Newsletter - Fall 2023
Gala Honoring Patrick Quinn a Great Success
More than 100 friends gathered September 28 at the Country Club of Troy for our Gala honoring Gateway founder, preservation pioneer and former dean of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute School of Architecture Patrick Quinn. Members of his extended family came from across the country. Patrick regaled the crowd with an informative and humorous account of the various forces that drew him to Troy. He related the story of the founding of the Gateway at the Troy Club in 1973, and recognized Tom McGuire, the Gateway’s first executive director. He also commented on some of the present and future challenges facing historic preservation and urban planning in Troy. He was presented with a certificate of recognition from Congressman Paul Tonko, and even better, a small stained glass panel with the Gateway’s logo of the Burden Iron Works Museum crafted by Gateway President Fred Alm.
Burden Iron Works Museum Update
Work continues on the renovation of the Burden Iron Works Museum exhibit space . Significant progress has been made and we expect to be able to sign contracts later this year for major projects to be started this winter or next spring. In the meantime, thanks to the hard work of contractors and Gateway volunteers, we have already been able to improve our display of bells, stoves, and other cast objects; we have created a new space in the museum that will highlight our precision instrument collection, particularly items from local firms W. & L.E. Gurley and Geier & Bluhm; and we have reconfigured the Burden Water Wheel diorama to better fit our space. Exterior improvements include a refurbished handicap ramp, the construction of temporary stairs to the main entrance pending the rebuilding of the historic masonry steps, and the installation of exterior lighting. We appreciate your patience as we strive to complete the work necessary to be able to reopen our museum.
Our new lamp post outside the paymaster's entrance
A view of the future precision instrument exhibit room
Rototillers ready to be moved to new location
The new stove display
Gateway Acquires Print Depicting Troy’s Early Industrial History
Last summer the Gateway acquired this fascinating print depicting Troy’s very early industrial history. The watercolor, titled “Mills near Troy with Mount Ida Falls” by Dr. Edward Livingston, was discovered in the digital collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston by Gateway Executive Director Emeritus Michael Barrett. The image shows the intersection of Spring Avenue, Hill Street and Ida Street, looking east toward the main falls on the stream (known as both Mount Ida Falls and the Poestenkill Gorge Falls), which are barely seen over the tree line. Two lower dams producing waterpower for the mills are clearly visible. The MFA lists the date of the work to circa 1830, but research done by Barrett places it slightly later. Importantly, the mill on the right has a notation that it belongs to “Covill,” which would change the date to post-1836, as the mill belonged to Townsend McCoun until his death in 1835, after which it was purchased by Stephen Covill. On the right, at the bottom of Linden Avenue, is the mill and distillery of Ephraim Morgan. In the middle is the Isaac Merritt fulling mill, which is also believed to have produced limestone-based plaster of Paris.
An early view of the industries located at the foot of Mt. Ida Falls.
Barrett paid the MFA to photographically reproduce the image, had a copy made, and donated the print to the Gateway. Board Member Steve Muller had the image framed, and the Gateway is grateful to both of them. A suitable spot to display the painting at the Burden Iron Works Museum will be found once the museum renovation is completed.
Cohoe’s Magnificent Harmony Mills
Cohoes Falls on the Mohawk River is the second highest waterfall in the state of New York, surpassed only by Niagara Falls. The Mohawk Indians called the mighty Cohoes Falls the “Place of the Falling Canoe;” it was a place of beauty and cultural importance. When the Dutch laid claim to the land in the 1630s, merchant Kiliaen Van Rensselaer bought most of what became Rensselaer and Albany counties. He allowed a small farming community to grow along the banks of the river and on Van Schaick Island.
Power Canal intake at Harmony Mills
View of turbines in basement of Mill No. 3
In 1823, the Erie Canal came to Cohoes. Bypassing the Mohawk River at the falls, the Erie Canal ran through the city and southward, opening the Great Lakes to the Hudson River, enabling goods and people to move back and forth from the Midwest to New York City and then the world. Uniquely positioned by the falls, the Erie Canal and the river, Cohoes began to grow with iron and textiles as the main industries.
Aiding the growth of industry in Cohoes was the development of a power canal, designed by civil engineer Canvass White and first opened in 1834. The power canal diverted water from above the falls and directed it to various industrial sites along the canal. When the route of the Erie Canal through Cohoes was revised in the 1840s, some segments of the old Erie Canal were incorporated into the power canal system.
The booming textile industry gave the city the nickname “Spindle City.” In 1832 the Egberts & Bailey company in Cohoes was the first in America to develop and use water-powered knitting machines. The cotton for the machines and every other textile-related enterprise came from the slave labor of plantations in the South.
Peter Harmony came to Cohoes in 1836 and opened a textile factory along the river and canal called the Harmony Manufacturing Company. He built his mill near the falls and used the power canal to turn the powerful turbines that drove his spinning machines. This factory would become Mill No. 1, the oldest part of Harmony Mills. The remnants of both Erie Canals and the power canal can still be found along North Mohawk Street.
