Discover Menands - September 2019

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Discover Menands

September 18, 2019 | SPOTLIGHT NEWSPAPERS 9

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Home to history Menands has its own history, but it also helps tell the story of our country’s past

By SPOTLIGHT STAFF news@spotlightnews.com

M

enands has a proud history of standing out from outside the shadow of Albany.

In 1924, as rumors reached the community that its neighbor to the south planned on annexing the area, residents voted to create the village.

However, there are still a few reminders of how much Albany held on to this corner of the world.

The Albany Senators baseball team called this place home for decades. Al-Tro Park, which was just a baseball’s toss away from those games, was the place people sought for amusement. The name itself paid homage to both Albany and Troy. Then, there is the Albany Rural Cemetery.

Read about some of these places, and a bit of how Menands played a role in the burgeoning gaming industry, too, in this month’s Discover Menands.

10 SPOTLIGHT NEWSPAPERS | September 18, 2019

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Revisiting the historic Al-Tro Park Former amusement park thrived in the early 20th century

By DIEGO CAGARA cagarad@spotlightnews.com MENANDS — Older generations may remember the Al-Tro Park, a historic amusement park on upper Patroon Island in Menands that existed from the late 19th to the early 20th century. It was known under different names like “Pleasure Island,” “Dreamland,” “Midway Beach Park” and “Lagoon Island Park.”

At the time, it was separated from the mainland by the Hudson River and the Erie Canal, making people take an electric trolley or steamship

Colonie Town Historian Kevin Franklin provided this 1909 photograph of the Al-Tro Park, showing how crowded it was and including signs for a penny arcade and a rollercoaster.

Kevin Franklin to access the amusement park. Today, it is near impossible to find any physical traces of it left as what stands on its former property are sections of

Interstate 787 and a few businesses along Simmons Road — sandwiched between Broadway and the Hudson River.

Colonie’s Town

Historian Kevin Franklin said he is unsure what year it technically first opened and closed, as his office had limited preserved historic documents about the park.

However, an archived June 30, 1985 issue of the Troy Record indicated the park opened on May 27, 1907 — Memorial Day. It added that it was run and managed by Max Rosen with an investment of around $100,000; Rosen believed it had “eclipsed Coney Island. The great has been accomplished in three months with a force of 400 workmen, all experts.”

The name “Al-Tro Park” or sometimes “Altro Park,” is a portmanteau of Albany and Troy, the two neighboring cities the amusement park mainly served. Franklin said it was owned by the Albany-Troy Steamboat Company and admission was either a nickel or a dime to get in.

According to a historic tax document which

listed the number and dimensions of each ride, booth and amenity inside, the amusement park took up 45 acres and contained 23 attractions. These attractions included a 900-by-40-foot boardwalk, a dance hall, a pony track, a merry-go-round, a two-story castle structure, an amphitheatre, a cane stand, a shooting gallery, a popcorn booth, a penny arcade building and a photo gallery. Amenities included six jacket booths, a restaurant, two bath houses, a shed and office likely for on-site employees, and a loading dock for visitors to enter or leave the park via steamboat.

Franklin said the amusement park had its own police department.

Continues on page 13

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From page 11 ...

Al-Tro Park

He showed a 1909 photograph, indicating it had nine members that year and were collectively known as the “Al-Tro Park Police Force.”

The aforementioned Troy Record article noted that the police department had started in 1907 with 15 men though.

Franklin said the Al-Tro Park was among numerous amusement parks and recreational areas along the Hudson River between Troy and New York City during the early 20th century.

“The river was actually polluted at the time because there was no such thing as a waste treatment plant so people and cities just dumped their waste into the river,” he said. “But it didn’t prevent the river from being a spot for people to

fire trucks could not easily and physically get onto the amusement park to extinguish it.

This caused Al-Tro Park to move inland to just west enjoy the nice cool breeze, of Broadway in Menands steamboat rides, food and sometime in the 1920s, said bands onboard, and taking trips. While it was a mostly Franklin, and was renamed Mid-City Park. pleasant experience, many people ended up with Remaining open hepatitis from the water through the 1950s, he said though.” it included an Olympicsized pool, a sand beach, The park’s decline and rides like a rollerbegan when circa-1912 coaster and a roller-skating flooding affected many rink. communities along the Hudson, including Troy and However, Franklin said Menands, and the buildno African-Americans were up of ice from the winters allowed in Mid-City Park on the river also negatively and around 1956 or 1957, affected Al-Tro Park. a young black woman was denied entry.

