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In 1811, William Thomas built a tavern at the one busy site where the Albany and Hartford Turnpike intersected the Lebanon and Hudson Turnpike, and the village of Chatham was born. A store catering to stagecoach passengers soon followed in 1815. By 1850, the Hudson and Berkshire Railroad and the Western Railroad were established within sight of the tavern's central square. Shortly thereafter, Solomon Crandell's store and post office on the main street was receiving customers' mail addressed to Chatham Four Corners. There was a new school, three hotels, two churches, a gristmill, a foundry, several retail stores, two publications, and a village doctor. The Columbia Bank was founded in 1859 in response to the volume of trade and manufacturing in the village. Paper mills, iron foundries, wagon manufacturers, shirt factories, agriculture, and freight train service all helped to propel the development of the village of Chatham.
Bordered by the Hudson River and the Berkshire Mountains, Columbia County is part of the famously picturesque Hudson Valley region. But look beyond the rolling hills to discover the secrets of Columbia County. A mastodon tooth rolled down a farmer's hill in Claverack, changing the world's understanding of prehistoric times. President Martin Van Buren lost his wife, Hannah, in Kinderhook and hardly mentioned her again. Hudson's gallows were the scene of New York's last hanging, as hundreds of ticketholders looked on. Outcasts called "Pondshiners" hid in the hills of Taghkanic, and the only sign of their existence are the fantastic baskets they made. Join local author Allison Guertin Marchese as she explores these little-known stories of people and places, deeply woven into the history of Columbia County, New York.
“Without sin, can we know beauty? Can we fully appreciate the summer without the winter? No, I am glad to suffer so I can feel the fullness of our time in the light.” Upstate New York, 1928. Laura Kelley and the man she loves sneak away from their judgmental town to attend a performance of the scandalous Ziegfeld Follies. But the dark consequences of their night of daring and delight reach far into the future.… That same evening, Bohemian poet Edna St. Vincent Millay and her indulgent husband hold a wild party in their remote mountain estate, hoping to inspire her muse. Millay declares her wish for a new lover who will take her to unparalleled heights of passion and poetry, but for the...
Jason has caught the hiking bug and decides to walk the Wicklow Way, where he encounters more sheep than he had bargained for. Leonard Cohen's storied life has been well archived, but never with so many Jason-esque liberties taken. (Did you know he beat Fidel Castro in chess? Learned the Heimlich from Frederico Garcia Lorca?) Two detectives are on a mysterious stakeout, but as secrets and motives are revealed their snooping becomes fatal. And, finally, the remarkable rollercoaster love story of Napoleon and Josephine Baker.
The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair showcases the beauty of this international spectacular through rare color photographs, published here for the first time. Advertised as the "Billion-Dollar Fair," the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair transformed a sleepy park in the borough of Queens into a fantasy world enjoyed by more than 51 million visitors from around the world. While many countries and states exhibited at the fair, the most memorable pavilions were built by the giants of American industry. Their exhibits took guests backward and forward in time, all the while extolling how marvelous everyday life would be through the use of their products. Many of the techniques used in these shows set the standard for future fairs and theme parks, and the pavilions that housed them remain the most elaborate structures ever built for an American fair.
When the 13 colonies declared their independence from the British, the area of Queens that eventually became Laurelton consisted of woodlands, ponds, and farms. This rural community gained some recognition when an attempt to build an upscale housing development for wealthy New Yorkers failed, but left in its place an elegant, new Long Island Railroad Station named Laurelton. In 1929, the stock market crash and Depression led New Yorkers to the discovery that home ownership was a thrifty alternative to renting. As Laurelton was a beautiful and safe area, real estate boomed. The neighborhood experienced a momentous ethnic change in the 1970s, and within 20 years 80 percent of Laureltons population was Afircan American and Caribbean middle-class professionals. Laurelton is in the eighth-wealthiest council district in New York City, and its reputation for beauty and community involvement continues.
Nestled among the rolling hills of the Mohawk Valley, the town of Rotterdam was formed in 1820 from the Third Ward of the city of Schenectady. Its history, chronicled in Rotterdams two hundred images, begins much earlier and is essentially the story of people past and present. The original settlers, mostly of Dutch origin, turned the wilderness into farmland. Their descendants and those who followed expanded into other livelihoods, producing goods that were shipped first along the Erie Canal and later across the nation by rail.
Visit the private world beyond the gates of this North Shore Long Island hamlet and view over 200 photographs from its history as a playground for the cultured denziens of the past. Locust Valley, a hamlet on the North Shore of Long Island with Quaker roots, grew from an agrarian settlement into a tight-knit community in the exclusive Gold Coast enclave. With its natural beauty, great estates, and elite clubs, Locust Valley and the surrounding villages of Lattingtown, Matinecock, and Mill Neck became a playground of the famous and cultured. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were frequent visitors, and notable residents included H.P. Davison, Frank Nelson Doubleday, and internationally renowned artists Ray Johnson and Elizabeth Shoumatoff. In Locust Valley, 200 carefully selected photographs reveal a proud community steeped in traditional values and the private world behind the gates that have made the area legendary.