When the Riverside club opened in Lansingburgh near 126th Street around 1895, it was the talk of the town. The location was declared "the most beautiful in Lansingburgh." The building itself was massive looking with a side turret, and the entire house was covered with shingles. The Shingle style of architecture was an outgrowth of the late 19th century Queen Anne style, features of which you can still see in the building. The Shingle style was one of the first truly American originated architectural styles, born in New England, and was found from Long Island all the way north to Newfoundland. Situated on the banks of the Hudson, club members could view the river, village of Waterford, and the village's wooden covered bridge, the oldest at the time in the country, and first bridge to span the Hudson, situated just north of the club. The Riverside club became one the Burgh's most successful social organizations, and was considered "the greatest boom society in Lansingburgh has had in many years."

In 1913, three Philadelphia transplants purchased the land north of the club to build the first commercial bakery and came to be known and loved as Freihofers. Sometime after 1925, the Riverside Club was purchased by Freihofer and eventually became their offices.

The inside of the club was written up for its interior beauty, and if you have ever been in the building, you know that most of that beauty still survives. A huge reception hall greeted members and was finished in home-grained Georgia pine and white wood. A fireplace with mirror and opposite an Elks Head graced the walls, but everyone wanted to be in the "nook," an area off the reception hall with window benches so you could look at the river that flows both ways. Indeed, the Riverside Club was one of the most tranquil places to be if you lived in Lansingburgh.

The second floor was famous for its ballroom and stage with hanging chandeliers, but first you walked up the circular staircase to get there. Again decked out in Georgian pine and a floor highly polished, the ballroom was used for dancing, musicals, and other events, such as pool tournaments and card parties. Some of my older readers may remember going to the ballroom as kids to appear on, yup, you guessed it, the "Freddie Freihofer Show." I am told that the first run of the popular TV show on Channel 6 was broadcast from there, and until recently an old standup piano that may have appeared on the show was still there.

How many of you can remember watching, or appearing on, the Freddie Freihofer "BreadTime Stories" television show on WRGB, Channel 6 from 4:45 to 5 PM? Local children's book author Alexandra Siy does! She proudly displays her Freddie photo on her Web site! For those not in the know, hosts Ralph Kanna, Ed Joyce, Bud Mason and Jim Fisk, the last and perhaps most remembered, would create a "Squiggle" tacked onto the side of a cutaway Freihofer wagon (was it a real wagon cut in half?), and with the help of the kid's create a "work" of art. The kids' show was the first local series to be broadcast in color in the Capital District (July 23, 1956), and was built around your birthday and celebrated with other kids your age sharing a cake, hats, and a group photograph (any of besides Alexandra have one?). The show ran from November 21, 1949 to 1966.

The Riverside Club was continuously used even as bakery offices until recently when the company, now owned by Best Foods, decided to get rid of it. This is not the Freihofer family abandoning their history. It is a national food chain that could care less about the Burgh. As many of you know, this building is part of a plan, along with the actual bakery buildings, to be demolished for an Eckerd's big box. I have already written about the arrogance of this proposal to tear down this part of the Burgh's history, instead of doing the right thing and reusing the buildings. What really gets my hair raised is part of their argument against saving the Riverside Club stating that no one wants it! Interesting, since I know one person who wants to turn it into a restaurant, another who wants to renovate it and live in it, and one more who wants to turn into a social club! What a novel idea?