September 4, 1909 - Nassau Fair

100 Years Ago: From The Rensselaer Eagle [NY 41 Rensselaer 93-32173].

According to A Brief History of the Village of Nassau, the Rensselaer County Agricultural and Liberal Arts Society operated the annual Nassau Fair from 1892 to 1944. Rensselaerites could get to Nassau, NY on the Albany and Hudson Electric Railroad to see the Fair.

Nassau Fair Exhibition Hall and the Parade of Carriages. Postcards from 1900 at the Nassau Free Library, for educational use only. They have ten other great postcards from the Nassau Fair, including decorated bicycles and carriages - check them out.

PREPARING FOR THE BIG NASSAU FAIR

DAILY PROGRAM HAS BEEN ARRANGED AND A FINE TIME IS ASSURED

Exhibits in all Departments Will Be Larger Than Ever - Success of the Fair is Already Certain and a Fine Time for all is Promised.

The ever popular Nassau fair will be held this year Sept. 14, 15, 16, 17. ... The management is offering $1,500 [?] in race purses and $7,000 in other premiums, and is making every possible effort to secure the best in attractions and exhibits, especially in the Floral and Poultry departments, whose list contain entries of well known exhibitors with high class exhibits.

The Poultry entry list is especially heavy, containing the names of well known outside, and local breeders, and chicken fanciers will be well paid in journeying to Nassau and witnessing the extra large exhibit of this year.

The Exhibition Hall with its fancy, domestic, educational and artistic displays, promises a treat, and the cattle and farm produce stalls this year will be filled by the old regulars; and many new ones have been recorded.

At this early date the space on the Midway has been taken so fast that if the applicants continue a double Midway will have to be staked out...

The horse races which is always a big feature should this year bring forth some of the best brushing ever witnessed on the Nassau track....

The fairgrounds offer every accommodation for rigs and autos. For the visitors there is a half hourly schedule on the A. and H. road to and from Albany and Rensselaer.

"Brushing" seems to refer to informal or amateur exhibition races, often with high stakes (see New York Times, July 13, 1997: A Roadway Built for the Elite to Trot Out Their Rigs).

The Nassau Fair Association lost a "brush" with the law a few years later, when a state audit determined that a great deal of prize money was misappropriated. New York Times, Jan. 9, 1915:

FIND FRAUD IN GIFTS OF STATE BOUNTY
Controller Charges That State Was Swindled in Agricultural Fair Awards - ASSEMBLYMAN IS INVOLVED
Day Laborers Confess That They Unwittingly Posed as Prize Winners for Mythical Exhibits.

August 21, 1909 - Vaudeville by Rail

100 Years Ago: From The Rensselaer Eagle [NY 41 Rensselaer 93-32173].

In 1909, Electric Park in Kinderhook, NY was a popular destination less than an hour south of Rensselaer via the Albany & Hudson Railroad. Such amusement parks were common in the US, and were built by the railroads as destinations to boost ridership. In addition to amusement rides and water sports, there was a theater with vaudeville acts.

Another Good Bill at the Park

That Manager Dikehaus has made good is the opinion of all who have visited Electric Park since he took charge and judging from his theatre offerings this week nothing but the best acts obtainable are to be presented during the remainder of the season. ... He is now busy booking acts for next week and says that he will offer as the headline attraction the Six Satsudas, a sextette of marvelous Japanese equilibrists and manipulators. ... Mr. Dikehaus showed his determination to please the patrons of the rustic theatre this week when he secured the Three Lucifers, the European comedy grotesques. Like Larose & Lagusta they have caused a sensation at the park and next week the success is sure to be repeated by the Six Satsudas. The Three Lucifers offer a refined singing, dancing and eccentric athletic novelty and those who have not seen the act would do well to visit the park before it is too late. In addition to this big act Carlo's Animal circus is holding forth and then there are Irvin R. Walton, the Mayor of Tanktown; Marie Bergere, character impersonator; Fred Wyckoff, the rube comedian, and new motion views. ...

Albany & Hudson Railroad #22 at
Electric Park Station, Kinderhook, New York,
from the Joseph H. Smith Collection

Click on the photo to zoom in and see how well people dressed for a day at the amusement park. I couldn't find images of any of the vaudeville acts named here, but this video might give you a flavor of the entertainment: Historic Footage- Vaudeville Acts 1898 to 1910. Maybe the "motion views" they watched could have included Mary Pickford in the 1909 film Gibson Goddess.

Earlier "1909" posts about Electric Park include the Memorial Day crowds and the railroad's new hydraulic power plant at Stuyvesant Falls. The Columbia County Museum "Journey to the Past" has some great old postcards from Electric Park, including the carousel, ferris wheel, and roller coaster. The Upstate Earth blog followed and photographed the traces of the old railway in these posts: Albany & Hudson Electric Railway and Following the Albany & Hudson route from Electric Park to Albany.

