NEB&W Guide to Troy, NY - Federal Street

Last Update: 2009-11-18

South Leg of the Wye (River Street to Grand & Sixth Avenue) Table of Contents
Troy Table of Contents
Photo Gallery Table of Contents

---

• Aerial view c. '48, looking north, with Fifth Avenue running up through the center of the photo.
  • [Prototype photo, courtesy Rensselaer County Historical Society.]

• Sanborn map for the section between River and Fifth. (Two stores on Laundry facing the tracks had been torn down only a year or two earlier.)
  • [Map c. 1951.]
  • [Close-up.]
• Prototype views of Tower No. 3 on Fifth Avenue.
  • [Color photo by Jack Waite, c. early '60's, looking north.]
  For more information and photos, see Tower No. 3.

• Tower No. 3 looking west.
  • [Prototype photo c. 1928.]

Emigh & Straub

• Emigh & Straub was a four-story collar factory located right alongside the tracks in Troy at 405 Federal. The top floor was set off from the bottom by having more numerous but smaller windows. (On the second and third floor, note the hallmark Troy "double arches", with each set comprised of a double-thick wall.) Note the small shanty huddle against the building in the background.
  • [Close-up photo c. 1928, from our NEB&W D&H Collection.]
  • [Model photo, by James Lauser. (Scene unfinished.)]
  The company was started by Mott Emigh and M.J. Straub back in 1884 and moved to this building in 1899. (Don't know if the building was built for them at that point or they simply moved into an existing one.) C. 1909, they employed 250 workers and had 20 traveling salesmen, as well as branch offices in New York City, Boston, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and Baltimore.

• This shanty was the crossing shanty on east side of River Street. This is real strange, as I don't know why they had two shanties at this crossing, one here and one diagonally across, seen above. Note the planking next to the track, the novelty siding, and that the door is along the long side. There isn't much room here and the building is very narrow.
  • [Prototype photo c. 1917.]

• Our track is slightly skewed from the prototype and still very much under construction.
  • [Model view looking east.]

Bedbug Row

• Between Federal and Grand on the west of Fifth was a block of identical rowhouses, apparently owned by one person, 2001-2019 Fifth. It was known as "bedbug row". (The official name was "Waverly Place".)
  • [Photocopy courtesy RCHS. In the background is the steeple of the Presbyterian Church.]
  • [Sanborn map c. 1951.]
  • [Bigger image.]

The Sanborn map for the area between Fifth and 6th.

• [Map.]

A view of Tower 3 looking east (RPI on the hillside) with D&H train no. 35, the northbound Laurentian rounding the curve.

• [Photo from the Jim Shaughnessy collection.]

2112-2120 Fifth

• On the north side of the tracks across from Tower No. 3 (nos. 2112-2120 Fifth).
  • [Sanborn map.]
  • [Photo c. late '60's by Chuck Porter of 2112 and 2114.]
  • [Photo c. 1973 of the front of 2114.]
  • [Photo c. 1973 of the "front" of 2112.]
  • [Photo c. 1973 of the side of 2112.]
  • [Above three photos combined.]
  • [Photo c. 1973 of the back of 2112.]
  • [Backs c. 1955. (Close-up of a Jim Shaughnessy photo shown below.)
  • [Photo c. late '60's by Chuck Porter of 2118 and 2120.]

Deratzian's

• Hemmed in by the tracks, Fifth Avenue and Federal was a free-standing triangular store, Deratzian's, 2100 Fifth.
  • [Aerial view.]
  • [Sanborn map.]
  • [Photo c. 1972. Lines were scribed on the print to help in making a scale plan. Note Paul Hubbs holding our red and white stick.]
  • [Rear view c. 1972. (Hempstead Bros. is in the background on the right.)]

Marvin Neitzel

• Marvin Neitzel was on the corner of Fifth and Federal. (Marvin Neitzel has moved slightly north after this building was torn down.)
  • [Front on Fifth, looking south to Grand. Photo c. 1972.]
  • [Side on Federal. Photo c. 1972.]
  • [Looking west c. 1950's. Photo courtesy Jim Odell. (By the time of this photo, "bedbug row" had been torn down and replaced by a Gulf station.)]

Looking east from Fifth c. 1950's.

• [Photo courtesy RCHS.]
• [Bigger photo.]

The crossing shanty on Federal next to the barber shop on the west end of Union Garage.

• [Prototype photo c. 1917.]

---