The Murder of Ettie Demacsek

Excerpt from newspaper article regarding the Demacsek murder case published in the New York Times, 17 July 1892. Image obtained via www.fultonhistory.com.  

Around noon on June 14, 1892, 12-year-old Gussie Frisch heard a heavy blow, a scream, and a sound that she likened to that of a butcher cutting meat. She knocked on the door of the Demacseks' home on Rotterdam Street (once an extension of Washington Avenue that ran south of Water Street to Kruesi Avenue) in Schenectady, then opened the door and entered. As she entered the house, a man ran past her out of the house, past a group of men on the porch of Scrafford's Hotel across the street, and escaped. Inside the house, Frisch discovered the body of her neighbor, Ettie Demacsek, on the floor of the front room. Demacsek's throat was slit and she had been stabbed in the chest. Her skull was fractured in two places.

Ettie's husband, Alexander, was at work at the time of the murder. When he was questioned by police, he provided a short list of possible suspects and insinuated that he suspected John Feltheimer, a former boarder in the Demacsek house, of the murder. Demacsek himself was not arrested, but the police thought his behavior suspicious. "While he was not arrested," the Adirondack Times reported, "he was given to understand that if he attempted to leave the city he would be locked up. The police shadowed him continually."

Feltheimer was thus the first suspect in the case, but he was able to prove an alibi; he was at work at the locomotive works at the time of the murder. Horrified by Ettie's murder, Feltheimer at once began working with police to help find who was responsible for the killing. The Schenectady police swore in Feltheimer as a special officer so he could work on the case. He had a strong suspicion of Cornelius Loth, a close friend of Demacsek's and a former boarder at the Demacsek home who had moved away from Schenectady a few months before the murder. Through speaking with Loth's acquaintances in Schenectady, Feltheimer was able to find where Loth was in New York City. Feltheimer traveled to New York City and alerted the police there. Two days after the murder, Cornelius Loth was arrested for the murder of Ettie Demacsek. Based on other information uncovered by Feltheimer, Alexander Demacsek was also arrested for complicity in the crime. According to a newspaper article covering the murder, Loth and Demacsek were said to have discussed using a foot-log butcher knife in the Demacseks' home for the murder. "It was not sharp enough, [Loth] was reported to have said to the conspiring husband. The latter took the knife and sharpened it . . . It is even said that his wife turned the grindstone upon which the implement was ground."

After being arrested, Loth at first claimed that he was innocent. Loth and Demacsek were both held to testify before a grand jury. Witnesses were called to the stand with regard to the complicity of Alexander Demacsek, including a family friend who Demacsek had visited the day after the murder. She claimed that Demacsek had told her that he knew who his wife's murderer was and that he didn't want him to be caught. When the woman, shocked, replied that he should let the police know at once who was responsible, Demacsek began to cry and said "You don't know what you would do in my place." Jacob Lockwood, who boarded at the Demacsek home, came home with Demacsek immediately when police informed them of the murder. Ettie's body was then still in the home; Lockwood testified that Demacsek stared at his wife's corpse for a minute and a half, then turned away trying to hide a smile. Demacsek himself admitted that he had beaten his wife several times, and had twice whipped her. The Schenectady Evening Star reported that Demacsek was "voluble and clever" in his replies to being questioned and that "a smile rested on his features almost constantly" as he testified.

In his testimony, Loth admitted to killing Ettie Demacsek and provided the details of the murder. The New York Times reported that Loth gave his testimony "as calmly as though he were reading a newspaper report of another man's crime."  Loth claimed that Alexander Demacsek had been asking him to kill Ettie since February of that year, and began to offer Loth money to kill her. Loth said that he was finally convinced to kill Ettie after Alexander Demacsek promised to forgive all of the financial debts that Loth owed Demacsek -- a substantial amount -- and, additionally, to pay Loth a large sum of money.

Artist's rendering of Cornelius Loth, who confessed to murdering Ettie Demacsek. From Demacsek surname file. 

