County Community College culinary professors and students to make 10 reader-submitted recipes that will be featured at the Autumn Cake Party from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday in the Van Curler Room of Schenectady County Community College.
MASS MoCA, the nation’s largest contemporary art space, is getting even bigger. On Sunday, Nov. 16, the museum known for its art experiments will unwrap an extraordinary art experience — one mile of wall space covered with 100 geometric drawings by the late Sol LeWitt, a founder of conceptual and minimalist art.
Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective is housed in Building No. 7, a 27,000-square-foot space that was renovated especially for the exhibit and is opening to the public for the first time. The LeWitt installation, which will inhabit Building No. 7 for 25 years, expands the MASS MoCA galleries by 25 percent.
A freak autumn winter storm dumped as much as a foot of snow on parts of the Capital Region on Tuesday. These photos come from Gazette and Associated Press staff photographers and Gazette readers.
For Greenwich native Becky Mann, it started out with some wallets. Eventually, she moved on to larger items, such as a messenger bag. Things culminated with a prom dress that Mann created for an art class at Greenwich Central School during the final months of 2004. All of those objects share one thing in common — Mann built them with duct tape.
Every old house has its characteristic creaks and groans: the hiss and moan of steam heat, the whine and crack of old wood, the rustle of mice in the walls. But when you’re lying awake in the middle of the night at the Olde Knox Mansion, the things that go bump in the night aren’t so easy to explain away.
The 110-year-old Johnstown home, now run as a museum and bed and breakfast, is rumored to be haunted
For high school students in Schenectady, a slate of “do-it-yourself” courses prepared young men and women for paychecks as nurses, welders, woodworkers, machinists and other jobs in the workforce in the fall of 1957.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has confirmed plans to build a $4.5 billion computer chip factory on the Luther Forest Technology Campus in Malta and Stillwater.
Pajama parties, fund drives, ice cream sundaes and singing in school — they were all part of teenage life during the mid-1950s. So was Rotterdam’s former Draper High School.
Three men are facing felony gang assault charges, accused of severely beating another man Friday in his home following an incident in a St. Johnsville bar.
The weekly Capital Region Scrapbook feature looks back at October of 1959, when a testimonial dinner was held to honor longtime Mohawk Golf Club pro Jim Thomson.
A look back at activities of the Schenectady Aeroneers Club as they enjoyed their model planes in 1958 in this week's "Capital Region Scrapbook" feature.
Syrup season for Tony Van Glad has long been when maple tree sap flows near winter’s end, but a September harvest of sweet sorghum is adding a second sweet season at his Wood Homestead Farm on Blenheim Hill.
After a smaller experiment last year, Van Glad is now cutting about 40 acres of sweet sorghum, squeezing the sugar-rich juice from the stalks, then boiling off the water to make an amber syrup and sweetener more familiar to Southerners than Yankees.
The past 40 years have been far from an easy journey for The Eighth Step. The venerable Capital Region folk organization, which began as a coffeehouse in Albany’s First Presbyterian Church in 1967, has weathered two moves with several years of nomadic wandering in the interim periods, as well as ups and downs in the music’s popularity. Now, as Eighth Step prepares to launch its 41st season, its second at Proctors in Schenectady, with French-Acadian group Gadelle on Saturday, director Margie Rosenkranz is preparing for what she called “a pivotal year.”
Montgomery County sheriff's deputies have charged 13 teenagers with committing a string of recent crimes, including burglaries, car larcenies, criminal mischief and the use of stolen credit cards. Deputies are withholding the identities of five of the suspects because of their ages.
Wilton resident Molly McMaster, a colon cancer survivor, co-founded the Colondar, a calendar featuring survivors who bare their scars to help raise awareness of the disease.
The Heritage Home for Women has a celebrated history of helping "sisters" in need. The home if for women who can no longer live on their own or who want the socialability the place provides.
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Claude Monet had a special relationship with Giverny. The Impressionist painter called the French country village beautiful and “a splendid spot.” And he said “my heart is to Giverny forever and ever.”
Truly appreciating Lindenwald, much like getting to know and admiring Martin Van Buren, requires some effort. You have to delve into the interior and take a much closer look before coming to any conclusions.
