GRAND OPENING AT BASILICA INDUSTRIA
110 South Front Street Artists:
Arthur Price and Earl Swanigan
5:00pm – 10:00pm
Entertainment: Walking the Dog Improv Ensemble Theater
The OFF LEASH! Improv Ensemble will take audience suggestions and explore the art of spontaneous imagination. Look out to be entertained in unexpected ways!
7:30pm – 8:00pm
The Mother Fletcher Band
8:00pm – 10:00pm¹

Earl Swanigan’s work is engaging for its simplicity and currency. Here is a shot of one of his paintings ²

painting by Earl Swanigan

There were lots of people including a few who we already know. They introduced us to more. It was a friendly event.

As we were leaving the opening we realized that these large old industrial buildings down the hill near the railroad tracks had no real outdoor lights. As we felt our way through the cars towards the streets I turned back and took this photo:

1. borrowed from the Columbia County Council on the Arts website schedule
2. borrowed without permission from Rural Intelligence

Middlesex County

848 sq mi

population 1, 465, 396

density 1,780/ sq mi

Columbia County

land area: 636 sq mi

population 62,363

density 98 / sq mi

Cambridge

land area 6.4 sq mi

population 101388

density 15,767 / sq mi

Estimated median household income in 2007: $58,850 (it was $47,979 in 2000)

Cambridge:	$58,850
Massachusetts:	$62,365

Estimated per capita income in 2007: $41,093

Cambridge:	$41,093
Massachusetts:	$32,822

Estimated median house or condo value in 2007: $558,800 (it was $331,600 in 2000)

Cambridge:	$558,800
Massachusetts:	$366,400

Hudson

land area 2.24 sq mi

population 6, 925

density: 3,094 / sq mi

Estimated median household income in 2007: $29,891 (it was $24,279 in 2000)

Hudson:	$29,891
New York:	$53,514

Estimated per capita income in 2007: $20,111

Hudson:	$20,111
New York:	$29,885

Estimated median house or condo value in 2007: $171,611 (it was $76,100 in 2000)

Hudson:	$171,611
New York:	$311,000

A few months back I was in the Spotty Dog cruising the books. I stumbled on a large format book with a great title: Looking for Work: Industrial Archeology in Columbia County, New York – the emergence and growth of local industry as revealed in surviving sites and structures¹ by Peter H. Stott.² This 358 page book is a heavy duty monograph replete with endless notes about sources and a practical guide to the existing sites one might visit. There are lots of maps, illustrations, and photographs.

124 Warren St. - Ezra Waterbury House

One little gem of a note concerns 124 Warren, the Ezra Waterbury House, built in 1870, just a few steps up the street from us. This is the only cast-iron front residential building still standing in North America.

A telling note about the difficulty of getting monographs like this one published is that the original research here in Columbia County and in Albany in the State Archives and elsewhere took place over 18 months. The writing of the book was completed shortly afterwards in 1994, but the book was not actually published until 2007.

1. 2007 Columbia County Historical Society, Kinderhook, NY
2. Besides the attraction of the topic, Peter is a classmate from my prep school days, class of 1965,  at Taft School in Watertown, CT