2,000-mile bicycle tour in 1886

“Shortly after eight o’clock last evening an athletic young man, tired and sun burned, wheeled aside a handsome fifty-two-inch expert Columbia bicycle and registered at the American House as ‘W. B. Page, on a bicycle tour of 2,000 miles,’” The Morning Star of Glens Falls reported on July 12, 1886.

The American House hotel, at the corner of Glen and South streets, the building that developer Chris Patten recently renovated, was an early stop on a trek the 23-year-old, 5-foot-6 3/4-inch, 143-pound University of Pennsylvania college student was taking over the summer between his junior and senior year.

Page, an amateur high jumper who was captain of the University of Pennsylvania Bicycle Club, had left Philadelphia at 6 a.m. July 6.

After an overnight at Glens Falls, he was to pedal to Lake George, where he intended to stay a couple of days, and then continue to Ticonderoga, on through Vermont and New England, and cross the border into Canada.

Once in Canada, he would pedal west to Niagara Falls and cross back into the United States.

“The only baggage Mr. Page is encumbered with is a full dress suit, which he carries strapped to the back of his machine, ready for use when social occasions demand it.”