A mud-splattered Rajiv Maragh walks briskly through the clubhouse at Saratoga Race Course, minutes after the fourth race on a sunny Thursday afternoon.
The 23-year-old Maragh, a jockey for the past five years, is concluding his first season at Saratoga. “It’s an amazing feeling for me,” he said. “Nowhere else compares. I love riding at Belmont, but Saratoga, it’s a different atmosphere. You have a lot of racing fans, people who really love the game.”
Irish eyes smile during the middle of March. Scottish eyes smile near the end of August.
The sons and daughters of the former group wear their green around St. Patrick’s Day. The dancers and pipers of the latter wear their tartan plaids for the long-running Capital District Scottish Games, held in late summer.
This year’s Games take place Saturday and Sunday at the Altamont Fairgrounds. Piping, drumming and dancing are on the agenda. Stage bands, exhibits by Scottish clans and societies and jewelry and gift sales are other planned diversions.
The white balls in the New York State Lottery’s game machines are doing their midafternoon flutter, zooming and bouncing inside plastic bins like giant kernels of popcorn.
It can’t help but catch the eye: a sprawling bluestone structure akin to a castle, a newcomer on a street of gracious old Victorian manors. Boldly seated a stone’s throw from the sidewalk, the mansion beckons passers-by to listen for the music of its fountains, admire its impeccably kept gardens, bend to smell the Russian sage that bows between the bars of its wrought-iron fence, strain for a glimpse beyond the multitude of arched windows.
Giant bowls of green and lavender hang from the long, neat front porch of the Union Gables bed and breakfast in Saratoga Springs.
Wicker chairs and tables stand on the wood, ready for people and small parties on Union Avenue.
Zumba is the latest exercise craze, and classes are being offered around the region to introduce people to the dance. Gazette photographer Bruce Squiers caught the action at Zumba classes in Clifton Park and Saratoga Springs.
It took a lot of searching for Seth Benzel to find just the right house. A horse trainer by trade, he wanted a residence close to Saratoga Race Course, but had to find one to fit his budget.
Fledgling rider Leo “Pepper” Belouin of Schenectady, a 1952 graduate of Mont Pleasant High School, participated in exercise drills, cooled off horses and raked the shed row at Saratoga Race Track during the summer of 1954. Photos are by Gazette photographer Charles B. Sellers.
As far as Lovett Smith is concerned, the best way to see the country is by rail, and nowhere is the view any better than from the back of the New York Central 3.
An elegant business car built in 1928 for executives of the New York Central Railroad, the NYC 3 is still transporting people to different places, although not nearly as often as when it was part of the Empire State Express during much of the 20th century. Smith, a former manager with Union Carbide and now retired, purchased the car in 1992 for $240,000 from a railroad repair yard in Florida after it had been abandoned by Conrail in Altoona, Pa.
Steve Gross and Susan Daley had already been making photographs in Schoharie County for 10 years when they brought their work to editor Jim Mairs at W.W. Norton in 1997 — and it would be another 10 years before Mairs declared the project ready for publication. But the true birth of “Time Wearing Out Memory: Schoharie County” (2008) came much earlier, in 1974, when Gross and Daley met while studying in the vaunted photography program at the University of New Mexico.
People have been camping out with coolers under pines, maples and elms since 1985, when space in back of the Saratoga Race Course grandstand was converted into a park to help accommodate Saratoga’s huge summer crowds. Visitors bring decks of cards and stacks of newspapers. Pizza, chicken wings and turkey sandwiches trimmed with lettuce and tomato slices are always on someone’s menu.
Sunglasses aren't just for summer; they're worn year-round and various styles achieve various looks. Employees Ilana Roth and Carl Phelps of Sunglasses Hut in Colonie Center model sunglass fashions, with comments from store manager Jacqueline Roland.
People have been riding the Ferris wheel over and over since 1893, when George Ferris — who studied engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy — showed off the first round giant at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
Brigette Zacharczenko is passionate about all things creepy-crawly.
The 19-year-old Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake high school graduate turned college zoology major, in fact, can’t ever recall a time when the outdoors and its myriad inhabitants were not the focal point of her days and nights.
