Uncovering The Past

Uncovering The Past
By Dr. Paul Loatman Jr., City Historian

The repairing of Park Avenue has exposed part of Mechanicville's past which older residents may have forgotten, and about which younger ones are unaware: the roles of the brick, power, and trolley industries in the local economy. Each of these activities was connected to the other in a symbiotic relationship, although there was nothing inherent in them that would automatically make them dependent on each other. Rather, geographical and historical factors tied them together in Mechanicville in a manner which may have been unique.

In 1882, local businessman H.O. Bailey and five fellow investors organized the Stillwater and Mechanicville Railway, a three-and-a-half-mile, horse-down service connecting the two villages. The line was not opened until April 1883, because of unseasonable weather, but once completed, it carried an average of 50,000 passengers annually at regular forty-minute intervals between 6:00 a.m. and 11:40 p.m. each day. Profits were small but steady, surpluses being returned to investors seven of its first ten years of operation. The cost of the project was $16,000 (about one-hundredth of what it would cost today), an amount covered easily when contractor A.J. Hutchinson accepted stock in lieu of cash for his services.

In 1892, Troy traction magnate Joseph Powers gained control of the railway and immediately set out to replace horses with electric power, a motive force first introduced in Richmond in 1888. The first electric trolley passed through Mechanicville on Christmas Day, 1895. Powers now cast his corporate gaze over a wider area, and before long, he controlled all traction lines between Troy and Glens Falls, later extending service to Warrensburg. Running parallel to the Delaware and Hudson Railway, the Hudson Valley (as Powers' system came to be known) soon began to compete with the steam railroad for valuable passenger service between the Capital District and Lake George resorts. And, though nominally a passenger service, the Hudson Valley continued to cut further into the revenues of the D&H by capturing some of the freight transfer business at Mechanicville. Unable to stand by idly while its business was being threatened, the D&H bought out Powers and gained control of the electric railway in 1906.

Mechanicville interests played another important roll in the development of inter-urban trolley service in upstate New York. In 1899, some of the original investors in the Hudson River Water Power and Paper Co. organized the Hudson River Power Transmission Co. and built a dam two miles south of the HRWP&P dam. The state Supreme Court ordered the new company to lower its dam height by a couple of feet because it backed up water onto the paper company's property. However, the Transmission Co. achieved a major technological breakthrough when it sent DC power over transmission lines to the Edison Co. in Schenectady, the first time in history this had been accomplished. Soon thereafter, the new company became the chief supplier of electric power to the Hudson Valley trolley lines throughout the Capital District. The importance of the power dam became apparent in 1913 when devastating floods overran the company's powerhouse, leading to a complete shutdown of all trolley service in most of northeastern New York State for an extended period.

Mechanicville Mercury editor Farrington L. Mead and other area residents were none too enamored of the Hudson Valley line once it passed out of the hands of local investors; they became downright hostile with the takeover of the franchise by the steam railroad. The new management cut back service at the same time that it increased fares. Then, when fares between Mechanicville and Stillwater were doubled in 1913, Mead charged the corporation with outright extortion. Intra-urban fares were raised by 20% in 1917, and when local residents raised a howl anew, the D&H justified the hike by contending that "the early activities of the corporation were morally indefensible......" The State Public Service Commission was not so ready, however, to sit in judgment of the original managers of the Hudson Valley. Rather, it blamed the poor service and excessive fares on the unwise management policies initiated by the D&H takeover in 1906, thus continuing Mead's frequent reference to the D&H as "the SKUNK."

Having purchased the electric railway when it dominated interurban passenger service, the D&H fancied that it had pulled off quite a coup. However, as automobiles began to reproduce as rapidly as rabbits, railroad President L. F. Loree was heard to wonder if the steam line had not purchased a white elephant. Efforts to avoid the inevitable by introducing trackless trolleys and motorbusses could not stem the tide, and in 1926, the original connection between Mechanicville and Stillwater was discontinued. Less than two years later, the entire right-of-way was abandoned, and when in December 1928, fifty wooden coaches were put to the torch, the Hudson Valley Railway passed from the scene in a blaze of glory.

The demise of the electric railway coincided with the automation of the Boston and Maine freight yard here, and together, these moves significantly reduced job opportunities locally. At the same time, reduced transportation options curtailed workers' abilities to find employment outside Mechanicville, and henceforth, virtually all who worked here lived here. In contrast, today only a small part of the local population works here, and we have been transformed from a mill town to a bedroom community. The possible restoration of rail commuter service here in the future may bring us full circle in that regard to where we were 100 years ago. As to the importance of waterpower in generating electricity, coal and oil-fired plants have relegated hydro-dams to a secondary position. However, increased environmental concerns may make waterpower an attractive clean alternative in the future. How the local brick industry factored into all of this from a historical standpoint will be developed in a future article.