Footsy Magoos and the Knox-Mead Building

The Rensselaer County Historical Society (RCHS) is presenting a Hidden History tour on Tuesday, April 29th at 4:30 pm of Footsy Magoos and the Knox-Mead Building located at 13 and 17 First Street in Troy.

RCHS staff will offer a public tour of the buildings, located along a stretch of First Street known historically as Troy’s Banker’s Row because of the proliferation of banks that were once in residence on the street.

Footsy Magoos, a bar that is one of Troy’s best kept secrets, is located at 17 First Street in Troy. Built c.1811, 17 First Street housed the Bank of Troy and later, the United National Bank of Troy, throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The tour will begin at 4:30pm at the corner of First and State Street. Admission for the tour is $15 per person, $12 for RCHS members.

The Rensselaer County Historical Society and Museum is a not-for-profit educational organization established in 1927 to connect local history and heritage with contemporary life. For more information call 518-272-7232 or visit www.rchsonline.org.

NYC TENEMENT MUSEUM TALK

How the Other Half Lives

Monday, April 286:30 PM

 Jacob Riis may have died 100 years ago, but his legacy has not been forgotten, especially in light of the current conversation about income equality. We'll host a conversation about poverty past and present, and ways this country has responded to it. New York Times columnist Ginia Bellafante will moderate a panel with journalists Sasha Abramsky and Ted Gup, and historian Ethan G. Sribnick from the Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness.

This event is free and seats are first-come, first-serve; however, you can reserve two seats with the purchas of a featured book: The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Lives by Sasha Abramsky or The Poor Among Us: A History of Family Poverty and Homelessness in New York City by Ralph da Costa Nunez and Ethan G. Sribnick. To purchase a book contact Laura Lee at llee@tenement.org or 212.431.0233 ext 259.

BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY - APRIL 29

Demystifying Landmarks: A Panel Discussion
Tue, Apr 29, 6:30pm

$5/FREE for BHS Members
** Reserve/b (http://brooklynhistory.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cf0ded2e6441a8992bb00a824&id=3a91d6fd87&e=2deafc9969)
** uy your ticket (http://brooklynhistory.us5.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=cf0ded2e6441a8992bb00a824&id=98b1807630&e=2deafc9969)

You own a brownstone or live in a landmarked district, but what happens when you want to make a repair or change? A Landmarks Preservation Commission representative, architect Tom van den Bout, building managers, and others give guidance.
** (http://brooklynhistory.us5.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=cf0ded2e6441a8992bb00a824&id=3bba4647bb&e=2deafc9969)

BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY - LATE APRIL

BHS is home to a full weekend of Zines, self-published magazines from Brooklyn and beyond. Hundreds of vendors fill the building exhibiting and selling their inventive work. Panel discussions on Saturday and Sunday dive into questions of identity, collecting, and anonymity in zine culture. Called "the best reassurance that print will survive" by the Village Voice, this is a weekend festival not to miss!


Wallabout Walking Tour
Sat, Apr 26, 11am
$25/$15 for BHS Members
** Buy your ticket (http://brooklynhistory.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cf0ded2e6441a8992bb00a824&id=b74f296135&e=2deafc9969)

The Wallabout Historic District, near the Brooklyn Navy Yard, contains one of the largest concentrations of intact pre-Civil War wood-frame rowhouses in the entire city! ** Wooden House Project (http://brooklynhistory.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cf0ded2e6441a8992bb00a824&id=b2acede396&e=2deafc9969)
's Chelcey Berryhill and Elizabeth Finkelstein shine a light on the fascinating early roots.

