New York Almanack

The Man Buffalo Forgot: Harry Altman’s Lost Entertainment Empire

Guest Contributor — Wed, 20 May 2026 19:00:55 +0000

History is often kindest to people who leave something permanent behind — a building, a business, a name etched onto a marquee. Their legacy remains visible. But those who built careers around live entertainment worked in a far more fleeting medium. The worlds they created existed in sound, light, energy, and memory, disappearing almost as quickly as they arrived.

Harry Altman (1890-1966) was one of those people: a once-prominent Buffalo nightclub owner and entertainment promoter whose name has largely faded from New York’s cultural memory, despite decades spent shaping the nightlife of Western New York.

Landscape & Social Change in Poughkeepsie

Editorial Staff — Wed, 20 May 2026 18:00:32 +0000

SUNY Press has re-published Main Street to Mainframes: Landscape and Social Change in Poughkeepsie by Harvey K. Flad and Clyde C. Griffen in a Second Edition. A social and urban history of the city on the Hudson River in Dutchess County, NY, tracing its transformation from a 19th-century market town to a 21st-century urban region.

The book examines economic shifts, immigration, race, housing, and revitalization efforts through a blend of social history and spatial analysis, using Poughkeepsie as a case study for broader trends in American small-city development.

Arnold Rothstein’s Saratoga Club & The 1919 World Series Scandal

Guest Contributor — Wed, 20 May 2026 16:10:36 +0000

Arnold Rothstein was of the most famous of America’s 20th century criminal masterminds, and for more than 20 years, the New York City native spent his summers in Saratoga Springs, gambling on the horses by day – and just plain gambling by night.

He first started coming to Saratoga on a regular basis in 1904, when he was 22 years old, and he largely gave up on Saratoga after 1925 – by then, he was able to make so much money bootlegging liquor that he no longer spent much time gambling at the Saratoga Race Course.

Today You Should Support New York Almanack

Editorial Staff — Wed, 20 May 2026 16:00:39 +0000

New York Almanack delivers to you each day. We receive no public funds – we’re supported only by readers like you.

We need your help! Please DONATE to our annual fundraising campaign starting today to keep New York Almanack publishing.

History, natural history, the environment, performing arts and outdoor recreation – all centered on the New York Almanack‘s unique sense of the world around us.

William Kennedy’s Albany Trilogy: An Interview with Paul Grondahl

Editorial Staff — Wed, 20 May 2026 13:55:32 +0000

The work of novelist William Kennedy marks the union of encyclopedic knowledge, built over ninety-eight years spent soaking up the city of Albany, and a profound empathy for human experience in all its forms, from the underworld of gangsters, gamblers, and hustlers to the heights of power and politics.

In the recently published Library of America edition of The Albany Trilogy, three of Kennedy’s greatest works set in New York’s capital take readers through vastly different but interrelated lives.

Tides of History: Red Hook, Fort Defiance & and Climate Resiliency

Editorial Staff — Wed, 20 May 2026 13:17:27 +0000

Red Hook in Brooklyn is home to Fort Defiance, one of the most overlooked Revolutionary War sites in New York City, and it may also hold a key to the community’s climate resilient future, according to Friends of Fort Defiance and Resilient Red Hook organizers.

They say Fort Defiance is both a sacred site of early American history and a strategic opportunity for a modern-day resilience and community space and are hosting a discussion about integrating this site into Red Hook’s Climate Justice Action Plan to ensure that history, green infrastructure, and community identity are woven into climate planning decisions ahead.

Owen Young: WWI Statesman, GE Radio & TV Pioneer

Randall Whitestone — Tue, 19 May 2026 19:37:39 +0000

On a warm, sunny day amid the winding hills of Herkimer County, the world descended on Van Hornesville, a small Mohawk Valley community, without a train station but home to a global, widely respected statesman of commerce and international finance.

Ninety-five years ago this June, Owen D. Young (1874-1962), architect of the Young Plan on Germany’s fiscal rehabilitation after World War I, and longtime chairman of General Electric Company, presided over graduation ceremonies for the town’s newly built seven-room schoolhouse replete with a swimming pool, a playground, and an auditorium “wired for talkies.”

The lead story in The New York Times that day concerned distant matters in which Young had played a significant role: German President von Hindenburg’s telegram of appreciation to U.S.

A New Native Species Selection Tool

Editorial Staff — Tue, 19 May 2026 18:35:53 +0000

Are you looking for recommendations of native plants and trees to plant on your specific site? DEC and the New York Natural Heritage Program recently released a Species Selection Tool that provides a list of recommended native tree, shrub, and herbaceous plant species, including flowering species, ferns and herbs, to improve habitats, increase biodiversity, and benefit wildlife across New York State.

There are three steps to using this tool:

1 – Enter your planting site location: Enter the address or click on the map to automatically generate expected site conditions of the property including soil and geology.

2026 Spongy Moth Outbreak Outlook for New York State

Editorial Staff — Tue, 19 May 2026 17:00:46 +0000

The spongy moth (Lymantria dispar) is a non-native insect from Europe. In New York, spongy moth caterpillars feed on a variety of trees, with oak as their preferred species.

Spongy moths have naturalized in our forested communities, which means they are always present in New York in some capacity. In recent years, spongy moth populations have experienced a boom throughout the Northeastern U.S.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) first observed growing populations in New York State in 2020 when spongy moth caterpillars defoliated 27,157 acres in the Finger Lakes Region.

High Peaks, Kaaterskill Clove Public Comments Deadline June 1st

Editorial Staff — Tue, 19 May 2026 14:00:13 +0000

Public feedback on the two reports regarding Visitor Use Management (VUM) for the Adirondack High Peaks Wilderness and Kaaterskill Clove region of the Catskill Park is being accepted until June 1, 2026 by either email or mail.

Over the last decade, visitation to public lands across the country, including New York’s Forest Preserve, has been on an upward trend. The Adirondack High Peaks and the Catskill Park’s Kaaterskill Clove are among the most highly visited regions in the State.