Apologies. Through some sort of technical problem (or Senior Moment), the content of this wonderful webpage has been lost. It will hopefully soon be reconstructed. Click on the Valentine Flamingo category link for much more flamingo whimsy. Thanks for your patience.
Update (April 20, 2021): I just located all the photos from the original posting. Here’s a start. I shall return soon, if I can.
Posted in Stockade Views, Valentine Flamingos | Tags: Lawrence Circle, Valentine Flamingos
In October of this year, the residents of Schenectady’s Stockade Historic District, “the Stockade”, will be honored to welcome Haiku North America 2015 to Schenectady and to our very special neighborhood, during the HNA 2015 Conference. Union College, which is only half a mile down Union Street from the Stockade, will be hosting HNA 2015, the latest biennial version of the oldest and largest gathering of haiku poets in North America. This posting is an introduction to the Stockade for attendees and prospective attendees of the Conference. We hope to whet your appetite for learning more about and, more importantly, visiting the Stockade at least once during your stay at HNA 2015.
Originally a Dutch settlement, the Stockade is comprised of only 15 city blocks, with about 380 buildings spread over 82 acres, but this “living museum” represents a lot of history, living, neighborliness, and pride. The name Stockade refers to the sturdy fence built to protect the original settlement from attack by native and European antagonists. Indeed, as described on the Stockade Association ‘s History page, “In 1690, a party of French-Canadian and Indian marauders burnt the stockaded village to the ground, massacred most of its inhabitants and marched 27 prisoners back to Quebec. Native Mohawks, including ‘Lawrence the Indian,’ encouraged the hearty Dutch to resettle; by 1692, the Stockade area was once again a flourishing fur-trading outpost and a thriving industrial and commercial center marked by sturdy homes of local merchants, laborers and farmers of Dutch, English, and Scots heritage.” The Association ‘s History lesson begins:
The Stockade Historic District is the oldest [continuous] residential neighborhood in the country, with homes dating back to the 1690s. It is home to what the National Parks Service called “the highest concentration of historic period homes in the country,” with over 40 homes over 200 years old. It is the first Historic District established in New York.
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– above: views, in three seasons, from Cucumber Alley southward up Washington Avenue –
The Stockade is special in every season (browse suns along the Mohawk for more photographic evidence, such as our beautiful cherry blossoms; and click on the printable 1-page 2015 Calendar to the right of this paragraph). However, in keeping with the Autumn Term theme, the Slideshow below has scenes from several recent Octobers in the Stockade (actually from the Walkabout House Tour on the last Saturday of September to the Stockade-athon 15k road race, which takes place in early November). After the Slideshow, you will find more information and links about the Stockade and Schenectady.
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– map showing Union College, the Stockade District, Riverside Park, and the Mohawk River, etc. –
The Stockade Association History Page has much more on over three centuries of Schenectady’s evolution. The Associations’s Visitor Page has links to points of interest in the District and nearby. Naturally, Wikipedia has a multi-faceted entry on the Stockade Historic District. And, there are thousands of pictures, taken over the past 5 years, of the Stockade and its stretch of the Mohawk River, in suns along the Mohawk, with photography and a bit of commentary by David Giacalone (a/k/a the Editor at the weblog f/k/a). Its photobooks page has links that will let you view books focusing on the Stockade’s cemeteries, the amazing ice jams along the Mohawk, the romantic and mysterious visitation of a flock of pink flamingos to Lawrence Circle for Valentine’s Day, its floods, and more.
