Schenectady, New York

 I could not have asked for a finer finish to my six-week circuit of the Northeast corner of North America with four final Carnegies, each a gem, beginning with that in Gloversville—butterfly-shaped with a domed corner entrance enhanced by an assortment of frills.  It was one of the few, and the first in a while, that had Carnegie in prominence on its facade, rather than merely Library or Free Library or Public Library.  

As with many Carnegies, a water color capturing all the library’s glory could be found within.  This one was unique with all its added embellishments, including a horse drawn carriage and people in formal attire walking by.  The painter also chose to replace “Carnegie” above its entrance with “Free to All.”  The painting was done by the architect, so possibly he made it before the library was constructed when it was later decided to put “Carnegie” on it instead of “Free to All,” as “Gloverville Free Library” was etched above “Carnegie” on the actual library and not in the painting.

I met a photographer at the next Carnegie in Johnstown, just four miles south, and complained that I didn’t get as worthy of a photo of the Gloverville library as I would have liked shooting into the low morning sun. He said he could send me a better photo and also one of the Johnstown library, as I had to closely crop mine to remove a parked car out front.  The person who parked the car didn’t know why I’d left my bike and was walking away from the library across the street to take a picture of it and asked if I was lost.  These easterners aren’t bashful in speaking up.

This first pair of libraries early in the day was removing the sour taste I had from the imitation Carnegie library I had come upon in Valley Falls the day before, the only one in seventy miles on the lightly traveled back roads of New York after leaving Laura and Ken.  It dated to 1913 and was funded by a local of wealth, recruited by a women’s group that had only managed to scrape up $100 until he came along and gave $4,200.  The history of the library gave no explanation why they didn’t turn to Carnegie.  The lackluster exterior was matched by a plaque inside the entry that misspelled library.  Funds were so tight they didn’t replace it.  

A few miles past Johnstown the road tagged along with the Mohawk River which I followed to the next Carnegie in Amsterdam and then to Schenectady.  I thought at first it was the Hudson River, but I would have had to continue another fifteen miles beyond Schenectady to meet up with it when the Mohawk merged with it.  It was a most welcome flat stretch to end these travels.  My legs were finally feeling depleted after two lengthy days of climbing spending a little extra time on the bike to ensure I wasn’t late for my train.

The Amsterdam Carnegie was perched several blocks up from the river giving it a little extra prominence.  When I told the photographer in Johnstown that I was headed to Amsterdam he blurted, “That’s the hometown of Kirk Douglas.  There’s a park there named for him.”  I wouldn’t have known if he hadn’t mentioned it, as there was no sign to it nor “Welcome to Amsterdam, home of Kirk Douglas.”  The park was just a block from the library along a fast rushing creek with a series of waterfalls heading to the Mohawk River.  The park was small and its plaque splattered with bird droppings.  The park had been renamed for Douglas in 1985 when he came to town to be the grand marshall of a parade celebrating the town’s centennial.

I was granted a slight tailwind and minimal descent to Schenectady, making the final fifteen miles of these travels all the more celebratory and triumphant, a just reward for the three thousand miles I had pedaled.  I’d be arriving in Schenectady four hours before my train’s 7:33 departure, so I had no worries other than finding the Carnegie on the campus of Union College.  I had no information on its location or its present name other than it was now a dorm according to the not-always-reliable Wikipedia.  

With time to spare I thought I could roam around the small campus and recognize the features of the Carnegie, and so I did.  Besides the columns and noble exterior it was identified by “Public Library.”  That “Public” was a slight disqualifier, and that it was in a corner of the campus, implying it might have been the city library and just incorporated by the college, but it’s new name “Webster House” and locked doors and soft drink machine just inside the doors all confirmed it was a dorm.  I went to the new library in the center of the campus to confirm that Webster House had been funded by Carnegie, but the student there couldn’t find the information in her computer or from an older colleague in back.  They gave me the email of special collections to pose my queries to.  I heard back that it had never been the college library, it just acquired it in 1969 for $40,000 since it was on the corner of the campus when Schenectady replaced it with a larger library. It was used to host student activities for a few years before being converted into a dorm.

As dazzling as the Carnegie was a domed building in the center of the campus known as The Nott, a memorial to Eliphalet Nott, the longest serving president of any college or university in the United States, sixty-two years beginning in 1804 at the age of thirty-one until his death in 1866.  He assumed the presidency nine years after the college was founded in 1795, the second in New York after Columbia.  During his tenure Union was known as one of the “Big Four” along with Harvard, Yale and Princeton.  

The construction of the sixteen-sided Nott was begun in 1858 and wasn’t completed until 1879.  It contains a gallery and has space for theatrical productions.  The person who verified Webster House had been the city library and not the college library included a newspaper article from 2010 on the four Carnegies in the region I had just visited with the information that in 1902 Carnegie contributed $40,000 to convert The Nott into a library, which it served as until 1961 when it was replaced by its present library.  He also gave the school $100,000 in 1910 to build its engineering building.

The train station was just a mile away.  It took just a few minutes to stuff my four panniers and tent into my duffle, that had served extra duty on the colder nights when I pulled it up over the bottom half of my sleeping bag.  That extra layer made a big difference of retaining my body heat.  If I jiggled the hood on the sleeping bag so it didn’t fully cover my head, I could feel the warmth surrounding me pouring out as if through a chimney.  I didn’t stuff the sleeping bag into the duffle, taking it as hand luggage in case there was space on the floor for me to sprawl and put it to one final use.

Cold was just one of the many features of this trip.  All the rural fire stations distinguished this region from others, as did the many small cemeteries.

Nothing though was more ubiquitous than the Adirondack chairs.

They were truly everywhere. I rarely saw them being used in these cold times, but they were there at the ready.

There was truly a surplus.

I thought they might have an interesting history, but all that Wikipedia had to say was they were invented between 1900 and 1903 by a Thomas Lee in Westport, New York.  Its high back and tipped forward seat and high arm rest design was patented by his friend Harry C. Bunnell.  The present modified design with a fan-shaped slatted back was patented by another in 1938.

The many rock fences will be another lasting image from these travels.  

They took many forms.  

The most enduring image though will be that from the entry to Ken and Laura’s home and of course my time with them.

This trip also distinguishes itself as the first of any length in the US that I didn’t find a neckerchief along the road. Evidently they are not de rigeur in the Northeast, unlike the rest of the country.  I saw lots of wash cloths and an ample number of license plates, at least one from every state except for Vermont and Massachusetts, the latter of which I was only in for a short spell.  It is nice to add New York, New Hampshire, Maine, New  Brunswick and Nova Scotia to my collection, and a bonus from New Jersey that made its way to New York.  This was my best haul ever.  

And it was an equally exemplary haul of Carnegies—forty-eight in forty-three days, twenty in Maine, twelve in New York, ten in New Hampshire, five in Vermont and one in New Brunswick, bringing my overall total to 1,163.  Plus there was the one that wasn’t in Nova Scotia and a partially funded Carnegie in Augusta, Maine.