BRICK
ROW
By Diane Galusha
Athens - Near the northern
boundary
of the Village of Athens stands Brick
when, in the late 1800's, that Hudson River community
was "the busiest spot along
business even eclipsing that of the capital city, Albany.
Athens' success in the shipping field was due, in the period following the Civil
Hudson River Railroad (sold in 1867 to the New York Central), which constructed
the
its employees.
During
its brief period
of operation,
the railroad,
which
began at the mouth
Row, a silent reminder of the years
the river", its volume of shipping
War, primarily to the Saratoga and
30 houses comprising Brick Row for
of Murderer's
Creek and ran north
to
Schenectady,
carried grain, flour and oil which had been shipped via railroads and the Erie Canal from the west, to Athens,
where the merchandise and passengers were loaded on barges and steamboats for the trip downriver.
The limits of the village were extended north, according to an account in the 1952 Centennial issue of the Coxsackie
Union News, to include the railroad holdings.
A devastating fire, however swept through the riverfront in June of 1876, taking with it docks, depots, offices "and
all vestiges of the shipping glory that was Athens", said the newspaper account.
"When the flames died, all that was left was the brick row."
Known as the "White Elephant Railroad" because of its short lifespan, the row of houses also became known for
a time as White Elephant Street, according to a book by former Brick Row resident Rev. John Kisselburgh entitled "In The
Shadow of the Half Moon."
Rev. Kisselburgh explained that during the early part of this century, when he was growing up, Brick Row was "in
a sense a community
in itself".
The two sections of Brick Row, the lower consisting of 20 houses, the upper ten, were home to a large number of
Italian immigrants,
as well as "a few old timers" who worked in the three Athens brick yards and in the ice houses that lined
the Hudson.
Rev. Kisselburgh's
recollections
of Brick Row were full of festive Italian weddings, the early morning sounds of men
tramping off to another day of hard, dirty work, the feverish efforts to quash sparks on the rooftops that were blown there
from an ice house fire, and the simple pleasures of everyday life with friends and family.
Today - Brick Row still houses many families, but the buildings are showing the signs of age and the battering of the
elements.
Number
12, for example,
was recently
declared
by the Village Fire Chief to be a fire hazard and worthy
of nothing
more than demolition.
But to Rev. Kisseiburgh that particular house is worthy, at teast, of his remembrance.
"My first memory of Number
12 pictures it as an empty house with a little wheezy organ where some religious sect was trying to establish a mission for us
'heathens'
in Brick Row. The little mission was short-lived,"
he added, due to the religious convictions of its Catholic Italians
and other inhabitants.
BRICK ROW
98
GHOSTS
OF THE WHITE ELEPHANT
By Arthur
August
Athenians
activities.
Among
11,1955
who look back into the mists of the past in this, their sesquicentennial
these could
But among these phantoms
be the once famous
of yesteryear-one
Since its locomotives
have partly obliterated
whistled
the road's
up to the White Elephant
through
the busy shipyards;
The White Elephant
the Greene County
ninety-seven
Terminal
cars to and from the docks. There
and one for livestock.
Clark Pottery;
other is notable:
year, see visions of many departed
the ferry, and the smoking
years young.
hills three quarters
To the writer
to see the trains and steamboats.
was one dock for oil from Central
During summer
brick yards.
Railroad.
of a century
right of way. Yet still living are elderly folks who remember
One of these is Fred Coon,
walked
C. Mack
ago, underbrush
and trees
it well.
he said: "When
I was a boy in Athens,
I often
There were many tracks with engines switching
New York wells, another
they were busy into the night; and, with hundreds
for grain and other produce,
of lights ashore and on the boats, it
looked like a little city."
Another
The
who remembers
Railroad's
uel H. Nichols and John
The Athens
is William Kisselburg
terminal
occupied
Beardsley
Terminal
of 10 Brick Row.
several acres bought
of Athens
from E. Reed and George Titus,
was in the "Upper
Brick Row. They were erected
railroad's
Village,"
north of the mouth
of Murderer's
ted with the defunct
Creek. East of the yards, under
Athens-Coxsackie
south
joined together
and desig-
staff and were occupied
during the
they are now the homes of about twenty
Athens
wooded
are few more unusual
385) a short
(The Midland
central
Terminal
New York
Flats, and ran straight
north
families in no way connec-
they
Midland
to Lake Ontario
passed
Road intersection.
across them to Coxsackie
climbed
under
A road leads down to them from the
of the old brick sheds.
