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    Glens Falls
    Glens Falls
    Glens Falls
    Ebook166 pages49 minutes

    Glens Falls

    By Gwen Palmer, Bob Bayle and Stan Malecki

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    About this ebook

    Glens Falls presents a photographic essay of a community on the Hudson River, midway between Saratoga Springs and Lake George.


    The book spans the years from 1860 to 1925, when Glens Falls was reaching its peak in economic, social, political, and cultural growth. Depicted in stunning images are the city's simple beginnings, the days of dirt roads traveled by horse and buggy, and its cultural emergence with opera houses, exquisite mansions, and public transportation. Clearly portrayed are the educational, religious, business, and recreational opportunities of the time.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateAug 18, 2004
    ISBN9781439615904
    Glens Falls
    Author

    Gwen Palmer

    The authors are members of the Corners Project at the Chapman Historical Museum, a team involved for the past six years in researching Glens Falls history. Gwen Palmer is a retired nurse from the Glens Falls Hospital, and Bob Bayle and Stan Malecki are retired teachers from the Glens Falls City School District. Their overwhelming appreciation of the photography collection at the museum prompted the development of Glens Falls, a work that is sure to stir admiration for an era that has passed.

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      Book preview

      Glens Falls - Gwen Palmer

      photographs.

      INTRODUCTION

      The city of Glens Falls has gone through many changes since the time it was a settlement referred to as the Corners. During the tumult of the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars, early Quaker settlers abandoned their homes and moved to the safety of Connecticut, then slowly returned to their homes when the fighting was over. With the tremendous Hudson River waterpower available at the falls for running mills, people settled near its shores.

      By the late 1700s, the village became known as Wing’s Falls, named after Abraham Wing, an early Quaker settler. Through the settling of some debts, tradition has it, ownership of the name was transferred to Johannes Glenn and the village name changed to Glenn’s Falls. The village was incorporated on April 12, 1839. In later years, the Glens Falls Insurance Company dropped the apostrophe, and the present use of Glens Falls began.

      In 1839, the village board appropriated money to dig wells, build cisterns, and buy pumps, ladders, hooks, and other equipment to establish fire protection. In 1842, the first volunteer fire department was organized as the Glens Falls Fire Company No. 1. Additional wells and cisterns were created to expand the system in 1861 and were used until 1873, when a community water system was established. Fire stations existed on Ridge Street next to the present city hall, on South Street next to the Madden Hotel, on Warren Street, and on Elm Street.

      The police department began with the election of a lone constable in 1839, when the village was incorporated. The community had existed for 75 years without any law enforcement, but people viewed law and order differently at the time. For 21 years, beginning in 1839, only 12 constables were elected. For four years, none were elected due to the lack of funding for the position.

      With the community’s proximity to the Adirondacks, the logging industry brought much wealth to Glens Falls. The men who owned the wood lots also owned the many mills built along this stretch of the Hudson River. Later, when the Champlain Canal was built east of town, the Feeder Canal was developed to control water levels in the locks. With the advent of the canal (financed by the same men), lumber, limestone, black marble, and cement from the mills could be shipped to New York City. Coal and other consumable products were then shipped back to Glens Falls. The mill owners also owned the boats used on the canal; the rich therefore got richer, and by the mid-1800s, Glens Falls was home to many millionaires. This wealth contributed to the economic, cultural, and social development of the village and, later, the city.

      While the wealthy built mansions with luxurious gardens along the village’s main streets, the workers set down roots in other parts of town. Most residents had large vegetable gardens and traveled by horse and buggy. Stables, carriage houses, and barns existed throughout the village. There was no electricity or indoor plumbing, so even the richest families had to rely on outhouses, candles, and oil lamps. When the Glens Falls Gas and Light Company was formed in 1854, people living in the village soon found themselves lighting their homes with gas. They found that extra cleaning was required, however, to remove the soot that accumulated on walls and ceilings. Electricity was first used in a sawmill and for streetlights in 1880. A few homes had electricity by 1884, but lighting with gas was more common in homes until 1923. Telephones were first introduced in 1879 with 55 phones serviced by one day and one night operator working at the Times Building, now called the Colvin Building, on Glen Street.

      From 1848 to 1904, a plank road ran from Glens Falls to Lake George. Stagecoaches ran between the two communities regularly, but service slowed dramatically after the railroad extended to the lake. Rail service began in 1869, when a station opened on Maple Street, opposite Oak Street. The building was moved to a new site facing Locust Street in 1897 on the same side of Maple. A second station was built on the corners of Lawrence and Cooper Streets in 1897. Passenger service to Glens Falls ended in 1958. By 1885, an active trolley line connected Glens Falls with Sandy Hill (Hudson Falls) and Fort Edward. Horses pulled the first cars. On June 14, 1891, the first electricity-powered cars arrived, and by 1897 eighteen cars operated on more than 10½ miles of track.

      On November 23, 1900, a hospital opened in the donated home of Solomon Parks on Park Street. The hospital had beds for 22 patients, as well as six private rooms. The hospital quickly outgrew this space, however, and a three-story building with rooms for 72 patients was built at the corner of Basin and Park Streets, opening on December 7, 1910. A school for nurses was established in 1903, and it moved into the original building when the new hospital was finished. The building remained a school until 1932.

      In 1908, the New York State legislature

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