** (http://brooklynhistory.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cf0ded2e6441a8992bb00a824&id=af783a2a22&e=2deafc9969)

NEW YORK CITY TIMELINE - 1800

1800

Jan 7 The ship Liverpool Packet arrives in New York, having survived a serious storm soon after departing England. Jan 23 Lawyer, historian and politician Gabriel Fuhrman is born in Brooklyn, to Judge William Fuhrman and his wife. Mar 15 Actor James Henry Hackett is born in New York, to Dutch immigrant Thomas G. Hackett and his wife. Jul 19 Joseph Corrrie, former French cook to an English officer, opens his Mount Vernon Garden restaurant in lower Manhattan at the northwest corner of Leonard Street. October The temperature does not fall below 36 degrees all month. New York City The population of the region is approximately 60,000.    **    Anne Greenleaf, widow of the Argus newspaper publisher Thomas Greenelaf, who died during the 1797 yellow fever epidemic, sells the newspaper to  Jame Cheetham.    **    Members of the local Masonic Order begin meeting in the former City Hall at Broadway, near Trinity Church; will continue to meet there through 1803.    **    The drain that runs through the future Canal Street is currently covered by a stone bridge, which will soon be removed when the drain is covered.    Bronx House of the Holy Comforter hospital is founded on the Grand Concourse at number 2751. Brooklyn Kings County (Brooklyn) has 5,740 inhabitants, chiefly of Dutch extraction. Nearly 60% of households have at least one slave, the highest percentage in the North.    **    Farmer Hendrick I. Lott moves the house his family built in Marine Park in 1719 to 1940 East 36th Street, joining it to a larger existing house.    **   The Brooklyn Post Office, with a staff of six, serves 36,000 residents.    **    The approximate date Johannes Van Nuyse begins building a home - the VanNuyse-Magaw House - on Flatlands property owned by his farming father Joost Van Nuyse.  Queens Former innkeeper Benjamin Lowerre builds a house and general store in the Alley Pond section of eastern Queens (today's Flushing).    **    The population is 6,642, up 7.8% over that of 1790.    **    U.S. Representative John Watson (W.) Lawrence is born in Flushing. © 2014 David Minor / Eagles Byte

ALBANY "GREAT WAR" BOOK PRESENTATION/SIGNING

When: Friday April 25, 2014
Time: 5:30 PM
Where: Huxley Theater
Cultural Education Center (State Museum building)
222 Madison Avenue, Albany NY 12230
Cost: Free and Open to the Public

It is no accident that the new book, Harlems Rattlers and the Great War by Jeffrey T. Sammons and John H. Morrow, Jr., virtually begins and ends with its most famous combat hero Henry Johnson--a man most closely identified with Albany, New York.

Sammons and Morrow believe that their book sheds new and revealing light on Henry Johnson and his cautionary tale. Join us for this presentation by Dr. Jeffrey Sammons.

Signed copies of the Harlems Rattlers and the Great War: The Undaunted 369th Regiment and the African American Quest for Equality will be available for purchase after Dr. Sammons' presentation.

The presentation by Jeffrey Sammons, sponsored by the New York State Library and the Friends of the State Library, will feature a display of several items from the New York State Archives on New York's 369th Regiment and Albany's hero, Henry Johnson.

WORLD BOOK NIGHT AT ST. MARK'S BOOKSTORE

World Book Night is April 23rd!
Help us give away this year's books
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

St. Mark's Bookshop invites you to come to the store Monday

evening, April 21 at 7 PM to hear about the national

literacy campaign known as World Book Night, and,
if desired, to receive a box of 20 free paperbacks to take

somewhere appropriate on April 23.

World Book Night U.S. is an ambitious campaign to give a

half million free, specially printed paperbacks to light

or non-readers across America on one day. The 25,000

volunteer book lovers will go into 6,000 communities to

seek out those without the means or access to printed

books. The volunteers go to such diverse locations as

hospitals, underfunded schools, food pantries, nursing

homes, community centers, and more.

World Book Night takes place on April 23, 2014 - 

Shakespeare's birthday - and is in its third year in

the U.S., after the UK launch in 2011. As part of World

Book Night, 2,300 bookstores and libraries serve as

community organizers for the book distribution to the

volunteer givers. WBN's reach includes all 50 states, 

Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, and military bases

in Germany, Guam, and Afghanistan.

The WBN picks are written by a wide array of award-winning

and bestselling adult and YA authors, as well as classics,

books in Spanish, and books in Large Print.This year will

see an original free WBN proprietary e-book with pieces by

authors, booksellers and librarians who were givers. The

assortment of WBN titles is based on diversity in subject

matter, age level, gender, ethnicity, and geography.