Sounds from 19th Century Main St: Hickok’s Music Store
By Bill Kleppel There are many reasons why vinyl record stores have made a renaissance over the past 20+ years. Nostalgia looms large as one reason. Some music aficionados believe there’s an auditory resonance you get from vinyl records that cannot be replicated by other modes of listening to music. Other people just think it’s cool to flip through the LP covers to check out the colors and artwork of the albums themselves. But let’s say you’ve been transported back in time. The year is 1905. You walk into Hickok’s Music Store on 276[...]
William Lyon Dobbs and his Orchestra
Buried within the collections of the Local History Room is a box with a thick leather ledger inside. On the cover of this book, someone wrote in pen, “Chas. E. Dobbs, Daybook. Feb 1. 1906 to” and that's it. However, the pages inside the ledger are a bit more complicated than a simple daybook, as newspaper articles and musical programs are plastered over the older handwriting that once marked its pages.
No Longer Standing: Buildings of Poughkeepsie – The Stratford and Liberty Theaters
The invention of the moving picture was a big deal at the turn of the 20th century! Watching fast moving images of people on a big screen, as opposed to watching actual people in real time on the stage took some getting used to. However, not everyone was quick to jump on the movie making trend, nor did everyone immediately see this new technology as an art form. In spite of this, there was a group of men in Poughkeepsie who believed that not only was this art, and the future for theater goers, but also that it was[...]
George Sherman and the Doll Babies!
George Sherman and the Doll Babies! Imagine you are so devoted to a cause that you make a great change in order to accommodate it. For example, you change your appearance in order to fit into a role. Some actors will lose or gain weight, or shave off all of their hair in order to play a character. Well, it appears that one local man decided to make a great change in his appearance just to blend into a role, though not all of his associates felt the need to do the same. He apparently took his charity work[...]
Mark Twain at the Bardavon
Mark Twain at the Bardavon How many of you love a good stand-up comedian? Some of you might enjoy the jokes of Richard Pryor, George Carlin, or Jim Gaffigan. Perhaps you have seen a live performance by Jeff Dunham or Steve Martin. The fashion of a single person standing on a stage of a nightclub or a theater telling stories and jokes was made famous by people like Lenny Bruce and Joan Rivers in the 1950s, but people have been telling jokes on stage for a long time. Of course, the oldest stage here in the City of Poughkeepsie[...]
Hudson Taylor: The Retired Book Dealer of Academy Street
by Shannon Butler We have been preparing for our upcoming walking tour on Academy Street and have found some fascinating stories about the people who once inhabited these homes. Today we will share with you a story of an old book dealer who lived at #148 and who had experienced some amazing times and spent time with some of this country’s most famous citizens. Though it could be said that the more one reads about Mr. Hudson Taylor, and his various adventures both on land and on the river, the more it seems that he should be considered one[...]
The Amrita Clubhouse
by Shannon Butler If you wanted to be a part of a social gathering (something outside of your immediate family), there were plenty of clubs to join in the City of Poughkeepsie during the 19th century. There were clubs with religious backgrounds like the Knights of Columbus or the Christian Temperance Union. There were clubs for the various sports, as we have mentioned before, like yacht clubs, golf, or tennis. How about the Rotary Club or the Oddfellows? Or if you really wanted to be all mysterious, you could be a Mason. All of these organizations had by-laws and[...]
The Poughkeepsie Community Theatre
by Shannon Butler As far as recent memory can serve, there has always been a bit of a separation between Vassar College and its hometown of Poughkeepsie. However, there have always been endeavors that connected the college with the community: for example, the students who created and volunteered at the Lincoln Center many years ago and, more recently, the Poughkeepsie Farm Project. Back in the 1920s, another organization made its way from the Vassar campus into the local community, and the relationship benefited both sides for many years. The Poughkeepsie Community Theatre brought Vassar creations to life with the[...]
Art in Poughkeepsie: The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center
by Shannon Butler If you’re like us, you have seriously missed going out to museums and art galleries. However, things are slowly beginning to open up and we have a fabulous teaching museum/art gallery right here in Poughkeepsie that will both inspire and educate at the same time. They even have a wonderful new exhibit which showcases women in the world of art. “Women Picturing Women'' is currently on view at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College, from now until June 13th, and as you may have read in a previous blog post, the gallery has[...]
An Actress in the Pest House
by Shannon Butler Nobody wants to be considered a pest, especially when your vocation is actually to entertain people with your talent for drama. So when a young actress found herself in the local “pest house” in 1895, newspapers made quite a fuss, and so did local authorities. First, we must determine what exactly a pest house is. To be clear, a pest house is not someplace to store an annoying neighbor or other random individuals. In fact, pest houses were a sign of humans beginning to understand infectious diseases and the need for proper quarantines. Here in Poughkeepsie,[...]