Loth testified that he arrived in Schenectady on the morning of June 14 and immediately went to the Demacsek home. He chatted with Ettie Demacsek while a man was working on plastering the kitchen. After the man left, Loth said, Ettie Demacsek "gave me bread and butter to eat . . . she told me she was sleepy and went into the front room and lay down on a lounge. I could see her from where I sat as she lay there." After waiting a few minutes, Loth took out a brass club which he had brought with him, entered the room where Ettie lay, and struck her multiple times on the head with it. "She screamed then, but could not say anything," Loth testified. "Then she fell down on the floor, and I went into the kitchen and got the butcher knife and went back again. I was afraid she was going to stand up, and would know who it was, and I cut her throat and stabbed her once or twice in the breast. About two minutes after I had cut her throat I heard a rap at the door, but I did not say anything. Then I took my hat and club, ran out of the house, through the streets, across the Glenville Bridge, when I threw my club into the Mohawk, and down along the railroad to the station, where I caught the 1:33 p.m. train and went back to New York."

Following his testimony, Loth was indicted for first-degree murder. Alexander Demacsek was not charged in connection with the murder. When Loth saw that Demacsek was not charged, he immediately denied his confession and claimed that he was forced into making the statement that he gave by the police. Loth was convicted of Ettie Demacsek's murder on November 30, 1892, and was sentenced to death. He was sent to the prison at Dannemora, where he was executed the following January.

Happy Birthday, Charles Steinmetz!

Charles Steinmetz at work. Photograph from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

"Through a decade he led the advance of electrical engineers to the modern understanding of the electric circuit, the transformer, induction motor, alternator and high-voltage phenomena. Dr. Steinmetz assisted his brother engineers by an untold degree by his books, papers and discussions, by his profoundly intelligent vision and by his example of persistent, ably directed enthusiasm." 

- Professor Harris J. Ryan, President of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers

"mathematics to Steinmetz was muscular strength and long walks over the hills and the kiss of a girl in love and big evenings spent swilling beer with your friends"
- John Dos Passos, The 42nd Parallel

April 9, 1865 marks the birth of one of the most famous Schenectadians - Charles Proteus Steinmetz. Known as the "Wizard of Schenectady," Steinmetz was a mathematician and engineer. He was born in Breslau, Germany, and came to the United States at age 24 to work for the General Electric Company. After working in Lynn, Massachusetts, Steinmetz moved to Schenectady, where he lived until his death in 1923.

Charles Steinmetz at his camp along the Mohawk River to the west of Schenectady. Photograph from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

Steinmetz is best known for his work in developing a mathematical method of understanding alternating current using complex numbers, which allowed engineers to extend the transmission of electrical current over long distances and enabled the great expansion of the electric power industry in the United States. His research on magnetism led him to his discovery of the law of hysteresis, which allowed inventors to design motors that would not overheat. After he began working for General Electric, he very quickly became a star engineer for the company. He helped to found the GE Research Laboratory and was a distinguished professor at Union College, where he founded the electrical engineering program. In 1916, he built a lightning generator. His discoveries with the generator helped to create efficient devices to harness electricity for use in industry. Steinmetz also held over 200 patents. 

In addition to his achievements as a scientist and mathematician, Steinmetz was well known for his activity as a Socialist. His political convictions began when he was a young man in Germany; increasing scrutiny of Socialist activity likely contributed to his decision to leave the country (his home life with his family was also tense). Steinmetz began serving on the Board of Education in 1908, where he introduced free textbooks for primary-level students, established a free lunch program, and advocated for special education programs. When the Socialist Party came to power in Schenectady with the election of Mayor George Lunn, Steinmetz was elected President of the Common Council and was appointed to serve as President of the Board of Education. Following the Russian Revolution, Steinmetz wrote to Vladimir Lenin, offering to help electrify Russia. Lenin declined the offer, but sent a photograph of himself and signed it "To the highly esteemed Charles Proteus Steinmetz, one of the few exceptions to the united front of representatives of science and culture opposed to the proletariat." 

Charles Steinmetz with his adopted grandchildren -- Billy, Marjorie ("Midge"), and Joe Hayden -- and actor Douglas Fairbanks in Hollywood, ca. 1923. Photograph from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

Steinmetz suffered from dwarfism, hunchback, and hip dysplasia, which ran in his family; he chose not to marry and create a family for fear of passing on his conditions to children. However, he longed for family life. Steinmetz became very close friends with one of lab assistants, Joseph LeRoy Hayden. Eventually, Hayden and his wife, Corinne, moved into Steinmetz's Wendell Avenue home. Steinmetz legally adopted Joseph Hayden as his son, and Joseph and Corinne's three children had "Daddy" Steinmetz for their grandfather. "He was a perfect dear, and I really can't say enough about him," 94-year-old Marjorie Hayden said of Steinmetz in 2003. "Whatever we wanted, he got for us. We were completely spoiled by him."

