New York Almanack

Prospect Mountain: An Environmental History of a Lake George Attraction

Anthony F. Hall — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 18:30:29 +0000

After the Million Dollar Beach and the Adirondack Northway came the Prospect Mountain Highway. The last of Lake George’s three great public infrastructure projects, it was completed in 1969 and opened on June 14 of that year. In other words, at the end of the 1960s. The Age of the Automobile was giving way to the Age of Aquarius.

The modernist building that was to be the project’s literal and figurative crown, its vertex – the so-called Summit House – was never built, a victim, perhaps, of the public’s disenchantment with automobiles, grandiose public projects and even with government itself.

Exploring Shrub Swamps

Guest Contributor — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 17:30:39 +0000

A yellowthroat warbler sang, “witchety, witchety, witch,” as I carefully made my way through the tangle of an alder swamp one afternoon not long ago.

I looked about, hoping to catch a glimpse of its yellow breast and black mask. I could hear the twangs of green frogs calling in the distance. A dragonfly zoomed past me, then flew back and landed on my shoulder.

This small swamp formed around a stream meandering through a basin between hills.

Where to Find Photos of NYC Historic Buildings

Editorial Staff — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 16:30:56 +0000

Photographs of historic buildings can be very valuable resources. They help inform historically accurate building restorations and modifications, they show the building’s and neighborhood’s changes over time, and they are a window into the past.

When proposing changes to a landmarked building in New York City, especially changes that will alter the appearance of the landmark, the Landmarks Preservation Commission will require historic photos as part of the application.

The earliest photograph taken in the city of New York may be a daguerreotype taken by New York University professors in 1839.

Adirondack Architectural Heritage: Preserving Place

ADK Taste — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 15:30:08 +0000

In this episode of the ADK Talks podcast Erin Tobin, Executive Director of Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH), uncovers unique and fascinating stories hidden in the Adirondacks’ historic architecture.

From the rustic grandeur of Great Camp Santanoni to the region’s Adirondack fire towers and even its forgotten Cold War missile silos, Tobin shares how AARCH saves and celebrates the unique buildings that define the Adirondack Park, a testament to the power of preservation and the stories written in wood, stone, and steel.

Matthias Hildreth: First Attorney General to Serve Separate Terms

Historical Society of the New York Courts — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 14:30:46 +0000

Very little is known about Matthias Bernard Hildreth, who holds the distinction of being the first person to serve as Attorney General of New York in two separate terms.

Serving as the 9th Attorney General from 1808 to 1810, he worked during a period when New York was under Governor George Clinton’s leadership and the United States was edging toward the War of 1812.

Hildreth returned for his second term as the 11th Attorney General in 1811 under Daniel D.

Spiritual Trickster Gurdjieff in 1920s New York

William M. Goodman — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 19:00:26 +0000

Almost everyone who encountered Armenian-Greek spiritual teacher Georges Ivan Gurdjieff (ca. 1866-1877 – 1949) in 1920s New York agreed he was enigmatic, strong, and charismatic. Perhaps, also, brash and mercurial. Beyond that, his merits (or faults) lay in the eyes of beholders.

A reporter for Time magazine in 1930 illustrated this, in the way he described Gurdjieff to readers. Gurdjieff, then in his 50s, had recently met with students in a popular Manhattan salon owned by the writer and social activist Muriel Draper.

State Humanities Councils Win First Round In Court

Editorial Staff — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 18:05:55 +0000

On August 6, a federal judge in Oregon ruled that the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) acted unlawfully when it ended operating grants to state humanities councils.

The case, brought by Oregon Humanities and the Federation of State Humanities Councils affirmed that these grants — established by Congress more than 50 years ago — are essential to the public humanities and their lawsuit against the Trump regime can proceed.

The judge ruled that NEH’s sudden elimination of Congressionally approved grants was “unlawful” and “unconstitutional,” allowing the lawsuit to move forward.

Fort Rickey: On The Edge of Empires at Oneida Carry

Editorial Staff — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 15:00:41 +0000

Fort Rickey was a small palisaded fortification that was initially constructed in ca. 1759 to support the British occupation of the Oneida Carry.

This strategic location at the confluence of the Mohawk River and Wood Creek was an important British military outpost that guarded the western end of the carry to Oneida Lake. It was the northern point of the Fort Stanwix Treaty Line of 1768.

In the 1750s, the Oneida Carry was located on land occupied by the Oneida of the Haudenosaunee, or the Iroquois Confederacy.

Detection Dogs Are Mapping Hidden Cottontail Homes

Editorial Staff — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 13:00:27 +0000

The New York-New Jersey Trail Conference Conservation Dogs Program (CDP) conducted winter pellet surveys for New England cottontails (NEC) at Fahnestock State Park in the Hudson River Valley, bringing an innovative approach to monitoring this rare species.

Through partnerships with DEC and NYS Parks, the CDP is deploying three specially trained detection dogs (Peat, Lettie, and Lady) to locate cottontail scat (fecal pellets) in challenging terrain.

Their ability to detect pellets by scent rather than sight lets them work efficiently in dense mountain laurel understory.

Mechanicville’s ‘Field of Dreams’

Guest Contributor — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 11:00:17 +0000

I love the 1989 movie Field of Dreams. I especially love the part where the spirits walk out of the cornfield to join in the baseball game. To me, it showed spirits in a whole new light.

So, when Mike Sullivan tipped me off that in our own Hudson View Cemetery in Mechanicville, NY we might have had some spirited baseball going on some years back, I thought I’d check it out.