A Trojan Snapshot
By Don Rittner

Troy's industrial growth during the 19th century saw a rapid rise in population. All of these new Trojans needed a place to live, and while many aspired to own their own home, many rented rooms from home owners who had the extra rooms, or stayed in buildings built specifically as boardinghouses, or hotels that served as such. In the 1890's, Troy boasted
29 hotels and 13 boarding houses. Other lodging were known as "men's' hotels and served those who came into the city for a short spell. For example, "colliers" from the rural townships hauled charcoal to the city iron furnaces and needed a room for the night. There were even special boarding houses for single women who came to Troy to work in the collar industry. One such building still exists near Hoosick and River. Unfortunately,
during recent times, boardinghouses became better known as "flop houses" for those on the lower end of the economic scale.

While growing up in Troy I remember boarding houses on Federal, Eagle, Ferry, and Grand Streets, the Clark House (Brown Building), and "Eddies," both on Broadway, and the old Trojan Hotel.

Not everyone who lived in boardinghouses was poor or destitute. Wendy Gamber, a history professor at Indiana University, is writing a book about boarding houses and their occupants. In a paper to be published in the Journal of Urban History, she talks about the lives of three borders. One is a Trojan who stayed in the Clark House at 207-215 Broadway from 1880-90. It is a fascinating look into the life of one Trojan and gives us a glimpse of what Troy was like during the Victorian age.

Catherine Torn was the wife of a Troy doctor and moved into the Clark House in 1880, five years after he died. At age 78, she decided to rent her 3rd Street home and make the Clark House her residence, becoming its oldest resident. Catherine joined a "family" of occupants that included male clerks, salesmen, single women (mostly teachers), married couples, and widows. It was a diverse family of unrelated Trojans.

The Clark House was a busy place and located in the heart of Troy near Monument Square. Mrs. Helen Price was the landlady. Retail Shops occupied the first floor and friends and families daily entered the hotel to visit the residents. Across the street was the fashionable
Mansion House hotel where the daily stagecoaches boarded passengers, and further east, the Keenan Building, filled with more retail like Tippin's Jewelry store. The Cannon Building, just west of the Clark House, was home of Frear's Cash Bazaar, one of the first department stores.

Mrs. Thorn made her daily visits to friends. Perhaps she stopped in to Levy's tailors across the street, or Brown's Confectionary on the first floor of the Clark House for a treat. She also was the host of friends and relatives, her attorney, her husband's former patients, and even her former servant ("poor old Biddy"), according to Professor Gamber's research, who writes that Thorn considered these people "visitors from abroad."

The diary of Thorn describes her relationships with several people including Fanny Whittemore, a music teacher, who accompanied her to the Unitarian Church on Sundays (now St. Anthony's parking lot at the corner of Fourth and State), social events and musical reviews. Their arguments and subsequent makeup's are noted as well. Another member of Clark house, David Briggs, who, while a border, rose from salesman to co-owner of Marshall and Briggs's collar manufactory, often brought Thorn copies of
newspaper articles and helped her in her own writings to the Troy Daily Times, located just a few feet east, while Thorn reciprocated with advice on matters of love and affection. She writes of the death of Sarah Buell who was laid out in the parlor of Clark House and how they comforted her husband and children who continued to live there.

In the evenings, boarders often gathered in each other's "private" parlors. According to Gamber, by the late nineteenth century some boarders typically rented suites of two rooms, one to receive visitors, and the other as a bedroom. To pass the time, the borders played cards or made music. Thorn played the piano while others sang.

In some ways, the Clark House was like most other homes in Troy. Residents interacted with friends, argued, made up, laughed, cried, and tried to live a good life. While the make up of boarding houses may have changed frequently, long time residents like Thorn, Price, and Briggs were as much a Troy family as any. Thorn outlived her landlady. Thorn died in 1890, at age 89. Briggs was a pallbearer at her funeral.

Today, the Clark House is waiting for restoration.