She has gained international attention and has become a favorite among area insect enthusiasts for her ability to replicate a variety of critters by using crafting techniques her grandmother taught her as a child, including sewing, cross-stitch, knitting and crochet.
There are enough museums in Saratoga Springs to satisfy most history buffs, regardless of their particular interest, but if it’s the middle of summer and you’re in Saratoga, then the National Racing Museum and Hall of Fame is definitely the place to be.
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Ahva Heyman floated in the water of the Windsor Motel, skimming stray bugs off the water with a large net.
Ahva is not an official part of the staff at the compact motel at 51 Canada St., across the street from the Fort William Henry Resort and Conference Center. But the 4-year-old swimmer was happy to help her mother, Cory Heyman, evict nonpaying customers.
“Business has been very good,” said Cory, who has owned the 19-unit Windsor with her husband, Elliott Heyman, for the past 10 years. “So far, it’s been our best year.”
Many upstate New York villages and towns like to boast of a long and illustrious history, but in Fort Edward words such as freedom and liberty seem to ring a little bit louder.
At the Old Fort House Museum on Broadway in the village, all of Fort Edward’s rich past is on display, and what quickly becomes evident is that freedom and liberty can mean slightly different things to different people. To the townsfolk of Fort Edward during the American Revolution, the words meant overthrowing the yoke of British tyranny, and to Patrick Smyth, who built the house in 1772, they meant skedaddling to Canada to find a new home. To Solomon Northup, a black man, they meant even more
Even if you’re not a “car person,” Ken Gross would invite you to take a look at the Saratoga Automobile Museum’s latest exhibition. Gross is guest curator for “Cadillac: A Century of Style,” which runs through Nov. 2.
The exhibition celebrates the General Motors Centennial with a display of vehicles that come mostly from the company’s Heritage Collection, with a few from private collectors. From the earliest single-cylinder model to hot rods and hybrids, the exhibition takes visitors on a journey across a century of automotive history through the lens of this luxury brand.
When Alli Schweizer brings out-of-town guests to the office to show them around the workplace, things can easily get carried away.
Schweizer, a New Jersey native, is the park naturalist at the Saratoga Spa State Park, 2,200 acres of natural and cultural beauty nestled between routes 9 and 50 in Saratoga Springs. Designated a National Landmark in 1987, the park has so much to offer, both in the way of outdoor and indoor activity.
More than 1,000 captive-bred Karner blue butterflies were released as chrysalis into the Albany Pine Bush and emerged as adult butterflies, nearly doubling the population of the endangered species in the preserve.
When it comes to appreciating the simple things in life, Troy resident Alison Bates never passes up an opportunity to cozy up to one of summer’s most ephemeral creatures — dragonflies.
In 1966, plenty of 11-year-old kids knew what happened when Batman and Robin rushed through their secret headquarters.
The costumed crime fighters always jumped into their car.
“Atomic batteries to power,” Robin would say. “Turbines to speed.”
The famous Batmobile ignited with a rumbling, rolling growl. Flames flickered from the exhaust and the sleek, black auto zoomed toward the fictional villains’ paradise of Gotham City.
The backstretch area of the Saratoga Race Course is open for tours. Visitors will see what life is like behind the scenes for thoroughbreds and their companion animals, owners and workers.
It took 45 years, but Hancock Shaker Village has finally completed its end of an agreement to publish a catalog of the collection of Shaker collectors Edward Deming Andrews and his wife, Faith Young Andrews.
The catalog has resulted in the museum’s latest exhibition, “Gather Up the Fragments: The Andrews Shaker Collection,” which runs through Oct. 31. Passion for all things Shaker, and the resultant issue of what to do with them, was the precursor to this exhibition.
When it comes to face-washing, a surprising number of people fall into one of two categories, so say a sampling of skin experts — those who take their cleansing regimes to the extreme and those who give it little, if any, thought.
Ask a dancer who Jerome Robbins was and you’ll receive a multitude of answers: a perfectionist, a showman, a stylist and an outsider — along with a few words that are unprintable in this newspaper. But no matter what one thinks or feels about Robbins, he was undoubtedly one thing above all else — a hit maker.
