All Things Must Pass!

by Don Rittner

February is African American History Month and I was pleased to read last week that the city is going to honor one of its African American citizens and former employee, Garret Baltimore. Baltimore was the first African American to graduate from RPI, was city engineer, and his most famous work is the design of Prospect Park in 1903-04. Baltimore lived at 162 Eighth Street, which was demolished in recent years.

Eighth Street is a unique street in that it really was positioned well to see the entire city below stretched along the river plain. When Eighth Street was pitched and widened in the 1830’s, it didn’t take long for homes to be built along both sides and populated with a rich and diverse family of enterprising Trojans. It also was the location of the home of Troy Patroon Jacob D. Vanderheyden, corner of Grand Division (now simply Grand) and Eighth. He could look comfortably over his domain from his window.

By the 1850’s, Eighth Street was the home of lawyers Giles B Kellogg (#143), Don Carlos Woodcock (#173), and Cole Denio (#250); shoemakers Edward Hoffman (#18) and James Jamison (#210); iron moulders Patrick and William Sullivan (#149), and more than one hundred others representing various nationalities and professions from printers, publishers, engineers, teamsters, coachmakers, cigar makers, carpenters, and dozens more.

Jump ahead a century and during the 1950s and 60’s, Eighth Street became the home of many people whose names have become commonplace in the vernacular of politics and civic efforts over the last 30 years.

It was Mary Ellen Pohl (former nun), the daughter of Mrs. Margaret Pohl, at number 383 who married Robert Bork (remember him). Albany attorney Ed Ryan grew up at 374 Eighth and it wasn’t very far from Judge Thomas J. O’Connor. Ed still maintains an office on Eighth Street and told me that other locals such as judge Andy Dwyer (#377), and longest Democratic Party leader Ed McDonough (1968-82) also grew up in the area. Yes, it’s also true that our present Lt. Governor Mary Donohue grew up on this famous street.

Retired SUNYA computer professor Ed Reilly also grew up at number 369 and helped his grandfather at Reilly's Confectionery (81 Hoosick) until he graduated from RPI. Ed went on to become the Town of Niskayuna’s supervisor from 1970-1979 and 1989-1997.

Eighth Street was also the site of my first Troy home at number 197. In the early 50s, when Gallitzin, PA’s coal mines were closed, my Uncle Boyd, who owned the local REA franchise (Railroad Express Agency) offered my Dad and his brother Frank a job driving the REA trucks. My recollections of getting off the train in downtown and walking a short distance up Eighth Street are also filled with feelings of good times playing with many kids on the block, and the one unfortunate time when I became the first American astronaut. I was around five years old and sitting on the curb when I was hit by a Trojan Hardware truck and thrown several feet in the air.

There is little left of Eighth Street, only the memories of those of us who are its last residents. During the urban renewal days of the 70s, higher forces decided to tear down most of the street for the proposed I-797 interchange. As you know, they changed their minds after the demolition of all those historic buildings and ripped apart downtown Watervliet in its place. Today, what once was a beautiful residential neighborhood is now a stretch of nothingness, interrupted by a few remaining homes, until you get on the north side of Hoosick. RPI is currently transforming part of the street for school purposes, and I suppose some day the rest of the street will find a new use as well.

The point of all this I suppose is that nothing stays the same - all things must pass. After all history isn’t history unless it has a past. And that brings me to the end of this story. I have been writing about Troy’s history for seven years, but it’s time to make this column part of that history. This is my last column for the Record. They need this space for more important things.

It has been a great experience and I thank my readers for sharing all their memories. To paraphrase Thomas Carlyle, history is the “message,” verbal or written, which all mankind delivers to every person. In closing remember that Troy’s history is your history. Save it, pass it on, or you surely will lose it. A blank memory has no history. An apathetic one shares no pleasure.