In addition to his achievements in life, Steinmetz was known as a colorful character. He kept a strange assortment of animals at his home, including owls, alligators, a raccoon, and a Gila monster. He was almost always seen chomping on a cigar -- even when swimming. He kept up an active social life and was known as an avid card-player and practical joker. His colleague Ernst Berg later recalled "it seems extraordinary that so much real work was done because we played so much."

History Among Us: The Korean War POW Experience of Richard “Dick” Whalen

Richard Whalen at St. Alban’s Naval Hospital upon his return stateside – still grievously ill but overjoyed to be home.  Image from Dick Whalen Collection. 

This blog entry is written by library volunteer Hannah Hamilton. 

From Thanksgiving of 1950 to late April of 1953, the Mr. and Mrs. Frank Whalen were unsure whether or not they would ever see their beloved son, Richard “Dick” Whalen, again. Rotterdam Junction’s own Dick Whalen was taken Prisoner of War at Unsan, North Korea by the Chinese in November of 1950. He was at times declared “Missing in Action” and at others “Dead” by the Pentagon. Through the years of Whalen’s imprisonment, his parents’ lives were plagued by sporadic and conflicting messages pertaining to their only son’s well-being. It was not until approximately April 30^th of 1953 that the Whalens received a letter from their son confirming that he was alive, and would soon be returning home.

An image of the Pyoktong POW Camp in North Korea with the Yalu River in the background, where a young Richard Whalen spent years alongside his comrades. Image from Dick Whalen Collection. 

Whalen considered himself as having been “treated well” in the POW camp, despite the horrors he faced. Upon his release in the summer of 1953, he was swiftly airlifted back to the U.S. where he spent more than a year undergoing treatment for an advanced case of tuberculosis. Whalen was brought to the notorious Camp Five at a time when prisoners were dying at a rate of a dozen per day, and managed a close scrape with death. Decades later in April of 1982, he wrote to Congress on behalf of fellow American Soldier Tibor Rubin, insisting that Rubin was deserving of the Congressional Medal of Honor. Whalen accredited Rubin with his own survival in the camp, as well as that of many other prisoners.

Frank Whalen of Rotterdam Junction holds a photograph  of his son, Dick Whalen, in the hospital after leaving a POW camp in North Korea. Photo by Kolenberg, Albany Times-Union. Photograph from Dick Whalen Collection. 

Whalen wrote of Rubin, “He stood out in the crowd as he helped those of us who became sick or who needed encouragement not to give up as this was a prelude to dying.” Whalen also spoke of Rubin’s bravery in procuring extra food for the sick and in doing all he could for those in need of help, at no small risk to himself: “In Camp Five under the Chinese, it would have meant an extra work detail or a couple of days in the hole.” 

Korean War veteran Tibor Rubin received a Medal of Honor in 2005. From U.S. Department of Defense website (www.defense.gov). 

The once-army-cook maintained correspondence with many of his fellow soldiers in later years, and also served as Historian for the Town of Rotterdam. His was a true labor of love, as he built up a vast collection of documents and photographs pertaining to the area, particularly Rotterdam Junction. Tragically, his collection of photographs and documents was heavily impacted by flooding in the wake of Hurricane Irene (click this link for more information about the damage done and salvage efforts). Recently the Library has worked to make many of those preserved records available to the public. Of course, none of the work which is now underway would have been possible without the steadfast work of Richard Whalen, or perhaps without the undaunted Tibor Rubin, who helped him to see Camp Five through.

A youthful Whalen (far right) smiles in the Korean POW Camp, a locale which, Whalen remarked, “would have been a hit if it were in Lake George." Image from Whalen surname file. 

Schenectady Inventor Revolutionized Golf

Drawing of Schenectady Putter, patent no. 723,534, patented by Arthur F. Knight. Image from United States Patent and Trademark Office, viewed via Google Patents (http://www.google.com/patents/US723534). 

