Artist's notes...

interesting and challenging problems. Graphic information from the 18th century about the area is scarce. A tremendous fire in 1819 destroyed most of this section of the city making all later illustrations and photographs somewhat useless....A local newspaper called The Cabinet printed a story on November 24, 1819, titled Destructive Fire. The journalist who covered the fire described in detail the damage that occurred to each lot. He gave the name of the property owner, the street location and the type of structures lost. Taverns, dwellings, barns, stores, outhouses and sheds were all listed. From that article I knew how many buildings in my subject area existed before the fire. It was impossible to determine the appearance of those structures but using generic period building types I was able to create a credible density and texture for the Schenectady waterfront.