It Happened Here -- Addenda!

I knew it was bound to happen.  I knew as I continued my travels and my researches I was bound to see things and learn things I would have wanted to put into earlier posts or that changed my perspective or at least my understanding of topics I had already written about. 

Union Dutch Reformed Church and stable (1825, 1840)

Back in November 2013 I posted a set of "Marker Of the Week"s  I entitled "Remnants of the Horse-Powered Society"  I noted that given the length of time people spent in church in the 18th and 19th centuries on the Sabbath it is remarkable there were not more horse stables provided to shelter for their horses and carriages.

Since then I have come across a couple more, and I am sure there will be others.


                                                                                                      

                

                                                                                

  At the Friends Meeting House,  Rte 7 Quaker Street

At Christ Episcopal Church, Rte. 20 Duanesburg

As might be expected, the Episcopalians produced a shed with a little more ornamentation and style, but I wondered about its location, so close and in front of the church. Maybe it was built to accommodate those members who always seem to arrive late, or those that book out as soon as the last syllables of the benediction are spoken.




The next week I wrote about carriage steps, those wooden or stone steps placed along side of roadways and entrance ways to enable passengers (particularly women in long skirts) to get up into or depart from carriages.

                    Cut Stone carriage steps at the
                         Jacob Crounse inn, Altamont












This week at the Ticonderoga Reservation I saw something I never expected to see, but I immediately knew what it was--a  cast iron carriage step with a very ornate post to steady M'Lady and a ring, perhaps to hold reins while she prepared to alight or depart.  It was at the country home,  of William Ferris Pell who bought the Ticonderoga penninsula, including the ruins of the fort about 1826.  After Pell's death, "The Pavilion," as he named it, became a hotel from 1840 to 1900. During this time this step was installed at the edge of a large semicircular gravel driveway lined with cut stone blocks. The driveway has disappeared under the lawn but the stone blocks are clearly visible.

The Pell's  Pavilion

 

Following the Civil War, when the demand for cannon and cannonballs had evaporated, companies that worked in cast iron began to make all kinds of things from toys to parlor stoves, to ornate fences and architectual pieces. The Waterveliet Arsenal has an entire building of sheets and columns and supports made of cast iron, bolted together. This carriage step was patented in 1868, from the manufacturers inscription on it.



The rest of this summer I will be continuing  to go on road trips researching and photographing NYSHMs.  And I will post whenever something strikes my fancy.  On  Sept. 1 I will return to regular weekly posts--Tom