We are heading into Fall on a high note. We are still basking in the glow of our very successful 50th Anniversary Gala held at the end of September. We are pleased to report that our major construction project is almost completed – but there is always more to do! Burden Iron Works Museum visitation has been strong. Tour planning for this Fall and for next year is underway. As part of our 50th anniversary commemoration, this newsletter includes an interview with Gateway Founder and preservation architect John G. Waite, who recalls the Gateway’s early days and the birth of the industrial preservation movement.

50th Anniversary Gala

Friends of the Gateway celebrated our 50th anniversary in style September 26 at the Country Club of Troy. After a round of socializing, dinner was served, and Executive Director Susan Ouellette began the program by reviewing events of the past year. She highlighted the renovation work at the Burden Iron Works Office Building that increased the building’s “curb appeal,” such as the new front steps and the renovated and repainted window sashes and storm windows, but also stressed the importance of the improvements that are not obvious, particularly the new attic and skylight insulation.

Ouellette then introduced Tom McGuire, the Gateway’s first executive director. He recounted the hard work of the Gateway’s founders, particularly Rev. Tom Phelan, Dr. Edward Vandercar, Ellie Pattison, William Grattan, Jack Waite, and John Mesick in enlisting all the local communities into the Gateway’s industrial preservation vision. He highlighted that finances were a challenge then (and still are), but the young Gateway was fortunate to receive generous funding from the National Endowment for the Arts for its ground-breaking “City Edges” study on integrating industrial preservation into city planning.

The Gateway can trace its origin back to the Preservation Committee of the Rensselaer County Historical Society (now the Hart Cluett Museum). Kathy Sheehan, Hart Cluett Museum executive director, read remarks prepared by former museum curator Stacy Pomeroy Draper. Stacy was married to the late Steve Draper, an early Gateway employee (and designer of the Gateway logo), and they briefly lived in the apartment at the Burden Iron Works Office Building. She entertainingly described what it was like living amid the industrial wilderness that surrounded the building in the early days.

Here's to another fifty years!

Museum Restoration Work Nearly Complete

The restoration work at the Burden Iron Works Office Building was moving ahead nicely last summer, until the crew from Bunkoff General Contractors was called away to work on some school projects that had to be completed before the school year started. Once they returned, however, they made rapid progress on the remaining work, which principally involved finishing the front steps and the basement stairs. This work is now complete, and Bunkoff has removed the construction fencing, planted grass in the affected areas, and cleaned up the grounds. The work remaining to be done includes the installation of a handrail and decorative railings for the cheek walls of the front steps. These railings went missing years ago, but our architects at MCWB created plans for them based on images of the Burden Iron Works Office Building shortly after its completion in 1882. They will be fabricated by Keicher Metal Arts in Cairo, N.Y. We hope to raise additional funding to fabricate and install similar railings at the Paymaster’s entrance.

Museum Visits and Tour Program

Our first full season of being open on a regular basis for tours of the Burden Iron Works Museum has gone very well. We have hosted approximately 600 visitors, including groups from the Bennington Museum, the Hudson Valley Community College Center for Creative Retirement, Beechwood and Shaker Pointe senior living residences, American Cruise Lines, and an energetic group of Scouts. We will remain open through early December, with a break for Thanksgiving. Watch our Facebook page and web page for further information.

We are hoping to offer our “History of the Modern Horseshoe” tour to the water wheel site in November, but we are currently working out some access issues. As previously announced, we were not able to offer our famed “Troy’s Tiffany Treasures” tour this year, but we are planning to organize a tour for Spring 2025 – if we can fit it in among the various weddings. Again, watch our Facebook page and web page for updates.

Jack Waite Talks About Gateway Early Days and the Origins of Industrial Preservation

Gateway Founder John G. “Jack” Waite grew up in Troy near the old Union Station, so his early interest in industrial sites is understandable. Jack attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, where he received degrees in Building Science and Architecture. He continued his education at Columbia University, which offered the first and only historic preservation program in the U.S. at the time. After a Columbia fellowship spent traveling in Europe – including behind the Iron Curtain to study the preservation of historic buildings– he returned to the U.S. and worked for the Ford Foundation on historic preservation, as well as other urban issues and initiatives, mostly in New York City. Jack was then hired as one of the first staff members of the New York Historic Trust, created by Gov. Nelson Rockefeller as the state’s historic preservation agency. This brought him back to the Capital District. (The Historic Trust later evolved into the current State Historic Preservation Office.) Jack left state employment in 1975 to become a partner in an established architecture firm, which became John G. Waite Associates, Architects in 1995.

In a wide-ranging interview, Jack reviewed the successes and failures of historic preservation locally and his role in establishing the Gateway. Following are some of the highlights of the interview.

Saving the Gurley Building. As a resident of downtown Troy, as well as a preservation architect, Jack was very concerned over proposals to demolish the Gurley Building at the end of his block as part of Troy’s initial urban renewal plan. (The Gurley Building was constructed in the1860s for the W. & L.E. Gurley Co., makers of precision instruments. See the Fall 2022 issue of the Gateway Newsletter).

Jack related how the Gurley Building was saved. “I went to a public hearing in Troy soon after I joined the Historic Trust where I spoke with the urban renewal agency’s planning consultant. I mentioned the Gurley building was nationally significant and was going to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places. He replied, ‘That doesn’t mean anything; it will be torn down within the year and you can count on it.’”

The Gurley company had just been sold out of local ownership to the conglomerate Teledyne, Inc. At this point Gateway Founder Rev. Tom Phelan entered the fray.