July 31, 1909 - Baerena Park

100 Years Ago: From The Rensselaer Eagle [NY 41 Rensselaer 93-32173].

EXCURSION A SUCCESS

Churches United in a Fine Day's Trip to Baerena Park

The union excursion of the upper Rensselaer churches on Saturday last to Baerena Park was one of the pleasantest events that the churches have united in in a long time... Early in the day the weather was threatening but as soon as the two barges were fairly started the sun broke through the clouds...

Image: The USS Harvest Queen in 1917, just after the un-powered barge was purchased from Baerena Park owner J.N. Briggs by the Navy, to use as a barracks. Info at HistoryCentral.

From the Albany Evening Journal, July 26, 1909 (fultonhistory.com)

THIS EXCURSION IS LARGEST OF SEASON

RENSSELAER - Two barges, Empress and Harvest Queen, with about 3,000 people on board, left the dock at the foot of Second avenue this morning at 10:30 o'clock for Baerena park. The outing was that annual excursion of St. John's parish and was the largest from Rensselaer this season. ... A feature of the morning's program was the marching of the drum corps of St. John's academy to the dock. Many of the members of the parish who were unable to leave Rensselaer this morning left this afternoon for the island in the steamer Ursula from Albany.

Baerena Park was downriver on Barren Island in Coeymans, also known as Baeren, Bearn, or Bear Island. William Wade's 1846 Panorama of the Hudson River says:

This place, the southern boundary of the ancient colony or manor of Renssalaerwyck, was fortified and garrisoned by one of the early Patroons in 1644. As the port of the colony, all traders were here obliged to stop and learn the terms on which they might proceed.

John N. Briggs, ice harvesting tycoon and founder of the Atlantic Light and Power Company owned the island. Brickmaking.com's history of Coeymans says:

In 1879, Briggs developed an amusement park called Baerena Park on Barren Island. The park included docks, a covered dance platform, a Ferris wheel, merry-go-round, refreshments and an Observation tower.

According to historic newspapers, Baerena Park was a stop for Sunday School picnics as early as 1877 and as late as 1913. Its 1879 opening was well before Electric Park in Kinderhook, though it likely didn't open with all the amusement rides (the Ferris Wheel, designed by an RPI grad, only dates back to 1893). This July 8th, 1891 ad in the Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle reads:

BAERENA PARK

A most delightful Pic Nic Ground, Located on Baeren Island, in the Hudson River, thirteen miles below Albany, N. Y..

Is now open for Excusions of Sunday Schools, Military and Civic Societies. The grounds are of a slate rock formation, beautifully shaded, and laid out with walks and provided with large Pavillion, Summer Houses, Refreshment Stands, Ladies' Sitting Room, and an ample supply of filtered iced drinking water....
No mud, no mosquitos, beautiful scenery, no disagreeable features or surroundings. ... A good police force. All the Popular Amusements of the day at Low Rates...

June 5, 1909 - Trolleys and Cars

100 Years Ago: From The Rensselaer Eagle [NY 41 Rensselaer 93-32173].

MANY WERE DISAPPOINTED
Car Service to Electric Park Was Inadequate on Memorial Day

Crowds went to Electric Park on Memorial day and many Rensselaerites were in the number. The service was not the best it would seem for during the afternoon it was necessary for a number of Rensselaerites to stand at the transfer station while car after car loaded down to the very doors went by.

There were those in the station who would have paid their extra fare to Albany and then rode back to Rensselaer but although the cars went to Albany empty Rensselaerites were not permitted to go over.

Of course it was a rush day and many things must be considered. However, it would seem that some better arrangement could be made, such as perhaps starting a car out of Rensselaer or providing some other accommodations for local traffic. Rensselaer is one of the most important stations on the Albany and Hudson road and no community gives the company any better patronage or more loyal support than Rensselaer.

Doubtless this matter which may have escaped the eagle eyes of General Passenger Agent Deeds will not occur again.

Wikimapia: Kinderhook Lake

"Electric Park" opened in 1900 or 1901 by the Albany and Hudson Railway and Power Company. ... The park had a carousel, a merry-go-round, a roller coaster, a "Chute-The Chute," an aquarium containing fish from the lake, a dancing pavilion, and two rustic theaters offering vaudeville shows, comic operas, and bands. Fishing, boating and other watersports were available, as well as a beach and bathing suit rentals.

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HILL CLIMBING . . . . CAR OF CLASS

Herreshoff Car

Arrange for Demonstration
No better Car made at any price
Delivery ten days

BERNARD AUTO CO. 1918 Sixth Ave.
TROY, N. Y.

AGENTS WANTED RENSSELAER . . . $1500.00

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Wikipedia: Herreshoff (automobile) "The Herreshoff was an automobile built in both Detroit, Michigan and Troy, New York, by the Herreshoff Motor Company from 1909-14."

The New York Times [December 6, 1908]: Houpt to Handle Herreshoff; New 4-Cylinder Car a Light Machine for Town or Country.

New York Public Library Digital Gallery: Herreshoff Advertising Images ("The smart, light cob of motor-cars.")