This antique photo shows the small lodge which once marked the Rural Cemetery's western limit. When established in the 1840s, the Cemetery was less than two hundred acres and this lodge was built some years later. It overlooked the historic
Church Grounds just past the western end of the Middle Ridge. There is nothing left of it today, though the Cemetery's two remaining lodges are still in use at the Main and South Gates.
The Church Grounds Project
The cemetery itself might have good records about the now-gone Western Lodge. I might ask them next time I'm there, but I do see that Henry P. Phelps had described it in 1892 as "the new Western lodge, just completed". However, to complicate things, it (or an old Western lodge?) is mentioned in an 1879 newspaper article:
ReplyDelete"A serious accident occurred near the west lodge in the Rural Cemetery yesterday afternoon. Mr. Leonard Jones, connected with the house of Van Heusen, Charles & Co., with his wife, mother and two children, were out carriage riding. On entering the cemetery from the boulevard, the wheels on one side of the vehicle went down the slope at the side of the carriage way, and broke down, throwing out all the occupants.
"The horses took fright and ran away, but were soon secured. Mr. Jones sustained slight bruises, while his mother and wife were seriously injured, the mother having an arm dislocated and being bruised about the head and body, and his wife sustaining a severe shock to her system besides being bruised.
"Mr. Jones' young daughter was also injured by the upset. Assistance was promptly at hand when a physician was summoned from West Troy and attended the party, after which they were conveyed to the residence of Mr. Jones, at No. 140 Swan street. They were in a comfortable condition today."
"Accident at the Cemetery-Four Persons Injured." Albany Evening Journal. October 9, 1879: 3 col 4.
Phelps, Henry P. Albany Rural Cemetery: Its Beauties Its Memories. Albany, NY: Phelps and Kellogg, 1893. 171.