Village of Scotia Historian

Signs of Spring at the Flint House

Newcomers to Scotia might be surprised to see the building that stood on Mohawk Ave. where the CVS store/parking lot is now. Others may remember, fondly or not, the many other businesses that were there in later years. By the 1990s the building was in pretty poor shape and while I don’t have the exact date it was taken down, it was replaced by a Revco Drug Store in the summer of 1996. In the files I found an edition of the Scotia News from 1907 which advertises both the new b...uilding and its owner, Max Schmidt. (Also in the clip are some fun facts about what a great place Scotia is to live.) You can find other articles online and on Facebook about the building, but these clips give us a little more about its origin. I still haven’t found out why it’s called the Teddy Building. You can see in the clippings it’s referred to as the Schmidt Block. It’s also referred to as the Schmidt Block in a book about Scotia from 1914, a combination of promoting Scotia and a village directory listing residents and businesses. That book also tells us that Max, in addition to tailoring, ran a pool hall in the building, and that he and his family lived there. One of my projects this past year has been digitizing and transcribing oral history tapes made in the 1960s, 70s, and 90s. Several residents in the 1970s mentioned the building, but always referred to it as the Schmidt Block. Checking the 1905 and 1910 censuses, Max did have a son, Everett, but Teddy is not a typical nickname for that. Maybe another relative? Teddy Roosevelt was President in 1907, but is it likely the building was named after a famous person? It may always be a mysterybut if you know why it is the Teddy Building, please get in touch! ([email protected])

Elephants in Scotia In 1979, for Scotia’s 75th anniversary celebration, the Schenectady Gazette published a special supplement full of articles about Scotia and its history. It included this item about the elephants. This bridge, Scotia’s first, was built in 1808 (and was about to be replaced by an iron bridge in 1874) and ran from Washington Ave. in Schenectady to Washington Ave. in Scotia, and the village was reached by traveling along the Dyke, now Schonowee Ave.... The first picture shows the bridge from a distance, where the entrance does seem a little ominous; the second is a closer view that shows its construction more clearly. The tracks along the Dyke are trolley tracks, which also cross the bridge.

Happy 117th, Scotia! Plus Glenville in 1820, a reprint of an article from 1964. See https://www.villageofscotia.org/category/historian/

A Look Back: 2020 at the Flint House In 2020, of course, the Flint House was not open for Office Hours after March, and no events were scheduled. Research continued, and I was able to assist people with email and with some outdoor meetings. Hoping for better times later in 2021. The spring blossoms put on another beautiful show.... In May we planted two of the Glenville Bicentennial trees on the Flint House grounds. (We didn't know then that all of the bicentennial events would be cancelled.) I teamed up with Dr. Steve Jones to do archaeology test pits as we dug the holes for the trees. New community gardens were added this year, and I planted a plot of broomcorn. There were beautiful fall days, but the transition to winter brought a lot of cloudy and dull weather. December brought one big snowstorm--almost 30 inches--and its quick melting brought an impressive set of icicles. And the clouds parted enough to deliver a beautiful winter solstice sunset.

New York’s Municipal Historians Start Second Hundred Years The first Scotia Historian was Charles P. Sanders, appointed on September 6, 1919. Sanders died in 1923, and, though on hold until libraries reopen, I’m still researching who came between him and Neil Reynolds who was appointed in 1949. So more on all the Scotia Historians at a future date. Provision for each municipality in New York to have a municipal historian was included in a bill signed by Governor Al Smith on A...pril 11, 1919. Concerned that government records were being lost, and that local stories of the Great War (World War I) and myriad other local stories were not being recorded, Assemblyman Louis Martin worked with State Historian James Sullivan to draft the bill. (The office of State Historian was established in 1895.) New York was the first state to establish a law like this, and today only a handful of states have anything similar. Local historians (there are 1641 separate municipalities in NY that have, or should have, historians appointed) work with their communities and other local museums and libraries on a variety of activities. They may do research and writing, present educational programs and events, work with students and adults to answer questions, and provide resources to those interested in local stories. Every community is different, and historians do different things in different places. Our Schenectady County historians are: County Historian: Bill Buell Assistant County Historian: John Woodward Alplaus: Jessica Polmateer Delanson: Mary McLaughlin Duanesburg: Howard Ohlhous Glenville: Joan Szablewski Niskayuna: Denis Brennan Princetown: Robert Jones Rotterdam: Jim Schaefer City of Schenectady: Chris Leonard Village of Scotia: Beverly Clark Photo: Excerpt from Village Board Minutes, Sept. 6, 1919.

Glenville Bicentennial 2020! I had originally planned a post about the bicentennial a couple of weeks ago announcing the beginning of festivities in Aprilobviously some changes have been made. However, the first virtual Glenville Bicentennial event is tomorrow, see below. I will be posting most events here, but other places to go for information are:... For Facebook users, go to Glenville2020 On the Town of Glenville website, hit the News tab on the home page, scroll down to get all the postings. The schedule for the year is posted there, but expect some changes as the next few weeks go by. Hope everyone can stay well!

Spring is coming to the Flint House, and we won’t have to worry about that dead maple blowing down. But it’s not the spring we all had envisionedoffice hours are cancelled for April. Hoping to resume in May; check times and any changes on the Flint House doors or on the Village website. And you can email me anytime. While we are all focused on our families and our health these days, folks who grew up before antibiotics are not strangers to the word quarantine or the fear of ...disease. Both my dad and my aunt (living in different states) were quarantined as kids with scarlet fever, a very serious variation of strep. One had to stay home with grandmother, no one else allowed in the house; one was taken away to a special building just for quarantined kids on the hospital grounds and the family could only stand on the sidewalk and wave. I know it was very memorable, as we heard those stories many times. Check with your family members to see if that happened to anyone you know. See more

Frances Anderson Sloan was the Village of Scotia Historian from November 1959 until her death in May 1965. She wrote a column, History Walks with Scotians twice a month for the Scotia-Glenville Journal, and we have been gathering all these articles in one place as reference materials. She was diligent in her research and while new facts may have come to light since then, and there are now new ways of expressing some historical concepts, her essays are still interesting and ...useful after these 60 years. This year, Glenville’s bicentennial, I will be reprinting some of these articles that seem of particular interest in 2020. History Walks With Scotians by Frances Anderson Sloan Post Office Mural (1690-1960) Originally published in the Scotia-Glenville Journal, Feb. 11, 1960 To read the article, please go to the Historian Blog at http://www.villageofscotia.org/category/historian/

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for the New Year!