Random recollections of Albany, from 1800 to 1808 . onState. Each had its full complement of outsidedecorative adjuncts —namely, long spouts from theeaves, little benches at the door, iron figures on thewall, and a rooster on the gable head. How theinside was contrived, nobody knew. The only inha-bitants, or at least the only ones that my curiosity tliat the materials arrived simultaneously with the pulpit and theold church bell, in 1657. It was supposed to have been the oldestbrick building in North America at the time it was demolished in1833, to make room for the present Apothecarys Hall. B
Random recollections of Albany, from 1800 to 1808 . onState. Each had its full complement of outsidedecorative adjuncts —namely, long spouts from theeaves, little benches at the door, iron figures on thewall, and a rooster on the gable head. How theinside was contrived, nobody knew. The only inha-bitants, or at least the only ones that my curiosity tliat the materials arrived simultaneously with the pulpit and theold church bell, in 1657. It was supposed to have been the oldestbrick building in North America at the time it was demolished in1833, to make room for the present Apothecarys Hall. But thereis also another version which attributes the building of the houserfo the Rev. John Lydius, the ancestor of Balthazar, who came overin 1703; and that only the timbers which came from Holland andwere too short for the church, Avere used in the construction ofthis house. 1A genealogy of this family may be found in the second editionof Woodwoiths Reminiscences of Troy^ pp. 71-74. a 1-3 W ^__t g M H o re H-; Oo e ^^ o ET re c; v; re a o H ^. Recollections op Albany. 121 could ever discover, were tlie dark and indomitableproprietor, and an old, unmutilated, pale-faced,melancholy looking cat. Nor were these visible toany human eye except at particular hours, or underpeculiar circumstances. At the dusky hour of eve, or in the misty grey otthe morning, the head, or what was taken to be thehead, of the old man, was sometimes seen peeringout of the narrow window in the southern front;while the low, complaining voice of the other inha-bitant (when darkness covered the land) might bedistinctly heard from the turret of the westernwing. ISTo door was ever seen to be open^ — notwinkling light gave sign of life within. Even in, the da} time, its dreary aspect conjured up the ideaof trap-doors and dungeons. At night I neverpassed it without quickening my pace and lookingsharply about me. Yet from the tax gatherer Ilearned that Mr. Lydius was a man of property ;aiid the corporation,
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectalbanynydescriptiona
