VINTAGE ALBANY: J.D. Gortatowsky
Tweet Young Gorty in 1903, Center: the painting Fete Nocturne, Right: Ciro’s nightclub in NYC with Herman Hover Louella Parsons and J. D. Gortatowsky in 1955 Jacob Dewey Gortatowsky was born in Albany in 1885, the son of Prussian (Germany later Poland) immigrant Morris D. Gortatowsky and Mary Casper Gortatowsky of Griffin, Georgia, Morris [...]
Read More →VINTAGE ALBANY- Early Travel
Tweet Before Albany was founded, travel through the area was either by steamboat or by traveling the “Old Federal Road.” The Old Federal Road was made sometime before 1805 and was in use during the Creek Indian wars. The Cherokee gave free access to settlers to use the road through their territories. The [...]
Read More →VINTAGE ALBANY: AFD Chief D.W. Brosnan
Tweet AFD Chief D.W. “Bill” Brosnan circa 1920 or earlier According to the City of Albany’s own website, D. W. “Bill” Brosnan became Albany’s fire chief on November 11, 1911. He became the most famous fire chief in all of Albany’s history and held the position for forty years. Brosnan was well [...]
Read More →VINTAGE ALBANY- Albany “Firsts”
Tweet Left first airmail flight December 28, 1911; Upper right Thornwell H. Andrews, of Charlotte, N.C. in the cockpit of a 1911 Curtis biplane. This photo was taken in June of 1932, two years before his death. Lower right; first airmail stamp. Albany has had many “firsts” over the decades. Journal [...]
Read More →VINTAGE ALBANY: African-Americans in 1800’s Albany
Tweet People often have pre-conceived ideas about historical periods, thanks in part to Hollywood. However history is at its best when it is presented on a smaller more personal level, the history of real people in real towns dealing with what seem to most of us, extraordinary circumstances. Life in 1800’s Albany would [...]
Read More →VINTAGE ALBANY: The Chehaw Massacre
Tweet The Creek War, also called the Red Sticks War, lasted from 1813 to 1814. During this time many of the Upper Creek (Muscogee) had been moving southward from Alabama and Georgia into the open territories in Florida. A civil war between the creek themselves began. The “Red Sticks”, Upper Creek, allied themselves with [...]
Read More →Vintage Albany: When Hollywood came to town
Tweet Hollywood discovered Albany many decades before Sherwood Baptist Church and Sherwood Pictures began making the movies in 2002 that have since helped put Albany on the map. One of the first films made in Albany was in 1927, titled “Pardners”, it was a film produced by the American Forestry Association [...]
Read More →Vintage Albany: Turner Field WWII POW Camp
Tweet The United States had control of around five million POW’s by the end of WWII. Of that number about 400,000 German POW’s were housed within the US. Most of the prisoners were spread out across the south. It was easier to house them in the south because of the milder weather; also America [...]
Read More →Vintage Albany: Camp Churchman
Tweet Editor’s note: This is the first Vintage Albany column, a continuation and expansion of our popular Vintage Albany photo feature. This will not normally be found on our front page, but we hope you will continue to enjoy it. Tensions between the US and Spain had been growing strong ever since the [...]
Read More →Vintage Albany
Tweet This photo was taken in May 1934 of Thelma McPhail and Dulce Duckwortle as they pose in vintage fire fighter uniforms in front of steam fire engine, Albany, Georgia. From the Vintage Albany, Georgia Facebook collection. Coming in next week’s Albany Journal: Vintage Albany the column!
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