According to Albany Archives, a blog devoted According to him, she to remembering Albany sued the park and this was history, a fire broke out in eventually brought to the an ice cream booth on Sept. state Supreme Court, where 14, 1913 at around 6:30 the latter sided with the p.m. woman on the basis that the park is a public venue.

This destroyed the boardwalk and Franklin When the park’s thensaid “there was probably owner did not support the no way to fight it” because decision, Franklin said, “the

Court threatened like fire that would bankrupt it and they closed the park out of spite.”

Although it finally closed around 1960, when asked why the amusement park concept was able to stay alive for decades, Franklin simply concluded, “Menands is a great place

for people to leave the city and it’s nice that it’s between Albany and Troy.”

While historic records of the park may seem scarce, his office still contains numerous photos to remind locals that they once had their own version of Coney Island.

The rollercoaster, above, was one of Al-Tro Park’s main attractions and this photograph features a profile of the park’s manager Max Rosen, top right.

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A walk through American history Albany Rural Cemetery is a who’s who of local, national history

United States during the rural cemetery movement of the mid-1800s.”

Cemetery historian Paula Lemire added, “we officially opened to the public in 1844,” which makes this year the 175th

By KATIE HOPSICKER anniversary. intern@spotlightnews.com In 1844, “[the cemetery] had a huge trapeze artist falls and dies consecration ceremony in what’s now the day before her birthday. A a wooded ravine… there was a huge 16-year-old drummer boy is ceremony, with parades from Albany to the killed at the Battle of Antietam. cemetery and then the following year [was] A young woman is thrown out of a our first burial,” said Lemire. carriage to her death in the same park she The first internment in Albany Rural will be buried in.

Cemetery was that of David Strain, who These are the stories of the past. These died at age 20 of consumption. A stone are the legacies of girls and boys, the young marks the historic event, yet ironically and the old, the free and enslaved. These states the word “cemetary.” The misspelling are the lives that were put to rest at the must have been overlooked by the stone Albany Rural Cemetery. carver, John Dixon.

On the edge of Menands and Colonie, Dixon carved many stones for the the cemetery is 467 acres of hills and fields cemetery.

Bodnar quoted from a book President Chester Arthur (insert photo courtesy of scattered with gravestones.

Its natural by Phelps, “The cemetery is an outdoor Mark Bodnar), who took office after the assaslandscape helped David Bates Douglas sculpture museum containing hundreds sination of James Garfield in 1881, was interned design a space with three ridges: north, of examples of Victorian cemetery art…” at the Albany Rural Cemetery after his death in south and middle. Cemetery Trustee Mark He continued, “on this site, they used to Bodnar explained, “The cemetery was 1886. have back in the 1800s, maybe into the Katie Hopsicker / incorporated in 1841… It’s one of the first early 1900s, three stonecarvers… so the Spotlight News rural cemeteries that was established in the ornate examples that you’ll see out there,

A

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September 18, 2019 | SPOTLIGHT NEWSPAPERS

www.spotlightnews.com like some of these headstones, are really beautiful.”

And, that it is. A short walk around the grounds provides a view of hundreds of headstones, monuments and mausoleums dedicated to the dead.

But just how many people are buried here? In fact, it’s hard to know for sure.

“One reason we don’t have a precise count is many bodies were moved here from older churchyards and especially from what became Washington Park,” explained Lemire.

From 1799 to 1869, Washington Park, in downtown Albany, was a municipal burial ground divided into churches.

Lemire said the park had “a Dutch Reform section, a Protestant section, a Methodist section, and then the Potter’s field… about 14,000 graves were moved from [Washington Park] in a mass reburial here [at Albany Rural]. Also, families had a chance to move bodies on their own and not all of them registered them with the office. So we don’t have a precise count.”

In fact, the Albany Rural Cemetery is a place of rest for thousands of people from all walks of life. The cemetery is non-denominational and has every religion and faith represented in addition to soldiers from every major war since the Revolutionary War, as well as some former slaves. A lesser-known fact? Albany Rural is an active cemetery and still has burials today.

