If you were one of the attendees at the dedication of the new RPI Approach on Saturday, September 25, you were part of history, and received a good dose of symbolism.

Stephen Van Rensselaer and his friend Amos Eaton started Rensselear School in 1824, in an old bank building on River and Middleburg Streets. They probably never imagined that this institution would still be providing first rate education 175 years later.

However, both men would be proud that a woman, Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson now heads the school. Educating women was part of their early agenda though it took a while before that actually happened. It was pretty revolutionary thinking for the time! Yet, Troy was a progressive, revolutionary city. A few years earlier in 1821, Emma Willard created the first all girls college in an old coffee house. Years later, Kate Mullany would start the first all female collar laundry union. Following that tradition, both Sage and now RPI are under the leadership of two distinguished women.

Those who were standing on the Approach on Saturday were actually standing on the site of the fifth incarnation of RPI. After the bank building was abandoned, the old VanderHeyden Mansion on Eighth and Grand Division was used for a while. The school eventually moved into the old Infant School building on State and Sixth, until that burned in the great fire of 1862 . The school then moved into the Vail building at Congress and River Streets until a brand new school was built in 1864 -- where the Approach now sits. It too burned in 1904.

A few years later the city built the Approach, pretty much as it looks today, under the auspices of Mayor Elias P. Mann, who was a graduate of RPI's class of 1872. RPI donated the land and the city paid for the $40,000 project. For the next 60 years it was a gateway between RPI students and downtown Troy merchants and populace.

During the 60's and 70's, as Troy lost industry after industry, its population left to the suburbs, and communication between RPI and city administrations faltered, so too did the Approach.

The Approach fell into disuse, became unapproachable, and by the 80's steps had collapsed, trees and weeds were growing through them, and graffiti was strewn along the granite walls like a New York City subway car. It looked like some artifact from the Trojan Wars. It certainly was symbolic of Troy's economic conditions at the time.

Symbolism? When the Approach was first built, Troy was a bustling industrial city. Iron and steel were pouring from numerous iron foundries, Burden was punching out millions of horseshoes, and almost every one in the country was wearing a Troy collar (by 1925, out of every 1200 collars worn, 1080 were made here). Presidents and those running for national office made Troy a primary stop on the campaign trail.

Today, there is a great deal of revitalization going on in downtown Troy. The Rice Building is being renovated for hi-tech projects. The RCCA Arts complex will entertain and educate. Various Hedley Projects are bringing in workers. Monument Square and the Broadway Corridor are making Troy's streets elegant again, and almost every storefront on River Street from Third to Congress is filled with tenants. Oh yeah, people running for national office are stopping by too, in case you didn't hear.

The Approach is brand spanking new. Dejavu?

Of course I have my own take on the Approach. I spent a few years of my youth - from 5-7- living on Eighth Street about a block from the Approach. As small boys, we use to play on the rolling lawns of West Hall. I use to bet my friends a Good Humor Bar that I would go there someday (I did).

West Hall was originally built as the Troy Hospital in 1868 by the Reverend Peter Havermans and run by the Sisters of Charity. In 1924, it became Catholic Central High School until they moved and RPI took it over renaming it West Hall.

On one of the floors was a small geological and paleontological museum (probably the old operating room) which we use to love to visit. It had a small area with a dark curtain. Inside the area was a black light and many specimens of rocks and minerals that glowed a myriad of colors when you pressed a button.

But nothing could be better than the Approach at Winter time. The city (or RPI) never cleared the snow from the steps and, at that time, the Approach went right down to the railroad tracks (now 6th Avenue).

We would all find large chunks of cardboard (we couldn't afford a sled), put them under our fannies, and down we went.

The Approach makes one hell of a sleigh ride!

Got History? Contact Don at drittner@aol.com or 251 River St.