This Hotel in NY was a stagecoach stop and hosted vaudeville acts
Delaney Hotel, North Hoosick New York
The hotel site was originally part of a large farm owned by Benajah Burgess. After he died in 1831, his land was divided between his three sons, John, Harvey, and Nairn (also spelled Narron). In 1834, John and Harvey gave full ownership to Nairn, who ushered the property into a new era.
In 1836 North Hoosick was the site of a large flannel factory, a scythe factory, a store, a tavern, and twenty residential dwellings. A regional population of around 3000 people in 1850 exploded to approximately 10,000 by 1900. The force behind this expansion were mills and a farm machinery factory. "Manufacturing … held a chief place in the growth and progress of the village." The presence of this manufacturing was the inducement for population growth. Additionally, there was a surge in the number of factory and mill workers, traders, and others seeking temporary quarters.
Nairn Burgess had the North Hoosick Hotel built around 1850 to help answer the need for increased lodging requirements. For a time, the hotel acted as a stagecoach stop. A big barn on the property provided shelter for horses and buggies. (This barn has been demolished.) In 1856 the Troy and Bennington Railroad was chartered; construction was completed in 1859, and the hotel began to service people traveling by rail. Situated at the trolley turn of the Troy & Bennington Railroad, the hotel was there to greet people as they detrained. The train tracks ran east from Troy through North Hoosick to Boston, with a spur running south from North Hoosick to Bennington. North Hoosick became an "important town for the railroad, and (was) the point at which considerable shipping (was) done." Obviously, many patrons of the hotel came to town via the railroad. Just as the town was important for the railroad, the railroad was important for North Hoosick.
In 1853, Walter Abbot Wood opened a farm machinery factory, which employed 2000 workers by 1890. The Walter A. Wood Mowing and Reaping Machine Company consisted of forty-one buildings on eighty-five acres of land. This company was one of the first independent manufacturers of harvest machinery in the world. In fact, ninety percent of all farm equipment that was exported from the United States at the time was built at the Hoosick complex. At its peak, Wood's company produced about 90,000 machines annually.
Around the area, a multitude of paper mills and cotton mills began to sprout. North Hoosick was home to several flax, saw, and grist mills. O.R. Burnham & Son converted a flannel factory into a shawl mill. The Stevens and Thompson Paper Company was started in 1858 or 1859. Men came from the outlying areas to work in the bustling little village of North Hoosick, and the town of Hoosick in general. Some of the men were single, but many were married men who left their families for long periods to work in the North Hoosick area. Several of these transient workers, particularly those away from their families, stayed at the hotel.
The North Hoosick Hotel was a major gathering place for these men, and not just for the men who stayed there. The tavern was a central meeting spot for the workers to unwind. This remained true despite a myriad of ownership changes throughout the years. Nairn Burgess transferred ownership to Moses Randall in 1871. On that same day, Randall transferred ownership to George Warren. This transaction becomes more intriguing with the revelation that a man named Daniel Randall was the proprietor in 1871. In 1877, the hotel was acquired by Perry W. Eldred. For a brief time it was known as Eldred House.
The hotel remained in the Eldred family until 1907. Frances I. Eldred was beneficiary of a will in 1894. She is believed to be the daughter of Perry L. Eldred, who is thought to be Perry W. Eldred's son. Frances Eldred was still under twenty-one when the executors of the will sold the hotel to Chase Hathaway in 1907. The Hathaways owned a lot of property in the area during the early part of the twentieth century, and Chase Hathaway built the first drive-in theater in the area. For a time, the hotel was briefly known as Hathaway's Hotel.
In 1909, Ida B. Delaney bought the hotel from Chase Hathaway. Hence the name "Delaney Hotel." Delaney had previously managed the hotel for Eldred and Hathaway. The hotel remained in the Delaney family until 1965.
The ballroom on the third floor welcomed many bands and served as a theatre for vaudeville acts. By 1930, however, the ballroom could no longer be used because it had no fire escape. After that time it was used only for storage.
Larry and Dianne Stevens, the hotel's present owners, after peeling away two layers of wallpaper on the back wall of the third-floor ballroom, discovered many vaudeville posters glued onto bare plaster. Many of these posters related to the vaudeville team of "Duffy and Sweeny." The team of James Duffy and Fred Sweeny is well-documented in books about the history of vaudeville. They were "a celebrated vaudeville 'nut' act", legendary because of their wit, exploits, and general clowning. According to historian Gerald Bordman, Duffy, and Sweeny were considered to be "one of the funniest [acts] on stage, but was booked only reluctantly, for the pair had earned a reputation for irresponsible pranks, and Duffy was a notorious drunkard."