From Collingwood to Bardavon: Poughkeepsie’s First Theater
by Shannon Butler Is it safe to say that we all miss going out to the theater? Whether it's going to see the latest blockbuster adventure film or that big hit musical, we are all looking forward to the day when we can buy a ticket to some sort of show. Americans have enjoyed the theater since the first one popped up in Philadelphia in 1809 (there were certainly plays being performed before that, but the Walnut Street Theater is the oldest structure meant for just that purpose). Here in Poughkeepsie, we have one of the longest running theaters[...]
The Artist of the First PHOIS
by Shannon Butler The very first yearbook for the Poughkeepsie High School, known as “PHOIS” was produced in 1909. The students who created it were sure to inform the readers that this was the first of its kind in the preface, “In preparing this book, it has been necessary to work without the guide of precedent, for the school has not in the past years published an annual.” This class was still going to school in the original Poughkeepsie High School building which was once located at the northwest corner of Washington and Lafayette Streets (the building seen in[...]
Postcards of the Gilded Age
by Shannon Butler Our last entry looked at a grand house from the Gilded Age that is somewhat forgotten today. However, there are a couple houses that still hold their gilded shine and attract people from all over the world who come to see the remnants of that glamorous era. Vanderbilt Mansion and Staatsburgh (also known as Mills Mansion) are both local sites that focus on the architecture and lifestyles of the Gilded Age, and they also happen to have fantastic views of the Hudson River and pleasant paths for strolling, just like the Vanderbilts and Mills families would[...]
Charles Gilbert Spross – Local Musical Celebrity
by Shannon Butler Located here in the Local History archives we have some of the music composed by local musician Charles Gilbert Spross. He was famous both for his music and for accompanying some of the great singers of the early 20th century. Spross traveled the world and played to thousands of people but he would always find his way back home to his beloved Poughkeepsie. Today, we are going to look at the life and career of a local musician who managed to gain fame but still stayed grounded in his roots. He was born to German immigrants[...]
Art in the Time of Covid
by Shannon Butler We here in the Local History department can certainly say that we miss visiting our local historic sites, museums, and galleries. One of the great things about Poughkeepsie is that we have so many fabulous places to visit that are close at hand. We happen to have a world famous art gallery right here in our city, the Vassar College Art Gallery, also known as the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. This is the first college in our country’s history to have an art gallery as part of its original plan. As a result of the[...]
Fun with Family Photo Albums
by Shannon Butler For this week’s entry, we thought it would be fun to take a look at a family photo album from the early 20th century. These images were taken by members of the Konsier and Russell families and if you look closely, you may recognize some of the places they photographed. Anna Gertrude Russell was born and raised in Staatsburg NY, the daughter of a William (a painter based on the census records) and Gertrude Russell. Anna married a printer from Poughkeepsie named Louis Konsier in 1905 and in 1906 they had a daughter named Florence. Off[...]
Public Works of Art – Olin Dows
by Shannon Butler Have you ever been inside some of our local historic post offices and admired the murals? Those paintings are there thanks to the vision of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and some of his New Deal programs including the Public Works of Art program (PWAP) which was established in 1933 and The Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture (later known as the Section of Fine Arts), commonly known as the Section. The plan was to put America’s great artists to work and for one local artist, these programs made his work famous (at least to us locals). Olin[...]
Bertha M. Round – Music Lover
by Shannon Butler We know the people who read these blog posts are history lovers, but are there any music fans out there? Well, we found a music fan in the boxes of our archives. A woman who devoted her entire life to getting great talent to the stages of Poughkeepsie so that everyone could get the chance to hear the best music from all over the world. She took pride in her work and one of the perks of her job was that she was able to meet everyone who came to perform! Her name was Bertha M.[...]
No Longer Standing: Buildings of Poughkeepsie – Gone But Not Forgotten: Lindmark’s Bookstore
by Shannon Butler This week we are continuing our focus on buildings in Poughkeepsie that are gone but not forgotten, in other words, there is proof of their existence here in our Local History Collections. Today we want to share with you the sad story of the demise of a bookstore, along with a large portion its books. Anytime you hear of a book-burning, what usually follows is a cringe of the body and an overall sadness. The value of a good collection of books can be measured in several ways, the rarity of each volume, the importance of[...]
Christmas Cards of the Victorian Era
by Shannon Butler In our collections here in the Local History room is an interesting album of Victorian era holiday cards. Since we are in the midst of that ‘most wonderful time of the year’ we thought we would share some of the cards with you. Today, we will take a look at some Christmas cards made by Raphael Tuck and Sons. This company based just outside of London, begin its work by selling pictures and frames in 1866, by the 1880s they had offices all over the world, including one in New York City. They produced their first[...]