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Resources I've collected related to (New York) history and architecture. More to come!

How to read Sanborn maps:

Interpreting Sanborn Maps | Library of Congress
How to Interpret Sanborn Maps | Historical Information Gatherers

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August 20251
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Railroad-side: 7 Madison Street, Troy

( Read this post as a pdf with footnote citations here .) This is the first in a series of posts examining buildings and structures adjacent to current and former railroads in Troy, NY. Photo by Tabitha O'Connell, May 30, 2025. At 7 Madison Street in Troy, adjacent to the still-in-use tracks of the New York Central Railroad (now operated by CSX), is this former warehouse/mill/grain elevator. The building’s history starts with Oliver Boutwell, a baker who established a flour mill at 651 River Street in Troy in the late 1830s [1]. His son Charles joined the business in 1866, and it became O. Boutwell & Son; after Oliver’s death in 1888, Charles took over the company, renaming it the Boutwell Milling & Grain Co. in 1892 (Anderson 316, 156). It specialized in rye flour, which it sold under the brand name “Upper Hudson Rye Flour” (“Van Alstyne”). By 1895, it was purportedly the largest flour mill in the region (Citizens Association of Troy 31). After Charles retired in 1896, man...

Origins: 22-24 Fourth Street, Troy

"Origins" posts will be fairly short, focusing on how/when/why a building came to be. Photo by Tabitha O'Connell, June 22, 2023. Today known as the Troy Innovation Garage, this building is said to have once been the home of the Troy Automobile Exchange—a name the facade now bears following the building's 2016-and-onward rehabilitation. Actually, though, it merely stands on the former site of the Exchange, which was destroyed by fire in 1921. The current building was constructed later that year as a commercial and social space. The previous building on the site was constructed by 1885 as a livery stable (Sanborn 1885, Anderson 164) and around 1905 became the home of the Troy Automobile Exchange, operated by Kelly & Dennin ("Automobiles") . On January 20, 1921, Jacob and Morris Weinstein, owners of Weinstein Brothers New York Store in Troy, bought the building ( Grantee Index ); they leased it to the Auto Exchange, which continued to operate there, but the...

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