In a 2012 documentary by our local public television station, WHMT, called “Our Town Schenectady” (WMHT 2012; 58 minutes), you can view more of Schenectady and as told by its residents, with segments on the Stockade, the splendid Jackson’s Garden at Union College, and the historic and beautiful 66-acre Vale Cemetery,
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– above: two scenes from Vale Cemetery, which has an entrance 0.9 miles from the front Gates of Union College –
– October 2015 Calendar; click to enlarge or print –
– a companion posting depicts “October at Schenectady’s Riverside Park“, which is located on the northern border of the Stockade, along the Mohawk River, less than a mile from Union College –
– share this post with the url: http://tinyurl.com/HNA2015Stockade –
Posted in HNA 2015, river seasons, Stockade Views
Haiku North America 2015 will be coming to Union College, in Schenectady, from October 14 – 18, 2015, attracting many of the best-known English-language poets and publishers, along with haiku lovers of all kinds. Naturally, I believe the Stockade and Riverside Park are experiences not to miss if you love nature, history, beauty, architecture, and more. This posting is a quick introduction to Riverside Park for those planning to be at HNA 2015.
– blue heron on the Mohawk passing Riverside Park –
Riverside Park is a 7-acre park along the Mohawk River at the North end of Schenectady’s Stockade Historic District, less than a mile from the Union College campus. It offers visitors a slower pace and quieter experience than most urban waterfront parks. We plan to have a ginko stroll through the Stockade Historic District, including Riverside Park on Friday afternoon, October 16, for HNA 2015 attendees.
– map showing Union College & Riverside Park – click on it for a larger image –
With open views to the west, north and east, it is a favorite spot to watch sunsets all year long, from a bench, the swingset at the playlot, or the railing of the Park’s esplanade. Often the first place to flood along Schenectady’s stretch of the Mohawk River, it is also a prime location to watch ice floes and ice jams form in that same stretch of the River:
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The following Slideshow gives you a taste of Riverside Park in October, with views of and from the Park (through photos taken over the past several years from September 30 through the first week of November; for many photos of the Park in other seasons, see this post).
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You can read about the history of Rverside Park at the website of the Schenectady County Historical Society’s library.
– click to see a companion piece “October in the Schenectady Stockade” –
p.s. The Desmond Hotel is the designated hotel for HNA 2015. Haiku lovers should very much enjoy their koi pond.
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Posted in HNA 2015, river seasons, Riverside Park, Stockade Views | Tags: Mohawk River beauty, Riverside Park
– Lawrence Circle in the Schenectady Stockade – 03Feb2015 –
It was far too frigid out for both me and my camera yesterday, but the blue sky and calmer winds got me outside to visit Lawrence and the Christmas Tree this afternoon. It was worth the effort. I even brought back my new tradition from last year of photographing reflections of the Circle in the shiny, round tree decorations. When done, I headed up Green Street and was ambushed by red hearts on the tree at 38 North College Street. I could not resist a few more shots after finding a parking space. (Thanks to Susannah and Mathias for sprucing up their tree for another holiday.)
This Slideshow has about a dozen photos from my outing today. They are repeated in the Gallery below, where a click on a thumbnail will get you a larger version of each image.
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Speaking of romance in the Stockade, next week we will celebrate the first Valentine’s Day since I put together the photobook “Valentine Flamingos in the Schenectady Stockade“, which tells the history of our Valentine Flamingos from 2009 through 2014, in words and pictures. [Click the link-title to see the entire book with no obligation to buy; and, please, don’t pay the high Shutterfly retail price if the book captures you. See below.]
Over the decades, there have been several times I could have used the whimsy and beauty of the book as a Valentine’s gift for a special woman or child. If you’d like to please a Stockade spouse, lover, child, or friend with a Valentine’s Day memento, or show your Stockade charms to an outsider (in book form), I have a few copies that I can supply to a romantic of any age for my cost to print them ($22 each). If interested in my three other Stockade photobooks, click here; they are also available at my cost.
On February 14, we’ll see whether the flamingo tradition continues, or if the flock passes us by.
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– [L] Lawrence with a decorated branch of the 2015 Stockade Tree; [R] red hearts grace an evergreen at North College & Green Streets –
The Gallery below has each of the photos found in the Slideshow above. Click on a thumbnail for a larger version in a Carousel, then scroll down to the Full Size Link.
