Decided to spend the night in Glenn Falls to ease my way to the 4 hour drive back to Boston. Why not? Gives me the chance to do more exploration
Wake up early and do myself a 3.7 mile run around town. I really enjoyed it aside from the new environs the terrain is much flatter than back home in Somerville.
Talk about real life Dunder Mifflin company. This company by the name of Finch Paper has been operating in Glenn Falls for over 150 years. Even though everything is going digital, paper is not going away any time soon.
Glenn Falls armory below is an abandoned building according to here. Last time it was occupied by the National Guard unit in 2009:
When you enter downtown the first thing you will notice is the Civil War Soldiers Monument:
Then you will start seeing Art Decos like Ordway Hall which was built as the YMCA for Glens Falls in 1892. Now its mixed-use complex with apartments and retail:
The area of downtown Glens Falls was once known as Fountain Square.
Beginning in 1873 a fountain was placed in the middle of the intersection. In 1898, the fountain was moved to accommodate brick paving of Glen Street and the expansion of the trolley line into South Glens Falls. That fountain was melted down and the metal was used as scrap for the war effort during World War II. Recently pushes were made to resurrect the fountain in the square. What exists now is a 9-foot fountain three bowls with a pineapple-shaped ornament at the top. Kinda reminds you of the Pineapple Fountain in Charleston SC
The Peck and Byrne building pictured below has undergone many phases. It was constructed in 1865 right after the great fire of 1864 that leveled much of downtown. Over time it has been the following:
- wholesale grocery store
- Merchants National Bank
- Scoville Jewelers: family owned since 1952. They were such generous owners that cared more about revitalizing the city than making profits. They actually financed half of the costs of installing the fountain discussed above.
- Northeastern Fine Jewelry: chain operating 3 stores within the Capital Region.
There are 2 notable coffee shops in the area:
- SPoT Coffee: located in the base of Orway Hall building. Actually started out in Buffalo NY and has many chains throughout the NY region.
- Spektor Coffee Roasters: truly independent third wave coffee shop. Coffee is roasted on site and is prepared one serving at a time using a pouring method, instead of the traditional brewing method:
For lunch I was going to hit up another iconic spot for hot dogs, it was called New Way Lunch.
Here they call them Dirty John’s and they are topped with mustard, diced onion, and a special meat sauce, sound similar to the michigans I had in Plattsburgh eh?
The inside was very retro and you would have non-functioning gaudy jukebox at every table:
One last thing I wanted to check out is this mysterious silo. Its apparently a gift shop and restaurant. I’d say the best souvenir shop in the area. The silo itself was actually transported to its current location from a real, working farm in Saratoga County. The silo was reconstructed with the two barns built up around it in 1982, and started out initially as The Silo Country Store.
Overall good time exploring this town. There is one thing I wished I could have checked out only if I brought my bike is the Warren County Bikeway
It is a paved 9.4 mile trail running from downtown Glens Falls to Lake George. It used to be a branch of the Delaware & Hudson Railroad line. Before automobiles traveled the highways, this popular rail line was used by vacationers and travelers from New York City and Albany.
Maybe some other time…
