The Same Schenectady Street Scene Over Time

At the Grems-Doolittle Library we probably have more historic photos of State Street than any other street in Schenectady. This makes sense as State is Schenectady's main street and commercial hub and has been for quite a while. As such, there are a number of advertisements that have popped up on buildings over the years and it seems that one building in particular that would get plastered with ads for local businesses. 322 State Street housed several businesses over the years including the Boston One Price Clothing House, Evelyn Dress Shop, German newspaper the Deutsche Journal, the Schenectady Business College and various other businesses. This building is right by the train tracks, making it a perfect space to advertise. We've chosen some photos that show just how this area changed over the years. Some of these are undated, but a good way to get an approximate date is that if there is no railroad bridge over state, then it was taken prior to 1906.

Looking down State Street from the railroad crossing in 1888. This may be the earliest view of this corner that we have. 

Schenectady celebrated Washington's birthday with a big parade in 1892. 

This photo is from the mid-1890s.

This damaged photo from a glass plate negative also shows an advertisement for the Charleroi Plate Glass Company on a handcar. 

 A busy street scene taken on State Street from the Canal Bridge, 1910

One big change that occurred in 1906 was raising the grade of the railroad tracks. This was a notoriously deadly intersection and building the rail bridge greatly increased safety in the city. 

It's a bit difficult to read, but we think the street says "Stop, Let's Go Smilin' Thru Schenectady." This may have been referring to a play called "Smilin Thru" which was playing at the Hudson Theater in 1927. 

A 1966 view from the opposite side shows an ad for the Gazette.

A bit of a later view from 1977 and it's very difficult to see what they're advertising on 322 State. 

Looking down State in 1984. Zooming in, we can see that the ad on 324 State is the same as it was in 1977 for Nelson's Slenderizing Fashions.

Although there aren't quite as many ads, 324 still had an ad on it in August, 2017. Courtesy of Google Maps.

For more photos from our collection, check out our New York Heritage page at https://nyheritage.org/contributors/schenectady-county-historical-society.