Driving up Warren Street in Glens Falls, it’s impossible not to admire Hyde House. The Neo-Italian Renaissance villa is not only unusual architecture in upstate New York, it’s the heart of the Hyde Collection, an esteemed art museum and crown jewel of the city. But the roadside view was quite different in the 1920s and 1930s, when the Pruyn sisters lived on the seven-acre property and their three handsome gray stucco homes were embraced by one of the grandest gardens of the Adirondacks.
John Van Alstine’s sculptures realize the impossible.
Arcing steel forms teeter on their tips. Massive cuts of granite or slate hover above, floating weightless. Organic and strong, his works symbolize the fantastic.
No wonder his sculpture was selected for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
His “Ring of Unity — Circle of Inclusion” will loom over the Olympic Park this August. The chosen work, a Chinese rock buoyantly suspended in a steel circle, is an ideal metaphor for athletes who push to accomplish unending perfection.
The Norman Rockwell Museum’s latest exhibition, “Raw Nerve! The Political Art of Steve Brodner,” couldn’t be more timely. Through Oct. 26, visitors can get a look at recent political history up to the present through the lens of political illustrator Steve Brodner.
For people who love historic mansions as well as the state of Vermont and its history, it doesn’t get any better than the Park-McCullough House in North Bennington.
A Victorian mansion built in 1865 by Trenor L. Park, the Park-McCullough House represents more than 200 years of Vermont history, beginning with future governor Hiland Hall, whose parents moved onto the land in the 1770s, to John G. McCullough II, the man who in 1968 donated the home to the newly formed Park-McCullough House Association.
Ten stories about great fathers, some dramatic, some funny, some poignant, appeared in the newspaper on May 13. They also were posted at the Gazette’s online site. Readers were asked to choose one favorite, and vote with either an Internet or newsprint ballot.
A total of 419 votes were counted. Sara Huzar's “Honeymoon at Midnight” was the clear top choice with 112 votes. Second place went to Lynne Petroski Fuchs of Glenville, who wrote about her father Carl Petroski’s solution to a family pet crisis. Fuchs’ story, “The Parakeet Paradox,” earned 71 votes.
Joan Babcock of Schenectady, whose narrative about a father who hid clever poems for his daughters as they grew up, took third place. “Reading and Romans” received 40 votes.
The pottery wheels are spinning in Madeline Gallo’s studio. In another room, Gallo’s strong feelings about the war in Iraq emerge in a provocative clay exhibit by her and Jim Best. Upstairs, Heather Leyh turns on a torch. In the super-hot blue flame, she melts and sculpts rods of glass, creating candy-colored jewelry beads.
Housing developers and builders in Saratoga County are always trying to tap into the magic and history of Saratoga Race Course.
Now the developer of St. Ledger's Woods, a new high-end subdivision in Malta, which is just south of the Spa City, has upped the ante in the race to blend the thrill of Saratoga with the comfort of home.
A group named Albany Partners recently hired a Hudson Valley artist to create a large sculpture of a steeplechase horse and jockey. The sculpture sits prominently at the entrance to the development, which so far has just a model home.
The sculptor of the horse, Rita Dee of Tivoli, Dutchess County, has created quite a buzz with her artistry.
You might find yourself perusing the ice cream aisle of the supermarket with a new appreciation after taking in the Farmers’ Museum’s exhibition “Ice Cream: Our Cool Obsession,” on view through Oct. 31.
History through the lens of this delectable, frozen treat that Americans consume to the tune of 1 billion gallons annually incorporates lessons in sociology, technology, early American social customs, health, business, and global culture. Not to worry, though, as the lessons are so subtle that they go down just as easily as a cool scoop of ice cream on a hot day.
Artist Leigh Wen delves into the natural — rugged snow-capped mountains, raging infernos and swirling winds. Yet she is most at home in the water — both raging and calm, icy and inviting. She is submerged in the element. And her massive canvases, as well as her small square porcelain reliefs, convey the expanse and fickleness of oceans, rivers and streams.
Her renderings of water are currently on show at the Beacon Institute through July 8. And on June 13, her waves will be illuminated in the windows of the Albany Center Gallery
Gazette columnist Carl Strock took some photographs on his recent trip to Istanbul, Turkey, and as a no-cost addition to his blog he posted a selection of them so that you, the reader, can view them.
Gazette columnist Carl Strock took some photographs on his recent trip to Istanbul, Turkey, and as a no-cost addition to his blog he posted a selection of them so that you, the reader, can view them.
Edith Wharton didn’t like parties, at least not those big formal affairs with hundreds of people milling around the house and grounds enjoying tea, crumpets and their place in polite society.
But, after visiting The Mount, Wharton’s home for nine years from 1902 to 1911 and the place where she wrote “Ethan Frome” and “The House of Mirth,” it seems almost a shame she wasn’t more predisposed to entertain. The three-story home, designed by Wharton herself in the fashion of a 17th century Palladian-style English Country home, would have been a great place to host parties during the last days of the Gilded Age, but Wharton wasn’t so inclined. She was much more concerned about writing.
When author Gail Fraser created Lumby, the small town populated by quirky residents was a destination only in her novels. Today, she and her husband, Art Poulin — the folk artist who depicts Lumby on the books’ covers — own 40 acres in Greenwich, Washington County.
If you close your eyes on the Galway corner where Ralph and Nancy Caparulo’s home, Wyndbourne, sits, you’ll hear just what the Scottish settlers who likely built the homestead heard — birdsong and the breeze. And when you open your eyes, the view is probably much as it was back then as well: a fusion of forest and farmland, the Helderbergs and Green Mountains in the distance.
The annual St. Clement's Saratoga Horse Show kicked off its 49th year today at the Yaddo. The competition, which runs over two weeks, is billed as the oldest and one of the largest volunteer-operated horse shows in the country. Competition continues through Sunday, then resumes from May 14-18. Proceeds from the annual event benefit St. Clement's Regional Catholic School, an elementary school in the city that serves students from preschool through sixth grade.
Earthworms, starlings and honeybees. Oh my.
Perhaps they’re not as threatening as lions, tigers and bears, but at the New York State Museum they’re three of the more than 50 invasive, nonnative species — bugs and plants included — that make up a new exhibit called “The Invaders.” In many ways they make things a bit tougher for the natives, but that doesn’t mean Cliff Siegfried and his staff at the New York State Museum are out to get all of them.
With the Beijing Olympics just 100 days away, activists brought the Human Rights Torch Relay to the steps of the Capitol on Wednesday to remind people of China’s crackdown in Tibet and its record on human rights.
Thaddeus Kosciuszko, the Polish engineer they named the Northway’s twin bridges after, knew how to build things to make them last. Take the earthworks at Peebles Island, for instance, more than 230 years old.
“Where else in the area can you see the original remains of earthworks from the American Revolution?” asked Paul Huey, an archaeologist with the State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation whose headquarters are on Peebles Island. “They haven’t been restored, enhanced or improved for interpretation. They’re unchanged, just the way they left them. That’s pretty unique.”
Volunteers throughout the Capital Region took time out on Earth Day to participate in a host of activities designed to help take care of our natural resources.
What used to be the fringe of the industry, reserved only for the wealthy, has started to come into the mainstream. Helped along by new programs from the National Association of Home Builders, more builders and remodelers are offering their customers the option to build and improve environmentally friendly homes, better for Earth and for those who live in them.
There’s no question that the name “Stickley” is synonymous with furniture. If asked the question, “Who is Gustav Stickley?” the majority of people would most likely respond, “A furniture maker.” While that is true, there was much more to this man. The Fenimore Art Museum’s latest exhibition, “Gustav Stickley: The Enlightened Home,” which runs through Aug. 10, explores this icon of American decorative arts in the context of how he profoundly influenced American lives and culture in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Children and their families were invited to help release 600 brown trout and 300 brook trout into Geyser Creek. Technicians from the Van Hornesville Fish Hatchery operated by the Department of Environmental Protection stock the streams each year with volunteers' help. The day also included live wildlife presentations by Beth Bidwell and the Wildlife Institute of Eastern New York, Demonstrations by Eastern Mountain Sports and Capital District Flyfishers Association,Clearwater Chapter of Trout Unlimited.
Adults in their Sunday best, teenagers in sweat shirts, law enforcement officers in dress uniform and elected officials in dark business suits filled the sanctuary at the Presbyterian New England Congregational Church on Sunday to share stories, offer support and rally for rights of crime victims. Launching National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, the gathering was the first in a series of local events that will include a rose garden remembrance, a memorial brick dedication ceremony and Take Back the Night walk.
The famous fedora and bullwhip return to movie screens next month.
Harrison Ford will be wearing them as rough-and-tumble archaeologist Indiana Jones. The fictional explorer and veteran of three previous big-budget films is back in cinema action for the first time since 1989 in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”
Adventure fans will get the usual close calls and witty dialogue in a story big on mayhem and mysticism. Fashion, too: Jones just about always wears that brown hat.
Fedora experts say the return of the character, who hasn’t been at the movies since “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” could boost sales of men’s headgear.
“First, history always repeats itself,” said Vince Rua, owner of Christopher’s mens’ clothing store in Colonie Center. “Second, when the fashion role models, which are basically actors, start wearing different items such as hats, younger people take notice and start to emulate those idols.”
If you want to create something new, dare to be different and learn from your mistakes.
“Free yourself to withstand rejection and humiliation,” advises Douglas Trumbull, special-effects wizard for “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Star Wars” and “Blade Runner.” A Hollywood legend with a lifetime achievement Oscar, Trumbull now lives and works in the Berkshires.
In the 1800s, novelist Herman Melville lived on Arrowhead Farm in Pittsfield, Mass. He struggled to support his wife and four children, but never stopped writing.
Trumbull and Melville are just two of the Berkshire brains who share their secrets to success in the Feigenbaum Hall of Innovations, a new $1.2 million exhibit space at the Berkshire Museum. The 3,000-square-foot, interactive attraction was the brainchild of museum benefactors Donald S. and Armand V. Feigenbaum, founders of General Systems Co., a world-renowned pioneer in systems management and technology. Although Pittsfield is their hometown, the Feigenbaum brothers graduated from Union College in the 1940s and have a lifelong connection to Schenectady.
Five people were left homeless Tuesday afternoon after fire ripped through a two-family house less than a block away from the Schenectady Christian School off Second Avenue in Scotia.
A circle of women slowly sidestep. As they move in rhythmic unison, their hips pulse — to the right, to the center, to the left. With each flick of the hip, copper coins that dangle from colorful hip scarves jangle to the beat.
New and improved air bags, superstrong metals, higher-voltages and batteries located in different places in vehicles are among changes that make cars safer, but at the same time complicate the task of removing passengers when crashes occur. Teams of firefighters from the Amsterdam Fire Department spent hours during the past two weeks training both in a classroom and in a vehicle graveyard to tune up their skills, which can help save not only the lives of victims, but also their own.
There hasn’t been a whole lot of excitement lately at Kelly’s Station, a now-defunct hamlet in the town of Princetown about halfway between Schenectady and Duanesburg. The only noise you might hear is the running water of the Bonny Brook and the nearby Normanskill, the traffic speeding along Route 7, and perhaps the occasional blaring horn as motorists cautiously enter the Kelly’s Station Road tunnel.
The Bouck family of Perth a year ago purchased what remained of Bojud Knitting Mills and continues to make lace under a new name: Willow Street Lace. While some textile mills in the area have survived, Willow Street Lace is the only mill in New York and one of only a handful in the country that make lace.
Seven fifth-graders at Schenectady's Paige Elementary School presented a dress rehearsal Wednesday of the skit they will perform Saturday during the state Odyssey of the Mind competition at Binghamton University. The team had to create a scenario responding to the question "What might have happened to the dinosaurs that lived years ago?"
The walls of the Saratoga Springs History Museum are now decorated with more than 30 different varieties of wallpaper: a whimsical landscape neighbors a bold geometric print; fair maidens share a wall with pensive cherubs. A vine of periwinkle posies climbs alongside a dazzling damask design. Is this curious assemblage the brainchild of some off-the-wall interior designer? Absolutely.
Unlike blacks, American Indians good enough to earn a spot on Major League Baseball rosters early in the 20th century weren’t told they couldn’t play.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that despite an unofficial policy that worked something like “don’t ask, don’t tell,” American Indians were often targets of the same racially based vitriol that marked Jackie Robinson’s entry into the game in 1947. Keeping a low profile may have worked for some, but for men like Louis Francis Sockalexis, prejudice was very much a part of the game and their lives.
When Pat Goodale returns from a trip, her friends don’t ask to see the photos she took. They want to see her sketchbook journal — a diary of people, places and memorable moments that she compiles while on the road.
If you want to wow your Easter guests — or any special-occasion invitees, for that matter — before they even put a fork to their lips, start with your table setting.
Glens Falls celebrates its 100th anniversary as an incorporated city today — March 13, 2008. The city’s Chapman Historical Museum will observe the milestone with the exhibition “Building Blocks of a Community: 100 Years of Commerce in Glens Falls.” The Chapman recently allowed The Gazette to view photos in its electronic scrapbook; here are some of our favorites.
The Siena Saints celebrate after a 74-53 victory over Rider in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship game at the Times Union Center in Albany Monday. With the win, the Saints clinched their first NCAA tournament berth since 2002, and the fourth since the school went to Division I.
It may seem an unlikely time to be talking about a building boom, but that’s what’s happening, thanks in part to the New Urbanist credo of live where you work and work where you live.
In downtown Glens Falls, developers are pouring millions into new high-end condominiums and refurbished apartments. In the city’s various bucolic neighborhoods, homes are selling relatively well because, real estate agents say, they’re reasonably priced. And new jobs are coming into town by the hundreds.
Several chiefs put a half-dozen Johnstown firefighters through drills Friday in an abandoned city-owned house on Hoosac Street, teaching firefighter survival, rapid intervention and simulating the rescue of a downed firefighter.
For the longest time, Stacy DeMeo peppered her husband, Mark, with one question: “Can we look at the plans again?”
The “plans” were the blueprints, the drawings, the pages ripped out of catalogues detailing their dream house.
Today, tentlike maternity dresses and cutesy patterns for pregnant women are a thing of the past. Just because you are pregnant doesn’t mean your stylish days are over.Today, tentlike maternity dresses and cutesy patterns for pregnant women are a thing of the past. Just because you are pregnant doesn’t mean your stylish days are over.
Jeff Mirel sees genuine potential where there is, quite frankly, urban decay. On a recent tour of the former St. Joseph’s Academy in the Arbor Hill neighborhood here, the 29-year-old Mirel seems to see beyond the broken windows, the water dripping through ceilings, the pigeons flying about or the piles of bird dung that litter the floor of this former, long-vacant school.
For the past two years, Mirel has had the vision of turning an unused urban space into a breathing, multifaceted arts venue with affordable live/work space for artists. His mission has led him to form a nonprofit called Albany Barn. Besides the organization’s other efforts to support the region’s arts scene, its most ambitious objective by far is to create an arts incubator out of the ashes of the old St. Joseph’s Academy.
Dormitory living was something of a novel idea in the first half of the 19th century, and Union College president Eliphalet Nott decided to take things a step further: He and his family would share living quarters with the student body.
What the students thought of it we can only guess, but his third wife, Urania Eleanor Sheldon Nott, definitely had her own ideas on the subject.
In 1857, with her husband in his eighties, Urania finally put her foot down and Eliphalet relented. Four years later, in July 1861, the Notts moved out of the South Colonnade and into the President’s House, a beautiful two-story structure near the Blue Gate entrance on the southern side of the campus near Union Street.
Former Schenectady resident Antonio Ferrera did much of the film work for “The Gates,” an 89-minute documentary about the decorating of New York City’s Central Park in bright saffron orange-yellow during the winter of 2005. The show will premiere for a national audience next Tuesday at 10 p.m. on cable television network Home Box Office and will air several more times this month and March.
Phil and Bunny Savino are collectors, and like many people who are interested in a variety of things, the stuff they’ve accumulated over the years is vast and varied.
When it comes to hoarding hitching posts, however, particularly the cast-iron type that was so prevalent throughout much of the second half of the 19th century, the Savinos and their friends at the Albany Institute of History & Art are in a class by themselves.