Railroad,
was the forerunner
the White Elephant
but still visible,
of the Four Mile Point
distance
sights than these houses.
in 1869 by the Oswego
in large scale.
coal up across
From
partly
there
map published
Elephant
Pennsylvania
County
Road (Route
A detailed
The White
the ravages of time,
operating
railroad.
In all Greene
now
to afford housing for The White Elephant's
life. Having well endured
Sam-
were the brokers.
the brink of the hill that rises west of the river shore, was built a long row of tall brick dwellings,
nated
brick manufacturers.
in the writer's
of the new struggling
possession,
shows the route of
O. & W., which
transported
wharves.
the Hudson's
a wooden
bridge
Beyond
this overhead
Station,
in West Coxsackie,
west bank by a long grade. Through
which
crossing
carried
a deep cut,
the Athens-Coxsackie
the rails reached
Road, just
the levels of the Coxsackie
which was about where the present
West Shore
Station stands. North of this point the road followed a course much the same as our present West Shore.
The map shows there
were stations
Remains of stone bridge abutments
Another
radio traveler,
old resident
Albany
and Susquehanna
Railroad,
point
New York
came also the Saratoga
of the northern
E. Wood of Schenectady
the Athens
could see the wood-burning
with the original
Feurabush,
New Scotland
and earth fills can be seen from the Thruway
gives a description
the late George
"I well remember
at Coeymans,
switching
Railroad-a
and Schenectady
of the Selkirk
and Guilderland.
Interchange.
In a letter to Enoch Squires,
the WGY
wrote last year:
as we called it, in the late seventies.
now the Binghamton
locomotives
Central
Railroad,
south
part of the railroad.
(now Voorheesville)
At New Scotland
station
it crossed the
Division of the D. & H. From where we lived when I was a boy we
cars from one road to the other.
consolidation
Railroad."
188
of five different
At Athens Junction
lines between
Albany
connection
was made
and Buffalo.
To this
"The
Athens
Schenectady
Terminus,"
said Mr. Woods,
"was a short
distance
from where
WGY now is. The distance
from
was 26 miles."
Two
men notable
which was the corporate
Vanderbilt,
"Uncle
People's
Daniel"
a ferry
the Saratoga
Vanderbilt
Staten
between
and Hudson
some point
Albany
list are the signatures
Why did the organizers
1834, thirty
before
Journal
connected
reported
phant route
"Uncle
the Saratoga
inconceivable
out, for the Saratoga
to the Delaware
Some other mysteries
was head of the Hudson
Dan"
Drew thought
speaking,
from
papers of
to build and operate
Springs, County
dollars in 15,000
the Hudson
Railroad
of making
England
a rail-
of Saratoga,
shares of $100 each."
River and Saratoga
Railroad-
Athens
running
1831, which had trains
chartered
a railroad
The S & S, one
terminal.
on strap-rails.
promoters
inference
The American
Railroad
locomotive
engine,
in addi-
England.
planned
a parallel
line between
to absorb
the existing
is that they planned
was leased to the Rensselaer
Canal Co., now the D. & H. Railroad,
and Saratoga
Schenectady
and Sara-
line. But, if so, the plan
Railroad
which is its present
in 1861, and this
owner.
The White Ele-
Athens and Schenectady.
pose other questions,
join
Vanderbilt
their answers hidden
in the building
completed
career The White Elephant
of The White Elephant
that
Railroad Co., have received another
& Co., Newcastle,
system
past.
and Hudson
River Railroad
in 1851, and was to acqu ire control
when
he already
of the New York Central
that was to divert freight from his Albany steamboats?
seems to have been a road of inconsistencies.
changed,
on September
in the distant
of the Saratoga
to Albany
And why did Daniel Drew wish to build a railroad
with
themselves
thousand
and Schenectady
imported
and Schenectady
River Railroad,
In its checkered
and it merged
empire.
of the original organization
to some point in Saratoga
hundred
of the
of the era, it is dated April 13, 1864, and titled
do associate
formally
and Schenectady
and Hudson
was always between
Ownership
investors
Saratoga
that The White Elephant
Why did Commodore
Railroad?
a photostat
manipulations
of Drew and Vanderbilt.
had locomotives
If they did not, then the natural
lease assigned
stock
Vanderbilt
the historic
Springs?
years before
"By ship 'New York'
toga Springs.
in the notorious
fleets and head a vast railroad
of Greene,
tion to the one now in use on their road, from Stephenson
never was carried
was to found
achievements,
date of July 6, 1834:
under
It seems
3,700 shares of stock, and Cornelius
"Commodore"
other
in the flowing penmanship
the already-built
in New York State,
River Railroad
beginnings.
among
of State in Albany,
County
and Hudson
had been a cattle dealer in Carmel.
biggest steamboat
of the White Elephant-more
with
the Saratoga
Drew,
60 miles, capital stock, fifteen
plan a rail line from Athens to Saratoga
running
Written
near the Town of Athens,
At top of the stockholders
of the earliest
the world's
It states that "a group of thirteen
length of road to be approximately
The route
from humble
and New York and to participate
from the Department
River Railroad.
and built
These were Daniel Drew, owning
Island and New York.
was to create
of Association."
road from
organized
Drew, as he was called by the public,
between
The writer has obtained
"Articles
history
shares. Each had risen to prominence
Line of steamboats
Erie Railroad.
financial
name of the White Elephant.
3,200
who had
had operated
in the nation's
on March 7, 1867,
the road was leased to New York Central
9th of the same year. The road was then
in operation
between
Railroad,
Athens and
Schenectady.
1881, the property
In November,
West Shore and Buffalo
Railway,
was leased by the New York Central
predecessor
then listed on West Shore Maps as the Athens
In its comparatively
the Athens Terminal,
From
were delivered
petroleum.
Buffalo
Starn's
"opposition
slashings brought
came carloads
houses
Other farm products
At Athens
freight
Branch,
of livestock.
was loaded,
Those
or received,
night line" plying between
Athens
enjoyed
it through
in New York and other
and varied merchandise
Railroad
at absurdly
cities "on the Hoof".
were among commodities
189
The property
was
A large volume
of freight
passed through
low rates.
were the days before
and New York.
to the New York
as such.
little prosperity.
by two steamboats,
River Railroad
Co., for the sum of $400,000.
but it was never operated
short life The White Elephant
but competitive
to slaughter
of the West Shore
and Hudson
the invention
of refrigerator
From the central
handled
cars. All cattle
New York oil wells came
by the railroad.
the Erastus Corning and the John Taylor of John H.
At one time Daniel Drew planned to make Athens the northern
terminus of his People's Line crack steam boats, the
St. John and the Drew. This idea was never carried out.
There were two competing
the Erie in connection
routes from Buffalo eastward.
with the Albany and Susquehanna
Days says that the Erie-Albany
and Susquehanna
cars from Buffalo to Albany. The Susquehanna's
for shipments
transferred
One was the New York Central Railroad. The other was
Railroad from Binghamton.
Erving Dayton in his book Steamboat
route, fighting the New York Central,
made a "through"
rate of $1 for
share of this was 40 cents per car. This left a pittance to the White Elephant
to its rails.
It is not surprising that in later years Vanderbilt
referred to his investment
in the Athens line as "the most foolish
thing of my life."
Late on the fateful night of June 18, 1876, disaster spelled the end of The White Elephant. In one of Athens' worst
fires the Terminal was wiped out. The Hudson Evening Register of June 19 of that year has a graphic report of the great conflagration.
In part it says:
"A little before midnight
Terminal
at Athens, was discovered
the water's
last night the steamboat
John Taylor, tied up at the Saratoga and Hudson River Railroad
by the crew to be afire. The blaze quickly swept through the boat and she was burned to
edge. Flames spread to the barge Hercules loaded with a cargo of sugar. Then the canal boat Stephen Warren,
laden with freight, caught fire. The flames quickly spread to the entire depot with its 1,500-foot
office buildings.
Hundreds
long sheds and three story
of cars were in the yards. Between 75 and 80 cars loaded with corn, oats and tobacco were con-
surned with a loss of $75,000.
The burned boats represent
a loss of $150,000
to $200,000
and the buildings $125,000.
Mr. Hare, Superintendent
of the railroad, puts the total loss at $400,000.
The fire illuminated the entire country hereabouts, the light extending as far east as Chatham, where it was so light
you could see a pin on the sidewalk. Athens firemen worked like beavers with a steamer and hand pumps and saved several
dwellings."
Next day the New York Daily Graphic sent up one of its staff artists to make a picture of the ruins. His drawing,
beautifully
done appeared
in the issue of June 23, 1876. Mrs. Florence C, Engel of Albany, an Athens native and sister of
Miss Ella Ford of Athens, prizes a clipping of this picture among a wealth of other invaluable documents
relating to Athens
history.
Its precarious financial condition
and this destruction
of its terminal combined
190
to end the White Elephant's
life.