Glens Falls history comes alive on Chapman tour

Stefanik among final eight selections of vice presidential nod

Please consider supporting The Front Page with a paid subscription: HERE

There were 14 of us and we had just walked past the old Civil War monument on Bay Road in downtown Glens Falls.

Rebecca Tommell, the Chapman Museum's program and outreach coordinator, began telling us  a story about Henry Crandall as we stood under the shade trees in City Park where Crandall's home once stood.

Crandall, a self-made man from Lake George who became a rich lumber baron, left his stamp all over Glens Falls, designing a park outside the city that now bears his name and donating the land for City Park where Crandall Library now stands.

When he died at the age of 92 in 1913, the newspaper account of his burial said 1,000 people attended and and he was acclaimed the "grand old man."

  But Tommell smiled as she told another side of Crandall that might speak to how much he was really liked.

"This is my favorite story," she said.

She shared an old photo of the Civil War monument that showed a wrought iron fence around the obelisk that Crandall has insisted had to be there. The monument would have been across the street from where Crandall lived. But there is no fence today.

Tommell shared that when Crandall died on Feb. 19, 2013, work crews were immediately dispatched to take down the fence.

He wasn't even in the grave yet.

Apparently, some disagreed with the "grand old man" about at least one thing.

I had never heard the story before.

Led by Chapman Museum tour guide Rebecca Tommell, there were 14 of us exploring the history of downtown Glens Falls on Friday.

For more than 90 minutes, the 14 of us wandered around downtown Glens Falls to learn more about the city's history, its buildings and the people who shaped it. But here is what made it even better. The 14 of us shared our own information, what we remembered, what we had been told as we all learned from each other.

We were having a lot of fun.

We hear a lot these days there is not a lot of interest in history. Yet, last weekend some 600 people turned out to hear the historian/author Doris Kearns Goodwin speak in Saratoga. Some were on Friday's tour in Glens Falls.

As the tour continued, we looked over Henry Crandall's recently renovated carriage house across the street from City Park.

We learned that Susan B. Anthony once spoke at the First Baptist Church on Maple Street in 1920 and that there was a strong suffrage movement in Glens Falls.

We walked past the birthplace of Charles Evans Hughes on Center Street where a woman was relaxing on the porch. Hughes' long political career included a stint as governor of New York, chief justice of the Supreme Court and the Republican presidential candidate for president against Woodrow Wilson in 1916.

Over on Warren Street, we learned that the Conklin Center was once home to a prominent manufacturer of horse carriages.

What struck me as we moved on to Glen Street to hear the story of how Glens Falls got its name was there was more than enough history to go another couple hours.

We learned about Fountain Square turning into Bank Square and now Centennial Circle.

We learned there was once a grand hotel where Hudson Avenue now feeds into the intersection and that Ulysses S. Grant had once spoke there.

Rebecca Tommell of the Chapman Museum will be conducting downtown history tours every Friday at 11 a.m. for the rest of the summer.

There was not shortage of things to talk about.

Or questions to be answered.

It was a great way to spend an hour or so and there is another one every Friday during the summer.

The Chapman Museum will be conducting tours focusing on different parts of downtown Glens Falls' history for the rest of the summer.

On Friday, June 14, Tommell will be focusing on Warren Street's rich history from St. Mary’s Church to the Hyde Collection. The tour runs up one side of Warren Street and down the other with a look at the important figures who lived here and their many contributions to the success of the greater Glens Falls region. For next week's tour, participants are urged to park behind St. Mary’s Church in the designated church parking lot and meet in front of St. Mary’s Church where the tour will begin.

Tours are $15/person or $10 for Chapman members. Payment is required at time of registration. A minimum of four participants are required for tours to run and no more than 15.

Elise Stefanik and Aaron Woolf during 2014 congressional debate where Stefanik pledged to end “the negative partisan attacks.”

Reaching across the aisle

We all say things we regret when we are in our 20s.

I stumbled on a congressional debate with then 29-year-old Elise Stefanik from 2014. Democrat Aaron Woolf asks Stefanik a question about why she walked out on a press conference and if she supported vouchers for Medicare.

"Unlike you, I want to actually work across the aisle to fix these programs," Stefanik responded. "This is what's wrong with Washington. This is what people are tired of is the negative partisan attacks and I hope to work across the aisle to solve these issues."

Not only has Stefanik failed in that regard, she has become one of the most partisan members of Congress and one of the most negative.

Stefanik in Elite Eight

Politico reported this week that Elise Stefanik is among the final eight candidates under consideration to be Donald Trump's vice president.

Also being considered for vice president are: Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Sen. Marco Rubio and U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, both from Florida, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota.

During a weekly discussion on PBS NewsHour Friday, Washington Post Editor Jonathan Capehart believed that Stefanik would be chosen as Trump's running mate .

"She has sold her soul to Donald Trump," he said.

The Times Union reported that if Stefanik was chosen to be on the ballot, she would have to give up her congressional seat. The only other announced Republican is newcomer Jill Lochner.

"Rather than holding another primary to seek Stefanik’s replacement, which is prohibited by state law, a majority of members of local Republican committees in each county in the 21st Congressional District would vote on a new nominee to place on the ballot," the Times Union reported.

It is doubtful that would be Lochner since none of the committees in the district have even met with her.

I would expect that state Sen. Dan Stec would immediately throw his hat into the ring to become Stefanik's replacement.

Belmont weekend

Saratoga Race Course kicked off a four-day racing meet on Thursday.

I was a little surprised to see the the attendance was only 22,000. There was rain in the forecast so that may have hurt the turnout. But then on Friday - and there was more rain late in the afternoon - the attendance was just 18,000.

But Saturday made up for it. The estimate was 50,000, but in my 30 years going to the track I have not seen a larger crowd and I covered the Travers for at least 10 years.

The longest lines were for the rest rooms.

I managed to find a spot 10 deep along the rail next to the starting gate for the start of The Belmont Stakes. That was the last I saw of a live horse. I went back under the grandstand to see the rest of the race.

I’ve covered the Belmont Stakes a few times over the years, and I don’t recall more excitement or enthusiasm at any of those races.

Reb Lobster future

If the Red Lobster bankruptcy plan is approved, the Queensbury location on Upper Glen Street will be one of the restaurants closed.

If you are a fan of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on HBO, he devoted his final segment to Red Lobster last week saying the best thing about the restaurant chain was the dinner rolls.

He also announced that he had purchased the entire contents of the Red Lobster in Kingston, NY and moved it to his set in New York City where waiters and waitresses proceeded to give out dinner rolls to the customers.

It Can't Happen Here?

Continued

In a continuation of my concern from earlier this week about whether democracy can slip away in our country, the appointment of two congressmen at the request of Donald Trump to the House Intelligence Committee should be of special concern.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson appointed Rep.  Ronny Jackson (former White House physician) and Rep. Scott Perry to a committee that is privy to oversight of the intelligence agencies and privy to the most sensitive of nation al security issues.

Rep. Elise Stefanik is also on that committee.

Rep. Perry played a significant role in Trump's effort to overturn the election results in 2020. Perry was among 11 GOP members involved with the Trump administration in the weeks after the election in discussing how they could reverse the results.

Perry also encouraged supporters to march on the Capitol on Jan. 6 while playing an active role in replacing acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen with what the New York Times described as "more compliant official, Jeffrey Clark, willing to back Mr. Trump's bid to stay in power."

Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.