The J.W. Duvall Livery & Feed Building as Washington and Front streets is an outstanding resource illustrating the evolution of transportation in Rensselaer. Built as a livery and a hotel for accomodating travelers by horse-and-buggy, it was transformed into Rensselaer's first auto garage and gas station around 1910.
It was one of the few buildings listed as an outstanding resource in the Report, which dated its construction to 1883. I did not see any of the transformations that the Report discussed, but I did witness some of the changes that took place in the last decade, and I am happy to share them with you.The rest of the pictures in this post are dated July 17, 2002. I took them with one of my first digital cameras, and the quality was not all that high. (Notice the color distortion at the sides.) Unlike most of the pictures I post, I did not resize or compress these. If you click on them, you get the original.
I have a few more that I will share later. Notice that the historical plaque for James Hanley has not yet appeared on this corner.
In the last photo you see the city parking lot across the street from the old Arihood place. I remember when that lot was occupied by another old brick building. I probably wouldn't have remembered it if it wasn't for watching them tear it down using a wrecking ball attached to a crane. For a young boy, knocking buildings down with a wrecking ball is about as good as it gets!
ReplyDeletethese photos aren't jogging any memories for me, no matter how many times i look at them.
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