Downtown June 1894 — Mrs. Thom Thumb

Prominent circus and stage entertainer Lavinia Stratton made a stop at Glens Falls.

Mrs. Stratton, today, is better known as the wife in the short-statured, show-business couple that visited President Lincoln at the White House.

“Mrs. General Thom Thumb and her company of Lilliputians will give an entertainment at the Opera House on Wednesday evening and Thursday afternoon and evening,” The Morning Star of Glens Falls reported on June 18, 1894.

Mrs. Stratton later appeared in 1915 in the silent film “The Lilliputians.”

In other 1894 downtown Glens Falls news collected from historical newspapers of the region:

• “A new safe was placed in the office of the American House (hotel at the corner of Glen and South streets) yesterday,” The Morning Star reported on June 14.
• “Several Glens Falls business owners have organized the Morgan Towing Line,” The Morning Star reported on June 14. “They have bought sixteen horses and are doing a thriving business towing boats between Glens Falls and Troy.
• “The telephone line connecting this village with Wilkie Reservoir has been completed. The line was used for the first time yesterday afternoon, and was found to be in perfect order,” The Morning Star reported on June 16.
• “Ridge Street is receiving a coating of crushed stone. — New four-way hydrants are being put in on Warren Street at the corner of Church and Center,” The Morning Star reported on June 21.
• “Glen Street rather looked natural again yesterday, with its piles of dust and streams of muddy water,” The Morning Star reported on June 22. “The cause was the new four-way hydrants that were being placed in front of the Collins House and the Ordway building.”
• “On the front lawn of M.B. Little’s residence on Warren Street is a new and handsome floral decoration,” The Morning Star reported on June 23.

“It is an immense anchor, thirty feet long, and it is made from three varieties of coleus — Golden Bedder, of a beautiful golden color; Verschatetti, a brilliant crimson; Black Diamond, whose color is signified by its name. These colors harmonize perfectly, and the effect is very fine.”

• Professor E.J. Dufour of the Libby Glass Co. conducted a week-long glass-blowing demonstration in the show window of The Rochester Clothing Store in downtown Glens Falls.

“The glass pieces blown will be given away by the Rochester at the close of Mr. Dufour’s engagement,” The Morning Star reported on June 29.

Click here to read the most recent previous downtown Glens Falls history post.