By Bill
McGrath
Many of
my postings to the Rensselaer County list and the Troy Irish
Genealogy list mention Burden Avenue which is where my family
lived their entire lives. I lived at 739 Burden for the
first thirty-four years of my life so I have many memories of
the Avenue. Other interesting items about the Avenue and
its residents have been found in my genealogy research.
Burden Avenue,
for those outside the Troy area, is five small blocks in
South Troy which run from the junction of First and Fourth Streets
(at Main Street) to Stow Avenue which is at the approach to
the Troy-Menands Bridge. The first block is from Main Street
to Centre Street. Block two is from Centre Street to Sullivan
Street. Block three is from Sullivan Street to Kelly Street. Block
four is from Kelly Street to Cross Street, which is the block
I lived on and Block five is from Cross Street to the Menands
Bridge. Sullivan Street, by the way, shows on a 1886 map
of Troy in the book " Troy's 100 Years" as Stow
Street. Perhaps this was changed to eliminate confusion
with Stow Avenue. Of course to us in South Troy, Stow Avenue,
was always called Stow Hill. The houses on Burden Avenue were
only on the West side of the street as the East side was the
steep hill that led up to the St. Joseph's Infant Home, which
also, is long gone.
Today Burden
Avenue has no resemblance to the Burden Avenue I grew up on. I
knew a densely populated Avenue comprised of mostly Irish and
Polish families. Many of the families were related. I
had great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins
(all degrees) and two brothers all living at various times on
the Avenue itself or on one of the side streets off the avenue. Many
of the buildings I knew are long gone and today there are only
vacant lots where they once stood. My former home at number
739, however, is still there.
For this
particular walk down memory lane, I am concentrating on Block
five which runs from Cross Street towards the Menands Bridge.
The first
house on the block, was 747 Burden Avenue. This is one
lot where the house is long gone and the space is now a parking
lot for the South End Tavern. Also long gone, is the beautiful
climbing white rose bush that was in the backyard. In my
day, the first floor was occupied by my great aunt, Nora Catherine
O'Connor Dwyer (1882-1957) daughter of my great-grandparents,
Catherine McCormick (1850-1923) from Dunbin, County Louth, Ireland and
Timothy Joseph O'Connor (1836-1912) from Nenagh, County Tipperary,
Ireland and sister to my grandfather William Arthur James
Francis O'Connor (1880-1941. My grandfather, by the way, was
only known as William Francis O'Connor. His birth record at
St. Michael's shows he was baptized William Arthur O'Connor
and the church records shows James as his confirmation
name. So where the Francis came from I don't know or why
he was baptized with the middle name of Arthur. It has
to be a family name back in Ireland since the O'Connor's religiously
followed the Irish naming pattern for all their children born
in Troy. I have always gone by William Francis McGrath,
the Francis being my confirmation name, but at birth I was named
William O'Connor McGrath.
I never
knew Nora's husband, James J. Dwyer (1880-1934) since he died
before my birth. From his obituary I know he was a well
known South Trojan and a former Supervisor of the Sixth Ward. At
some point in his employment with the Railroads he lost
both of his legs in a railroad accident. I have yet to
find the newspaper story on this accident. Possibly some
of my fellow researchers at the Troy Library will come across
it when reading the old newspapers. In his later years James
had a desk job as a telegraph operator with the Troy-Union Railroad.
The north
side of the house had a large screened porch and in good weather,
Aunt Nonie, would be sitting in her rocker on the porch. You
always stopped and spoke to Aunt Nonie. Nora was very active
in the Troy Ancient Order of Hibernians and was elected county
president. She also held other offices in the Troy auxiliary
of the AOH. Living with Aunt Nonie, was her daughter, Henrietta
Rose Dwyer Bouchey (1904-1980) and her three children,
Tony, Norine and Joan. Henrietta was my first cousin, once
removed and her children were my second cousins. Henrietta's
husband, Aloysius G. Bouchey (1891-1948) was a former policeman
with the Troy Police Department. Two things I remember
about the first floor flat where the Bouchey's lived was the
velvet painting of a Venetian gondolier over the sofa in the
living room and the large Tiffany style dome over the dining
room table. This dining room light, came from my house
at 739 Burden Avenue, when we put up a more modern fixture.
