Clingstone story in Old House Journal
The Old House Journal with the Clingstone story is on the newsstands. It is the May 2011 issue. Click here to see the online version. Please click on the photos to see them in a pop-out window. And keep in mind that the volunteer weekend is coming up . It is a blast.
Day Peckinpaugh / Erie Canal
I was mostly crazed yesterday. Sometime over the weekend, I either lost, misplaced, or had stolen some important mail. I was preoccupied by it most of the day. So much so that at about 2 o’clock I just wanted to crawl into bed and sleep. For some reason, I decided to mess around with my web site instead. I had been wanting to update it fore a while, especially the projects page.
Several years ago, the New York State Museum rescued the Day Peckinpaugh from imminent scrapping. It was in Erie, PA, and by some miracle Craig Williams got a hold of it just before its demise. Most amazing was that he found someone who had actually worked on the ship while it was still an active hauler, and who knew his way around the engines. So they fired them up and started the journey from Erie to Waterford, NY.
The Peckinpaugh was built in 1921 and when it was retired in 1994, it was the last working freighter on the Erie Canal. I think I remember hearing that it was hauling concrete at that time.
I got the chance to be on her for much of the trip across New York State on the canal. It was late October / early November and the weather could not have been better. A really interesting group of people too.
John Callaghan was the skipper, and you can see by the concentration on his face that it was an intense job for him and his crew. The ship travelled mostly by her own power, but on occasion tug boats came in to help out.
So, at the end of the day, I still hadn’t found the mail, but at least I felt good about getting something productive done. To see more from the trip, check out the “projects” page of my main website (joncrispin.com) by clicking the link on the right (Jon’s main site).
The Church of the Holy Cross
The Church of the Holy Cross in Troy, NY was built in two stages in the 1840s. The nave was built in 1844 from a design by Alexander Jackson Davis. It is a very beautiful building which sadly is no longer a church. When the congregation dropped below twenty, the writing was on the proverbial wall. It was decommissioned (if that is the correct word) about a year ago. RPI is in the process of purchasing the building, which I suppose is good. I have such mixed feelings about buildings being used for something other than their original purpose. I am sure RPI will treat it with respect, and I hear that there are covenants in the sale agreement to protect the integrity of the building (it is on the National Register of Historic Places). / After Craig Williams and the Museum crew left, Fred Cawley was kind enough to give me a bit of a tour. Craig had encouraged me to go up the bell tower, and after shooting the nave and chancel, Fred and I went through a very narrow door and made the climb.
Lots of dead pigeons on the way up, and there seemed to be lots of live ones up by the bells.
And those ones flew around like crazy when I pulled on the yellow ropes. I really had no idea that they were connected anymore, and it was quite a surprise to hear the sound of bells above me. / I am not sure what the purpose of this box is, but it might be part of the clock mechanism. Quite a magical morning.
Peter Carroll
Here’s Peter shooting an interview for the Tilghman waterman’s project. Each time we go back to the island we meet new people, but it is always nice to visit some of the folks we spent time with on the earlier shoots. We got the chance to see some of our favorites which was really nice.
Avon Meat Land
I picked up Peter at Union yesterday. Schenectady is interesting. Initially it seemed a hopeless kind of place, but like all Northeastern post-industrial cities, there is much to be appreciated. He and I have driven past Avon Meat Land on a few occasions, and I knew sooner or later we would check it out. For the longest time we remembered it as Amos’ Meat Shack, and in fact this time we drove past thinking that this place and Amos’ just had similar names and were competitors. So not finding the Meat Shack, we did a u-turn and went here. Apparently it has been in business for 70 years. I bought about a pound of Italian sausages (made in Schenectady) and was amazed when the guy at the counter rang me up and said it would be $3.00. Cooked ’em up tonight with some peppers and onions. Very tasty.
Clingstone 2
I finished the Clingstone shoot for Old House Journal and delivered it at the end of the week. The article will hit the newsstands in early March and should be worth a look. The annual volunteer weekend is sometime around the Memorial Day weekend, and anyone who wants to help out is usually welcome.
190
I was in DC last week shooting Tom Carroll’s African art collection. I love walking in the neighborhoods around Tom’s house. / When my family was in Innsbruck in the mid 50s, we used to walk past a Mercedes dealership where there was a black 190 just like this one. My dad used to joke about buying it and bringing it back to the States, but even at that time these cars were way beyond our means. When I was photographing, the owner and his wife came out of their house and we had a nice chat. This one is a 1957 model, and it is in really nice shape.
Albanese Detail
There were lots of nice little details at Albanese’s. These meat hooks aren’t used anymore, but the design is both beautiful and functional.
Moe
I took the train into New York City on Tuesday and met Craig Williams at City Hall Park. He took me over to One Liberty Plaza to meet some of the September 11 Memorial folks and have a peek at the WTC site. We then went over to Engine Company 6 which is just an amazing place. / The main purpose of the trip was to photograph the Albanese Meats & Poultry shop on Elizabeth Street. The history is a bit too involved to get into, but Moe has been cutting meat here for a very long time. He worked with his mom, Mary for almost 50 years until she died in 2002 at the age of 97. He is an amazingly nice guy. I’ll post more soon.
Royal Palm
Peter Carroll and I went out for Indian food in Collegtown when I was in Ithaca. The Royal Palm has been there forever without much obvious change. It is a pretty cool building.
Jon Crispin's Notebook 
1 comment