This blog entry is written by Schenectady County Historical Society trustee John Gearing. 

Every so often I search Ebay for items that have “Schenectady” in their description, just to see what turns up. Almost without fail, there will be at least one antique golf club described as a “Schenectady putter” up for sale. With curiosity piqued and the Spring golf season about to begin, some historical investigation seemed to be in order.

In 1900 Arthur F. Knight lived in Schenectady, where he was a electrical engineer at General Electric and an avid golfer at the Mohawk Golf Club. By 1902 Knight was a star of Mohawk's golf team, but like all golfers, even those of today, he was bitten with the bug of improving his game. Engineer Knight decided to try designing an improved putter. Putters of the day consisted of a vertical blade with the shaft attached at the heel. Knight's design was for a low-profile, blocky aluminum head with the shaft attached near its center. His teammates on the Mohawk team thought the putter odd looking, but in those early days of organized golf there were few rules governing golf equipment. Knight was quite pleased with the new putter. One day that summer a visiting Garden City golfer named Devereux Emmet borrowed Knight's putter and then took it home for “further tests.” Emmet let America's leading amateur golfer, Walter J. Travis, who also played at Garden City, try the putter and within a few days Knight received a letter from Travis asking for one of Knight's new putters.

Arthur F. Knight in 1901. Image from Knight surname file, Grems-Doolittle Library Collection. 

Walter J. Travis had a reputation as an innovator. He had pioneered the wound rubber golf ball, using one to win the 1901 US Amateur championship. He also had experienced problems with his putting. Travis enthused over Knight's putter, declaring it “the best putter I have ever used.” By some accounts Travis used his “Schenectady” putter in winning the 1902 US Amateur title, and according to the Walter J. Travis Society he used the putter in the 1903 US Open, finishing second. Knight's putter became famous in 1904 when Travis used it to become the first non-British golfer to win the British Amateur.  Knight suddenly was besieged with orders for his putter. He dubbed the patented (1903) design the “Schenectady Putter” and established the Schenectady Golfclub Company at 831 Union Street. An advertisement at the time lists a price of $2.50 and reminds customers “The genuine has 'SCHENECTADY' cast on every head.”

The Schenectady Putter also played a leading part in one of the great golf matches of the era. The 1904 Nassau Invitational featured the top American amateurs, including Walter J. Travis fresh from his triumph at the British Amateur. Travis made it to the finals, where his opponent was 17 year old phenom Jerry Travers. Travers had beaten some excellent golfers en route to the finals, but had been having putting trouble. Before his showdown with Travis a friend loaned him a Schenectady putter to try. Travers liked it and decided to play it. In the finals, both Travers and Travis used Schenectady putters. The match went to extra holes and on the 21st hole Travers used his Schenectady putter to sink a 10-footer and win the match in an astounding upset that marked his ascendancy to the top ranks of amateur golf.

Golfer Walter Travis with the Schenectady Putter. Image from Walter J. Travis Society (http://travissociety.com)

Some accounts of the Schenectady Putter state that the Royal and Ancient Golf Club (of Scotland), the rules-making body, banned Knight's invention shortly after Travis won the British Amateur, with the implication that this was a reaction to Travis victory in the British Amateur. According to the USGA this is simply not the case. In 1910 the “R & A” adopted rules banning “mallet-headed”  clubs. Since they considered the Schenectady Putter to fall into this category, it was banned. The USGA, however, elected to interpret the rule differently than their British cousins. The USGA only banned clubs that were actual mallets, akin to a croquet mallet. By the American definition the Schenectady Putter was legal and continued to be used in sanctioned events in America. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club lifted its ban in 1952.

Having revolutionized putting, Knight patented hollow steel golf club shafts in 1910. Steel shafts, Knight found, would resist twisting at impact better than hickory shafts and provide more accurate shots. This time though, his invention was banned for use in sanctioned events in both England and America until the late 20s. Golf club makers produced steel shaft clubs for recreational use instead. Ironically, when golfing's rule-makers lifted the ban they said the clubs were legal because they did not confer an advantage on the golfer, despite the fact that they were intended to do just that. By the 1930s, steel shafted clubs were the standard.