“Tom goes to see Sen. [Jacob] Javits, who he knew,” Jack said, “and while he was in Javits’ office the Senator called the chairman of Teledyne, and said we don’t want you to tear that building down. Several weeks later Tom gets a call from the wife of the chairman of Teledyne, saying she’s interested in antiques and historic buildings, and of course the company wouldn’t tear it down.” The building still stands. Jack added that the building soon became a National Historic Landmark, and that the area around Fifth Avenue became the first historic district to go on the National Register in New York State.

Founding of the Gateway. The Gateway grew out of the Preservation Committee of the Rensselaer County Historical Society (RCHS) (now the Hart Cluett Museum), Jack said. The committee was an initiative of his and Tom Phelan’s.

The RCHS was an early supporter of historic preservation in Troy, beginning with acquisition of the Hart-Cluett House, and later participating in the effort to save the Fifth Avenue Brownstones in the mid-1960s. “We realized that a new advocacy organization was needed to promote the preservation of industrial buildings,” Jack said. “As Tom McGuire observed, the Gateway was established with a dynamic board made up of prominent local figures who had influence on local governments. The board helped them to realize that old buildings could be assets to the communities rather than liabilities. The Gateway was unique among cultural organizations because it was set up purely as an advocate for industrial preservation.”

Fortuitously at about the same time, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) had a new urban design program called City Edges, which encouraged historic preservation. As part of the program, NEA had interest in promoting the preservation of industrial buildings. Jack said the NEA approached the state first, “and we said there was an organization being set up in Troy just to preserve industrial buildings. They thought that was just terrific.” However, their funding deadline was coming up quickly, and they could only give grants to 501(c)3 organizations. So, Jack and Gateway Founder and attorney Carl Engstrom went to the Internal Revenue Service office in New York City and “walked the application through” to obtain 501(c)3 tax-exempt status for the Gateway.

The NEA grant supported the Gateway in its early days while it researched and completed the study on industrial preservation and urban regeneration which became the City Edges publication. The grant also provided money for staffing. “Tom McGuire was hired [as executive director], so we got going,” Jack said. (See the Summer 2024 issue of the Gateway Newsletter for an interview with Tom McGuire.)

“Then we got the Burden Building [from Republic Steel],” Jack said. “At first the intention was that the Gateway would not be a property-owning organization, because once that happens it is very time- and resource- consuming. But the Burden Building was going to be lost, and the only alternative at that time was for the Gateway to take it.” The aim was that the Gateway would take title to the building and then turn it over to the new Hudson Mohawk Urban Cultural Park, which would operate it as a visitors’ center. Unfortunately, this never occurred.

He added, “Republic Steel was stripping out the elaborate wood interiors. We suspect they wound up in basement rec rooms of Republic Steel executives in Cleveland.”

The logo for the Society for Industrial Archeology features an image of the Troy Gasholder Building

The Gateway, the SIA and the “Brown Book.” It is interesting that the Gateway formed at the same time that interest in industrial preservation was growing worldwide. The First International Conference on the Conservation of Industrial Monuments (FICCIM) was held in the Spring of 1973 at Ironbridge Gorge in England.

It was attended by Jack and Tom Phelan. Also in 1973, the Association for Industrial Archaeology was founded in the U.K.

Poster for second SIA conference, held in Troy

The Society for Industrial Archaeology (SIA) had been established in 1971 in the U.S. Jack and Tom Phalen participated in the initial meeting at the Smithsonian that led to the founding of the SIA. They convinced the SIA to adopt a drawing of the Troy Gas Holder House as the organization’s logo, and they offered to host the SIA’s second annual meeting in 1973 in Troy.

The meeting was held at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. “Tom Phelan and I got people from all over the country to speak and we gave bus tours,” Jack said. “It was a great event and we actually made money.” He said the Gateway publication Industrial Archeology in Troy, Waterford, Cohoes, Green Island, and Watervliet, popularly known as the “Brown Book” for the color of its cover, was created especially for the SIA meeting.

With the meeting only a month away, they had to work quickly, Jack said. He wrote the guide with his wife, architectural historian Diana Waite. Fred Cawley (honoree at the Gateway’s 2019 Gala) and Chuck Porter helped. Architect and Gateway Founder John Mesick drew the iconic image of the Burden Water Wheel that graces the cover.

“We got it done”, Jack said. “And it has been called the first Industrial Archaeology guide in the U.S.”.

Asked how buildings and structures were selected for inclusion in the book, Jack replied, “We got a small group of people together and we just made a list. Most of them were buildings we had known about and started to research. It’s not good that a lot of them have been torn down. Some of the buildings we included were ones that looked like they were going to be lost anyway, so we put in properties like the Meneely [bell] foundry [in Watervliet] as a last-ditch effort to save them.”

He noted that it didn’t work for that one, but it did work for the Peebles Island Bleachery, as well as the River Street warehouses, all of which were going to be torn down. He added that, unfortunately, a number of buildings were lost between the guide’s publication in 1973 and its second printing in 1983.

In summing up his experience with the early days of the Gateway, Jack said, “Visitors came from across the U.S. to see the innovative work being carried out in the five Hudson Mohawk Industrial Gateway communities. We even had leaders of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum in England come to Troy to meet with us. For a very short period of time, Troy was the go-to place for people interested in industrial preservation”.

Newsletter - Fall 2024

50th Anniversary Gala

Museum Restoration Work Nearly Complete

Museum Visits and Tour Program

Jack Waite Talks About Gateway Early Days and the Origins of Industrial Preservation