Tag: 19th century

Attractive Ruins at Franny Reese

Pictures from a visit last autumn to Franny Reese State Park in New York. The sun-dappled ruins are the former estate of wealthy dentist Charles H. Roberts. A graduate of Albany Medical College, Roberts’ dental innovations made him rich and allowed him to branch out into other lucrative business ventures. In the 1860s, he began building his home, Cedar Glen, on the west bank of the Hudson River overlooking Poughkeepsie. After Roberts died in 1909, protracted squabbling over his will by his children resulted in the decline of Cedar Glen. Read more of the story at About Town.

Franny Reese Park. Source: TCM
Continue reading Attractive Ruins at Franny Reese

Wild and Historic New Jersey: Prints and Paintings

Detail from View on the Delaware near Bordentown. 1839. Artist: Karl Bodmer. Engraver: Charles Vogel. Source: Morven Museum/Joseph Felcone.

Fantastic historic prints and maps of New Jersey can be see in an online exhibition by the Morven Museum. Like the images above, a view of the Delaware Water Gap by an unknown artist, and an engraving of Bordentown Landing by Karl Bodmer, because of course he and Prince Maximillian stopped by to visit Joseph Bonaparte’s estate before heading west.

The original exhibition, Portrait of Place: Paintings, Drawings, and Prints of New Jersey, 1761–1898, was held at Morven in 2013 and was drawn from the collection of Joseph Felcone.

The place where the Packet Ship John Minturn was wrecked. July 1846. G. R. Bonfield. Squan Beach, New Jersey. Source: Morven Museum/Joseph Felcone.

Historic Maps of Tyrone and other Towns around Lamoka

A while ago, I posted about the New York Public Library’s Map Warper project, which is making thousands of historic maps easily available. Well, the Map Warper project is still going strong, and here’s another map from their collection, which shows three small towns around Lamoka Lake. Taken from the 1874 Atlas of Schuyler County, the map also lists many of the farmers and other businessmen in the area.

Detail of 1874 map. Source: New York Public Library

You can also see what Wayne, at the top of Waneta Lake (which was still called Little Lake in 1874) looked like in the 19th century at the NYPL.

The Van Wyck Brooks Historic District, Plainfield, New Jersey

Craig Marsh Mansion
Craig Marsh Mansion, Plainfield, NJ. Source: TCM

There are over 150 houses within the Van Wyck Brooks historic district, ranging in age from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s. Here are just a few of them.

Source: TCM
Source: TCM
Source: TCM
Source: TCM
Source: TCM
Source: TCM

Albany Rural Cemetery

Founded in 1844, the Albany Rural Cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. I don’t normally seek out cemeteries, but this is the second major rural cemetery I’ve visited in the last month or so.

President Chester Arthur is the most famous resident. New Jersey governor and U.S. Supreme Court justice William Paterson (namesake of the university in New Jersey) is also buried here.

Albany Rural Cemetery, Menands, New York.

Tomb of President Chester A. Arthur. Arthur benefited from political patronage and machine politics, but when he became president after the assassination of James Garfield, he threw his support behind the civil service reform movement. The 1883 Pendleton Act would lead to civil service jobs being awarded based on merit, not personal connections.


Continue reading Albany Rural Cemetery