Historic Preservation: Kate Mullany National Historic Site

Some of you may recall my daughter & I participating in a re-enactment of the Collar Laundry Strike of 1864 this past February. Well, on October 4, 2014 I was able to visit the Kate Mullany National Historic Site in Troy, NY with my aunt's DAR chapter.

The Kate Mullany House was declared a National Historic Landmark by the Secretary of the Interior in 1998 and designated an affiliated unit with in the National Historic Site Congress on 2005. It is located at 350 8th St. in Troy, NY. It is the home of the American Labor Studies Center. The site is undergoing restoration and does not have regular visiting hours. For information on visiting the site, call the American Labor Studies Center at (518) 331-4474. 

 The house at 350 8th St. is under renovation. The other half of the building at 352 8th St. is in foreclosure, and the ALSC is hoping to acquire it as well. Until that time, the renovations continue, as does the fundraising. For more information on supporting the restoration project, please click HERE.

The Kate Mullany house became a National Historic Landmark in 1998

My mom on the steps of Kate Mullany's House

The back yard has been recently landscaped

Kate & her Irish parents arrived in Troy in 1853

One of the exhibit panels at Kate Mullany NHS

Another of the exhibit panels at Kate Mullany NHS

Kate was inducted National Women's Hall of Fame 2000

 Read Kate Mullany's bio at National Women's Hall of Fame website.

Staircase leading to the 3rd floor

Original floors under modern bathroom linoleum

Lathe & plaster and modern plumbing

New old windows

Renovating the ceiling

Turquoise plaster over the brick fireplace

More renovations 

Me at the top of the stairs

3rd floor plan

Me in my "Don't iron while the strike is hot!" tee

Kate Mullany's grave at St. Peter's Cemetery in Troy, NY

Leaving a token to show I was there

The house is not open for regular tours during renovation, but call the ALSC for more information about scheduling your group visit.

Also, check out the PowerPoint presentation for more information on Kate Mullany & the Collar Laundry Strike.

Albany Rural Cemetery - History In Photos: The Presidential Grave

I apologize for the re-blog... I am reading People of Albany: During Albany's Second 200 Years (1800s & 1900s), Albany Rural Cemetery by Peter J. Hess & got to thinking about all of the people buried there. I really need to go visit this cemetery in Menands. Click on the 1st link to see the images that go along with this re-blog from Albany Rural Cemetery - History In Photos blog by Paula Lemire. The 2nd link takes you to the All Over Albany blog with a post by James Greene, Jr. Both posts are from Oct. 17, 2012. 



Albany Rural Cemetery - History In Photos: The Presidential Grave: One of my favorite local sites, All Over Albany, has an article today on what is easily the most famous grave at the Albany Rural Cemetery...

Gravespotting Chester A. Arthur.
The monument marking the resting place of President Arthur was the work of Baltimore sculptor Ephraim Keyser.  Reportedly, the elegant bronze angel and black stone sarcophagus cost $10,000.  The funds were raised by a group of the late President's friends.  It was erected in the Arthur family lot on the South Ridge in 1889, some three years after Arthur's death.
The white marble markers seen behind the monument in the antique photo below belong to members of the Arthur family, including Chester Arther's parents.  His wife's delicate Gothic sarcophagus is hidden by the larger Presidential monument in this photo, but is located just to the rear of it and it will be the subject of an upcoming post here.

In his 1893 history of the Albany Rural Cemetery, Henry P. Phelps wrote about the Arthur gravesite:

We turn now towards one of the most interesting and artistic monuments in the Cemetery, erected to the memory of Chester Alan Arthur, twenty-first president of the United States, born October 5, 1830, died November 18, 1886.  The lot is not a large one, nor is it conspicuous.  It was purchased by the president's father, Rev. William Arthur, and there he and the president's mother, wife, and son are buried.  It was right and best, of course, that Mr. Arthur should sleep among his kindred and his grave was made there before any testimonial was projected.  This is the free, cheerful, almost unasked for contribution of his friends, resident largely in the state of New York.  With few words, with little publicity, and no solicitation, a handsome sum of money was promptly raised, sufficient to pay for the monument and also for a statue in New York City.  The whole proceeding was conducted in the generous, gentlemanly way so much in accordance with the life and manner of the man whom it was sought thus to honor.

St. Joseph's Cemetery

As I was snapping some pictures at Greenwich Cemetery last week, I realized I had never been in St. Joseph's Cemetery before. & it is just across the road. So, after work, I drove over & snapped some pictures there. I didn't realize how large it was, & that you can see the high school. I use to run cross country (for Schuylerville) around the cornfield on the other side of the cemetery fence.