When Kim and Ray Faiola are expecting guests at their Greenfield home, you won’t find them hastily straightening up a spare room, throwing a set of sheets on a sofa sleeper or inflating an air mattress. Instead, when guests arrive, Rudy greets them and shows the way to the always-ready guest quarters — a tiny cottage that mirrors the design of their main house, which Faiola built in 1984.
One hundred years ago this week, magnificent men and their driving machines visited the Capital Region. An endurance competition that matched autos and men from the United States, France, Germany and Italy departed New York City's Times Square on Wenesday, Feb. 12, 1908. Their destination was Paris, their adventure was destined for the history book. Six cars, featuring the best technology of the day, would be on the road for months, 22,000 miles through Albany, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Alaska, Japan, Russia, Berlin and finally Paris.
From Portland, Maine, to Pasadena, Calif., art nights have popped up in downtowns across America. While the concept is the same, with people taking to the streets on a special evening each month to see local art in galleries,
coffee shops, boutiques and bistros, each city’s event has its own unique personality.
Sallie Way hands me two photos of a charred center-hall colonial — glossy 4x6 glimpses of a nightmare — now smudged with fingerprints, curling slightly at the edges. The once-stately home pictured there, she tells me, is the Kalinkewicz farm, which stood for close to a century here in Galway.
The state of New York celebrated the federal holiday honoring noted civil rights leader Martin Luther King with an event Monday morning at the Empire State Convention Center in downtown Albany.
These images tell the story of a tumultuous 2007, from a massacre on a college campus and the collapse of a major metropolitan bridge to the beginning of the 2008 presidential campaign.
A record crowd was expected Monday night at the 12th annual First Night Saratoga, which included 80 musical and other performances at more than 35 locations in and near downtown Saratoga. Saratoga's even was the only First Night celebration held in the Capital Region this year.
Longtime Adirondack guide Paul Gibaldi has published "Spirit of the Adirondacks: A Photographic Journey," which chronicles the natural beauty he has been showing the public for the last 20 years.
Movie stars, parade balloons, teenagers, musicians, familiar faces in strange places — they were all part of The Daily Gazette’s history page in 2007. As the year ends, the newspaper’s history department decided some favorite photos deserve encore appearances. So here they are, back in black and white.
The fast-moving winter storm that dumped 1 to 3 inches of snow on the region Thursday afternoon caused a host of traffic problems as roads quickly became slippery.
Every year, Daily Gazette photojournalists shoot thousands of photos in their pursuit of the images that will inform, entertain, and educate readers. These images represent their favorites from a year of news, features, sports and the myriad unpredictable events that make news in the Capital Region. Each photo includes comments from the photojournalist.
The Melodies of Christmas performance is celebrating its 28th year with performances by the Empire State Youth Orchestra and Chorale at Proctors in Schenectady from Thursday, Dec. 13, through Sunday, Dec. 16. Funds raised from these performances support the Center for Childhood Cancer & Blood Disorders at the Children's Hospital at Albany Medical Center. CBS 6 will broadcast Melodies of Christmas at 7:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve and noon on Christmas Day, and the Capital Region's CW will broadcast Melodies of Christmas at 3 a.m. on Christmas Eve and 5 a.m. and 10 p.m. on Christmas Day.
Gazette Life & Arts writer Jeff Wilkin has portrayed Mother Ginger for 10 years in Northeast Ballet's annual production of "The Nutcracker" at Proctors in Schenectady.
The village of Broadalbin hosted its annual holiday parade Monday night, with people braving cold temperatures and lingering snow from the weekend's storm.
The neighboring Schenectady County Historical Society and YWCA of Schenectady are hosting the annual Festival of Trees through Dec. 9. Organizations from around Schenectady County have decorated a variety of trees for display, with 10 fully decorated trees up for silent auction. The festival is open weekdays from 1 to 5 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $6 for adults, $3 for children ages 6-12 and free for children younger than age 6. Proceeds benefit both the historical society and the local YWCA.
Thousands flocked to downtown Schenectady on Saturday evening to watch the annual Gazette Holiday Parade. This year's parade theme was classic television.
After 134 years, the stained glass windows at Stillwater United Church are getting a much-needed upgrade by workers from Willet Hauser Architectural Glass, a Minnesota company.