Bodnar stated, “It’s a lot of people,” Bodnar stated. “But for an upstate cemetery, of course being near the capital of Albany, there are quite a few prominent people that are buried here.

“The majority of Albany’s mayors are

buried here, the Van Rensselaer’s, the Schuyler’s, and of course President Chester Arthur is buried here,” said Lemire.

Bodnar added, “there’s five cabinet officers, six United States senators, 33 United States congressmen, nine foreign diplomats, three federal judges, three attendees of the Constitutional Convention, five members of the Constitutional Congress, seven governors — one is from New Jersey, William Paterson, who was also a signer of the US Constitution — and of course many other assemblymen, senators, judges and mayors.”

One of the major monuments at Albany Rural is the Van Rensselaer monument.

The prominent family migrated from the Netherlands to Albany and were extremely influential in the development of the area.

When their original family burial vault, at their private estate, was broken into by grave robbers, the vault was moved to Albany Rural. In the underground vault lies the family, most notably Stephen Van Rensselaer III and his wife, Margaret (Peggy) Schuyler Van Rensselaer.

Also at the site is a monument for Peggy’s father, Gen. Philip Schuyler.

Schuyler is famed for being a general in the American Revolution, a member of the Continental Congress and served in the first United States Congress as a New York State Senator. Fans of the musical “Hamiton” will recognize him as the father of the “Schuyler Sisters” and father-in-law to Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury of the United States.

It is speculated that Gen. Schuyler

15

Stephen Van Rensselaer served many capacities — state assemblyman, senator, Lieutenant Governor and U.S. Representative.

Katie Hopsicker / Spotlight News

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A walk through history

may not actually be buried with the Van Rensselaer’s, but the vault has not been opened for over a century, so there is no way of knowing if Schuyler is actually buried there.

Another grave that is not entirely what it seems is none other than Chester Arthur’s. The 21st President of the United States, Arthur’s memorial includes a stunning $10,000 monument designed by Ephraim Keyser, complete with a presidential seal. Each year on October 5, Arthur’s birthday, the cemetery holds a ceremony that includes a wreath provided by the White House.

So why is Arthur’s grave in Albany?

Born in Vermont, Arthur attended Union College. His father was a minister in the area and his family had a residence in Loudonville and a family plot at Albany Rural Cemetery.

But Arthur is not buried underneath his monument. Behind his monument is a beautiful white grave, under which lie the remains of his wife. Ellen “Nell” Arthur passed away from pneumonia the year before her husband was elected to the vice-presidency. When Arthur passed away in 1886, he was buried directly next to his wife, a few feet behind his presidential monument.

Ellen Arthur’s monument has been extremely prominent in recent years for the cemetery. Her stone was one of the first major stones to be cleaned and restored.

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“Another thing that we have been doing in the last year or so is that we have been cleaning some of the historic monuments,” explained Lemire. “We have a volunteer who is now a board member who has taken the lead… he started with family stones

love and mourning for his wife, Emma, who died in childbirth.

Over time, many stones can become worn. Of the Palmer Angel, Lemire stated, “It was so crusty and dirty… but it was cleaned last spring and it’s spectacular

and then he moved on to cleaning Chester Arthur’s wife’s monument…”

The most famous statue in the cemetery, the Palmer Angel, has also been cleaned.

Sculpted by Erastus Dow Palmer and commissioned by Robert Lenox Banks, the Angel at the Sepulchre represents Banks’

now.”

Trustee Tyler Kattrein has not only cleaned the angel, Ellen Arthur’s grave and many family stones, but also teaches volunteers how to clean stones, enabling the cemetery to slowly but surely get restored. The technique of cleaning the

stones must be done “very carefully… He uses the same protocol that Arlington National [Cemetery] uses, which is very safe for the stones.”

Another spectacle of the cemetery is the abundance of mausoleums.

Bodnar commented, “there [are] a ton of different mausoleums here.

There’s the main mausoleum, the cemetery mausoleum, there are private mausoleums, I don’t know how many…”

Lemire added, “You know we’ve never really counted them and some of them are like miniature castles, some of them look like chapels — they are very beautiful.”