Posted in Stockade Views | Tags: Lawrence Circle, Stockade Christmas Tree
Many thanks to all who have visited suns along the Mohawk in 2014 for a taste of the Schenectady Stockade neighborhood along the Mohawk River. We send our best wishes for a joyous holiday season and a New Year in which we all remember to enjoy life’s little joys and many sources of beauty.
Here is a one-page 2015 calendar celebrating the uniqueness of Cucumber Alley in the Schenectady Stockade Historic District. [For many more photos, see our posting “Celebrating Cucumber Alley.”]
Click on the calendar above for the larger source jpg. file, which may be printed at 8″ by 10″, and used for any non-commericial purpose.
Click the following link for eleven additional one-page 2015 Stockade calendars.
You can also browse through a monthly desk calendar featuring the Stockade, at http://tinyurl.com/dag2015Cal .
Posted in Printable Calendars, Stockade Views | Tags: Cucumber Alley, Stockade Christmas
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The Slideshow above depicts my first nighttime photo shoot that didn’t involve pink flamingos or fireworks. When I saw how lovely the limbs and phone lines looked covered in snow, I grabbed my camera for a quick stroll. To no one’s surprise, I lingered quite a while at Lawrence Circle, admiring the setting and our lovely Stockade Christmas Tree.
– above: looking north at Lawrence Circle from the corner of Green Street –
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– above: 37 Front St. and a blue tree at 31 Front St. –
Posted in Stockade Views | Tags: snow stroll, Stockade snow stroll
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Yesterday’s Stockade Christmas Tree lighting ceremony and the Afterglow Party at Arthur’s deserve better than this truncated posting, but this is all I’ve been able to salvage from my mysteriously unruly photoshoot yesterday. I have no idea why my camera was so balky nor why photos magically appeared on my SD card this afternoon that were AWOL yesterday evening. But, I’m glad I was able to put together a small Slideshow that has many glowing moments. [Although I was unable to get any shots of the actual lighting of the tree, online Gazette subscribers can see the photo by Stockade neighbor Stacey Lauren-Kennedy that appeared in today’s Gazette (Dec. 8, 2014, p. C1).] Thank you, Donna Thomas for wearing that big smile and red fur (not to mention the hat). And, much gratitude to Stacey for nursing my camera back to life with patient, warm hands in what seemed like the Miracle of the Frozen Camera and the Stockade Tree.
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If you missed yesterday’s posting with a dozen or so printable one-page Stockade Calendars for 2015, please take a look at “starting the Stockade’s holiday season” (Dec. 7, 2014).
Posted in Stockade Views | Tags: Stockade Christmas Tree
2014 Stockade Tree
The Stockade’s Holiday Season (which includes the Christmas Holy-Day for many and the commercial Christmas Shopping Season for most of us) “officially” begins this afternoon with the Lighting of the Stockade Christmas Tree at Lawrence Circle, in a short ceremony that starts at 5:30 P.M., and an “afterglow” party at Arthur’s immediately thereafter.
To begin my own holiday season, I’ve got some cupcakes waiting to be frosted for the Afterglow party, and I’ve been putting together one-page calendars on various Stockade topics and events from 2014. You can see the calendars in the following Slideshow, and click on each image in the Gallery below it, for a version of the calendar that can be printed in an 8″ by 10″ format.
Naturally, I am hoping to get a few good photos at the ceremony and party to share with you later this evening. (Click to see our previous coverage of the 2013 Tree Lighting and the 1st Afterglow at Arthur’s event.)
update (Monday, 10 PM, Dec. 8) After many technical difficulties, I am pleased to say that we have just posted “our 2014 tree lighting” (Dec. 8, 2014), with photos from the pre-and-post-lighting activities.
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Click a thumbnail in the Gallery Below to see a larger version of each one-page calendar; if you would like to print or download the calendar, click the “View full image” link that is below the image.
GALLERY
Posted in Printable Calendars, Stockade Views | Tags: Stockade Calendars, Stockade Christmas Tree
suns along the Mohawk 
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