The hotel flourished during World War II as it played an important role in North Hoosick's social and cultural life. The area manufactured a fair amount of weapons, bringing employment to the area. Burt and Harold Hayes operated the hotel during that period. Burt Hayes married Bertilla Delaney. The hotel was profitable during the war, as the place was busy all the time.
The hotel was situated on eight acres of property, most of it a beautiful lawn with well-maintained shrubbery. Behind the hotel were several metal tables, covered with umbrellas. Anna (Delaney) Kaufman enjoyed several meals in the outdoor dining area.
She was reportedly married to a New York Supreme Court Justice, who also owned several clothing stores. Mrs. Kaufman sometimes spent months at a time at Delaney's, along with her chauffeur and her maid.
When business slowed down after the World War II, Anna Kaufman tried to augment the struggling hotel's finances with her own money. The Hayes' boys were frequently too proud to accept their rich in-law's money. After Bertilla's death in 1964, Anna Kaufman inherited the hotel. A string of fleeting ownership ensued. Tragedy and contested ownership both led to the downward spiraling fortunes of the hotel.
Parts of a movie were filmed in the hotel. The 1974 movie, "The Catamount Killing", starred Polly Holliday and Horst Bucholtz. The plot involves a bank robbery. There are several nice shots of the outside of the hotel in the movie. There are also some dim shots of the inside, presumably because the hotel was beginning to show signs of wear.
In 1965 the Delaney Hotel was featured in Architecture Worth Saving in Rensselaer County, New York. It is a rare surviving building type in Rensselaer County, and it has played an important role in the social and cultural life of North Hoosick. All in all, it is an important landmark in Rensselaer County. The current owners have saved the building from demolition and plan to rehabilitate it.
Building Description
At the northern end of Route 22, an old bridge over the Walloomsac River frames the Delaney Hotel on top of a small hill. The hotel is a 3 1/2 story Victorian, 8x2 bay frame building located at the intersection of two main roads in Rensselaer County, State Routes 22 and 67 in the hamlet of North Hoosick. North Hoosick is the northernmost of the fourteen villages and hamlets that make up the town of Hoosick.
The Delaney Hotel is a side-gabled building with a moderate-pitched roof. There is one inside-end brick chimney at the east gable end that is probably original to the building. A second outside-end brick chimney is located on the west gable end and likely dates to the late nineteenth century. The hotel appears to have originally been an example of the Greek Revival style of architecture, but in the later part of the nineteenth century, it was decorated with Italianate features as well as folk Victorian details. Italianate elements include eaves supported by decorative brackets and bracketed window crowns. The building sits on 1.5 acres of land with the remains of two badly deteriorated outbuildings. The outbuildings once acted the hotel's icehouse and chicken coop.
The three and one-half story main block of the building measures 56.5 feet x 33.5 feet. The two and one-half story rear wing measures 25 feet x 30 feet. The total square footage of the hotel is approximately 7200. A distinctive feature of this hotel is its full length two-story porches, 7.5 feet in depth, which are recessed under the third story on both the front facade and east elevation.
Reflecting the spirit of Victorian folk architecture, the second story porch has sawed outside balusters and decorated diagonal porch-support braces. The first story porch has diagonal porch support braces of the Stick Style. Signage across the second story balusters identify the building as "Delaneys Tavern-Inn."
The exterior of the building is clapboard, while the roof is a mixture of slate, metal, and asphalt. The basement under the main block of the building is made of stone, and is structurally sound. The first floor has wooden storm windows, and the second floor has aluminum storms and screens. While the entire building is in a state of disrepair, the exterior appears to be in decent shape, and largely salvageable.
The building has rectangular two-over-two windows on all three stories. Wood window trim is intact. Windows on the third story are boarded up. Historic photographs show shuttered windows. Sixty-seven wood shutters have been stored in the ice house on the property, and are in the process of being restored. Paired entry doors exist on the front facade. A secondary entrance exists on the east elevation. Both entrances are surrounded by wood trim. A triangular window is situated on the upper east gable end, indicating a Greek Revival influence. This window was later filled in to transform it into a rectangular window with shutters and Italianate bracketed window crowns.
Photographs indicate that the hotel's windows initially had Greek Revival detailing, but were later modified in the Italianate style. A two-story addition with a gable on the rear facade forms a "T" ground plan.
The interior of the building requires total restoration. Much of the interior space of the first floor is open, since many walls have been removed. The floor is hardwood. The second floor has fourteen rooms, including three bathrooms. The rooms all front onto a hallway in Christian cross form. There is, of course, a door to the second floor porch. The third floor contains a large ballroom. Vaudeville posters from the nineteenth century cover one wall in this room. The interior also includes a walnut bannister in the front hall and a tin ceiling in the tavern room. Additionally, the original full, ornately carved back bar and the front bar are intact.