The second
floor was occupied by one of Nora's sons, John Reeves Dwyer,
Sr. (1908-1965) and his wife, May Isabelle McGinnis Dwyer, (1911-2000)
and their children, John Reeves (Jack) Dwyer, Jr. (1936-2001)
and Shirley Dwyer. John Sr. was also a first cousin,
once removed, and John Jr. and Shirley were my second cousins. Both
John Sr. and John Jr. were former Troy policemen. At his
death in 1965, John Sr. was a Detective with the Troy Police
Department and John Jr., at his death in 2001, was the
Rensselaer County Undersheriff.
There is
an earlier connection to my family with the house that stood
at 747 Burden Avenue which predates the Bouchey's and the Dwyer's. A
notice in The Southern Wards section of the Troy Times, dated
February 11, 1911 stated that "Miss Jennie O'Connor of
Burden Avenue will leave to-morrow for New York." Jennie,
who was Genevieve Rose O'Connor Bothamley (1884-1943), lived
at the O'Connor family home on Cross Street but ran a millinery
shop at 747 Burden Avenue. Perhaps her New York trip was
to buy items for her shop.
The next
building was 749 Burden Avenue, which, according to the 1951
Troy City Directory, was a vacant building. I remember
Christmas trees being sold from this building at one time and
for a number of years it was a Laundromat. The Wynantskill
was directly behind this building and if the water got blue
and sudsy when you were swimming there you knew some wash
was being done. This building is also long gone.
The Kane
family (John, Kit & children) lived at the brick building
which is still standing at 751 Burden Avenue. One memory
I have of the Kanes is In the early 1940's my mother, Mary Elizabeth
O'Connor McGrath (1901-1981) was holding my youngest sister
Agnes talking to Kit through a screened window when the Kane
dog bit my sister on the face through the screen. One
of the Kane boys, Frank, was in the Navy during World War
II. I have a great picture of Frank with my brother Joe
decked out in their Navy uniforms with the white sailor hat.
Two good looking eighteen year olds on their way to a war that
they both would return from. I believe that 751 was used
for a time by the Patroon Club which was an active South Troy
organization.
755 Burden
Avenue is also listed as being vacant in the 1951 Troy Directory. This
is probably the building that became the dining room of the
South End Tavern. Marty Burke's, formally known as the South
End Tavern, is located at 757 Burden Avenue. This local
bar, established in 1934, is known for it's great food
is now being run by the third generation Burke. Marty Burke,
the senior, was a good friend of my father, James Joseph McGrath,
Sr. (1900-1974). Marty's daughter, Mary Ellen Burke
Akin, is married to my second cousin Joseph Akin. So we
are almost related the Burkes! In the early years this
was a typical man's bar with sawdust on the slate floor and
overflowing spittoons strategically placed all along the
bar footrest. Marty senior would hold court at one of the
card table with his long time friends, one of which was Dr.
James V. Barrett, South Troy's well known doctor. On Friday
nights, the tavern with it's offering of creamed cod, scallops
and haddock, drew huge crowds. We could always smell the
fish cooking all the way over at out house at 739. The customers
stood in lines that wended their way through out the dining
room waiting for a table to open up. Whenever I would go
on a Friday with my family, my mother would walk over from 739
and hold a table till we got there and then have dinner with
us. Forget about going there during Lent or on St. Patrick's
day unless you had the patience of Job to wait for a table.
For many
years there was a large mail box permanently stationed In front
of Marty Burke's.
