New Hamburg History Group

New Hamburg's Twentieth Century Club

2011-11-21T04:09:00.000-08:00

The women of New Hamburg were not sitting idly by. They had verve and a thirst to learn. The discovery of a cache of miniature yearbooks tells us about the lives of past women of the 'burg.

From 1910 to 1969, a group of about 20 women who called themselves "The Twentieth Century Club of New Hamburg" met once a month. The meeting would go like this: roll call with an inspirational quote, business, a lecture, and a "sketch"- a unique anecdote or story.

Each year's course of study had a theme ranging from Japan, South America, Prominent Americans, Notable Women, Women with Vision, Books Worth Reading, Contemporary Europe, to Scandinavia and beyond.

The monthly topics really varied, from "Cellophane in America", "the Story of Rice", to "Bird Sanctuaries." Sometimes the speakers were university professors or other experts, but most of the time, it was the women of New Hamburg illustrating topics to each other to expand their knowledge beyond the banks of the Hudson to the world at large.

In 1937, the subject for study was "The Romance of Rivers", and a talk on each river was curiously paired with discussion of an American religion, so one could learn about the St. Lawrence River and Spiritualism all in one evening:

What was topical in 1917-1918 -"Conservation in New York State, especially as concerned with natural resources and food"- is timely again. The ladies hashed out ideas about water and waterways, good roads, minerals and forestry. Doesn't this sound like it could be a workshop at the Common Ground Farm- "Education and Legislation in Regard to Food Supply"? Old ideas become new again...

New book shares historic postcard images of New Hamburg - upcoming book signing

2011-10-18T13:47:00.000-07:00

Local historian, David Turner, has published a book which features images of historic New Hamburg. Visit Arcadia Publishing's site to find out more:
http://www.arcadiapublishing.com/9780738575599/Wappinger

Upcoming book signing with the author at the Mesier house

Saturday, November 5th, 2-7pm

For more info on the event:

http://www.americantowns.com/ny/wappingersfalls/news/history-of-wappinger-told-through-postcards-6857127
Wappingers Historical Society calendar:
http://wappingershistoricalsociety.org/calendar/

New Hamburg oral history update!

2011-07-28T07:06:00.000-07:00

Check out this mention of the New Hamburg History Group's first gathered oral history in the Poughkeepsie Journal!:

Then & Now: Shay's Warehouse and Stables

2011-06-16T08:05:00.000-07:00

1986

2011

The demise of Shay's Warehouse and Stables, also known as the Rag Factory, is the loss of an important piece of New Hamburg's history.

This was the only intact building left on the New Hamburg waterfront relating to the hamlet's function as a river port. It connected the hamlet to the industrial complex in Wappingers Falls which housed some of New York state's earliest cotton-textile mills.

These brick buildings were built around 1865 by rag dealer William Shay. His business involved buying scrap pieces of cotton from the textile mills and selling them to to paper manufacturers. Wappingers Creek was the waterway ferrying this material from the mills to New Hamburg, where the bales of rags would then be shipped on to New York City. Part of what made New Hamburg such a dynamic village was this- it's location. It connected this stream to the Hudson and the world beyond.

The stable section of the building once had wagon and animal doors, horse stalls, and a tack room.

Shay's Warehouse visually reminds us of how New Hamburg played a part in the industrial history of the Hudson valley. One historian has noted, "New Hamburg was never a fancy town," but buildings like these solidly represent the architecture of a working Hudson River port town in the nineteeth century.

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shay%27s_Warehouse_and_Stable

Movie Screening: Memories of New Hamburg

2011-06-08T04:03:00.000-07:00

New Hamburg's stained glass treasures

2011-05-05T14:03:00.000-07:00

The stained glass windows of St. Nicholas in New Hamburg were created by the artist David Maitland Armstrong, one of the best known artists of his time, especially for his pioneering work in stained glass.

Born in Newburg in 1836, he attended Trinity College in Hartford and studied law in New York. But- he found that what he really wanted to do was create art. Because he came from a family of means, he was able to tour Rome and Paris to study under the best teachers from Italy and New York. For four years, he was the United States consul-general for Italy, resident of Rome. While in Rome, he became friendly with the American artists living there, including sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens. He began painting at this time, and when he returned to New York around 1875, took studio space in the same building as Saint Gaudens to begin his artistic career in earnest. He befriended the artist John La Farge and the architect Stanford White.

This moment in art in the mid-1880s was transformational. Artists reacted to the industrial revolutions’ mass production, and they wanted to return to hand work and traditional crafts and decorative arts.

