Downtown 1888 — Keep cows off the sidewalks

Competition between human and bovine pedestrians on downtown sidewalks was a topic of discussion at the June 11, 1888 Glens Falls Board of Trustees meeting.

“Trustee Sawyer called attention to the annoying practice of allowing (horse) teams to stand on cross walks, and also the custom of driving cows up on the sidewalks, which prevails to a considerable extent in the annex,” The Morning Star of Glens Falls reported the next morning. “The question of fixing a penalty for these violations of the rules of decency — if not of law — was discussed, but no definite action was taken.”

In a few weeks, pedestrians would be able to pause on a hot summer day for a drink of cold water, a preferred alternative, for some, to venturing inside a tavern for a stronger beverage.

“The officers of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union are having the ice water tanks treated to a fresh coat of paint and will soon locate them on the sidewalks, where the wayfarer may quench his thirst,” The Morning Star reported on June 30.

Glens Falls, for the most part, was a progressive village in June 1888.

The work of kitchen staff and waiters at the City Hotel on Warren Street became less strenuous when owner Ed Swift installed a dumb waiter connecting the kitchen and dining room, The Morning Star reported on June 2, 1888.

E. N. Freeman, a grocery and fruit dealer on Park Street, purchased “a handsome new delivery wagon,” The Morning Star reported on June 11.

H.M. Day, a grocer on Warren Street, bought a new delivery wagon too.

“It is provided with the Concord axle, and is pronounced one of the finest vehicles of the kind in town,” The Morning Star reported on June 12.

Later in the month Day bought a state-of-the-art peanut roaster.

“It is styled, the ‘Boss,’ is propelled by gasoline, the only one of its kind in this vicinity,” The Morning Star reported on June 26.

Glen Street carriage maker Nelson LaSalle built a new milk wagon for Stephen Thomas, The Morning Star reported on June 13.

Retailer B.B. Fowler made a practical contribution to the Glens Falls YMCA.

“B.B. Fowler has certainly won the thanks of the members of the Young Men’s Christian Association. He did it by presenting them with fifty palm leaf fans to use in keeping the boys cool in their Sunday afternoon meetings at 3:30 o’clock,” The Morning Star reported on June 15. “Go and try one of them, young men.”

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