The main house, store and office at Pinehurst, a hotel in Alexandria Bay. Milk, cold cuts, bread, and canned goods were sold from the main house because there weren’t any stores near the hotel at the time. 1950s or 1960s. Alexandria Bay, NY. Courtesey of Bob Vrooman. Listen to Bob Vrooman talk about his time working at […]
Ernie Mance, Jr. holding a large sturgeon he had just caught on the St. Lawrence River. Mance owned a marina called Mance Marine Basin, tore down buildings while the seaway was being built , and fished sturgeon for years, until they stopped issuing licenses for them in the mid-1970s. Circa 1970. Alexandria Bay, NY. Courtesy of Ernie […]
Martha Grimes was a teacher at Alexandria Central School for over 25 years; she worked alongside her sister, Melinda. She taught mostly kindergarten, remedial reading, and then later on first and third grades. Listen to Grimes’ story here!
Melinda Comstock was a teacher at the Alexandria Central School starting in 1971, and worked at the same time as her sister, Martha. She helped establish the pre-first program there, and says she loves working with the younger kids. Over the years, she also had a collection of unusual classroom pets. Listen to Comstock’s story […]
Gerald Heath worked as a caretaker for Singer Castle on Dark Island in the 1960s. During the school year, he lived in Alexandria Bay, and on weekends and summers he lived in the helper’s quarters in the castle’s main house. Doug Heath was born in 1960 ; he remembers helping his father to do lawn […]
Steve Keeler’s first job in Alexandria Bay was at his stepfather’s fuel dock, Van’s Motor Marina, where he learned to operate motor boats and rented out boathouses. He and his sister later went on to own that marina for 45 years. He remembers his favorite and least favorite parts of working at the marina over […]
Pat Comstock was born in 1875. By the time he was in his thirties, he was already a boat captain, became yacht captain for the Clark family, and eventually captained boat tours around the bay. Eventually, his son and grandsons would go on to work for the same boat line. John Comstock, Pat’s grandson, remembers […]
Robert Charron’s first job was at Camp Figure of the Woods, which was a Boy Scout camp in St. Lawrence County, near Parishville. When he was about 14, Charron worked in the trading post and had duties similar to a counselor. On Wednesdays, the camp’s mess hall would close for the night and they would take […]
Dorothy “Dotty” Cosman grew up in Alexandria Bay. After college, she taught school in the Rochester and Onondaga areas, then in 1969 she moved to Alexandria Bay and taught third, fourth and fifth grades at the central school until she retired in 1996. Listen to Cosman’s story here!
Brad Cosman did a lot of work on Boldt Castle in the 1980s and ’90s, working for a contractor and doing his own projects. He spent about a year and a half retiling roofs and doing terra cotta masonry. He had to make pieces out of concrete to replace the old tiles. Listen to Cosman’s […]
