History is a matter of time

By Don Rittner

Many people claim to have out of body experiences, however historians are famous for “out of time” experiences. That is we have a way to see things in the past as though they were in the present.

For example, I find it quite easy to stand on the corner of Second and Broadway and see myriads of Victorian-dressed Trojans going about their business. No, I don’t mean during the annual Victorian Stroll.

It’s also pretty easy to see the trolley cars of the Red Line going up River and turning onto Broadway, clanging their bells to alert those crossing in front of them. Instead of hearing the honks of cars, the deep bellow of a Hudson River Day liner fills the air as it docks along the bottom of State or Broadway, known as steamboat landing, and empties its human cargo of new immigrants who want to make their life here.

The sounds of horse-drawn carriages with their steed’s horseshoes clomping down Belgian block streets are music to the ears, and I can hear the calls to get any one of several daily newspapers by “newsboys” probably no older than ten years on each ‘claimed’ corner. Women still dressed to be admired and men likewise reciprocate with a nod or tip of the hat.

Each time period has its own customs, but one that has been commonplace all these years is the celebration of the end of the year. It is a time to reflect on the activities – good and bad - that occurred during the months preceding the last of December. Fortunately, most good traditions rarely change.

Since Troy’s establishment more than 200 years ago, Trojans, rich and poor, celebrated Christmas. Often a Christmas tree would be planted in Washington Square (now Monument Square) while various activities occurred around it, much like we do today during the Victorian Stroll.

I can imagine the interest that stirred when the Troy Sentinel on River Street published and released its December 23, 1823 edition with a new poem called “A Visit From Saint Nicholas,” published anonymously, and as we learned later authored by Clement Clarke Moore, a New York City professor of Asian and Greek literature at the Episcopal General Theological Seminary, and friend of a Troy family.

There were certainly many more stores in downtown then for Trojans to acquire gifts, and it brought everyone closer to the city as a whole. Thousands of people lined the streets looking for bargains, and while the malls have taken over this tradition, it is rewarding to see this being reestablished in downtown as newer stores begin filling former vacant spaces. In fact, there are few vacant buildings in downtown today. If not already filled, others are being rehabbed and getting ready for new tenants.

In earlier days, these were the times when neighbors and friends would run into each other and spend a few minutes on the corner to chat and bring each up to date on their life happenings. You can still see that occurring even in this Internet connected world.

Trojans have gone though several wars, fires and floods, and suffered personal tragedies over the last 200 years. The city itself has gone through several transformations since its original founding as farmsteads by three Dutch Vanderheyden families. Beginning as a post Revolutionary War village, then moving on to a major industrial city, only to end up a shadow of that former glory, the city has been rediscovered again by its own people and others from a distance.

Troy, the mythical city, each time rises from the ashes like the Phoenix, proving that mythology and reality are often the same for this city that grew up on the floodplain of the mighty Hudson River.

In the last five years, many people have found Troy and made it home: from West Coast movie producers and new urbanism planners to Boston artists. All have become addicted to what the natives already know. Troy is indeed a magical city, yes, even with its warts and faults; it is a city that makes you feel like your tenure here transcends time.

You needn’t be a historian to feel the rich history that each street corner and each historic building harbors. Moreover, if you take the time to read any of the several history books about the city, you come to realize that there isn’t a major event in American history that someone from Troy didn’t participate in, usually in a big way.

So, in this rich tradition, I offer all Trojans a rich and happy New Year, and to this city on the river plane, an acknowledgement that it still evokes loyalty and pride for past accomplishments and confidence for a bright future.