"To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?" - Cicero, Orator

Familiarity breeds contempt, as the old proverb goes! A few months back I was talking to a couple that lived near the Grand Canyon. I remarked how beautiful it must be to have such a natural wonder as their backyard. Their reply was "Oh, you mean that hole in the ground!" I’m afraid that attitude has also been pervasive in Troy for the last 30 years. It appears that each time a building of historic significance becomes vacant, it gets torn down, and another "hole" is punched in the historic fabric of Troy.

Certainly some buildings must be razed if they are a hazard to human life. However, the indiscriminate practice of knocking buildings down without any regard to the visual impact of a neighborhood, its historic significance, or potential for reuse, has to be reevaluated. These gaping holes that line the streets of Troy give the city a battlefield appearance.

Troy if anything has a great human and industrial history and architecture to prove it. Each building in the city represents a piece of a giant historical puzzle. A row of 100-year-old bank buildings on First Street tells us something about the financial conditions of Troy and its citizenry back then. Worker’s housing in South Troy gives us a look into how blue collar families coped and labored in iron foundries or collar and cuff factories. The many large estates on East Side tell us how the owners of those factories lived well from their entrepreneurialism. The landscape of old factories represent industries that played an important role in the early development and growth of this country during the 19^th century. The hundreds of merchant buildings in downtown each tell a story about the original owner’s dream of providing a service or product and trying to make a decent living. The many churches dotted throughout the city show a citizenry rich in religious convictions. All of this weaves a rich historical tapestry of understanding about our city. People like to feel good about where they live. You can’t if you don’t feel connected.

Because these buildings may no longer serve the original function does not mean they need to be destroyed, wiped from the visual landscape like some painter who doesn’t like his or her first brush of artistry. If every building in downtown met such criteria, there wouldn’t be a building standing. Every building tells a story about the people who built it, who worked in it, and the multitude of stories that can be told from events that occurred within its walls.

I think part of the reason for this mass destruction of Troy’s history is the fact that for years we suffered from a collective low esteem and took out our frustrations on the symbols of what left us. True that Troy lost much of its industries in the 50’s and 60’s. The ill conceived and devastating urban removal period of the 60’s and 70’s excised large blocks of Troy’s downtown, and forced thousands of people to move out of the city. Only 50 years ago, the city population was almost 80,000, half of what it is today. It’s not surprising that an attitude of "tear it down and it won’t remind us" prevailed. Out of sight, out of mind! Afterall, vacant buildings without the hum of human toil are constant reminders of a once prosperous Troy.

During the summer of last year, the Fuller and Warren Stove factory building was demolished in South Troy. When I stopped and asked the crane operator why he was tearing it down, he shrugged and said he didn’t know why. He was just following orders. "Stewart" brand cast iron stoves heated up millions of homes around the world during the 19^th century. A Stewart stove represented quality and workmanship and the Troy foundrymen that made them were proud of their work. We are still tearing buildings down in this city for no reason, but there also is a new trend rising.

Jack Hedley proved that a former industrial building, the old Cluett-Peabody factory, could be turned into productive new workspace. He is going to do it again with the old Miller, Hall & Hartwell building near Hoosick. A native from Montreal, architect Michael Kittner, is transforming the old Searle, Gardner & Co. building near Middleburgh into office and retail space. The Hall building is being renovated at First and River. The old J.L. Thompson Drug buildings on River Street are in use again. Other similar examples can be seen along the streets of downtown. This is only a beginning of the revival of Troy, but there still is work to be done to stop eradicating our visual pages of history.

An important first step for the city is to create a historic sites commission whose purpose it is to inventory Troy’s remaining historic infrastructure and determine a priority system for preserving and reusing those surviving historic resources. The city should partner with individuals, agencies and organizations that share the vision that preserving Troy’s past is paramount to having a prosperous future. Niagara Mohawk Power Company should agree to supply at low cost, or free, minimum power to a priority building to heat it so it doesn’t fall into disrepair from the elements during winter, a fate of so many vacant buildings.

Before any building in the city is taken down, the commission must review it and the weight of decision should be on preserving and reuse instead of destroying. Furthermore, it should be made clear to any developer coming in to our city that they must honor its history and incorporate it into their plans. We do not want Troy to become architecturally homogenized so that a walk down any street will look like any street!

Finally the citizens of Troy must accept the fact that Troy will never pour steel for the world again, nor will we be the collar capital of the world. That part of its history is over, though never forgotten. It’s time for all Trojans to began building a new Troy, one where we honor and promote the past and at the same time forge a new future with high technology and brain power in areas such as software development, robotics, education, and telecommunications. All this can be interweaved into the historic fabric of the city. A fiber optic cable can fit nicely into a 150-year-old row house as easily as it can fit into a brand new office park. While Troy was the heartbeat of the Industrial Revolution, there is no reason why it cannot be the nerve center for the Communication Revolution. It just takes a little vision and resourcefulness. If history teaches us anything, we know that Troy has had both for most of its 200-year-old existence.

Our city was named after the fabled Troy; a city rebuilt several times. Each time the city was destroyed by invaders, its citizens would rebuild from the ruins and remains of the previous city. Our Troy has been here for 200 years. More than three-quarters of that time Troy has prospered economically. And, like our namesake, it’s time to rebuild from the remains of our past. Preserving Troy’s rich historic architecture is the beginning of this journey.

Each week, we will discuss a piece of Troy’s history and a vision for the future. Got history? Contact me at drittner@aol.com or regular mail at P.O. Box 50216, Albany, NY 12205.

©1999 Don Rittner

Don is the author of Images of America — Troy (Arcadia Press), and owner of The Learning Factory.