Feature of the Month - The King Collection 🏆

December 2024 Registry Feature

This month's featured collection is the New York themed King Collection.  The King Collection narrows in on unique views from across New York State during the 1860s to the 1890s.  To date, this registry collection displays 11 unique pieces and in this month's feature we will be examining four of these exceptionally interesting views.  

One of the rarer and more interesting pieces held by this collector is registry item # 1098, the Oakwood Cemetery gatehouse in Troy, New York.  This magnificent entrance house was likely built in the 1860's when the cemetery was first put into use.  Designed as a rural cemetery, the magnificent architecture and manicured landscapes quickly drew in wealthy tourists and high-society folk who sought to spend eternity in the grounds.  The popularity of the cemetery as a day park in the 1880's is evident by the well trodden carriage trail that leads past the gatehouse.  Far in the background behind the tree line, you can see the tower to the Earl Crematorium being constructed.

The gatehouse exists to this date at the main entrance of Oakwood cemetery.  It is quite likely that this photo of the gatehouse is one of the earliest surviving known photos.  Upon closer inspection of this view, we see a small sapling growing near the left side of the front of the house.  Today, that sapling is a towering oak tree having weathered the test of time just as this unique stereoview has!

The second stereoview that we are featuring in the King Collection is registry item # 1124, a frozen view of Terrapin Tower in Niagara Falls, New York.  This early Davis view likely dates back to 1865-1870, but the photo itself may date as far back as 1857.  Dating the photo can be done by looking at the size of Cedar Island prior to storm damage and noting the newly constructed Samuel Street pagoda in the background.  This stereoview marks an important piece of Niagara Falls architecture that has been lost forever.  

Terrapin Tower was built in 1833 by the Porter brothers as a viewing platform at the edge of Terrapin Point in Niagara Falls, New York.  Via a narrow boarded walkway, tourists could travel out to the lighthouse-like building and climb a spiral staircase to an observation deck.  Over the next 40 years, Terrapin Tower and the walkway leading to it suffered a severe pounding from the upper Niagara River.  Icebergs, logs and debris would often slam into the Tower causing structural damage and washout.  Terrapin Tower was in a constant state of repair as the rushing waters punished it daily.  After 40 years of operation, the Porter brothers had grown tired of the costly repairs to the building.  In 1873, they decided to pack Terrapin Tower with dynamite and blow it up.  Terrapin Tower was destroyed and sent to the bottom of the Niagara Gorge.  110 years later, in 1983, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used depth charges to blast away 400ft of unstable rock ledge at Terrapin Point, permanently altering the landscape.  This stereoview is an image of a moment in time that can never be recaptured.  

The next piece in the registry that we are going to look at is item # 1137, the interior of the lower deck of the Niagara Falls suspension bridge.  As a matter of fact, the King Collection houses a number of stereoviews of the Niagara Falls suspension bridge including: the lower deck, the upper deck and a vista view of the bridge.  Built in 1855, the suspension bridge was hailed as an engineering marvel.  The bridge itself spanned across the deep gorge and the lower Niagara River rapids, a construction feat that would have been extremely difficult during the Victorian era.  The bridge featured both an upper deck for train traffic and a lower deck for carriage and pedestrian traffic.  It became an essential artery of commerce between Ontario and New York, whereas people had previously relied on the lower gorge ferry and the ice bridge to make the crossing.

The photo itself is taken just past the tollman's entrance on the Canadian side of the bridge.  This view was first popularized by J.J. Reilly in 1869 who captured the tunnel view of the suspension bridge.  The bridge was assigned a tollman and a helper for each of the bridge entrances.  The tollman would collect a small fee for passing through the bridge and the helper would watch for fires and clean horse droppings from the wood boards.  Over the course of 40 years, the winds and water damage began to take their toll on the structure.  Furthermore, locomotives and freight had increasingly become heavier as coal and limestone were often moved by rail.  In 1897, the bridge was fully dismantled in favor of a steel bridge that was sturdier and could hold heavier freight over it's span.

The last piece that we are looking at today in the King Collection is registry item # 1252.  As an original albumen print, the format of this piece is interesting and unusual.  This stereoview is in postcard size and was likely the original to a glass positive plate that was used to print postcards.  The image on this view is that of Blocher Mausoleum found in Buffalo's Forest Lawn Cemetery.  The mausoleum itself is a work of art.  In the tomb lies a stone carved effigy of Nelson Blocher, lying in death with legs crossed and clutching a Bible.  Stone carvings of his parents looking over him stand on either side of the monument.  The story of Nelson Blocher reads like a Victorian era Romeo and Juliet story.  The young Mr. Blocher fell madly in love with a kind and sweet maidservant named Katherine in the Spring of 1881.  Their love blossomed despite the fact that their parents disapproved of the relationship and had hatched a plot to separate the two.  Concerned that young Nelson would marry a woman from a lower caste, Nelson's parents fired the young servant and sent her away.  Heartbroken, Nelson Blocher spent the next 3 years searching feverishly for his true love.  Clutching the Bible she had left behind, Nelson relentlessly searched for Katherine.  Lovesick, Nelson Blocher barely ate and eventually fell ill and died in January of 1884 having never found Katherine again.  Riddled with guilt, his parents built the elaborate tomb.  Hovering above a stone-carved Nelson Blocher clutching Katherine's Bible is a stone angel above, which looks suspiciously like Katherine herself.  Some have claimed that the parents had Katherine murdered and thrown into the Niagara River after she refused to break off the relationship with Nelson.

The King Collection is an excellent mosaic of New York's Victorian history.  We are excited to see what other pieces this curated collection has to offer in the future! 

Check in with us next month when we feature another collection from the registry!  Photos of pieces from the King Collection are available on the registry page at https://whsstereoview.com/pages/registry