But Peter Harmony went bankrupt in 1850, and his mill was sold at auction. The buyers were Thomas Garner, a New York City merchant, and Nathan Wild. Garner and Wild were persuaded to buy the bankrupt business by Robert Johnston, who worked for Wild as a plant manager. He saw the potential for greatness. Asked to run the new mill, Johnston built the largest and greatest textile mill in the state.
Historic marker showing Mill No. 3 drive system
In 1853, the Harmony Manufacturing Company became Harmony Mills. They added a new wing to Mill No. 1. Mill No. 2 was built in 1857. By 1862, the two mills had 78,000 spindles run by 1,300 mill hands, including many children, which was an accepted practice at the time.
Johnston also built a company town for the workers. The tenements on Cataract Street were built in 1853. Seventy acres of farmland on the hill above the mills were built up with more tenements, houses for supervisors, and company buildings. Johnston’s own home was on the hill overlooking the mill. The company soon owned all the cotton manufacturing mills in Cohoes, and Johnston planned Harmony Mills’ largest mill yet.
In 1866, the company began building Mill No. 3 above the Mohawk River gorge, just south of the falls. When digging close to the river, the bones of a mastodon were found in the mud, giving the huge quarter-mile-long factory the nickname “Mastodon Mill.” The bones have been reassembled and are on display at the New York State Museum in Albany.
The northern half of the building came first and the rest was finished in 1872. The architect/engineer was David Van Auken of New York City. The completed Mill No. 3 is over 1,110 feet long and was the largest individual cotton factory in the world. It contained 130,000 spindles and 2,700 looms. A work force of 2,500 people produced 700,000 yards of cotton fabric per week.
The real wonders of Mill No. 3 are the two 800-horse-power Boyden water turbines in the basement. Unlike Henry Burden across the Hudson River in Troy, who built the world’s most powerful vertical water wheel, Harmony Mills chose to use water turbines to harness the power of the falls and the river. These turbines ran the belts that turned the shafts that made the spindles and looms run. They are the largest and most powerful turbines ever manufactured to supply direct power for an American manufacturing plant.
Installed between 1871 and 1873, they are the oldest turbines still in place in an American factory. There were three smaller turbines in Mill No. 3, as well as smaller turbines in the other mills, some still visible. In 1969, the turbines and the mill were placed in the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) as important examples of American manufacturing.
In 1872, while Mill No. 3 was being completed, Johnston purchased the Van Benthuysen Paper Mill just down the road. It was renovated to resemble the Second Empire style Mill No. 3, with a new tower and attic. It was renamed Mill No. 4 and manufactured the cloth bags that were used to ship the mill products.
The workforce at the mill before 1872 was mostly Irish and English. Johnston, who was born in England, recruited skilled Irish and English weavers to come to Cohoes. Over 5,000 came between 1866 and 1867, joining the Irish workforce already here.
In 1872, when Mill No. 3 was completed, workers from French-speaking Quebec began to be recruited. Almost everyone lived in company housing. Unmarried workers lived in dormitories, while married workers with families lived in houses and tenements. Most of the unskilled workers were young, unmarried, immigrant women. Women, no matter their jobs, made less money than the men standing beside them doing the same job.
The mill employed entire families. Hundreds of children worked the same hours as their parents, employed mostly in the spinning operation. Their small size and nimble fingers enabled them to move between the spindles, changing them. They were only paid a fraction of the low wages paid to the adults. Many workers of all ages were injured on the job and the long days and six-day-a-week schedule also took their toll.
Strikes shut Harmony Mills down several times, but Harmony Mills never had the long-term strikes other mills, including in Troy, had. Johnston was seen as a fair man who had come up through the ranks, having been a talented mule spinner and weaver in England. Robert Johnston died in 1890 and his son David took over as general manager. By the early 20th century, however, the textile industry in the Northeast began to move to the South in search of cheaper and more compliant labor.
In 1910, the Mills were sold to the Draper Company of Massachusetts. They modernized the equipment, but it was too late. In the Depression year of 1932, Harmony Mills closed and sold off its equipment and all its buildings, including the housing. Mill No. 3 sold for only $2,500.
Smaller companies occupied parts of the mill through the 20th century. Talk of tearing it all down for public housing was averted by a campaign led by area preservationists. In 1971 Mill No. 3 was placed on the State and National Register of Historic Places. At the time, it was almost empty, with broken windows. In 1995 Mill No. 2 burned to the ground. A serious fire damaged Mill No. 1 in 1998. That year, the entire complex was placed on the National Register.
Developer Uri Kaufman bought the Harmony Mills complex in 2000. He then began a multi-year, multi-million-dollar restoration and residential conversion. The first stage of the renovated apartment complex was opened in 2005. The project has won many preservation awards, and today is one of the most impressive and beautiful projects of its kind. Harmony Mills is once more the pride of Cohoes.
This article was contributed by Gateway board member Suzanne Spellen, who also blogs on architecture and history as “Spellen of Troy.” Photo credits: Suzanne Spellen, Library of Congress.
Restored: Harmony Mills today