51318.
Main St. in winter, Po’keepsie, NY. Photograph Gallery at left center.
Pardee Block, Po’keepsie, NY. Built 1872. Built by Josephine Walker Pardee, Samuel Lyon Walker’s (early Poughkeepsie daguerreian photographer) daughter. It stands on the corner of Main and Garden, and replaced a number of buildings, among which was the one that housed her father’s studio. She also continues the block around the corner and down Garden Street. They all remain standing today. The great fire that burned the NW corner of Garden and Main was on Dec. 26, 1870. By April 11, 1872, the new Pardee Block had opened with an article describing “The Pardee Block..Completion of the Finest Building in the City.” It went up in 10 months, costing between $28,000-36,000. The building’s most prominent feature was its cast-iron front, manufactured by John Roach’s Aetna Iron Works in NYC, the same company responsible for many of the cast-iron buildings in the district of the same name. The article stated, “The heavy cornice of galvanized iron, the Corinthian pillars, together with the general ornaments in the front, make it the leading feature amount the attraction of the Main St. promenade.” [Thanks to Kurt Moldoff]