Northern Turnpike MileStone Returns Home

The 16 mile marker for the Northern Turnpike that began in Lansingburgh and headed towards Vermont in 1799 was returned to its Pittstown home on July 4th. From Left to Right: Jennifer and Dave Shea and their sons from Darien Ct, who found it in their backyard; the milestone; Ellen Wiley, 92 year old Town Historian for Pittstown, and Record columnist Don Rittner, who organized the rescue. It will become part of the collections of the Town's historical society. Photo was taken by Mike Engle.

This past weekend I took the kids to Long Island to celebrate their grandpa's birthday. Brookhaven National Labs - on the island - had an open house and science party on Sunday. I think it is free for the whole summer, every Sunday. They have lots of cool science projects for kids to do, and an hour of demonstrations which feature some of the kids going onstage, etc. Anyay, one of the demos was showing how hydrogen mixed with oxygen and heat in a balloon explodes. I was lucky enough to capture the actual explosion using a digital camera - no easy feat - which you can see with this posting.

I attended the all day conference on Troy's Little Italy and it was a great event. Held at RPI's Almuni House, speakers included Hillary Clinton, Joe Bruno, Paul Tonko, and many more. The conference will be the center of my column for next week.

Any Trojans have a picture of St. Anthony's School on 5th Ave? The original one that was across from the Stanton Brewery?

Here is a pix of the Methodist Church that the Town of Halfmoon wants to tear down. It does appear to have problems, but from what I can tell it seems more like a cat fight between the owner and the town. Certainly if the much larger church in Albany that Historic Albany is dealing with can be stabilized, this tiny one can too! I think it would be a crime to tear this down. Much of the problem is from the folks who live to the left which feel it might fall into their new swimming pool in the back. I would ask who gave permission to build a house this close to the church in the first place. There is barely a drive way between the two.

Welcome to Don Rittner's Weblog! Check here for comments and images related to historic and environmental preservation efforts in the Capital District region of New York State. This Weblog is a supplement to the Capital District Preservation Task Force Internet Discussion List, and allows me to add photos to illustrate some of the ongoing topics of discussion, as well as add my observations on matters posted. Since blogs are suppose to be daily diaries, I will try to make that the tradition here.

This photo of me was taken by Laura Welles on March 16, 2004, at the old Connors Paint Company building in Troy, where the old hydraulic canal was located. It is a wooden paper press of 19th century origin that was probably used by the neaby Orr Paper Mill.