Armstrong worked for Louis Comfort Tiffany, who had started experimenting with new forms of glassmaking in the 1870s. By the 1880s the Tiffany Glass Company was the largest producer of stained glass windows in the nation. Specifically, what Tiffany became known for was his variety of shapes, colors, and textures and adding rainbow iridescence. Americans revolutionized the technical process of stained glass window production. These were the first new techniques in stained glass being developed since the Middle Ages; these artists were adding new expressive potential to an ancient art form.

Armstrong’s friend, artist John La Farge (1835–1910) invented opalescent glass and actually patented the process. Tiffany (1848–1933) also patented variations of the same opalescent process and invented the copper foil method as an alternative to lead, and used it extensively in windows, lamps and other decorations.

The windows at St. Nicks are wonderful examples of this 19th century stained glass revival. Commissioned by William Henry Reese from Maitland Armstrong and Co., the windows cost $410 dollars in 1904 (equivalent to about $23,500 today).

The south altar wall window (above), featuring two doves hovering above a flowering wreath with a Byzantine cross, was given in honor of Laura Suydam Satterlee by Mrs. D.A. Clarkson and installed in 1904. It is one of many examples of Armstrong’s opalescent pieces that have interesting visual effects; their milky, muted colors almost look like watercolors. In this window, the richly colored glass resembles the sky at sunrise.

The church’s main round window, given in remembrance of Rev. John Livingston Reese by Willis Reese and Mrs. Guy Richards, is based on a Byzantine design with a Greek cross in the center. It is remarkable for the graduated range of colors in one piece; how the colors move from shade to light makes the window look as if it is glowing from within. This window is the work of Armstrong probably with the assistance of his daughter, Helen. These windows aren’t signed, so we don’t know for sure. Helen eventually became his principal assistant, carrying on his work in stained glass into the 1940s until her own retirement when she was in her seventies.

If you find yourself in New Hamburg, don't miss these artistic treasures!

Stained Glass Tour - Sunday, April 17th

2011-04-07T04:29:00.000-07:00

Please join us for a stained glass tour!

On Sunday, April 17th, we will meet at St. Nicholas Church at 37 Point Street in New Hamburg. I will give a history of the beautiful St. Nick's windows from about 11:00 to 11:30 am. Following this, we will carpool and travel across the river to Marlboro to visit the stained glass windows of Christ Church, which were created by the same artist, Maitland Armstrong, that did the windows of St. Nick's.

Marlborough historian, MaryLou Mahan, will be joining us on Marlboro side to treat us to a history of the Armstrong family and will be hosting a lunch for everyone at Christ Church.

RSVP to: sarahsjohnson108@hotmail.com

For more info and directions to St. Nick's, New Hamburg:http://www.stnicholasnewhamburg.org

For more info and directions to Christ Church, Marlboro: http://www.episcopalmarlboro.org/

Facts for the Ladies...

2011-03-18T18:08:00.000-07:00

Ad from Appleton's, 1873

Mrs. Millard was surely the talk of New Hamburg with her new Wheeler & Wilson sewing machine, a popular lightweight model made in Bridgeport, Connecticut. This would have been a sizeable investment for the Millards. At this time, sewing machines were well beyond the means of most American families. Some communities pooled their money to buy one together or would buy one on an installment plan.

Wheeler & Wilson sewing machine trade card

Billed as "the only sewing machine that does not fail in any point," their ads claimed that, "it turns drudgery into a pastime." What would it have been like to sew by hand for six and a steamboat? Endless labor, for sure. A woman of the time wrote in her journal:

I think life would be so much more pleasant were it not for the trouble and bother of making clothes. Oh deliver me from the monotonous stitch, stitch from morning til night and rest for aching eyes, sore fingers, and the like.

I wish I was one of those sassy sorts that never gets in a fret over anything. Didn't this sewing machine help me along fast. I never mean to sew by hand any more if I can help it. - Georgia Long Shields of Georgia, 1853

In the 1860s, it took about three hours to sew a pair of summer pants by hand but on a sewing machine, they could be stitched in less than thirty-eight minutes. Using a sewing machine surely gave Mrs. Millard some relief from the countless hours and tedium of hand sewing.

Then & Now: 16 Point Street

2011-02-06T11:44:00.000-08:00

Where would you go for some sugar, tea, or oatmeal? Drake & Reed's store on the corner of Point Street and River Street.

Longtime New Hamburg resident Theresa Croke remembers that the shopkeeper, who wore a long white apron and snazzy cufflinks, used to have a shelf of candies in apothocary jars behind the counter. She recalls that he could be a bit grumpy and if the kids were bothering him, he used to say to them, "I'll give you a piece of candy if you get out of here!"

Now residential, things were once hopping down on Point Street. New Hamburg developed into a bustling river port in the mid 1800s because of its location along the Hudson and its fine wharf facilities, a landing for both ferries and sloops. Standing between the docks and railroad, the store was once in the center of the hamlet's commercial activities.