Mechanicville history buffs, who may or may not succeed in saving the landmark Fort cobblestone house from being rubbled by Urban Renewal wreckers, have been offered a suggestion for sublimating their chagrin in case they fail.
Miss Mary M. Hart, corresponding secretary of the Knickerbocker Historical Society, had the constructive thought, after reading recent news stories about the apparently doomed local stone structure.
Requests Support
She wrote "May I suggest that people in the Mechanicville area interested in historical preservation, turn their enthusiasm and energy toward helping the Knickerbocker Historical Society preserve and restore the Mansion in Old Schaghticoke."
While the dedicated member of the Knickerbocker Society have been played with many problems in their long tussle to make a historic shrine of the old Dutch colonial mansion house just two crossed-fly miles across the river, they haven't had to wrestle with the rigors of redevelopment.
his Miss Hart pointed out and said the society "hopes for more cooperation from our Mechanicville neighbors in a project that will not suffer by Urban renewal."
With her letter to The Times Record Miss Hart included a State Department of Commerce "travel news" release about the sixth annual New York State Cobblestone Tour" which was held last month in Niagara County. Data in this she said, might "provide some idea of the age of the Mechanicville structure."
Many In State
The brochure noted "most of the 500 to 600 cobblestone structures which exist in the United States are in New York State, largely within 50 miles of Rochester. The masons whose skill built them came from Europe to work on the Erie Canal. The Cobblestone style began about 1825 and lasted until the end of the Civil War."
It explained that "early buildings used rough stones gathered from nearby fields, but as the craft progressed to greater refinement, smooth cobblestones from the shore of Lake Ontario were preferred."
Of the three known Mechanicville examples of stone construction, two of which, the Fort house and one on Burke Street, are still standing, it is fairly safe to assume their rocks were harvested right nearby All three including one last used as an auto repair shop on North Central Avenue, were close by the old Champlain Canal and could have gotten their stones from that historic ditch.
In fact, they could have been dug up almost anywhere in town, as Mechanicville had and still has plenty of them, as the many recent diggings have disclosed. WJ. Dwyer and Sons Construction Co. unearthed a fine supply digging the trench for the new telephone cable down the south side of Mabbett Street.
Plenty of Cobblestones
Contractors excavating for foundations of the recently completed Parish Hall and school on William Street also were plagued with plenty of the "round heads." While Mechanicville's old time builders were more partial to clapboards than masonry they didn't waste the cobbles they encountered pick-and-shoveling cellars.
They were cheaper than brick, costing nothing but sweat, so they used them to lay up their cellar walls, build cisterns and line the old bucket wells. Besides it was easier to use them than car them away on horse-hauled stone boats.
Many Mechanicville houses built up to the turn of the century have fieldstone foundations, which weren't noted for their warmth and helped sell a lot of "long-johns" and also newspapers which had to be piled under carpets to keep out the frosty blasts from the basements.
But, on the other hand, these cobblestone cellars were ideal for storing winter supplies of potatoes, apples, cabbage and turnips, until folks ruined things by fancying them up with furnaces, insulation and knotty-pine paneling. Richard Palmer blog.