Retired golf pro Jim Thompson poses with an original Schenectady Putter, part of his personal collection, ca. 1959. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

Knight was not through inventing. He also patented a table-top golf game played on a fabric “course” with tiddly winks. Knight was also involved with golf course design and designed both the Schenectady Municipal golf course and the Edison Club's course.

Arthur Franklin Knight was born in Rensselaer on September 6, 1868. He was married to Grace Van Vranken, daughter of Benjamin Van Vranken. Arthur F. Knight died at age 71 on May 5, 1936. He left substantial bequests to the Ingersoll Home, Ellis Hospital, the Old Ladies Home, the Children's Home Society, and the Schenectady Day Nursery.


Sources:
Schenectady Gazette May 5, 1936 obituary
Schenectady Gazette May 7, 1939 article “Most of Knight Estate Is Left To Institutions”
Ancestry.com; Rootsweb, “Descendants of Richard and Sarah Rogers Knight and Others”
“Better Golfing Through Chemistry,” American Heritage's Invention and Technology, Vol. 9, Issue 1, 1993.
 Mike Cullity, “Museum Moment: Schenectady Putter Helped Travers Make His Mark”, www.usgamuseum.com, August 18, 2011.
www.usgamuseum.com, “Walter Travis”.
“List of Past Champions,” www.usamateur.org
“1902 U. S. Open Golf Tournament Scores,” www.About.com
The Walter J. Travis Society, travissociety.com
B.B.H., “The Origin of the Schenectady Putter”, The American Golfer, 1911, Vol. 8, 371-373.
“The Schenectady Putter,” www.thegolfballfactory.com
Patent 976,267, Arthur F. Knight, US Patent Office, November 22, 1910. Steel shaft golf clubs.
“The Rise of Golf c1895-1950,” www.patentlygolf.com
Patent 723,543, Arthur F. Knight, US Patent Office, March 24, 1903. Schenectady putter.
Patent 711979, Arthur F. Knight, US Patent Office, October 28, 1902. Table-top golf game.

"Undesirable Subjects for Credit:" Schenectady's Confidential Reference Book for Merchants' Protective Union Subscribers

Page from Confidential Reference Book, 1884. From Grems-Doolittle Library Collection. 

Many researchers are familiar with city directories, which provide a person's name, occupation, and address. There is one directory in our collection that is a bit unusual; it includes a list of local residents, their occupation, and address, and brief notes regarding the person's credit. It is entitled Confidential Reference Book and was created for the use of local subscribers to the Merchants' Protective Union. It was considered the property of the Merchants' Protective Union and was loaned to member merchants for one year.

The Merchants' Protective Union's national organization was established in 1868 "to promote and protect trade, by enabling its subscribers to attain facility and safety in the granting of credits, and the recovery of claims at all points." Taking the slogan "For the Continent from New York to San Francisco," the Union established branches in a number of American cities during the 1870s and 1880s. It is unclear when the Schenectady branch was founded; the copy of the credit rating book in our collection is dated October 1884. It is also unclear how many local merchants belonged to the Merchants' Protective Union; a notice in an 1885 issue of the Albany Evening Times numbers the participating merchants in Albany at 200.

The introduction to the volume reinforces the confidential nature of the information contained in the book, and merchants are exhorted to "always consider the RATING in connection with the name, otherwise you will do injustice to the individual, and injustice to the register. If it was the purpose to present a list of intentional dead-beats, simply, there would be no rating -- only a roll of names." The volume instead lists all types of "undesirable subjects for credit," including those who are honest but poor, those who pay their debts but pay them so slowly that low-margin credit extended to them may result in a loss, or those who are careless.

The books was used not only for merchants to make decisions in whether to extend credit to individuals, but also to refer claims to an attorney authorized by the Merchants' Protective Union's local branch to sue debtors. "About the first move made in a new locality," wrote the Syracuse Sunday Times of the Merchants' Protective Union, "is the appointment of a respectable attorney who is to have charge of all collections and the legal business connected therewith." It appears that in Schenectady this attorney was Horatio G. Glen.

The explanatory key from the last page of the Confidential Reference Book. From Grems-Doolittle Library Collection. 

