NEB&W Guide to Cohoes, NY - Buildings on Canvass Street Behind the Depot

Last Update: 2009-07-05

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• The street that runs directly behind (west) the depot is Canvass Street. I would think it was named after Canvass White, an engineer who worked on the Erie Canal and a bunch of other canals in the 1810's and 1820's (during "canal fever"). He also developed a type of hydraulic cement (useful for canal systems). In 1826, he became the president of the newly incorporated Cohoes Company, which developed the power canal system in the city. I would have bet the street was originally his full name (as "White Street" would seem not clear as to who it was named after) and over time, the residents shortened it in general conversation to just his first name. On the other hand, the street that runs into this is "White Street" so I guess they covered all bases.

• There was a little park on the street side of the depot. Across from it were a bunch of buildings we need to model. (The Baptist Church and building to the south or left of there are discussed in the Baptist Church section.)
  • [Sanborn map c. 1925.]
  • [C. 1947 photo, from our NEB&W D&H Collection.]
  • [A couple of buildings c. 1980's. (On the Sanborn, they would be B, C & D.) Randy King holds the hallowed 6 foot stick for scaling purposes.]
  • [Photo by Jeff English. (Not sure of the date but the three-story apartment building on the far right seems to have asphalt siding and all the other photos show wood, indicating the siding had probably been pulled off.)]
  • [Another angle c. 1980's.]
  • [Another angle c. 1980's.]
  • [Another angle c. 1980's.]
  • [Broadside view c. 1990's.]
  • [Another view c. 1990's.]

• We took a field trip here, January '09. (The three story apartment building had been torn down - actually went on this trip to take a better photo of this building's cornice.)
  • [Photo.]
  • [Photo looking west on Pine, former YWCA on the left, Dutch Reform Church on the right, United Methodist in the background.]
  • [Photo.]
  • [Photo.]
  • [Photo.]

• Another building since torn down is building "A" on the Sanborn.
  • [Section of the Sanborn with approximate dimensions.]
  • [Photo by Jeff English. It is the building with the back to the camera, just to the right of the Baptist Church. By the time of this photo, the two-story electric motors factory with its one story annex on the left or south, was gone.]
  • [Another angle c. 1980's. Building in question is just barely visible in the rear.]
  • [Another view c. 1990's. The building has red and orange colored ivy growing on it.]
  • [Postcard view c. 1910 of the depot area, showing a corner of this "factory".]
  The mystery factory will likely be cobbled up out of DPM walls, as will the rear of the other building. (General Electric in Schenectady it ain't!) It was still there (I believe it was no. 128 Canvass), although listed as vacant in the '49 and '53 City Directories.

• On the layout.
  • [Mockup for use on the layout. Note the scale rule at the bottom. These are slightly undersized from the prototype.]
  • [Model of the apartment building underway, Nov. '08. (I screwed up - the walls, I think, should be asphalt siding.)]
  • [Apartment building and garage models as of Dec. '08.]
  • [Making the cornice for the apartment building as of March. '09. There were a row of circles on the prototype's cornice which I finally figured out to model. I glued a bunch of Tichy milk cans upside down to a strip of styrene (using the sprue to space them all the same and keep them in a line) and then the next day, could razor-saw through the necks of the cans, leaving just a series of discs. Likewise for the small corbels, gluing them down while still spaced on the sprue.]
  • [Model of the apartment building as painted and weathered, May '09.]

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