If
the Post Office had a program to name boxes after the biggest
user this would be the "McGrath Mailbox". When
my brother Joe was in the Navy during World War II, my mother
sent him a letter a day. My sister Anne recently
recounted to me the daily ritual at our house with the letter. The
letter was written early in the day and then sat on the kitchen
table under the phone book and an iron. That flap had to
be sealed tight! Anne then walked the letter over to the mailbox,
while my mother watched from the bay window of our house
and she had strict instructions to "jiggle" the flap
on the mailbox to make sure the letter fell down.
Well, the
daily letter writing resumed when my brother Jack was in the
Marines in Japan and then when I was in the Army in Germany,
it turned into two letters a day. In my attic I have a
trunk with over 700 letters from my mother and they have not
been looked at in over forty years. The genealogist gene
in my body has turned me into a pack rat. Would you believe
I still have my English composition essays from St. Joseph's
School that were written in the early 1950's! I know
these letters contain a treasure trove of stories on the family
on Burden Avenue and elsewhere in Troy.
My Aunt
Agnes Theresa O'Connor (1912-2002) lived downstairs under my
mother, my Aunt Helen Gertrude O'Connor Renaud (1903-1991) and
her husband Homer Renaud (1903-1986) lived next door at 741
Burden Avenue and they were all generally together every
day for breakfast and for lunch. Occasional visits from my two
uncles, Timothy Joseph O'Connor (1899-1984) from Fourth Street
in South Troy and William Francis O'Connor (1905-1993)
from North Greenbush, would add to the mixture. Those daily
conversations and the happenings in Troy (deaths, marriages,
etc.) will be discussed, I'm sure, in those letters.
The first
floor at 759 Burden Avenue was Miggins Cigar Store. While
the front of this building was at ground level, the back room
with it's slanted tilting floor and huge glass windows was high
up over the Wynantskill creek. Inside the bottom of the
building was a huge array of beams holding the building up. Looking
out those windows I always had the feeling the building was
going to topple over. Jim Miggins, the elderly proprietor,
also sold ice cream, which is why we would congregate there
as kids. Many times at out house we would wait till the
last minute to run over around nine o'clock for an ice cream
cone. If Mr. Miggins was locking the door he would reopen
the store to wait on us. After that, he had his long walk
to his house up on Stow Hill, or Stow Avenue if you
want to be technically correct!
The store
had a long line of old fashioned glass counters which, for the
most part, were empty. Some sort of a game of chance was
on one counter and you punched out a piece of paper from the
board. I don't recall the cost or what kind of prize you
would win. Along the wall on the right side as you entered
were tacked pictures of movie stars that were printed in the
old magazine sections of the Sunday papers. One picture
that I always remembered was of a beautiful young actress named
Carole Landis who I was told had committed suicide. Many
years later in a religion class at Catholic Central High School
in Troy, the priest instructor was telling us about a young
actress he had met in an elevator in California and he recounted
that she later committed suicide. He could not, however,
remember her name. I volunteered "Carole Landis"
and he said "that's right" He was surprised that
anyone knew her name. Carole was 29 when she committed
suicide on July 4, 1948.
On the second
floor of 759 lived the Harrington's. The one name I remember
was Border Harrington. Also, one of the Harrington daughters
was a nurse in World War II. The Harrington's, by the way,
are somehow related to the South End Tavern Burke's. There
was a nice entrance way to the Harrington's flat. A large
door with glass sidelights on each side gave you a view of the
staircase going up to the second floor. This building is
another one that has been torn down.
There were
seven additional homes and business on this block that numbered
761 to 779. Some of my McCormick relatives lived in this
section. This entire area was demolished when it was
made an approach to the new Troy-Menands Bridge which was built
in 1933. The center section of this bridge used to
raise for boat traffic on the Hudson River and it had a small
house up on top for the bridge operator's who manned the bridge
twenty four hours a day. My brother James (Bud) McGrath
was one of the last bridge tenders before the bridge was permanently
fixed and no longer opened. The superstructure, lifting
weights and house for the bridge tender have now
been removed from the bridge.
I hope you
have enjoyed this walk down memory lane.