The explanatory key at the back of the volume lists a guide to the ratings contained in the book, which are as follows:
A. Considered honest, but unable to pay.
B. Careless and neglects to pay.
C. Too slow for desirable credit.
D. ______ ______ ______ ______ (a 1886 San Francisco volume designates this category as "send for special report")
E. Changes residence often.
F. Has attachable property.
G. Property in wife's name.
H. Extravagant and poor calculation.
I. Assignment of wages.
*. Special report in office.
K. Has paid bills formerly reported.
L. Is paying on bills formerly reported.
V. Insolvent.

The listings also include the number of merchants that a debtor owes, along with a notation that indicates the type of business the debtor owes (a guide to which is also included in the explanatory key at the back of the volume). While these categories are illuminating to those looking at the volume today, it may be a frustration to researchers that the majority of entries are classified under the "D" label; we have no further information about these cases.

The methods of the Merchants' Protective Union were met with sometimes fierce opposition. Many were concerned that, through the credit books, an unscrupulous or vindictive shop owner could ruin the reputation of a person, or that an honest person who happened to fall in to debt to just one or two creditors could have his credit and reputation ruined to all others. Some business owners refused to join the Merchants' Protective Union, despite having customers in debt, because they felt that the ill will bred by such a system would harm relations with customers over the long run. In addition to maintaining the yearly reference book, the Merchants' Protective Union also advertised the names of debtors in local newspapers and on posters put up for public display. Local branches did this in Utica, Watertown, Rochester, and Syracuse, among other cities. The Syracuse Sunday Times noted that the method of publicizing debtors "called down on the Union, in this city and elsewhere, very severe condemnation." The Elmira Telegram called the Confidential Reference Book a "black-mailing book" and remarked that if a branch were to be established there, "the printing office that will print such a contemptible piece of work out to be sacked within twenty-four hours and the proprietors treated to a coat of tar and feathers."

The Heyday of Bicycles in Schenectady, 1890-1910

Two women stop during a bicycle ride around the Schenectady area, ca. 1900. Women's participation in the bicycle craze during the 1890s led to the decline of corsets, inspired "common-sense" dress, and allowed greater mobility for women. Women also joined men as members of cycling clubs formed during this period. Many suffragists and women's rights advocates saw the bicycle as a mechanism for women's freedom; in 1896, Susan B. Anthony told New York World reporter Nellie Bly, "I think [the bicycle] has done more to emancipate woman than any one thing in the world. I rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel. It gives her a feeling of self reliance and independence the moment she takes her seat; and away she goes, the picture of untrammelled womanhood." Photograph from Larry Hart Collection.

Like other localities across the United States, the closing years of the nineteenth century and the opening years of the twentieth century served as the peak of the popularity and ubiquity of the bicycle in Schenectady. Although bicycles existed in various forms as early as 1817, the popularity of bicycles mushroomed nationwide in the 1890s due to the development and mass production of the safety bicycle. Before this time, bicycles (such as the "high wheel" type) were mostly used by young men for sport. The creation of the safety bicycle ushered in the bicycle's widespread use for affordable, everyday transportation for people of all ages, including women.

Undated photograph of bicycle shed at the General Electric Works in Schenectady. Photograph from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

Local bicycle dealers and repair shops were first listed in Schenectady directories beginning in 1892; by the turn of the century, there were fifteen. Some dealers, such as the People's Cycle Company, Schenectady Cycle Company, and Weber Cycle Company, focused solely on selling bicycles and accessories and making repairs, while other businesses sold bicycles alongside their sporting goods. Cycling groups were formed in the region, and Schenectadians such as W.E. Underhill and William C. Vrooman joined the League of American Wheelmen, a national organization for cyclists that advocated for improved roads and highways. Bicycle parades and races were held throughout the region.

Advertisement for the Weber Cycle Company in the 1896 Schenectady City Directory. 

Outside a Schenectady bicycle shop, ca. 1895. Photograph from Larry Hart Collection. 

During the 1890s, a cinder sidepath was built along the south side of Route 5 (State Street / Central Avenue) between Schenectady and Albany, and was made specifically for bicycles. Schenectady resident Russell Fradgley remembered paying $1.00 per year for a license to use the sidepath in 1903. "Spotters" were stationed along the route to check that a badge was visible on passing bicycles. Those without a badge were subject to a 10-cent toll. Fradgley, a member of the Albany Bicycle Club, earned several medals for one-day bike rides of more than 100 miles. "We often rode from Albany to about three miles west of Amsterdam, back to Albany, then to Schenectady and return. That would make up the 100 miles," he recalled. "We used the paths all the way and zipped past the traffic of that day. We had papers signed along the route to prove we made the trip."

A group of young Schenectadians relax with bicycles, banjo, and songbook, ca. 1909. Photograph from Larry Hart Collection. 

A boy rides his bicycle near the foot of Washington Avenue in Schenectady, ca. 1890. Photograph from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

House History Resources in the Grems-Doolittle Library

Members of the Kokernak family on the porch of their home at 780-782 Bailey Street in Schenectady.
From the Wadsworth S. Kokernak Photograph Collection.

The Grems-Doolittle Library offers a number of research tools that can help to enrich your understanding of the origins of your house, neighborhood, and community, and how their histories have unfolded over time. Resources in our library can provide strategies for researching house histories, help to identify your home's architectural style/details, trace the history of your neighborhood or community, trace the owners/residents of your home and approximate a construction date, and discover biographical information about the people who lived in or owned your home.

Two of the key resources that can help to trace the history of a home or neighborhood in the city of Schenectady are city directories and maps/atlases (particularly Sanborn Maps). These resources are "snapshots" that document the city at a particular period of time. By using these resources in conjunction with each other, you can identify changes in street names and numbers, identify residents, find for what purposes a building was used (i.e. apartments, store, saloon), and chart the development of various neighborhoods in the city.

Image of a portion of Centre Street (now Broadway) from the 1884 Sanborn Map.  These maps provide a great deal of information, including building structure and composition, street numbers, stories, outbuildings, and building use.

Like the Sanborn Maps, city and county atlases offer information about street numbers and building construction. They offer slightly less detail about the specifics of buildings themselves, but they do offer information that Sanborn Maps do not include -- the names of owners or residents of property. Other detailed maps in our collections, such as the 1850 Dripps city map and 1856 Fagan county map, offer similar information. Simple city street maps do not show individual houses or ownership, but they do show the development of the city's streets and neighborhoods.

Portion of map of Rotterdam in Schenectady County atlas, 1866. The maps of the the county's towns in this atlas provide a great deal on information about roads, businesses, and the owners/residents of farms and homes. 

Aside from maps and directories, our collections of personal papers, business records, and other collections of original documents can also prove to be useful. Our Historic Manuscripts Collection includes a number of resources that may be helpful, including deeds, wills, legal matters documents, and correspondence. Vault Book 79, from our Historic Manuscripts Collection, offers descriptions of properties that were offered for sale through the local real estate firm, Fitch and Griffes, from 1870 through 1880. Nineteenth-century historian Jonathan Pearson extracted information from assorted deeds, mortgages, wills, legal disputes, and other documents to create land ownership chains and sketch maps of the city's oldest streets (our library volunteers are currently working on indexing Pearson's work, referred to as the Jonathan Pearson Street Books). The Godfrey Family Papers feature information about Clark Godfrey's work in developing the Rosendale Estates in Niskayuna. The James Frost Papers provide survey notes, maps, and other information about a number of properties, including many in the area of Duanesburg and Princetown.

Representative page from one of the Jonathan Pearson Street Books. This page shows Pearson's notes and a sketch map for certain properties on Union Street in Schenectady. 

Books in our collections can also help to conduct research about the history of your house -- for example, how to "read" your home for architectural clues and how to create a chain of ownership using deeds. We have several books that can help to identify architectural styles and features, including resources that focus on architecture regionally and locally. Local histories, histories of particular neighborhoods, and genealogies may provide information about a local home or farm or illuminate the history of a community's settlement or development.

Other resources in our library, including clipping and surname files, newspapers, local government information, building/structure inventory forms, photographs, census records, wills, tax lists, and assessment rolls, can be valuable resources of information as well. A research guide to house history sources in our library can be found here.

Above all, always be willing to ask our library staff and volunteers for help in brainstorming about what resources might be of use to you -- we're here to help!