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Troy Architecture: The Quackenbush Stores Part Three of a continuing series. Walter Richard Wheeler. Long a Troy landmark business, Quackenbush's was opened in 1824 by Gerrit Van Schaick Quackenbush. The first location of the store was on River Street, then the primary commercial district of the city. With the passage of thirty years both the city and Quackenbush's business grew. The building known to many older Trojan's today as the old Quackenbush store was the firm's second home. Begun in c.1855, it opened for business on 1 October 1856. [1.] The stores, constructed by Shannahan & Gardner [2.] from the drawings of Frederick Diaper, were modeled after that architect's Lord & Taylor store, finished in 1853 at Grand and Chrystie streets in NYC. Frederick Diaper [1810-1906] was born in Devonshire, England, studied there with architect Robert Smirke, and emigrated to the United States by 1834, settling in New York City. His most prominent commissions included the New-York Society Library [1838-40], the Bank of America [1845] and Delmonico's Restaurant [1845-6], all in New York. [3.] Additional designs by him for Troy-area buildings include the William Patterson Van Rensselaer house, Beverwyck [1839-42] and an unidentified church [possibly the Third Presbyterian in Albany, 1843-45]. [5.] Diaper maintained an office in Troy during the years 1862-3 [4.], probably to take advantage of the large amount of building going on in the city following the Great Fire of 10 May 1862. He was sometime partner of Henry Dudley, who was a prominent church architect, designing many religious structures in the Gothic style. Several of Dudley's projects were built in Troy, including St. John's Episcopal Church on First Street at Liberty, and the Woodside Presbyterian Church. The engraving accompanying this article was published in 1886. A description of the store was printed in the same source, and gives us an idea of how the building was used in the late nineteenth century. "In the basement are the wholesale and reserve stock departments. On the first floor is the large and varied stock of the general retail dry-goods department. On the second floor are the display and sale departments, containing cloaks, curtains, upholstery goods, carpets, and oil cloths. On the same floor is the Butterick paper pattern department. On the third floor are the sale and display department of fine carpets and the upholstery work-rooms, and on the fourth floor are the carpet work-rooms. The past reputation of this long established dry-goods house of selling none but the best selections of manufactured goods in the market is still jealously preserved. Experienced salesmen employed in the different departments of the great store give courteous attention to the wants of all classes of customers frequenting it." [6.] Perhaps one of our more mature readers can furnish us with a description of what the store was like in the ‘twenties and ‘thirties! Sometime around the turn of the century the store was expanded along Third Street- to the south- almost doubling its size. The building was occupied as the Quackenbush store until going out of business in 1937. The following year the W. T. Grant Company opened at this location, staying until that corporation folded in 1975. Since then Rite-Aid Pharmacy has occupied the building. [7.] Certainly the Quackenbush stores present one of the most important and urgent preservation opportunities in the city today. At some point in this century the beautiful cast iron details of the first floor were removed- perhaps some of these remain under the corrugated sheet metal facade that wrecks the possibility of a pleasant walk at the corner of Broadway and Third Street. Someone wasn't thinking too hard when they designed THAT. Perhaps "designed" is too-strong a term! Maybe some of the elements of the original storefronts have been saved in the basement? More urgent, however, is the need to address the water damage the building has suffered for at least the last five years, and the bulges that have developed on both the Broadway and Third Street sides of the building. That many of the windows of the building are left open year-round can't be helping the situation. How far off can it be before we see a repeat performance of what happened in March to the former North Second Street Methodist Church? [Covered in this column last month] I urge the owners of the building to act with a spirit of responsibility to the community that has supported them for almost 25 years- and with responsibility toward the history of that same community- by treating the historic resource in their hands with the greatest of care. The building is certainly one of the landmarks of downtown, and is treasured by Trojans. Notes.
In September's issue: Cottage Row and Franklin Place. In cooperation with Troy United Ink Corp., a not-for-profit corporation 
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