She also explained that a few of the mausoleums have Tiffany glass windows. Designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany and others, these windows were produced from 1878 to 1933 and were modeled after the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England. Lemire said, “we got a tip from a historian in California, who said ‘you might have one’ and we may have up to 30 [windows].”

So many stories have been laid to rest at Albany Rural, and each day the trustees uncover more.

Bodnar stated, “I am known as the Civil War guy because that’s the niche that I took… There are people that have been researching different things here in the cemetery. Paula researches everything, Michael Huxley focuses on stone cutters, Michael Radlick does more of nature walks and things like that… so there’s just a myriad of different interests that people volunteer to research.”

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www.spotlightnews.com Kate Stoneman, the first woman admitted to the Bar Association, Lydia Mott, an abolitionist and friend of Susan B. Anthony, Gilbert Tucker, a first-class passenger and survivor of the Titanic, as well as 27 Civil War generals and three confederate soldiers.

“In many different facets, we here at the cemetery like to promote the history of the cemetery,” said Bodnar. “We’ll do different tours, presentations in our chapel up the road, powerpoint presentations,” as well as off-site lectures and walks with the Audubon Society.

Bodnar emphasized, “It’s all based on educating people about this gem that we have here of local history.”

The cemetery offers many walking tours, reenactment tours and events. Themes include nature, the Civil War, notable figures and date-specific tours like haunted Halloween. The Friends organization produces newsletters and members of the Friends are invited to special events.

Both Bodnar and Lemire emphasized the incredible history that they want to share with the community. Albany Rural Cemetery used to have its own train station and was a place where “people could take a stroll, bring a picnic lunch and spend an afternoon at the cemetery.”

The grounds are beautiful kept, with plenty of grassy areas to sit, along with extensive hiking trails in the ravine.

Bodnar simply stated, “we want people here.”

Albany Rural Cemetery was designed to serve as a public park, too. It was a place for people to walk and picnic.

Today, people tour through the cemetery to see the final resting places of those who helped shape New York and U.S. history.

Katie Hopsicker / Spotlight News

“In many different facets, we here at the cemetery like to promote the history of the cemetery. We’ll do different tours, presentations in our chapel up the road, powerpoint presentations. It’s all based on educating people about this gem that we have here of local history.”

In the past, Albany Rural Cemetery was a place for people to congregate, to have fun. It tells the stories of heartbreak, friendship, war and love in each and every

Albany Rural Cemetery is located at Cemetery Avenue in Menands. For more information on tours, events, or hours, visit https://albanyruralcemetery.org/ or call (518) 463-7017.

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— Mark Bodnar, cemetery trustee

gravestone. Looking ahead to the future, it is time to honor the rich history of all lives at rest. Visit the cemetery, learn from the past and never forget… stories are meant to be told.

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18 SPOTLIGHT NEWSPAPERS | September 18, 2019

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The Creator of Worlds Local developer that creates popular, immersive video games started here

By MICHAEL HALLISEY halliseym@spotlightnews.com

W

ithin the lifespan of Generation X, video games development evolved from the romantic image of one man programming from his garage to teams with budgets in the scope of blockbuster movies “As for the mass-market “triple A” games that we at Activision make, these are big budget properties.” said Jen Oneal, studio head for Vicarious Visions, a Capital District-based videogame developing studio under parent company Activision.

“Call of Duty” is one of the parent company’s franchises. According to SuperData, “Call of Duty” titles generated over $1.1 billion in revenue last year. The budgets and profits that sometimes follow, can surpass blockbuster movies from Hollywood.

“It’s significant,” said Oneal. “It’s sizable in terms of budget, effort, time. A lot goes into making a video game. … In order to make a typical mass market game like ‘Call of Duty’ or ‘Crash Bandicoot,’ it is going to be a significant effort.”

What’s often overlooked is that part of that multi-billion dollar industry resides here in the Capital District, with roots established in Menands where Vicarious Visions first developed games involving Crash Bandicoot, Spider Man and later Skylanders. Nonetheless, the bulk of developers established themselves in and around Silicon Valley, where most of the young talent walks out of West Coast colleges with computer science degrees in hand.

The Capital District wasn’t always a novice to the gaming world. Coleco Industries, Inc. created its Telstar system in 1976 and later released ColecoVision at the height of the video game boom of the early 1980s. The latter system, boasting graphics similar to popular cabinet games at local arcades, was produced out of the company’s Amsterdam plant starting in 1982. The market for home videogames crashed only a year later. Coleco filed for bankruptcy in 1988.

Since opening its doors in 1990, Vicarious Visions has gained critical acclaim with hit titles for top brands such as “Guitar Hero On Tour,” “Guitar Hero Aerosmith,” “Kung Fu Panda” and “Spiderman.” VV games are known for pushing technical boundaries to deliver addictive gameplay and immersive art that bring favorite characters and worlds to life for portable, console and PC gamers.

“It certainly is difficult to get talent from

Vicarious Visions

“For me, I thought videogames was for someone who fit a certain description.

You had to be a programmer. You had to go to school for computer science. I just didn’t fit that mold. I was a ballet dancer.”

— Jen Oneal, Vicararious Visions studio head

millions of dollars to establish a state-ofthe-art training facility to lure blue chip athletes to enroll, the studio possesses an environment geared to attract the best of creative minds.

Oneal had her first taste of the industry after answering an Activision advertisement for a game tester. She grew up playing video games, like most kids, but did not think about it as a possible career while attending school.

“It wasn’t because there wasn’t any female protagonists,” she said. “For me, I thought videogames was for someone who fit a certain description. You had to be a programmer. You had to go to school for computer science. I just didn’t fit that mold.

I was a ballet dancer.”

Nonetheless, she recalled playing “Pac Man” with her brother and sister on the Atari 2600 as a moment she should have recognized, “that I was to be in videogames.

Me, my sister and brother — we’d compete playing ‘Pac Man.’ And, I had found a bug in the game. If you followed a certain pattern, you’d get all the ghosts stuck in the door.”

Like a good sibling, Oneal withheld this knowledge from her brother and sister.

“So, they had their turns, and then I had mine,” she said. “I just kept running the ghosts into the door and finished the mazes over and over again.”

After her stint as a game tester, she went Skylanders was a revolutionary game back to school for programming and digital in which gamers possessed figurines of arts. From there, she developed a niche game characters that interfaced with their for project management. Her office is full respective game system and could be used of knickknacks and pictures from iconic on a friend’s system, too. video games. Just to prove her office is Michael Hallisey / Spotlight News better than yours, she has a television with a Playstation 4 and Xbox One. It’s to test game features and scout features, she said. the West Coast, but it’s not impossible, though,” said Oneal. “I think what we tend But, that also means, she still loves to play games. to find is that there is a certain profile of Oneal said the old romantic side of the recruits that we get from the West game developing still exists in the mobile Coast.” market. According to Newzoo, the mobile The developer’s website takes a unique gaming market is worth more than $63 approach from what one would expect. billion, representing 47 percent of the Moreso than advertising the games in global gaming market in 2018. With the which they’ve created, the site sells the average gamer well into his or her 30s, the amenities found here in the Capital District. Like a local chamber of commerce, market is supported by disposable income it boasts of the quality local school districts, from all demographics, and it caters skill lively music scene, and provides links to real levels ranging from the button mashers to the story seekers. estate agencies. “‘Legend of Zelda’ is the game that “These are things that weigh on peoples’ comes to mind, immediately, when I share minds. Then, if they have to draw a family here, it definitely helps in that recruiting what is my favorite game,” said Oneal. process,” said Oneal, who moved to the “But, it wasn’t until I played Zelda the first Capital District from California. time. This was a different type of game. It’s not just about mashing buttons and skill.

The inside of Vicarious Visions There’s a little bit of strategy here. There’s studios, which moved from Menands to story. For me, the ability to tell stories an inconspicuous building space within through games, it really opened up my Albany County less than a year ago, has mind as to what the possibilities could be the feel of a Division I collegiate athletic for this kind of entertainment.” program. Whereas a university spends

September 18, 2019 | SPOTLIGHT NEWSPAPERS 19

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Products underwritten by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and Affiliated Companies. Home Office: Columbus, OH 43215. Life insurance is issued by Nationwide Life Insurance Company or Nationwide Life and Annuity Insurance Company, Columbus, Ohio. Nationwide, Nationwide Is On Your Side, and the Nationwide N and Eagle are service marks of Nationwide Mutual Insurance 110625_4 Company. ©2017 Nationwide CPC-0610AO (09/17) 10877048