You Can Learn A Lot From A Stroll

By Don Rittner

It's pretty easy to walk down the street and be unaware of your surrounding. Living by the clock is not only stressful but takes a toll on your visual senses.

I use to drive back and forth on Western Avenue for several years never noticing an old historic tavern, until I was forced to stop next to it during a temporary traffic jam.

It occurred to me that as I rushed to get to my destination, I was missing an opportunity to learn and appreciate more about the area I lived in. Unfortunately, I'm not alone. Everyday people go from point A to B and never see what's in between.

Society's infrastructure has been produced by taking earth's natural resources and shaping them into objects that allow us to cope with our short lifespan. They have become cultural and temporal points of reference. We call them artifacts if we don't use them anymore or necessities of life if we do.

As humanity worked its way up to civilization (?), it learned to use parts of trees to hold walls and floors together or build entire homes.

We learned to fire clay to make the bricks that envelop our buildings.

Glass (windows) that allows the sun to light up our interior is formed from melting sand.

The interlocking iron and steel that is the framework for commercial buildings, and just about everything else, is made by smelting rocks (ores and limestone).

Even the guts of modern technology - the computer chip - is etched on a wafer of silicon, distilled from quartz which makes up 28% of the earth's crust.

A stroll down any Troy street can reveal many examples of how we used these raw materials to fashion the stuff that was important to our predecessors and in which are now artifacts of the past.

Before the introduction of pavement, streets were bare and almost impassable during times of inclement weather. The introduction of cobblestones, granite block, even wood, and later asphalt, helped alleviate the mud problem during wet spells and dust during dry periods.

However, before those innovations, the problem of muddy boots was solved by the placement of boot scrapers in front of homes.

Boot scrapers are nothing more than a blade of thin hammered iron propped up on the corner of the building so you can scrap mud off. Some even had pointed edges to get those hard to reach areas.

When wrought and cast iron railings were introduced later in the century, boot scrapers were built right into them. Some were decorated, or utilitarian, such as shovel shaped, to help the mud slide away from the railing.

You can take a stroll down Second Street between Broadway and Congress and see nine examples of boot scrapers. Examine buildings numbered 24, 25, 45, 47, 50, 54, 57, 59, and 62.

Even the bricks (called Baked Stone by the Dutch) on buildings can tell you a story. The way bricks were laid to form walls has changed over time.

Troy has many Federal period buildings and the most common brick bond used on facades is called Flemish bond. In our area it was popular from around 1780 to the 1840's, according to historian John Wolcott.

While still on Second Street examine buildings numbered 64, 62, 60, 58, or 53. Notice that on each facade there are rows of bricks that have one brick lengthwise (called a stretcher) followed by one edgewise (called a header). These alternate each row but notice the headers align on top of each other as you go up the wall. A header is flanked on both its sides, above and below, by stretchers. This is Flemish bond.

However, there are five layers of stretchers separated by one layer of headers on 52 Second Street. This is called American or Common Bond and was popular after 1850 (6 or 7 rows of stretchers count too).

Historians say that Flemish Bond is stronger than American Bond but the latter is more economical since it can be built quicker.

On the earlier buildings windowsills (below the window), and lintels (over the window), were mostly made of stone. Yet, 52 Second Street, the one with American Bond, has cast iron lintels.

Architectural cast iron became popular during the Civil War. Many commercial buildings will have cast iron storefronts, windowsills and lintels after this period (see 220-224 River Street). You can bet that a building with cast iron on it is Civil or post Civil War construction, unless it's an earlier building with a makeover.

And makeovers were common. Trying to date a building strictly using these techniques is not cast in stone (pun intended). Brick bonding and cast iron became popular in different parts of the country at different times. Also, even then, people had their version of aluminum siding. New owners wanted to spruce up and modernize their homes just like us.

For example, an early building may have a newer facade attached using brick, brownstone, or other material. You can tell 25 Second was originally two stories and had the addition of a third floor just by looking at the bond - it has Flemish on the first two floors, then American fronts the third.

Before the introduction of Trolleys in Troy in 1861, horse driven wagons were the primary means of transportation. In front of each home or business you were likely to find a hitching post (or carriage house in the back). A hitching post is an iron post with top (sometime decorative), and ring for tying.

Lansingburgh has a few examples of utilitarian and decorative hitching posts. In front of 834 and 838 Third Avenue are two identical post and ball hitching posts. Across the street from 572 First Avenue is a decorative cast iron post with ring. Imagine, only three examples remain of a class of objects that probably existed by the thousands.

These are examples that reflect a lifestyle Trojans probably took for granted more than 100 years ago, just as we take for granted modern day street lamps, fire hydrants, telephone poles, and other objects that are part of our daily life but never think about.

Look around you and imagine what examples of our present day civilization future Trojans will consider artifacts worthy of study.

©1999 Don Rittner