Now for a bit of background provided by Joseph L. Shannon, who wrote Saint Joseph Parish Greenwich, New York in 1978. This book is available for research at the Greenwich Free Library & Crandall Public Library in Glens Falls (all copies are non-circulating).

History of St. Joseph's

Albany Catholic Diocese established April 1847
Visitation Catholic Church, Schuylerville founded 1847
St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Cambridge founded 1853
St. Joseph's Catholic Church founded 1870

The plethora of mills in the area brought immigrants to rural areas upstate.  In 1865, 80,000 of the estimated 134,000 Catholics living in the area covered by the Albany Diocese were Irish immigrants (Shannon, p.8) escaping the Great Potato Famine. When the Greenwich Dunbarton Mill opened in 1879, many of the 200 workers were Catholic (Shannon, p.4).

Shannon states "After the Mass of 24 January 1869, which marked the opening of the Mission of Greenwich, until the first Mass offered in the building now call "St. Joseph [sic] Church" 24 July 1870, the Fathers from Cambridge held services in various places in Greenwich" (p.15-16). The only other option was to travel to Mass in Schuylerville, Hudson Falls, Salem, or Schaghticoke.

St. Joseph's first resident pastor & proponent of the Temperance Movement, Fr. Thomas A. Field, was the one who set about founding the St. Joseph's Cemetery. Shannon writes "By Deed,  dated  6 November 1881 (Book 91, page 30) Fr. Field purchased for $1,000 two parcels of land, one  of sixty-seven acres and the other of one acre on the northern edge of the village of Greenwich from Charles Stevens and his wife, Sarah A. Stevens" (p.44).

Some of the artistry on the tombstones in St. Joseph's

The first burials (& tombstones) appear to be transferred from other cemeteries as the deaths predate the founding of the cemetery. The oldest date is 1863 (Shannon, p. 45).

Well, St. Joseph's is just a peaceful as Greenwich, except for the neighbor's dog who decided to bark at my car. But even (s)he didn't sound too upset by me being there.

St. Joseph's Cemetery, Greenwich, NY- 10 May 2013

The Greenwich Cemetery

We have 32 cemeteries in the Town of Greenwich, the largest is, of course, the Greenwich Cemetery nestled between Main St & Cottage St. Over 10,000 people have been interred in this peaceful spot & the Greenwich Cemetery Association does a great job of keeping it nice.

I've never found cemeteries to be creepy, or scary. I've always found them tranquil, thoughtful. As an historian & lover of history, I have been to many cemeteries. My sister & I visited Lincoln's tomb in Springfield, IL when we traveled across the country in 1995. (Yes, we rubbed his nose.) I keep meaning to go to Albany Rural Cemetery to visit Chester A. Arthur's grave.

However, most of the time, I go to a cemetery to look at the graves of non-famous people, like my relatives, or random people with interesting stones. Typical iconography like weeping willows, winged angel heads & urns are typical on early New England headstones. I saw a number of these in Salem, MA last fall. A good example of the willow motif can be found here in Section F.

Greenwich Cemetery May 2013

As a kid, my younger sister & I use to ride our bikes over to the Riverside Cemetery in Fort Miller. There are a number of large pine trees shading the ground, plus it was next to the Hudson. It was always cooler there, so it was the perfect spot after a hot, dusty bike ride. Reading the stones made me appreciate my life a bit more, especially when we noticed the markers of children who died young.

Before my daughter started school, she & my mom use to visit my dad while he was working at St. Mary's Cemetery in South Glens Falls. She would lay under the trees on a quilt & say the trees were talking to her. They we eat lunch, picnic style, then head home.

The idea of picnicking at a cemetery may seem odd to some, but it was very common in the 19th & early 20th centuries for many of the reasons I have stated above.

Cemetery picnic early 20th century

If you are looking for ancestors buried in local cemeteries, check out the books put out by Historical Data Services. The Greenwich Free Library has non-circulating copies in the Gill Room. I also have a few of them in my office for research, so stop by on a Friday morning.

Also, check out Find-A-Grave. It is a very useful website to locate burial information throughout the country.

Cemetery brochure

10 years ago, during the Town of Greenwich Bicentennial (Has it really been that long?), Ken Perry & I created a cemetery tour brochure for the Greenwich Cemetery. We even conducted a tour, though Ken did much more of it than I.

I have printed up more of the brochures available in the Town Office Building & (hopefully) in the Information Booth between the village & town buildings.

I also thought I would make it available here as well.