If April showers bring May flowers, what do May snow showers bring? — good sleighing weather. At least that was the case in 1832, according to a “well-known citizen” from Glens Falls who had a good memory. “‘Fifty-four years ago today,’ said Ethel Shaw, a well-known citizen, addressing a Star…

This is the latest in an occasional series of posts about the daughters of Samuel Pruyn and their families that lived in the three houses that now are the campus of The Hyde Collection art museum in Glens Falls. Even in their youth, the daughters of Samuel Pruyn promoted the…

Aug. 1 was the day anglers could fish for bass in Lake George without looking over their shoulders. “The bass season opens (on Lake George) today, and lovers of that toothsome fish may now cast without fear of Constable Bennet,” The Morning Star of Glens Falls reported on Aug. …

This 19th century weather report was not an April Fool’s joke. “We have been having January weather for the past few days,” the Chestertown correspondent reported April 1, 1887 in The Morning Star of Glens Falls. “Mercury registered two degrees below zero Thursday morning.” The cold spell broke, but the…

House-to-house serenades were not just a celebration of Christmas in 19th century Glens Falls. “The Glens Falls Glee Club went to Lawn cottage on Glen Street, last evening, and tendered Mr. and Mrs. Fish and their guests a serenade,” The Morning Star of Glens Falls reported on Aug.3, 1888. “The…

Quick discovery of a late-night fire at the Fort William Henry Hotel at Lake George on June 9, 1888 kept the hotel from destruction. The fire of undetermined origin broke out in the linen room on hotel’s second floor, next to a sleeping room for female employees. “One of the…

Eager gardeners in Washington County took a risk on the weather. “A few are now starting their gardens by sowing onions and lettuce,” the South Hartford correspondent reported April 20, 1885 in The Granville Sentinel. “Unless we have a ‘let up’ on our cold nights, planting will be of little use.” There was less weather optimism in Warren County. “Ice in…

Need a reason for a road trip to Alabama? The Lane History Center at the B.B. Comer Memorial Library at Sylacauga, Alabama, has a permanent exhibit of 18 original paintings that Glens Falls illustrator Douglass Crockwell painted for a monthly series of Saturday Evening Post advertisements celebrating the 50th anniversary…

“’Twas April, when the brown birds sing, and woods with bustling land are gey: We met — and watched the face of spring, growing more lovely every day,” The Morning Star of Glens Falls quoted from a poem by E. Nesbit on April 18, 1888. The Glens Falls area weather…